Posted on June 3, 2016, 8:20 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
The rare combination of wildness and accessibility makes the national parks a great place to experience a connection with the natural world and its vastness. At night, although darkness obscures land features, the night sky gives us an even clearer sense of the immensity of the universe. Recently, the National Park Service, under the motto […]
Posted on May 27, 2016, 11:18 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Wondering where to start in our 59th national park? The most spectacular views in Pinnacles National Park are on the High Peaks Trail which is fairly strenuous. However, the best introduction to the park is along a loop which is quite easy (1.5-mile loop; 250-foot elevation gain) despite the great diversity of terrain encountered. A […]
Posted on May 20, 2016, 10:32 pm, by QT Luong, under
Announcements.
While my nature photography celebrates mostly the wildness of the landscape, I have also been examining the national park idea through The Window and The Sign series. They pay homage to the work of the National Park Service via some of their most archetypical infrastructure, which have now spread around the world. In addition to […]
Five years back, I posted the national parks photo spot series of blog posts, each describing a favorite location in each national park. Since then, Pinnacles was designated our 59th National Park, so here is an update to the series. Pinnacles National Park, our latest, is a little-known gem that rewards with a diverse terrain […]
Posted on April 27, 2016, 12:03 pm, by QT Luong, under
Announcements.
I am honored that one of the U.S. stamps commemorating the 100th anniversary of the National Parks Service carries my photograph. The stamp will be officially released on June 2. A distinctive characteristic of my project to photograph all the national parks is that I sought to explore each corner of each of them, even […]
Posted on April 22, 2016, 8:18 pm, by QT Luong, under
Books.
There are a lot of books about photographing a specific national park, but to the best of my knowledge, there are only two books about photographing all the national parks. Photographing National Parks by Chris Nicholson, 2015, Softcover, 232 pages, 5.5 x 8.5 inches, $28 Photographing National Parks is a modestly guidebook-sized volume (5.5 x […]
Posted on April 15, 2016, 8:45 pm, by QT Luong, under
Books.
Surprisingly, only two photography books about the national parks have been released for the NPS Centennial, and a third one is timed for this summer. Let have a look at them. The National Parks: An Illustrated History by Kim Heacox (author) National Geographic, 2015, Hardcover, 384 pages, 9.1 x 10.9 $50 Combining a history book […]
Posted on April 7, 2016, 2:24 pm, by QT Luong, under
Announcements.
This is the full text of the introduction to my upcoming book In February 1993, I visited Yosemite for the first time. It was love at first sight. That visit marks the start of my 20-year affair with the National Parks. Growing up in France, mountaineering had provided me with my only experiences of wilderness. […]
Posted on March 24, 2016, 11:29 am, by QT Luong, under
Techniques.
Last week, I posted three images of the Death Valley landmarks, the salt flats, sand dunes, and playas. I invited you to think about how those images, which somehow defy the conventional landscape photography wisdom of not shooting at midday, could work. In this post, I am providing my answer to the question. Most images […]
Posted on March 17, 2016, 12:44 am, by QT Luong, under
Esthetics.
Beginners often shoot landscapes at all times of the day, and don’t realize why some come out better than others. The standard operating procedure of the “serious” landscape photographer is to concentrate on the so-called golden hour, half an hour around sunrise and sunset time. Early morning and late afternoon are the second best. Midday, […]
