Posted on January 26, 2012, 5:54 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Although they are not as tall as the coastal redwoods, the giant sequoia trees still reach impressively into the sky. I found it difficult to convey the sense of cosmic height in daylight images. The usually blue sky isn’t visually that interesting, there are almost always harsh shadows or dappled light on a part of […]
Posted on September 3, 2011, 2:52 pm, by QT Luong, under
Esthetics.
In exactly one week, I will be giving a second lecture about “Treasured Lands”, the exhibition of my 58 images of the National Parks at the National Heritage Museum. Since in my first lecture, I talked quite a bit about large format photography, I won’t do it again in the new lecture, and instead focus […]
Posted on August 29, 2011, 1:48 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Even more so than for landscapes, many photographers prefer to shoot seascapes at sunrise and sunset. I see two main reasons: to get more color (enhanced by the open horizon and water reflections) and to capture water motion through a longer exposure. Thinking about it, I saw no reason a beautifully flowing seascape could not […]
Posted on August 17, 2011, 10:01 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
The weather system that produced interesting clouds over the crater summit continued to hang over the coast. I was hoping to do some night photography, but when I got up two hours before sunrise, it was pitch dark, with the stars totally obscured by dense cloud cover. I crawled down to the beach and set […]
For a change from working in the rain in Hawaii Volcanoes NP, I drove to South Point, the southern tip of the island of Hawaii. The access to Papakolea Beach consisted of a maze of badly rutted vehicle tracks, along the coast, alternatively sandy and rocky. A four wheel drive was definitively necessary. Hiking would […]
Posted on June 8, 2011, 11:02 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
The Hawaiian islands are further away from a major land mass than any other in the world. Over the span of about 70 million years, plants and animals managed to make the voyage to the once barren islands and to colonize it, at the rate of one every 70000 years, and then evolving into more […]
Posted on April 18, 2011, 9:21 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
More Yellowstone Winter Wildlife pictures All Yellowstone Winter pictures The official winter season (during which lodges and roads are open) generally lasts from mid-December to the beginning of March. If I was to return to Yellowstone in winter, I would pick mid to end January. At the beginning of winter, the Park may not have […]
Posted on March 22, 2011, 4:00 am, by QT Luong, under
Techniques.
What ISO should you use for lowest noise ? Everybody knows that low ISO will result in lower noise and high ISO will result in higher noise. But is it a continuum, as one would intuitively think, or are some ISOs better than others ? In the past, I had seen advise to use only […]
Posted on January 18, 2011, 10:25 pm, by QT Luong, under
Books.
I had first noticed Michael Frye (see his photographs here) for his pioneering light painting nature photographs. I then greatly appreciated his excellent book The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite (2000). The only thing I wished was that it been available a decade earlier. Priced at a bargain $9.95, the book, published by the Yosemite Association, […]
Posted on April 26, 2010, 7:17 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Here are three sunset images from my recent trip to Santa Cruz Island, the largest of the five islands that make up Channel Islands National Park. They were taken at Potato Harbor Overlook, which is reached through a 5-mile RT hike that is the most rewarding in the Scorpion Ranch area. The fjord-like Potato Harbor […]
