OK.
So you’ve got your bad-ass 24 megapixel DSLR and you think you’re pretty cool. The pictures you take are amazing, have incredible detail, and can be blown up to enormous sizes … but are they measured in GIGAPIXELS?
Artist Gerard Maynard spent some time in Yosemite this summer, painstakingly stitching together ultra high-res photos from several iconic viewpoints in the National Park — and the results are breathtaking.
From Glacier Point, you can make out tourists snapping photos at Vernal Falls, celebrating hikers on top of Half Dome, and some people riding a motorcycle near the Village. And there are also great shots of Yosemite Falls, El Capitan, and Taft and Washburn Points.
So update your Microsoft Silverlight (you know you haven’t used it since the Olympics), click on the HD view, and prepare to pick your jaw up off the floor.
via Backpacker.
I was honored to attend Quang-Tian Long’s “Treasured Lands” exhibition at Santa Monica’s Bergamont Station this weekend.
Long is a trained scientist and gifted photographer who fell in love with Yosemite on a visit and decided he had to see all of the National Parks. His exhibition consists of 58 large prints — one from each of the U.S. National Parks.
He shoots on 5×7 film, which is both very difficult and rewarding — these images have an astounding resolution and clarity that really reminds you just how far digital has to go.
His exhibition runs at the Terra Galleria through October 25th, and is well worth a visit. If you can’t make it out to Santa Monica, though, definitely take a moment to browse through his online gallery. Even on a computer screen, the images are impressive.
Thanks to Andrew for the tip!
Image by Fishtail@Taipei
Chances are, if you take a camera with you when you hike, the majority of the shots you’re taking are landscapes. If you’re like me, you’re probably using a point-and-shoot, and probably get a little irritated when the sky or ground gets blown out in your final shot.
The folks at All Day I Dream About Photography have written up a handy primer on the beloved Neutral Density Filter, a handy lens that basically equalizes the light exposure on the different areas of the frame - which also allows you to shoot at a slower shutter speed.
As a preventative measure, the site also posted an entry about why you don’t need an ND filter, saying if you’ve got a tripod and some time to fire up the ol’ Photoshop, you can get basically the same results.
As for me, I don’t own one, as I’d probably have to hold it over my camera’s lens manually. Plus, when I’m on the trail, I’m usually “shooting from the hip,” so to speak … but I have wanted to check one out to see if it would make a big difference.
I’ve also heard that a pair of polarized sunglasses will do the trick in a pinch.
But folks like Nathan Colishaw know what’s up:
Life is good you know, but times can be rough. That’s why sometimes you have to get out and smell the juniper and pinion, and listen to the wind whistle and cut through pine needles. It is a healing song almost, just to hear the wind and the creaking wood of those old trees.
More wonderful writing and photography at the West Desert Journal.
The Gambolin’ Man is a blog that’s been criminally off my Google Reader for far too long. Now he’s done gone and posted pictures of his time in the early summer near Moab, along with a great write up about water and its role in the desert ecosystems — and those urban landscape that draw on them.
Definitely worth a read. Man, I still have to get out to Utah sometime soon.
It rained in Los Angeles on Friday - glorious, glorious rain!
On Saturday morning, the skies were patchy, but there was some blue visible - so I headed out east to try to get some post-rain views from Mt. San Antonio. Also, to punish myself with a nasty hike for not getting out on the trail in a while.
Unfortunately, the clouds only got thicker as I drove up to Mt. Baldy Village. The rain, although light, was steady … so I pulled off the main road at a small cabin near Manker Flats, and walked in to grab a coffee and kill some time, hoping the rain would clear out by the time I was done.
Continue reading ‘Uncooperative Mt. San Antonio’
The Flores Canyon in Altadena had a 10-acre brush fire on Sunday. No official word on the cause yet, but the blaze was contained within a few hours. A few hikers did have to be evacuated from the area, which I’d imagine would be pretty nerve wracking.
Let’s hope we get some rain this winter. And be thankful the few blazes we have had have been relatively small.
Pictures courtesy of the Flickr sets of Muzzlehatch, a great photographer who lives right near the blaze. All of his stuff is worth checking out, but definitely make time for his Angeles National Forest sets. They’ll make you want to run into the woods with a fancy camera.
While scouring the web for some new Flickr / Wordpress plugins, I stumbled across the stunning photoblog of Nathan Cowlishaw, a young photographer who clearly has the same love of the Desert Southwest I do — but with a much better photographer’s eye.
His photoblog features absolutely breathtaking images, like this shot of Monument Valley:
Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park from Talking Tree.
… and if words are more your thing, his West Desert Journal has some great musings on his travels through the Great Southwest. Definitely worth checking out.
Especially if you’re looking for ways to justify taking a trip to Utah sometime in the near future.
Our annual coverage of the E3 Expo kicked off last night, which means I will be in various control booths or writer hermitages for the next few days.
Posting has been / will continue to be very light for the next few days. Once I get out of this bleary-eyed gamer haze and back on the trail, I’ll pick back up where I left off.
Until then, enjoy these panoramic quicktime photos of trail locations, via the Goat, and a collection of videos from this year’s PCT, via simplehiker.
I’ll be keeping them both running in the background while I write about graphics, franchises, and processors. See you in a bit!
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