Monday, May 22, 2017

Land Almost Lost: Help save these national monuments

Rainbow Over Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona

I’ll never forget the first time I experienced the feeling of nature lost. Oddly, I was on a hike on a trail that’s one of the more beautiful in the Central Cascades of Washington state.

For a couple of miles, I wandered through forest, catching occasional glimpses of the waterfall that was my destination. And then I came across a giant Western red cedar stump. It was at least three times the diameter of the biggest living trees I had seen along my way.

Sunday, April 30, 2017

A gull, its shadow and a lesson in beauty

Heermann's Gull and Shadow, Venice Beach, Calif.

As I stood on the fishing pier at Venice Beach, Calif., there were potential photos in every direction. To the west, the sun was about to set over the Pacific Ocean. Surfers were riding the waves. To the east, clouds were beginning to take on color in the sky above the city of Venice. To the south and north, the shoreline led to the Los Angeles skyline and the Santa Monica pier.

Below me, a gull waited for its last meal of the day. Of all the possibilities, that may seem like the least interesting, but it had me captivated.

Friday, March 31, 2017

Waiting for the owlet

Great Horned Owl and Owlet on Nest, Skagit Valley, Washington

As I write these words, more than a quarter-million people are watching a live Internet video stream of a captive giraffe that’s about to give birth. Or so they think. April’s keepers have been saying she’s due for a couple of months now.

I’m not much of a giraffe-cam groupie. I’ve seen a few minutes of the video every now and then as I scrolled down my social media feeds. But as a nature photographer, I realized I have a lot in common with those people who’ve been hanging on for her every tail flinch.

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Horsetail Fall: Spectacular or spectacle?

Horsetail Fall at Sunset, Yosemite National Park, California

As the red light of sunset reached the waterfall, applause erupted across the Yosemite Valley. Normally I work in quiet solitude, but this is a special waterfall and it drew an energetic audience of hundreds.

The question is, is that a good thing?

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

The story behind Pahoehoe Lava Flow

Pahoehoe Lava Flow, Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park

In most national parks, geology is a history lesson. You see a feature of the land and must work to visualize the progression of forces that formed it. In Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park, however, the land changes before your eyes.

Friday, December 30, 2016

Best of 2016

Mount Rainier, Fiery Winter Sunrise, Panorama

I was on a “national parks” high in 2016. My Haleakala National Park postage stamp was released. I participated in a series of exhibits to honor the National Park Service centennial. And I released a new book, Our Land, which features my national park photography. But, unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to actually set foot in a national park this year.

The late New York Times fashion photographer Bill Cunningham once said, “He who seeks beauty will find it.” For me, 2016 was about finding beauty wherever I was lucky enough to be, whether it was a city park, a fishing pier or the side of the road. There is a lot of beauty in this world. Here are a few of my favorite images.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

The story behind Waterfalls at the Continental Divide

Waterfalls at Continental Divide, Glacier National Park, Montana

Up close, these waterfalls appear to be among the most majestic in North America, but they don’t even have names. That’s because they only flow for a few weeks each year. In the high meadows of Glacier National Park, Montana, timing is everything.

My passion for the wilderness came before my passion for photography. I took up photography as a way of showing others the incredible things — the wonderful shows of dramatic lighting, the special connections with animals — that I experienced in the wild. More than just a pretty picture, this image really illustrates what got me excited about photography in the first place.