seascapes Archives ~ Rambling ranger

January 18, 2024

Drama- Watching Winter Waves

Drama – some people thrive on it. They seem to need drama in their life to give it spice, to make it more interesting. But as for me, I’ve always taken the alternative view. I try to avoid unnecessary drama in my life.

I’m not alone. When I googled “What does drama mean?”, I got the answer, “Drama typically refers to conflict, tension, or emotional upheaval in interpersonal relationships or social situations”. Hmmm. Good thing to avoid.

But the Oxford dictionary’s definition of drama is much more benign – “an exciting, emotional, or unexpected series of events or set of circumstances.” When it comes to photography, a little drama is a good thing.

Monterey Bay sunset — Great light can add drama to a photo.

Great light can add drama to a photo. Combining that with an interesting subject, like a rugged coastline, can make for an especially exciting, dramatic photo.

Drama - Winter Wave Watching — Combining dramatic lighting and an interesting subject can make for an exciting, unexpected image.

Revealing the power and majesty of Nature is one of my favorite ways to add drama to my photos. And one of my best-loved ways to do that is by watching winter waves along the Pacific Coast.

Winter wave watching drama — Winter wave watching

My favorite place so far to watch winter waves is Pacific Grove, California on Monterey Bay. Not only is it a very picturesque coastline, conditions there favor the most dramatic kind of waves, the plunging breakers. It all has to do with the topography of the ocean floor. Since it rises steeply in that location and is rough and rocky, the waves get taller and break more violently than they would on a gentler, more shallowly inclined ocean bottom.

The drama of winter wave watching — One reason waves are bigger on the Pacific Coast is because they have farther to travel.

That’s not the only reason. Wind is the main driver of big waves. That is why surf warnings accompany weather fronts. Also, waves coming all the way across the Pacific have a greater distance to build up than waves on the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico.

Waves have been in the news a lot in the last couple of weeks, wreaking havoc on both coasts and creating extra drama in a lot of people’s lives. A friend texted me a couple of weeks ago to tell me that king tides in the San Juan Islands, where I spent last winter, coupled with 70 mph winds, created an unprecedented storm surge, wreaking a little havoc in a place where the seas are generally quite calm. Just before New Year’s, there was a high surf warning and evacuation notice in Santa Cruz, a place that got hit very hard by a runaway ocean last winter.

The drama of watching winter waves — High surf advisory

Winter waves have been a big deal on the East Coast lately, too. We’ve all seen the pictures of houses washing away in Maine. I was inspired to write this post by Tina Schell’s tale in this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge recounting how this winter’s storms on the South Carolina barrier island she lives on were more terrifying for her than hurricanes she has endured there.

We can expect more drama, and more stories about big waves in the future, because it’s a scientific fact that waves are getting bigger. Waves in California are a foot taller than they were 50 years ago. Global climate change is presenting us with a double whammy. Rising sea levels mean more water coming into shore even when it isn’t storming. Climate change is also bringing us more violent and more frequent storms.

These waves have the power to move mountains. And they will. Just ask the California Department of Highways, constantly rebuilding Highway 101 after every big storm. It’s a minor miracle that that road is still with us. It is quite exhilarating to try to capture that power through photography.

So if you have the chance, get out there and enjoy the drama of winter wave watching. But please stay safe while doing so. Heed the warnings and watch from a safe distance. Don’t get too close to the shore on those days with heavy surf advisories. And NEVER turn your back on the ocean. Sneaker waves are real and can be deadly.

Thanks to Patti of the Pilotfish blog for this week’s Lens-Artists Photography Challenge, Drama.

February 22, 2023February 22, 2023

Soft and Dreamy – Reducing Clarity

Flowers

I’m pushing my boundaries, leaving my comfort zone, by going soft and dreamy for this week’s post. Reducing clarity to create softness is a photographic technique I seldom (almost never) use. I’m one who is always going for more sharpness instead.

Soft and dreamy is a good way to go for some flower images.

It’s a technique, though, that I should probably use more often. Reducing clarity to make an image soft and dreamy is especially effective with some flower images.

I really like what reducing clarity did for this Joshua Tree blossom image.

Reducing clarity and using a mask to sharpen part of the image is great for changing depth of field, too.

Reducing clarity with a sharpening mask over the main subject can create a shallow depth of field.

Foggy conditions naturally reduce clarity without any additional processing.

Trees

As I played around with reducing clarity, I discovered that I really love what this technique did to a few of my tree images.

I was able to make some of my tree images soft and dreamy, giving them a painterly effect.

I love the painterly effect losing clarity had on this image.

The following image was always one of my favorites, but I could never get it as sharp as I needed to. It was always a little too busy, too. But reducing clarity gives it the look of an impressionist painting. I love it!

Waterfalls

One place where reducing clarity is especially impressive is in waterfall images.

I love what reducing clarity does for running water.

It makes the water silkier and fuller. You can see this effect in the following 2 images.

Reducing clarity can make running water silkier and fuller.

Perhaps you don’t want the whole image soft, though. In the following photo, I used a mask to soften the water but left the rest sharp.

If you want to obscure a busy background by making the image soft and dreamy but also want to preserve some detail in the foreground, you can use a few different tricks to make that happen. I used a couple of techniques in the following series.

The first image is full clarity. The second is a soft mist filter. With the third, I painted the log with clarity and added a vignette.

Waves

Waves are also fun to make soft and dreamy. Here’s another series.

The 1st is original, 2nd is Soft Mist filter, 3rd is reducing clarity.

By reducing clarity, texture, and dehaze, I transformed this ocean sunset into an almost abstract watercolor.

Landscapes

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in Monochromes, I usually try to stay realistic with my photos. But this winter is all about getting out of my comfort zone, both physically and creatively. And actually, reducing clarity works particularly well with the Orcas Island landscape.

Reducing clarity works well with the Orcas Island landscape

Reducing clarity and going monochrome turned this flat, boring photo taken in terrible midday light into an image I can be proud of.

Quite a different mood from midday flat light.

Thank you to Bren of Brashley Photography for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Bringing Softness. You’ve helped me to stretch and learn a new technique!

November 30, 2022

My Favorite Places

This week I’d like to share with you all some of my favorite places, ones I will miss this winter as I practice The Middle Way on Orcas Island. This week’s Lens-Artist’s Photo Challenge is Home Sweet Home. Tina Schell of Travels and Trifles asks us, ” If a foreigner were to spend a week or a month traveling your home country with you, where would you take them? What sights would you tell them to be sure to see? Where have you found some of your own favorite images? What is it you truly love about where you live, or places you’ve seen in your home country? ”

Southern Colorado — First snow in the Colorado mountains

Well, they would need at LEAST a month for all MY favorite places. Although I grew up in Colorado and now live in Alaska, I feel at home throughout the West. I’ll start with Colorado. I was raised in Colorado, and lived there for many, many years after I went out on my own. It’s probably where I’ll end up when I get too old to live deep in the wilderness in Alaska. My family is there. Colorado is always close to my heart.

Although I’m at home throughout the West, I do have a few favorite places that I try to visit whenever I have the chance. One is the Colorado Plateau. This region covers big chunks of 4 different states: Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. I can’t narrow my favorite down to just one or two places in this area, it’s all so amazing. My advice to a foreign visitor might be to check out a few places that are not as well-known as iconic parks like Arches and Zion. Although I love them, too, they ARE getting loved to death and it might be good to try to spread that impact out a little. Lesser-known places such as Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Petrified Forest National Park contain wonders, too.

Another favorite place is Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico. This is the best place I’ve ever been for birds. It is the winter home for vast flocks of Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes. Over 340 different species of birds live there. It is an incredible place to observe wildlife.

Sandhill Cranes — Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

I spent 8 winters working as a ranger in Death Valley National Park. It is another desert that has captured my heart. The great thing about Death Valley is that because the altitude on the valley floor is so low (the lowest elevation in North America), the nights are seldom cold, even during the deepest darkest months of winter. Makes for great camping, and the rattlesnakes sleep in the winter! It’s an incredibly diverse park, with elevations ranging from below sea level to over 11,000 feet.

I did a little playing with LightRoom on this image. It was a daytime image and the background of bare dirt desert ground was a bit meh so I darkened it until it resembled the night sky, and tried to give a nighttime feel to the dunes, too. Since Death Valley is famed as a night sky park, and since one of my favorite things to do is to walk through the sand dunes under the full moon, I wanted to capture the feel of that experience in this image.

Mesquite Sand Dunes — I love to hike the sand dunes in the moonlight.

And then there’s the bloom. If there is rain in the desert, and if it is timed right, the wildflowers will rock your world. If it seems like it might be a good year for the flowers, I try to make a circuit that starts near the Mexican border in Anza-Borrego State Park, moving through Joshua Tree and Mojave National Preserve until I end up in Death Valley.

Anza-Borrego State Park — Love those desert wildflowers!

Further west on the California coast you will find another great wildlife phenomenon, the elephant seals at Piedras Blancas near San Simeon. Although you can find a few seals there at any time of year, December through February are the best months. Thousands of seals converge on the beaches, with the big strange-looking bulls battling it out for the right to own a piece of the beach, and all the females on it. The cows are birthing and raising their babies then, too. It’s an extraordinary spot to witness wildlife drama, so close you don’t even need binoculars to see it.

Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery — Sex on the Beach

From the campground at San Simeon I can walk to the beach and see some fantastic bird action on the sea stack that looms just offshore there. It’s an awesome place to catch the sunset.

Farther north along the California coast is Mendocino County. It’s my favorite part of the California Coast. I think the scenery is even more dramatic than Big Sur, and without the crowds. It’s got big trees, too.

Greenwood Beach — The beaches in Mendo are wild and uncrowded.

Speaking of big trees, I’ve really fallen in love with the tallest trees in the world, the redwoods, over the last few years.

Sometimes I go straight up the coast into Oregon. Other times I head for the Siskiyou country near Grants Pass and Williams. The trees there are incredibly graceful and beautiful and it’s my last chance to see wildflowers as I head north.

Pacifica — Oregon has some incredible trees!

But no matter which way I go, I try to hit the coast at Bandon. It is so much fun to shoot the sea stacks there!

The Olympic Peninsula is my next favorite place. The old-growth forests redefine green and the wild beaches are phenomenal.

Olympic National Park — Ferns and feathers

And then there’s Alaska. It’s where my heart is, my community, my job, my life. My first love in Alaska was Denali National Park and I try to go there whenever I get a chance.

But home is McCarthy, in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. I truly believe it’s the most spectacular place in North America. Case in point – check out my daily commute! And the feature image was taken while I was standing on my front porch! It doesn’t get much better than this.

I hope you’ve enjoyed some of my favorite places. As Jim Morrison of the Doors said, the West is the best!

March 11, 2021

Chasing the Light On The California Coast

Light. Sight. Painting with light. The art of seeing. Hallelujah, I have seen the light! That’s what photography is all about, right? The art of using light, especially natural light, to share your vision with others so that they may see the light, too.

Come take a journey with me, up and down the California coast chasing that beautiful natural light. Some times of day are better than others, but we’ll be out at all hours of the day, as every kind of light can capture some mood or be best for a certain subject.

Cabrillo Point State Park — Sunrise at the Cabrillo Point lighthouse near Mendocino.

We’ll start at dawn. I’m not much of one for getting up early, so it’s an effort, but it’s worth it. No, don’t roll over and go back to sleep because you peeked out and it was foggy. The soft light captured in those early morning mists can transform the mundane into the sublime.

Mendocino Dawn — Fog and early morning light can transform the mundane into the sublime.

Stormy days are no reason to stay inside, either. Before long, you may find that many of your most dramatic images were taken on bad weather days. Check out my opening wave for another example.

Besides, you’ll never catch a rainbow without a little rain!

Calm, cloudy days are wonderful for flowers, animals, forest and beachcombing shots. Colors are richer and harsh shadows are eliminated.

Cloudy is best for most living things, like this egret reflected in the water of the slough at Moss Landing State Beach.

Partly cloudy days are good times to learn patience and watch the light change with each passing cloud. You can capture the same scene in many different moods by just staying put and seeing how the constantly changing light transforms your subject.

Point Lobos State Park — See how the mood changes with a small change in the lighting.

Bright sun is not my favorite lighting. It works well for some scenes with bright colors and bold contrasts. If you have to pick a time of day to catch some lunch, recharge batteries and catch up on the internet, chose the middle of the day. Sometimes, though, you have to just use what you got and make the best of it as I tried to do with this image of elephant seals at Piedras Blancas Wildlife Reserve.

Piedras Blancas Wildlife Reserve — Kicking sand in the face of a bully at the beach

Bright sun is also good for backlighting, especially during the golden hour.

Carmel Beach — Late afternoon light is great for backlighting.

That’s the golden hour of late afternoon light, followed closely by sunset. My favorite time of day, since I’m a lazy slacker who doesn’t like getting up early in the morning.

Pigeon Point Lighthouse — Sunset at Pigeon Point

It’s not over ’til it’s over. Even if it’s cloudy and you don’t think a sunset is going to happen, the sun may break through at the last minute and reward you with something special. Follow that sunset from the first warm colors to the last.

God rays in the sunset at Asilomar State Beach near Monterey

To the last minute and then some, capturing the last glimmers of natural light deep into the dusk.

Thank you, Amy of The World Is A Book, for bringing us this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Natural Light.

October 22, 2019

Layers in the Landscape

Crashing surf at Point Pinos, Monterey Bay

Pink

Sunset at Dante's View, Death Valley National Park

Joshua Tree Flower, Joshua Tree National Park

Fireweed Mountain, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

Layers of cloud and mountain make up this view from my back porch – um, actually, from my outhouse

August 1, 2019

Seascapes – Lens-Artists Photo Challenge

Thanks to Amy for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. I love photographing the ocean!

I’ve always been more of a mountain girl than an ocean girl. I did spend a couple of winters in the Florida Keys in my early 20s. It was too flat for me. I got homesick for vertical topography.

Wild waves off the Monterey coast — Wild Waves at Point Pinos, CA

Since then, other than one winter in Hawaii, I’ve made the mountains and the deserts my home. Although I’d occasionally visit the coast on my way somewhere else, I never really spent much time there.

That changed a couple of winters ago when I took up petsitting. I’ve finally had a few opportunities to live near, and get to know, the shore and its many moods, spending quality time on the Pacific Coast beaches in Washington, Oregon, and California.

I’ve learned to love the sea in its many moods –

calm