A photograph can only do so much justice..

It was a great idea to go work today instead of doze off at home. No pills, visited the hot room and now feeling a lot better. 

So the thought of visiting those 3000 odd photos from last week came to mind. 

After spending 2 hours on just 6 photos calling it a night.

At the end of the day a photograph even if done in Photorealistic HDR doesn't recapture the wonder of Death Valley!

This one photo below is of the Ubehebe crater. This is a composite of 7 shots stiched together. The individual shots were taken at 17mm in portrait format on a Canon 17-40mm L lens using a ND filter in manual mode with manual focus, then cropped and adjusted. I tried pulling the whole thing off with auto exposure bracketed shots in HDR and that did not work. Guess even my Mac quits at some point..

Sure there are not that many pictures like this of Ubehebe out there. We are on a rim of a crater which is around 100 feet! you get a feel for the size of this by looking at the people on the right edge.

The ND filter kit was part of the birthday present specially for this trip. Made a big mistake. Like a person who wears spectacles for the first time forgeting the specs at odd places, I left the ND filter kit on the crater rim. 

If you happen to read this blog and fate has it that you were on that crater rim between 11/21 or thereafter and you happen to have found it.. please email me.. 

Was almost in tears when we realized this at our next stop later that evening. By that time we had already driven a good 60 miles away from the crater and visiting it again in hopes of recovering filter kit was moot!

There were few good shots with the filter in the 24 hours of use like this sunset over the freeway. We didn't realize the sun sets before 4:30 in death valley! A lot earlier than the previous day when we were out of the valley. The valley is below sea level and the lowest point in the US is right here.. should have expected that!

or this one from Mosaic canyon..

These two photos en-route to Darwin falls at Panamint area..

and finally a butterfly that was everywhere in the desert.. they were even there in the salt flats. Don't know how they survive the harsh environment. 

Learned one more thing in the editing process. The canon photo stitch utility does not work on photos taken at 17mm! So figured out how to stitch them in Photoshop. Starting to really love Photoshop now. For all that Adobe hating because of Flash Player.. there is a new found love for Adobe because of CS5!

More photos tomorrow...

Yosemite - stitch shots

There are only two stitch shots worth sharing from the Yosemite trip..

The first one is a vertical series of the Vernal falls

Second one is a horizontal sweep of half dome as the sun set behind us. The sun puts a clear shadow of other side on the peaks and it is one of the most amazing sites we have seen in any national park.

Yosemite is a god send..

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Sunset at La Push Beach - Olympic National Park

The sunset, stitched from a set of 14 photos (out of the 125 that were taken over a span of 3 or 4 minutes from various locations along the rocks) that were shot in manual mode. (we still get slight lines between the shots)

ps. original photo is 19.8 MB and cannot be uploaded to blogger. This is the version condensed to just under 8 MB.

pps. If you want to try this, pick one good location first. Then put tripod on rocks. Preferably large rocks.

ppps. The sun sets in an arc especially if you are not looking directly at it. If you try to get it to go right down between the thumb and the rock, you should have a good feel for the exact angle at which the sun is arcing down. Otherwise, you will end up hobbling on large rocks with a fully open tripod and make a spectacle of yourself.

pppps. this was shot with the EOS 400D aka the digital rebel.

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Mendocino Coast

The last time we were there to take in the sunset at the glass beach in Fort Bragg, San was 7 months pregnant and it was going to be our last trip before Jr. was going to make her grand entrance.

After almost 7 years, we revisited Fort Bragg, the Mendocino coast in northern california (3 hours north of San Francisco) and a bunch of memories.

Had a great time with the kids. Now that all that non stop driving on windy roads for hours on end is over, it is time to literally chill with my girl Volini.

Leaving you with the panorama shots. Like the saying goes, a stitch in time..

Tried that one lying down on the ground under the bridge on the sand sweeping from left to right. Next time, have better ideas for this shot.. there are very few places where there is such an opportunity to be directly under the bridge to take a panoramic shot like that.. (just have to pick a cloudy day..)

Except for the botanical gardens which closed so early we saw all the main points of interest over the 25 or so mile coastline.

It was a strenuous trip but we made it back within two days and still had a day to recover!

We have some choice glass pieces to show for the trip as well. Here is a shot of the glass on the beach (all courtesy of old glass bottles dumped thirty years ago on the shore and letting the waves do their job).

The glass beach is strongly recommended!

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Snoqualmie Falls - day trip from Seattle

An amazing falls, within an hour from the Microsoftee's (BIL's) house!

We really enjoyed it. Had to make two trips. Our first attempt was unsuccessful because of a bad fog and rain. No visibility. So we went back two days later and had great views.

The trail down to the observation deck was very slippery and is not recommended for kids or for adults carrying a kid on their waist, in winter with snow and ice on the ground. So the kids were not taken on the trail!

Here are the pictures ...

and some decent stitch shots...

It is always amazing to watch a quiet river flow down with such ferocity and turn into the quiet river again as it goes downstream.

Snoqualmie was definitely named for a woman!

ps. We were in the Seattle area for the last six days. There will be more day trip posts..
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