This is a continuation of iPhone photos shot in and around Alabama Hills, California in March 2024.
More later,
Ken
March 2024 iPhone Photos – Part 3
Category: Travel
Travel related information
March 2024 iPhone Photos – Part 1 – Republished to correct an image display problem on website
As is my habit, I use my iPhone camera to make images while scouting photo locations and/or sometimes to record in route travel scenes. This Post and others to follow will feature some of the many such photos made during my March trip to California. Some of the photos in these post may be similar to those shot later with my DSLR.
I know there are many people that only use their cell phone cameras for photography, simply because it is convenient and nearly everyone always has a cell phone with a built in camera with them at all times. The cameras in the newer model cell phones are quite good, although there are still limitations. Nonetheless, it is possible to get good photographs with these convenient devices. There are also camera apps that may improve a phone camera’s ability to shoot better images and there are plenty of in phone edit apps to enhance the photos.
Sharing photos taken via a mobile phone is also very easy. It is no mystery why these small, pocketable devices have become so popular with those that just want to shoot a quick photo and share it to social media or via text message or via email.
A snow storm came across the western U.S. at the start of my trip, threatening to delay travel for a day at least; but as it turned out, we only had slow travel over the Rockies through the area that received significant snowfall, after I-70 was opened just before our scheduled road travel.
I awoke at about 3AM my first night in Colorado and peeked out my bedroom window to check the weather and this winter scene filled my view. So naturally, I grabbed my phone and captured a few images through the window.
It is easy to see in these two images how light sensitive the camera sensors in these phones can be. Of course, there was some light from street and house lights and the heavy cloud cover reflected the city light onto the snow, which bounced the light, too. The detail in these 3AM low light photos is still remarkable.
The passenger in a moving vehicle might be able to shoot while moving along at highway speeds with one of these devices. (The driver should pay attention to driving and not use the camera while moving).
This image was made somewhere in Utah, the morning of our second travel day, as the storm seemed to be clearing; although, we continued to see storm warnings along the highway and we had driven through some snow flurries the day before in some higher elevations.
Until next time,
Ken
Mono Lake, California – Part 1 (Republished to correct an image display problem on website)
My son and I ventured back north of Lone Pine, California to explore more natural sites along US Highway 395. Our first stop was Mono Lake.
I have seen photographs of the tufa in Mono Lake and looked forward to seeing these. While the history of this lake and the science behind the natural creation of the tufa deposits are interesting, we were a bit disappointed in the photogenic appeal of the area; but we were not there at the best time for photography, which might have been the primary reason for our disappointment.
We hiked the loop from the parking lot to the lake twice. I used my 24-70mm lens during the first round, then switched to my 80-400mm with a 1.4 extension for the second round. The photos included in my posts are a mix of images made with those two lenses.
More Mono Lake next time,
Ken
Alabama Hills, California – Part 5 – Sunrise at Mobius Arch
As I’ve said many times, early morning landscape photography is the best for a number of reason, but especially for being alone on location. Most casual tourists and visitors to a popular location, seldom get out and about in the early morning hours, so we seldom have to worry about people popping into our shots.
The first images here are long exposure, pre-sunrise photos. There is just a little pink color beginning to show on the distant horizon.
Shooting from the rounded rocks in front of the arch, made using a tripod very difficult for getting down low, so I ended up shooting hand held, using a higher ISO to get my shutter speed high enough to counter my hand shake.
I shot many images at this location today and could include more, but these are representative of the morning’s scene. Having those magnificent, early morning clouds was a bonus for shooting today.
Until next time,
Ken
Alabama Hills, California – Part 1
This spring’s photography trip was to Alabama Hills, California. This was a long trip and some thought was given to flying into Las Vegas, renting a 4 wheel drive vehicle and driving from there; but in the end, my oldest son and I, felt more comfortable with one of our own 4 WD vehicles, which meant a long road trip, especially for me since I first had to drive from Texas to Colorado by myself, then we would travel together to California.
March weather is always uncertain and can be a challenge for travel and planning. This year was no exception. Prior to my departure from Texas, a strong spring storm was forecast, so I left Texas a day earlier than planned to avoid the worst of the expected storm. Still, in portions of Colorado, I drove through intermittent rain, sleet and snow.
That first night in Colorado the storm dumped heavy snows across Colorado, especially in the mountains. I-70, our route over the mountains was closed and we were not at all sure that we would be able to keep our scheduled departure date; but we got lucky, I-70 opened to all but commercial truck traffic just in time. There was heavy, slow traffic along long sections of I-70 and slushy, snow packed intervals, sometimes with only one lane open.
The Western Slope of the Rockies was clear and we were able to drive much faster into Utah. Still we kept seeing warnings of an expected storm along our route and we did drive through some heavy snow before reaching our first stop over destination.
Even though, I’ve traveled portions of I-70 and I-15 west of Grand Junction, Colorado numerous times, I always seem to forget how beautiful and varied the scenery is along this route. This is another reason, I prefer highway travel to air travel. So much is missed in route, when in an airplane.
Our route to Alabama Hills took us through a portion of Death Valley, which is another of our favorite places. In one of the broad valleys between mountain ranges the land was covered in yellow flowers, no doubt due to the heavy rains in this area this year.
We had motel reservations in Lone Pine, California and would stay there for a number of days. Lone Pine sits between two portions of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. There was snow on the mountains and those mountains are beautiful.
We went into Alabama Hills, which is a few miles outside Lone Pine, and did mostly scouting the first morning here, since we did not know the area and had no fixed destination in mind for early morning photography.
The Sierra Nevada mountains dominate the background here and it seemed impelling to include those mountains in our photos.
Perhaps, one of the most interesting and most photographed rock features here is the Mobius Arch. So we parked in the parking space at the loop trail to that arch and set out to explore the area.
The Heart Arch is visible from some distance and the Mobius Arch Trail goes past it.
For those of us old enough, these scenes might jar some early childhood memories of early western movies and TV series. Over 400 movies have been filmed in this area, beginning with the silent movie era and continuing into recent times. I well remember some of those early westerns, like Hop along Cassidy, The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Gene Autry, Have Gun Will Travel, The Rifleman, Wanted – Dead or Alive and many others. More recent movies include Django Unchained and The Gladiator.
The movie museum in Lone Pine is well worth a visit for anyone passing through.
More information about Alabama Hills and how it became known as “Alabama Hills” is found here
and here.
More later,
Ken
Indiana Fall 2023, Part 25 – Frosty Halloween Morning
Prior to any road trip, I always check the weather forecast for my destination, so that I know how to prepare for the expected weather. I’ve also learned to heed the season and expect the unexpected change in the weather.
This fall, the first few days of our visit to Indiana, the weather was much as forecast, then an unexpected cold front came across most of the U.S., dropping temperatures well below my allowance for cold outings. I had brought my typical normal cold weather gear and even a few chemical hand warmers, since my fingers tend to get cold even in mild winter weather. And once my fingers get numb with cold, I can’t easily operate my camera controls.
I knew I would still want to get out in the cold weather, so I purchased additional cold weather clothing and more hand and foot warmers in a local store.
Halloween morning was the first below freezing weather we had during this trip. I knew the cold front coming in over the warmer landscape and warmer bodies of water would result in early morning water vapor condensing into mist or fog. So I went out again to Ogle Lake in Brown County State Park early in the morning of October 31.
It was, indeed, a heavy frost morning and mist was rising from the lake surface.
By the time I had obtained these few images, my fingers, even with the hand warmers in my fleece mittens with the exposable thumb and finger tips, were so numb that I had to give up shooting. I retreated to my vehicle, started the engine and sat there until my fingers were warm enough to drive away.
I really would have liked to spend more time photographing frosty scenes around the park this morning, but I knew I could only shoot for a few minutes at a time due to the cold weather effect upon my fingers. I settled for getting one shot at an overlook in the park, before heading back to the cabin.
Until next time,
Ken
Indiana Fall 2023, Part 21 – Early One Foggy Morning, Brown County State Park
This is a continuation of a foggy morning shoot in Brown County State Park near Nashville, Indiana.
There were occasional breezes through the trees and I did not try to adjust my shutter speed to freeze the wind induced motion, so some of the images may show that motion, such as that in the image above.
To be continued,
Ken
Indiana Fall 2023, Part 23 – Early One Foggy Morning, Brown County State Park
I initially photographed along a roadway through Brown County State Park on a foggy morning, then took a long hike through the forest. Photos in this post and a number in the previous post (part 22) were taken along that forest hiking trail.
The fog was getting thinner now and it became more difficult to capture the fog in my images. I elected to stop photographing as it was getting late in the morning and I was getting hungry for breakfast and caffeine. I’m sure the hiking trail was not of great length, but it seemed like it took me a considerable time to get back to a a roadway. Then I had to hike a considerable distance along a roadway to return to my vehicle.
Until next time,
Ken
Indiana Fall 2023, Part 22 – Early One Foggy Morning, Brown County State Park
A continuation of a foggy morning photo shoot in Brown County State Park, Indiana.
To be continued,
Ken
Indiana Fall 2023, Part 20 – Early One Foggy Morning, Brown County State Park
Another early morning photo shoot in Brown County State Park, Indiana. I got lucky this morning. It was a moderately foggy morning with heavy fog in some areas. Foggy mornings here are not unusual and I had hoped to get at least one foggy morning.
The last two images here are essentially the same composition, but the last one obviously has a foggier look. That is due to shooting it farther away from the tree line and having more fog between the camera and the trees.
One has to be careful when shooting in the fog and when editing the foggy images. It is not always easy to get the exposure right and editing can take out the effect of the fog, if over done. I can’t claim to be an expert at either of these skills, but fog surely can add magic to some scenes.
To be continued,
Ken