Author: circadianreflections

White Mountain Sunset, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
As the evening wore on out here in the Sage and Alkaloid Ponds of the Eastern Sierras the color in the sky behind me and above White Mountain stole the show after the sunset. I wandered away from the group to climb a small hill to get this shot.

PP- Vibrance, clarity, played with the adjustment brush in ACR. I’m liking that tool more and more, cropped a wee bit, and selective sharpening, then resized.

Nikon D300s, Nikkor 17-35mm 2.8 AF-S@ 20mm, f16, 1.3s, ISO 200, Aperture Priority, Tripoded, remote release cable

Purple is the color of the Night, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

This was taken out in Alkaloid ponds. We chose the big pond for the sunset tonight. There were only 3 of us here for this shoot. The rest of the group had gone to the “S curves” on the Owens River. My friend and I had gone there the evening before so we wanted a different location for this shoot.
Dali, Steve, and I laughed all evening. Good times!

The reflection of the Cresent Moon is in the water but it didn’t quite come out as clear as I had hoped, but I’ll not complain! The color of the night sky was awesome, and I was in the best company.

PP- Vibrance, clarity, a little fill slider, levels, sharpened, and resized.
Nikon D300s, Nikkor 17-35mm @ 35mm, f 11, 0.4s, ISO 200, Manual Mode, No Filters, On a Tripod, Remote Cable Release Cord

Blazing My Own Trail, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
The morning after the Eastern Sierras Workshop was over my friend Dali and I headed back to Rock Creek Road to photograph all the beautiful Aspens we saw at their peak the afternoon before.

This shot was one I worked for. These Aspens lined the side of mountain and to get the snow capped mountain in my background I needed to climb up this mountain. There were no trails up anywhere that I could see. So hiking up around rock formations, and bushes of sage I blazed a new trail up, up, up. In some spots I was able to go up the paths that the melting snow had cut out of the mountain side. Dali wasn’t coming up he said…it didn’t take him too long to start following me up.
I think this is close to 1000ft up.

The view was well worth the effort.

PP- My sky was flat! I tried everything I know…my Photoshop skills are meager! I tried levels, and didn’t like that so I tried curves- didn’t like that either, sharpening with luminosity boosted – didn’t work, finally I tried something new. I used the Targeted Adjustment Tool on the sky. That seemed to help…it’s not great but the clouds look like they have a bit more depth than anything else I tried. There has to be something one can do to fix a flat sky besides replacing it…isn’t there?
Vibrance, and clarity, a little unsharp mask, and resized.

Nikon D300s, Nikkor 17-35mm @ 35mm, f13, 1/15s, ISO 200, Manual Mode, On a Tripod

Alpen Glow in Owens Valley, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

I rose at 4AM this morning to meet the other 7 students in the workshop at 5:15AM for the drive out to Owens Valley to greet the Sunrise.
This location required a bit of hike out on this wet, soggy, marshland.
Just a bit to the right of me the Owens River makes a turn where all of my companions were shooting. I liked this Deerweed plant, and little clump of Common Rush to the right, and the layer of Tule Grass behind the river, and then the majestic Mountain range behind those, so I camped here to wait for the sunrise.
Oh! What a sunrise! The Alpen Glow was gorgeous. The best of the week-end!

PP- Fill slider to open up the shadows in the Tule Grass, vibrance, clarity, levels, a bit of dodging on the mountain caps, and in the water, unsharp mask, and resized.
Nikon D300s, Nikkor 17-35mm@17mm, f16, 1/8s, ISO 200, Manual Mode, No Filters, On a Tripod, Remote Release Cable

Uploaded by dmzajac2004- on 25 Oct 10, 3.09PM PDT.

“Friends, books, a garden, and perhaps his pen, Delightful industry enjoy’d at home, An Nature, in her cultivated trim Dress’ed to his taste, inviting him abroad -Can he want occupation who has these?”- William Cowper, The Task, 1780, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

Sorensen’s Resort established in 1926 is popular stop along the Hope Valley Fall color route located at the junction of Hwy 88 and Hwy 89. There is a trail head near here that takes one on a 3 mile hike out to a overlook of the valley.
My friends and I had intended to find the trail and hike out, but we got side tracked photographing the cabins and Fall Color here . In the end we ran out of time.
There is a restaurant that is open for lunch and dinner here too. It was doing brisk business when we were here.

PP- Vibrance, Clarity, a little unmasked sharpening, level, and resized.
Nikon D300s, Nikkor 17-35mm@ 17mm, f10, 1/125s, ISO 200, B+W Warming Filter 81A, Manual Mode, On a Tripod

"While with an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the power of joy, we see into the life of things." ~William Wordsworth, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

The view from Glacier Point Yosemite National Park is stunning. Myself, Theresa, Ade, Alex, and Dali made the trip to Yosemite on Thurs. to ultimately meet my friend Rick at another location and shoot the nearly Full Moon rising behind Half Dome weather and clouds permitting. The forecast predicted cloudy with 20-30% chance of rain on the 21st.

We decided to make a day-trip and drive up to Glacier Point to see the view since it was closed due to snow on my previous two visits, and a few of my friends hadn’t ever seen this view before. The opportunity to see it by driving up here is short. As this road will be closed to traffic Nov. 1st. Only skiers and snow-shoers will be able to get here come the winter. Once closed it won’t open again until Memorial day in late May or not until early June.

We had a nice picnic lunch here. Honestly I did a lot more looking and soaking up the view than I did taking photographs. I only took 21 shots the whole time we were up here. It’s just a stunning, majestic place. I felt like being still and listening to the breeze, and watch the clouds drift slowly across the mountain tops, and breath – just…be.

To the right of Half Dome is Nevada Falls. This is the back side of Yosemite National Park.

I used my Singh Ray LB ColorCombo Warming Circular Polarizer to help cut any glare from the clouds, and mountains, and also to bring out more of the blues and grays in the sky.
Nikon D90, Nikkor 17-35mm @ 22mm, f8, 1/125s, ISO 200, Manual Mode, On a Tripod

PP- Vibrance, clarity, a tiny bit of sharpening and levels, Shadows and Highlights adjustment to bring out more of the foreground, and resized.