Heart of Yosemite

Valentine’s day has always been extra special in my family as its also my loving and beautiful mom’s birthday! Hearts were always the center theme of our household decorations while growing up. On our family vacations we would always have a little contest to see how many heart shaped rocks we could find. My favorite rock searching adventures were on the rocky shores of Northern Michigan searching for a very tough to find heart shaped petoskey stone.

Last August, my wife and I made our first trip to Yosemite valley. We arrived just in time to catch the sunset from Tunnel View. After taking a bunch of wide angle photos of Yosemite valley, I decided to try the 70-200mm telephoto and try to capture the little cloud which suddenly formed over half dome. To my great surprise, I quickly noticed a HUGE natural heart shape carved into the granite walls of the valley. When we made it home, the first thing I said to my mom was “Yosemite was awesome but wait until you see the photo of the biggest heart rock ever!!”

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Heart of Yosemite

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Full Moon over Downtown Detroit

After months of waiting for the right conditions, I was finally able to capture a full moon over downtown Detroit! A little luck with the weather resulting in a rare cloudless winter morning and some pre-planning location scouting with The Photographer’s Ephemeris app on my iPad helped make this one possible!!:)

Full Moon over Downtown Detroit

Full Moon over Downtown Detroit

 

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The Big Cactus

Last week, I had the opportunity to photo walk at the Usery Mountain Regional Park which connects to the Tonto National Forrest on the east side of Phoenix, AZ. I made it to the park about 45min before sunset and started my hike up the foot trail with the hope I could find a good location to capture the sunset. While chasing the quickly setting sun, I turned around to notice an intense blanket of red light. The ‘big cactus’ just off the trail made a perfect foreground subject so I setup to capture the magical South West sunset scene.

Big Cactus Sunset

Big Cactus Sunset

 

I was traveling light with just my iPad and wanted to get a little preview of my images. I used the USB adapter in the camera connection kit to connect my Canon 5D Mark II to the iPad and imported a couple images. I knew the light in this one was pretty good from quickly chimp’n the back of the lcd while I was on the photo walk but I was worried I blew the sunburst by forgetting to set my f-stop to f16 instead of f11. When I opened the image on the iPad, I used the ‘pinch to zoom’ to check out the sunburst. Then all of the sudden I realized the ‘Big Cactus’ looked like it was signaling back!!:)

The Big Cactus

The Big Cactus

 

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Karlo

LOL! “Signalling back” :D Good shot!!!!

Cactus Star Trails

I had a great time photo walking the Tonto National Forrest in Arizona earlier this week. After sunset I setup and started a star trails shoot, I began to notice an abundant number of inbound airplanes. Then I realized that I must have unintentionally setup on one of the primary approaches for the PHX airport. Doh! or so I thought… Call me crazy but after processing, I’m dig’n the whacky lines from the slow and low airplanes which I feel added to the final composition. Well at least that’s my story so I don’t have to Photoshop out the planes in a 128 images:)

Cactus Star Trails

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Capture info.:
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Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 24-105mm @24mm
128 x 30 second exposures
ISO 400 at f4.0

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Karlo

Hi do you have a tutorial on star trails and how you merged your 128 (30 sec) shots? Thanks!

Ha ha ha nice story ! the plane trails do make this stand out :)
nice shot and processing !

Best Photos of 2011

Wow time flies when you’re having fun!! 2011 was an incredibly awesome year that zipped by like no other… Looking back at my photo archives for the year, I’m extremely thankful for all of the amazing photo opportunities and wonderful memories captured. This year I pushed myself to take the extra time before or after a business trip to go on a photo adventures resulting in some of my favorite images. I also finally finished my 365 photo project in 2011 which lifted my photography skills and mindset from taking pictures to making pictures. Here are 10 of my personal favorite images from 2011:

Thunderstruck

Thunderstruck

 

Glowing Chicago

Glowing Chicago

 

Yosemite Valley View Reflections

Yosemite Valley View Reflections

 

Tunnel View Sunrise Panorama

Tunnel View Sunrise Panorama

 

Lake Michigan Autumn Sunset

Lake Michigan Autumn Sunset

 

Super Moon

Super Moon

 

Lifecycle of Nature

Lifecycle of Nature

 

Glen Haven Sunset

Glen Haven Sunset

 

Tree of Life

Tree of Life

 

Seattle Skyline Sunset

Seattle Skyline Sunset

 

[...] Best Photos of 2011 – Ken Snyder [...]

[...] Best Photos of 2011 – Ken Snyder [...]

[...] Best Photos of 2011 – Ken Snyder [...]