2011 08 Kings Canyon Sequoia Photo Album
Monday, August 15, 2011
Kings Canyon Sequoia 2011
Jean came out to spend some time in California, and we drove down to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park for a few days of nature walks and photo snaps. Jean navigated the tricky trail at Zumwalt Meadow, I bought really expensive gasoline from an old-timey gravity-driven pump, and we saw a bear foraging along the Congress Trail. Good times.
2011 08 Kings Canyon Sequoia Photo Album
2011 08 Kings Canyon Sequoia Photo Album
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Iceland 2011: First Light & f-stop Tours
I was eager to get myself and a camera to Iceland, and I spotted an ad in Outdoor Photographer for a photo tour that was set to go over during the summer. So I signed on and ponied up.
The outfit was First Light Photography Tours, run by the well-traveled Andy long out of Colorado. They seemed to cater to birders, but the Iceland trip came across as more of a landscape tour. Still though, the other clients who signed on were avid birders who had been with FLP before, and had visions of Puffins, Arctic Terns, Kittywakes, etc., dancing in their heads, as I would eventually discover.
A hitch developed between payment and trip: the promise that meals would be paid for was an oversight on FLP's part. A previous partnering with an Icelandic guide operation afforded that, but the one for our trip did not. To FLP's credit, they allowed clients the option of paying for their own meals or keeping to the terms of the original agreement. It may well be that I was the only client to stick to the terms as advertised. (I know I had the least expensive camera body in the group, a Canon prosumer DSLR, the 60D.)
I did acquire a serious tripod for this trip. All indications were that a sturdy tripod was essential in Iceland. So I got a Gitzo GT3541L. Just kinda rolls of the tongue, a name like that. A tripod like that nearly makes you a serious photog, save for the fact it bears a center column. Serious photos shun center columns just as they do UV filters.
The journey from Sacramento, USA to Keflavik, Iceland was not without glitches. The Delta flight from LAX to JFK was delayed to the extent that it appeared it would arrive after my connection to KEF departed, down from a 2+hr layover. I scrambled to make alternate arrangements; the best I could do was a booking on the next day's flight to Iceland.
Later I discovered that there was no need for my panic, and the Delta personnel at the LAX gate should have known this. The aircraft I was riding from LAX to JFK was the very same aircraft scheduled to fly from JFK to KEF. But since I had made emergency plans, and contrary to what the gate agent told me, Delta cancelled my original booking so as to book me on the nest day's flight. This all had to be sorted at JFK, and resulted in the loss of my long-ago-booked window seat in favor of a middle seat facing a bulkhead.
This is why I don't fly Delta so much if I can possibly avoid it.
In any case, once in Iceland, our local guide was the delightful Mike Kissane of f-Stop Tours. He's an American ex-pat who found love in Iceland. So he's a rare guide who's conversant in his L1 of English as well as his L2 of the impenetrable Icelandic. We ventured from Reykjavik to points north, west, south, and east.
While the other folks on the tour were great, they were quite keen to get bird shots. We would stop at a lakeshore to photograph a swan a quarter mile away. But if we arrived at a birdless locale, there was a palpable urgency to move on to the next stop where there might be birds. We blew past countless decaying concrete barns overrun with verdant mosses. I talked Mike into stopping at one on our last day in the wilds, and there was great puzzlement in the van as to why we were stopping.
But the niggles and perceived slights paled in comparison to Iceland's beauty. I was left with a sense that I wanted to return to see more. We ran up the west coast a ways, and along the south and partway up the east on the Ring Road. And we toured the sites of the Golden Circle. But we did not get into the north or the northwest.
And the Sirius Konsum dark chocolate is really very special.
I stayed on after the official tour and got some architecture and graffiti shots by walking the streets of Reykjavik.
The outfit was First Light Photography Tours, run by the well-traveled Andy long out of Colorado. They seemed to cater to birders, but the Iceland trip came across as more of a landscape tour. Still though, the other clients who signed on were avid birders who had been with FLP before, and had visions of Puffins, Arctic Terns, Kittywakes, etc., dancing in their heads, as I would eventually discover.
A hitch developed between payment and trip: the promise that meals would be paid for was an oversight on FLP's part. A previous partnering with an Icelandic guide operation afforded that, but the one for our trip did not. To FLP's credit, they allowed clients the option of paying for their own meals or keeping to the terms of the original agreement. It may well be that I was the only client to stick to the terms as advertised. (I know I had the least expensive camera body in the group, a Canon prosumer DSLR, the 60D.)
I did acquire a serious tripod for this trip. All indications were that a sturdy tripod was essential in Iceland. So I got a Gitzo GT3541L. Just kinda rolls of the tongue, a name like that. A tripod like that nearly makes you a serious photog, save for the fact it bears a center column. Serious photos shun center columns just as they do UV filters.
The journey from Sacramento, USA to Keflavik, Iceland was not without glitches. The Delta flight from LAX to JFK was delayed to the extent that it appeared it would arrive after my connection to KEF departed, down from a 2+hr layover. I scrambled to make alternate arrangements; the best I could do was a booking on the next day's flight to Iceland.
Later I discovered that there was no need for my panic, and the Delta personnel at the LAX gate should have known this. The aircraft I was riding from LAX to JFK was the very same aircraft scheduled to fly from JFK to KEF. But since I had made emergency plans, and contrary to what the gate agent told me, Delta cancelled my original booking so as to book me on the nest day's flight. This all had to be sorted at JFK, and resulted in the loss of my long-ago-booked window seat in favor of a middle seat facing a bulkhead.
This is why I don't fly Delta so much if I can possibly avoid it.
In any case, once in Iceland, our local guide was the delightful Mike Kissane of f-Stop Tours. He's an American ex-pat who found love in Iceland. So he's a rare guide who's conversant in his L1 of English as well as his L2 of the impenetrable Icelandic. We ventured from Reykjavik to points north, west, south, and east.
While the other folks on the tour were great, they were quite keen to get bird shots. We would stop at a lakeshore to photograph a swan a quarter mile away. But if we arrived at a birdless locale, there was a palpable urgency to move on to the next stop where there might be birds. We blew past countless decaying concrete barns overrun with verdant mosses. I talked Mike into stopping at one on our last day in the wilds, and there was great puzzlement in the van as to why we were stopping.
But the niggles and perceived slights paled in comparison to Iceland's beauty. I was left with a sense that I wanted to return to see more. We ran up the west coast a ways, and along the south and partway up the east on the Ring Road. And we toured the sites of the Golden Circle. But we did not get into the north or the northwest.
And the Sirius Konsum dark chocolate is really very special.
I stayed on after the official tour and got some architecture and graffiti shots by walking the streets of Reykjavik.
Iceland 2011 [Remastered 2026]
2011 06 Iceland - Gold***
2011 06 Iceland - Gold***
B&GER Entry: I’ve seen amazing photographs made in Iceland and long wanted to try my own hand at it. I found a photographer tour going over, so I signed on. There was too much drama in the flights over, but Iceland was beautiful. The photographers were a curious mix (and I was no doubt among the curioust). The local guide was great, and we saw quite a bit of the island. From the colorful steel-clad buildings of Reykjavik to the weather-beaten dwellings of Flatey. From the robust cascades at Hraunfoss to icebergs of Jökulsárlón. From the tectonic plate junction of Thingvellir to the black sands of Ingólfshödi. Volcanoes and glaciers, geothermal areas and basalt beaches. Icelandic horses and puffins (and many more bird species). Lonely churches and derelict concrete barns. We had unexpectedly warm, sunny weather. Luckily I packed a mini travel tube of sunscreen. I didn’t expect to use any of and ended up using it all. I stayed two days after the photogs left to wander Reykjavik and tour Thorsmork. But I didn’t get to much of the interior and missed the desolate northern half. An air tour of the glaciers and volcanoes would have been worthwhile, too.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Sierra Birthday Getaway 2010
What better birthday gift to myself than getting away to Yosemite, Mono Lake, and Bodie?
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Nevada and Utah with the Family 2010
Jean, Heather, Tyler, Bryce, Mary, and I converged in Las Vegas and motored to Zion National Park. But not without a stop at The Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada (where Captain Kirk died in Star Trek:Generations).
Some of us made it to Zion’s Scouts Lookout, and some braved Angels Landing. Some of us tromped up the Virgin Narrows before we motored over to Bryce Canyon.
We were lucky enough to have some monsoon weather during our stay, so there was some drama in the sky. Some of us made it into the hoodoos along the Navajo Loop and The Queen’s Garden trail.
I caught a few keepers and a star trails shot before we headed back to Vegas and departed to our various homes.
2010 08 Fire Zion and Bryce Photo Album
Some of us made it to Zion’s Scouts Lookout, and some braved Angels Landing. Some of us tromped up the Virgin Narrows before we motored over to Bryce Canyon.
We were lucky enough to have some monsoon weather during our stay, so there was some drama in the sky. Some of us made it into the hoodoos along the Navajo Loop and The Queen’s Garden trail.
I caught a few keepers and a star trails shot before we headed back to Vegas and departed to our various homes.
2010 08 Fire Zion and Bryce Photo Album
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Valley of Fire 2010
I ran a quick peak into Valley of Fire mostly just to get out of Vegas post TAM8.
2010 07 Valley of Fire Photo Album
2010 07 Valley of Fire Photo Album
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Arizona with Julie! 2009
On August 1st I departed for a Southwest Desert Adventure with my dear friend, Julie Bennett. Yes, she is also my best friend’s wife. No, it wasn’t weird that we were traveling together. I had taken Rick through the red rocks twice and it was Julie’s turn. And she was the best travel companion ever! Mind you, Rick sets that bar very high. So Julie is truly special in her roadtrip skillz. As she matter-of-factly told some inquisitive strangers at a Grand Canyon viewpoint, “We met in Las Vegas.” Her account was true, but it might have given the wrong impression.
We dined at the legendary Lotus of Siam. Then it was off to North Rim. But first, a side trip to Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. It’s a beautifully eroded red rock landscape that falls just short of federal protection. And it’s where Captain Kirk dies in Star Trek: Generations. After a quick recon tour, we were back on track to North Rim. I scored my very first speeding ticket in a little speed trap outside Valley of Fire, but then we were off to North Rim. We stopped at the Zion border town of Springdale to dine at Oscar’s (a bistro that Rick and I discovered in 2005), then it was off to North Rim.
We got as far as Fredonia before encountering a roadblock (literally). The road into North Rim from the west was closed due to fire activity. The final 60 miles of a full day of driving became over 160 miles so that we could access North Rim from the east. Nontrivial. Made more interesting by the herds of deer that frequent the Park’s roadway after dark. Julie was a crack deer-spotter while I drove (think Helen Hunt/Bill Paxton Twister). We got to the Grand Canyon Lodge without killing anything. But we did arrive late.
Fire activity closed off the Walhalla Plateau (and with it most of the North Rim’s scenic viewpoints). So we improvised and eventually 4-wheeled it out to Point Sublime (a 17-mile, 2-hr “technical” drive each way). The pinstriping sustained by the Nismo as it impinged on hearty desert flora was worth it: Point Sublime lived up to its billing. And the solitude!
On our last day at North Rim, the Walhalla Plateau was partially opened. We squeezed in a quick tour of Cape Royal and hoofed it out to Cape Final. Then it was off to Page. There we took in the dizzying beauty of Horse Shoe Bend. And floated down the Glen Canyon. And crawled through the little-known and largely unvisited Lower Antelope Canyon slot.
Next we spent a night in quiet Kanab. And it was time to gird the loins and venture out to Toroweap: a rarely-visited viewpoint 2000 feet straight up from the Colorado River. I knew this would be a difficult trip. Sixty miles of unpaved road. And the last 10 miles held a modicum of challenge. A six-hour detour. We were nearly swallowed by a dust bog one mile short of our goal. I navigated it poorly, but the Nismo came through, and Julie found out what the gear “4-Lo” was good for. Toroweap was stunning and very much worth the effort. We collected memories and photographs (and dust—a lot of dust) before heading back to Vegas and parting company. What a week!
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