Photos of America’s National Monuments, The Parks Less Traveled

Are you looking for new landscapes away from the crowds and the tripod holes of the national parks? Are you seeking a more adventurous and out-of-the-beaten-path experience? If so, how about a visit to America's national monuments?

The term "national monument" may remind photographers of Lee Friedlander's influential but quirky book The American Monument, which featured a collection of memorials and statues all over the country. So what's in there for a landscape photographer?

In the United States, the term has a more specific meaning and, at the same time, includes features more general than built landmarks. Defined by a 1906 law called the Antiquities Act, national monuments are federally protected areas containing objects of historic or scientific interest. The main difference with national parks is administrative. The President can swiftly proclaim national monuments with only a signature, thus providing expedited protections, whereas only Congress can establish national parks.

As suggested by its name, the Antiquities Act was initially meant to protect native archeological sites. However, the first national monument was Devil's Tower in Wyoming, a natural feature of geologic interest. Congress had been debating over the Grand Canyon since 1882, but even as commercialism was running unchecked, by 1908, it had not yet acted to protect that quintessential American wonder. President Theodore Roosevelt did, by proclaiming the Grand Canyon a national monument.

Since 1906, 16 presidents have used the Act to preserve some of America's most treasured public lands and waters. Half of today's national parks were first protected as national monuments.

While some national monuments fit within an acre, others protect entire landscapes with natural features as extraordinary as those found in national parks. In some sense, those landscape-scale national monuments could be seen as national parks in waiting. An excellent example is Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument located in Southern Utah. At 1,880,461 acres, it is significantly larger than Grand Canyon National Park (1,217,403 acres).

Within its plateaus descending in vividly colored stair-steps from Bryce Canyon to the Grand Canyon, the monument protects significant paleontological sites. However, for the visitor, the attraction is its extraordinary geology of cliffs, badlands, hoodoos, natural arches, and canyons.

Moonrise over Cockscomb from Yellow Rock. Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, Utah, USA Sunset Arch, dawn. Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, Utah, USA Swirls and hoodoos, Devils Garden. Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, Utah, USA Zebra Slot Canyon with sandstone striations and encrusted moqui marbles,. Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, Utah, USA

Nearby Bears Ears National Monument shares many characteristics with Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument: its location in Southern Utah, its size (1,353,000 acres) larger than Grand Canyon National Park, and wondrous red rock country with even more immense vistas. However, it is primarily a cultural landscape. Hidden in its labyrinth of canyons and mesas are more cliff dwellings and tribal artifacts than any other area in the American West, including some of the most iconic ruins on the Colorado Plateau.

Both monuments marked milestones in conservation. Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, proclaimed in 1996 by President Clinton, was the first national monument managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), marking the evolution of the nation's largest land caretaker towards conservation. The Hopi, Navajo, Mountain Ute, Zuni, and Ute agreed to set generations-old differences apart to petition for the protection of their ancestral lands.

In response, in the waning days of his presidency, President Obama proclaimed Bear Ears National Monument in 1996, the first national monument initiated by native people and co-managed by them.

Valley of the Gods from above. Bears Ears National Monument, Utah, USA Flame Ceiling Ruin, Mule Canyon. Bears Ears National Monument, Utah, USA Ruin in alcove with collapsed ceiling. Bears Ears National Monument, Utah, USA Light from Perfect Kiva and moon. Bears Ears National Monument, Utah, USA

National monuments are much less known and visited than national parks, but those two just have been in the news since 2017. In the spring of that year, President Trump signed an unprecedented executive order to review all the national monuments created through the Antiquities Act since 1996 that were larger than 100,000 acres. The review's objective was to determine if former presidents had abused their power and if the protections curtailed economic growth.

It targeted a total of 27 out of the 35 larger national monuments, including 22 national monuments across 11 states, in addition to five even larger marine areas. The public comment period of the summer of 2017 generated 97% support for the national monuments under review. Yet, on December 4, 2017, the President ordered size reductions to the two national monuments located in Utah mentioned above.

In January 2018, I resolved to take action the only way I knew, by hiking and photographing the 22 land-based national monuments in the review. I found a broad cross-section of natural environments, covering a significant portion of the American landscape. Totaling about 11 million acres, they ranged from the north woods of Maine to the cactus-covered deserts of Arizona.

Besides their vastness and diversity, their natural features rivaled those in our beloved national parks. Vermilion Cliffs National Monument's Paria Canyon is more than twice as long and every bit as impressive as Zion National Park's Virgin River Narrows. The monument also houses unique world-renowned rock formations like The Wave and the White Pocket.

Giant Sequoia National Monument protects more sequoia groves than Sequoia and Kings National Parks. The Sonoran Desert portions included in Ironwood Forest National Monument and Sonoran Desert National Monument are as beautiful and representative as those in Saguaro National Park, if not more pristine.

I spent months in repeated visits, immersing myself in those sacred lands and discovering remnants of cultures imprinted on the ancient landscape. So many of those monuments were previously unknown to me. I reasoned that those areas were vulnerable because the general public did not know about them and thus was not moved to defend them. This inspired me to publish a book that could help conservation organizations raise awareness of those lands.

To amplify the call for conservation, I invited those who advocate for these national monuments to present their perspective. I am so grateful to 27 local citizen associations caring for those national treasures for contributing their voices, to former Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell for her foreword, and to Ian Shive for his photographs and words that give readers a glimpse of the almost inaccessible marine national monuments in the Pacific.

The result is the first photography book entirely dedicated to America's national monuments. While it includes only a subset of them (the 27 monuments at risk from the review), those comprise the vast majority of the large, park-like monuments. Our National Monuments: America 's Hidden Gems is the first in-depth portrayal of those parks less traveled.

After spending a big part of the previous quarter-century photographing the national parks, I was surprised by the freedom offered by the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service's (USFS) national monuments. Freedom from crowds, from rules, and expectations.

The national parks, set for "benefit and enjoyment of the people," are generally equipped with a convenient infrastructure of roads, visitor centers, lodges, campgrounds, and interpretive trails. Set up for mass tourism, they can bring in mass visitation. For example, this year Arches National Park was frequently full and closed to new entries by 9 am. People instead head to nearby Canyonlands National Park, but even there, securing a spot at sunrise for the iconic Mesa Arch requires arriving well in advance.

Next year, you will need a reservation to enter Arches National Park. By contrast, when I photographed three of the better-known natural arches in nearby Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, I had the entire place to myself. Despite a dozen visits to Death Valley National Park, I could never find the Mesquite Sand Dunes devoid of numerous footprints from other visitors. At Cadiz Dunes Wilderness in Mojave Trails, I saw many animal tracks but no human footprints, aside from my own.

During the worst days of the pandemic, national parks locked their gates. Embodying the principle that public lands are always open to the public, national monuments never closed, providing much solitude and solace. The heavy visitation of national parks made it necessary to enforce strict rules. You often have to "commute" a long distance to photography spots as no car camping is allowed outside developed campgrounds.

In many national monuments, you can camp almost everywhere you like. Unlike in Grand Canyon National Park, in adjacent Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, I could drive right to the edge of the chasm and pitch my tent a few yards away from where I made my sunset, night, and sunrise photographs. Drones are strictly prohibited in national parks, but they are allowed in the national monuments managed by the BLM and the USFS.

Many national parks places have become such over-photographed icons that finding a fresh composition has become as challenging as securing a spot. The national monuments offer new landscapes whose more subtle scenery invites exploration to get to know and love. The absence of postcard views and overwhelming features frees you of pre-conceptions that hinder personal discovery.

Succulents on Grand Canyon Rim at dusk. Parashant National Monument, Arizona, USA

As the national parks become ever more popular, the BLM and USFS national monuments' vast open spaces offer us places of solitude and inspiration. The rugged experience gives us a sense of the western frontier. With freedom comes the need for personal responsibility, independence, and self-reliance.

As their development is minimal, national monuments can test your preparation and self-sufficiency. Many do not have a single paved road. I needed to rent a 4WD vehicle several times to access some of them. Even then, I still ended up with five flat tires over three years, sometimes in incredibly remote areas. With no visitor centers nor rangers around, no brochures, nor guidebooks, the first obstacle in my explorations was to find information.

Our National Monuments: America 's Hidden Gems provides you with the starting point I wish I had for planning trips. Coffee-table books about places often left me frustrated about being in the dark about the locations depicted. With my previous book, Treasured Lands: A Photographic Odyssey Through America's National Parks, I had aimed to create a book that inspired and informed. Each photograph came with extended practical travel and photography notes, including facts on the parks' natural history or anecdotal observations about my experiences.

Although people in the publishing industry were skeptical that this combination of an artbook and guidebook would work, the book won twelve national and international awards and is also a best-seller in its sixth printing.

My new book, Our National Monuments , reprises this innovative format, depicting each national monument in depth through a selection of representative highlights with keyed maps and location information. Because those lands are not as popular as the national parks, I do not expect the new book to be as commercially successful. But, on the other hand, the general lack of awareness of those lands is also why I felt this book is needed, a sentiment echoed by the grassroots conservation organizations that care for those critical landscapes.

Our National Monuments is my gift to our public lands and those who care for them.

On October 8, 2021, President Biden finally restored the two national monuments in Utah – and one in the Atlantic Ocean. Was it all a bad dream? Republican politicians in Utah are gearing up for a lawsuit to challenge the restoration. The 2017 presidential attack on them reminded us of John Muir's appeal that "the battle for conservation will go on endlessly."

It reminded us that since 1906, America's boldest efforts in conservation have been through the proclamation of national monuments. It prompted me to set out to see for myself the magnificent landscapes of the parks less traveled. I hope it prompts you to learn about our public lands' hidden gems and embark on your own journey.

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_Our National Monuments: America 's Hidden Gems by QT Luong features over 330 photographs of 27 national monuments by 36 contributors. The 10×12-inch 308-page hardcover photo book also contains 28 maps and over 70,000 words. It's available from Amazon and other retailers for $55._

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About the author : QT Luong was the first to photograph all America's 62 National Parks -- in large format. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. Luong was featured in the film _The National Parks: Americaʼs Best Idea by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan. His photographs are extensively published and have been the subject of large-format books including Treasured Lands (winner of 10 national and international book awards), many newspaper and magazine feature articles, solo gallery and museum exhibits across the U.S. and abroad. You can find more of his work on his website, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook._

#educational #inspiration #spotlight #travel #america #landscape #landscapephotography #nationalmonuments #qtluong #unitedstatesofamerica

Researchers Photograph Rare Fish That Sees Through its Own Head

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) recently spotted an exceedingly rare find: a barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma). This strange deep-sea dweller has a transparent head it sees through with its tubular eyes.

MBARI uses a pair of remotely operated vehicles (ROV), the Ventana and the Doc Rickets , to survey the ocean at various depths. In the more than 5,600 successful dive missions and more than 27,600 hours of video, the team has only ever seen this fish a scant nine times.

Aquarist Tommy Knowles and his team were aboard MBARI’s R/V Rachel Carson with our ROV Ventana to collect jellies and comb jellies for the Aquarium’s upcoming Into the Deep exhibition when they spotted this fascinating fish. The team stopped to marvel at Macropinna before it swam away.

The barreleye is a particularly unique species of fish. It lives in what is called the twilight zone of the ocean at depths of 2,000 to 2,600 feet. That deep, light comes at a premium and different species have developed unusual traits to adapt to the environment. Of those, MBARI says that the barreleye is one of the most bizarre.

The barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) has extremely light-sensitive eyes that can rotate within a transparent, fluid-filled shield on its head. The fish's tubular eyes are capped by bright green lenses. The eyes point upward (as shown here) when the fish is looking for food overhead. They point forward when the fish is feeding. The two spots above the fish's mouth are olfactory organs called nares, which are analogous to human nostrils.

"Two small indentations where eyes might normally appear on a fish are actually the barreleye’s olfactory organs, and its eyes are two glowing green orbs behind its face that gaze up towards the top of its head," MBARI explains.

The barreleye doesn't get particularly large and has an estimated maximum size of just six inches long. It is known to exist between the Bering Sea to Japan as well as Baja California.

The research team had previously shown that the fish can rotate its eyes towards the front to see its food when eating. Before that, scientists believed that the fish had its gaze permanently fixed upwards, which would be helpful to it as the fish is believed to often hover below a siphonophore’s tentacles to steal food.

"Its eyes look upwards to spot its favorite prey -- usually small crustaceans trapped in the tentacles of siphonophores -- from the shadows they cast in the faint shimmer of sunlight from above."

MBARI is working with the Monterey Bay Aquarium to bring deep-sea creatures to its Into the Deep exhibit set to launch in the spring of 2022, though it's not clear if the barreleye will make an appearance. The organization has set up a detailed webpage on the rare fish for those interested in learning more about one of the ocean's most bizarre creatures.

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Image credits: Photos copyright MBARI.

#news #spotlight #barreleye #fish #mbari #monterey #montereybay #montereybayacquariumresearchinstitutue #montereybayaquarium #ocean #rare #research #rov #science #underthesea #underwater

Photographer Recreates His Photos of Strangers from 40 Years Ago

British photographer Chris Porsz tirelessly tracked down local people he photographed roughly 40 years ago and recreated his decades-old street photos of them. The fascinating then-and-now photos are part of his ongoing series Reunions.

Porsz's project comes from his immense archives of street portraits, taken in his hometown of Peterborough, England. A previous then-and-now series was published back in 2016.

Porsz finds subjects in his older photographs to document them as they are today decades later. It's ambitious work and requires more than just photography skills -- Porsz also needs to investigate and follow leads to track down the subjects, which is at times seemingly impossible when so much time has passed.

His body of work, both that of decades ago and today's, showcases a snapshot of a city and the community. As years go by, people change and so does the city. Some friendships have fallen apart while others remained strong; some subjects have passed away while others have grown into adulthood and settled in the area.

"Fortunately, I took pictures covering all age groups, as many older characters have since died," Porsz writes. "Many I could never find as they have moved around the UK, emigrated, fallen out with their former friends or family, or frustratingly declined to take part, but against all the offs and with serendipity on my side I achieved my quest."

The idea of the project first arose when Porsz was given a weekly Paramedic Paparazzo column in the local paper in which he published two photos a week, using his street archives from years ago. Some of the readers recognized themselves in the photos and the rest is history.

Porsz managed to track down 168 new reunions after his initial series, although it wasn't easy. He had "many setbacks and false leads along the way," including a 200-mile round trip only to hear "sorry, it's not me."

However, he persevered, and with the help of Peterborough Telegraph , a local Facebook group, and Peterborough Images Archive, as well as numerous messages on social media, he succeeded in his goal.

"Compounded by the pandemic, it became a race against time before the next lockdown and, although very challenging, I was a happy man when over some weekends I completed up to a dozen reunions," he explains.

Although Porsz communicated with and photographed numerous people along the way, he took great care and attention with each and every one of them.

"Every reunion was equally important to me as they were 'my babies' and it was crucial I ensured I did justice to them all," Porsz says. "I felt this time around I now had a chance to engage with my subjects and the resulting eye contact and smiling faces that I actively sought is for me a very positive contrast that speaks volumes about my characters."

Porsz previously published a set of photos from this project in his first book, Reunions. This latest set has been published in a follow-up photo book titled Reunions 2. Both books are available on the photographer's website, and more of his photography can also be found on his Instagram page.

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Image credits: All photographs courtesy Chris Porsz

#spotlight #beforeandafter #chrisporsz #passageoftime #recreated #recreations #rephotographed #strangers #streetphotos #thenandnow

‘Spirit of Altai’ Showcases the Expansive and Diverse Beauty of Siberia

Filmmaker Vadim Sherbakov has created a short aerial film called "Spirit of Altai," exclusively shot with DJI Air 2S drone that showcases the beautiful landscape of a West Siberian region in Russia.

Prior to the pandemic, Sherbakov generally traveled outside of his home country of Russia to capture incredible locations, but the last couple of years has changed his perspective and he has begun to focus on and appreciate the picturesque landscapes at his own doorstep.

Earlier this year, Sherbakov shared "The Noor" -- a short film dedicated to the raw beauty of frozen Baikal lake in the Eastern Siberia region of Russia. This time, Sherbakov has turned his drone to an equally as picturesque region in Altai in Western Siberia. In "Spirit of Altai," he swapped the vastness of ice for a diverse landscape that spans mountains, rivers, forests, deep blue lakes, and wavy roads.

Sherbakov had only seen images of the region and hadn't visited it before the shoot as it is a ten-hour drive away from his home. He tells PetaPixel that the region had been on his wish-list and it didn't disappoint when he got to experience it.

Though he is not a stranger to challenging shooting conditions, Sherbakov experienced some filming difficulty due to extremely strong winds in a couple of locations.

"I had six days to explore the region and not every day was great," he says. "Due to weather and particularly low clouds, we could not travel to one or two planned locations. Also, I got sick on the fourth day because of hyperthermia and missed an amazing morning shoot with low fog (once in a million opportunity as I have been told) but I didn't get upset since I think I went home with great material."

Sherbakov shot the film by himself whilst on a trip which was a part of a photo tour with ten other travelers. During the post-production stage, he teamed up with a composer to produce unique and authentic sound material.

This film is a positive outcome of an otherwise difficult situation. Because Sherbakov was not able to travel abroad due to pandemic restrictions, he is glad that he has been able to turn to appreciate what his own country has to offer. He also hopes that the film will showcase the grand beauty of the region and immerse the audience.

More of Sherbakov's work can be found on his website, Instagram, YouTube, and Vimeo.

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Image credits: Photos by Vadim Sherbakov.

#inspiration #spotlight #travel #aerial #cold #dji #djiair2s #drones #dronevideo #mountains #russia #shortfilm #siberia #vadimsherbakov

15 Photos From the 2021 Northern Lights Photographer of the Year

Travel and photography blog Capture the Atlas has released the images from its annual Northern Lights Photographer of the Year competition which features 25 of the best photos that highlight the aurora borealis or australis captured from around the world.

The competition publishes these images in December to coincide with the Northern Lights season with the hope of inspiring others to get out and experience the magnificent light show for themselves. Unlike other competitions, this contest has no "winners" or "runners-up" prizes. Instead, Capture the Atlas simply selects and highlights 25 of the most inspiring Northern Lights in their publication. The image collections are curated throughout the entire year by Dan Zafra, the editor of Capture the Atlas , where he looks for not only images taken by famous and world-renowned photographers but also the new talent and creative eyes from all over the world, especially from locations where the northern lights have not been captured from yet.

The Northern Lights season ranges from September to April in the Northern Hemisphere and from March to September in the Southern Hemisphere, with the best time to see and photograph the Lights being during the fall and spring equinoxes because of the orientation of Earth’s axis. The Photographer of the Year 2021 list includes images by 25 photographers of 13 different nationalities taken from the United States, Canada, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, New Zealand, and Australia.

Below are 15 of the 25 amazing images from this year's finalists:

"Nature and Landscape Photographer" - Agnieszka Mrowka

Location: Iceland

"Another long and beautiful night in Iceland. I had had the foreground for the Northern Lights in mind for some time already and just waited for the perfect condition to come and capture it.

" needed strong Northern Lights, a clear sky on the Reykjanes peninsula, and calm, windless weather, which is quite rare in Iceland. The photo was challenging in the sense that I had to run back and forth to adjust the settings on my camera depending on the strength of the Northern Lights. The place I was standing was also a bit tricky, as there was not enough space for my feet, so I could not even fully stand straight. When the lights came, however, I was able to freeze, staring at the mesmerizing sky above."

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"For The Northern Lights" - Aleksey R.

Location: Teriberka, Kolsky District of Murmansk Oblast, Russia

"Nature is mysterious and unpredictable, and often leaves us open-mouthed at the inexplicable manifestations of its power. This image was captured in February in Teriberka, in the Kolsky District of Murmansk Oblast, Russia, on the Barents Sea coast.

"This night was definitely special. The perfect conditions for shooting the Northern Lights came together: frost, ice, a full moon, a clear night, and no wind. The weather was extremely difficult; the temperature was 34 degrees below zero, but flames like these make you forget the temperature. I had a certain vision of the photo I wanted, and because of the extreme weather, I had to build the photo in stages. Thanks to the moonlight, the landscape was nicely illuminated, and I got a decent balance with the overwhelming display of the aurora borealis.

"To get the most out of this opportunity, I took a combination of shots: one for the foreground and one for the sky. That way, you can see more detail in the foreground while retaining the detail in the Northern Lights. It was definitely a night to remember."

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"The Northern Lights Cathedral" – Frøydis Dalheim

Location: Senja, Northern Norway

"This image is the perfect representation of one of my best nights seeing the Northern Lights in Norway in Senja.

"The views were stunning, with snow-capped landscapes, spectacular mountains, and a dancing aurora that colored everything green. It was truly a night to remember. The conditions were perfect this evening in March, not too cold. The Northern Lights appeared not long after I arrived and lasted for a long time. I returned home really happy and grateful for this amazing experience."

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“The Aurora Cave” – Giulio Cobianchi

Location: Lofoten Islands, Norway

Caption: This was one of the most beautiful green nights I have experienced since living in Lofoten. This was just the beginning of a long night of chasing the aurora until sunrise. I have been inside this hidden cave in all seasons since I like to explore locations and find new compositions that have never been seen before.

Inside the caves, it is never easy to photograph; you have to use more techniques in the shooting phase, such as focus stacking and multi-exposure, for example, but I must say that these are the compositions I appreciate the most. I love the natural frame and the three-dimensional effect that they give.

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“Volcanic Aurora Borealis” – Jeroen Van Nieuwenhove

Location: Geldingadalir, Iceland

"One month into the eruption of the Geldingadalir volcano in Iceland, I was thinking a lot about whether it would be possible to photograph the aurora above the eruption. I tend to think of it as the holy grail of photography in Iceland. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime capture.

"That night seemed like one of the last opportunities we would get before the nights got too bright again. While the cloud coverage forecast was not looking particularly good, I decided to go up to the eruption anyway and try my luck. At around 11 PM, the clouds weren’t budging much so I decided to head back down the mountain. Sitting down while waiting in the harsh, freezing wind made my body temperature plummet. However, on the way back, everything changed. The clouds started opening up, and suddenly I noticed the aurora was faintly dancing above.

"I decided to put down my tripod and wait to see what, if anything, would happen. After about an hour, the lights suddenly became very active. I couldn’t believe my luck! I took shot after shot while just staring at the event that unfolded before me."

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“When the stars align” – Joshua Snow

Location: Tombstone Territorial Park, Yukon, Canada

"What a sight to behold. The incredible majesty of the aurora borealis. Lights that move and dance through space. Fleeting moments of vibrancy and shimmery glow. Life is much the same experience if you let it be. Learn to savor the little, passing moments. Learn to ebb and flow with space and time, and glow when the inspiration strikes. Wait for no one. Stop for nothing. Shine, dance, and shimmer your heart out because you only get one life.

"This image captures my week in Tombstone like no other ever will. After losing my dad in May and experiencing a full-on mental breakdown shortly before this trip, it felt like I was on a rollercoaster I didn’t know when would stop or even slow down. However, I am learning how to beat it back and slow the ride down. I am growing leaps and bounds toward the best version of me that I could have ever imagined just a year ago…This week in the mountains gave me a chance to heal, think, and feel more deeply than I have in a long time: slowing down to appreciate where I am in life, and reflect on what it is I want and need from it."

"Sometimes things can feel impossible. Hopeless. Scary. But sometimes, when things seem their most dim, their most hopeless, the universe reminds you that the sun will shine again. And how bright it shines on me now…"

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“Tranquil” – Larryn Rae

Location: Lake Tekapo, New Zealand

Caption: I was on a photography trip when aurora alerts began popping up on my phone, so we started searching for a unique place to shoot them from.

We ended up at this lakeside location, and as soon as the sunset faded and dusk fell, we could already see the color and shape of the aurora happening. The next few hours, the sky was filled with incredible colors as the pillars danced across the sky in one of the best displays I have seen for years. The aurora is my favorite night sky phenomenon to capture and this night was simply incredible.

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“Forest of the Lights” – Marc Adamus

Location: Alaska, USA

"Wandering around these forests coated in rime ice is one of the most magical experiences, but also one of the most difficult to capture.

"Temperatures are often in the minus 30s and negotiating the easily broken, crusty snow on snowshoes with nothing but a headlamp makes for great challenges in hiking and composing. I used the last light of twilight to set up the shot you see here and returned to it hours later as the lights were dancing overhead."

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“Dancing on ice” – Mark Jinks

Location: Edmonton, Alberta – Canada

"In the overnight hours of November 3/4, 2021, we experienced one of the most powerful displays of aurora in recent years at mid-latitudes.

"I had always wanted to capture the Northern Lights over this island. After four hours of mediocre aurora, the skies finally came alive. The aurora danced and shimmied across the thin sheet of ice covering the lake, and varied in intensity as sub-storms flared up throughout the overnight hours. Coyotes howled nearby as if to voice their approval, and during the quiet lulls, a great-horned owl could be heard off in the distance.

"I took this image during one of the more intense periods just before 2 AM. The aurora can certainly be fickle, especially in the mid-latitudes of Canada. Using Space Weather Live as a resource and learning how to predict the Northern Lights can go a long way in having a successful viewing session. Being patient and having perseverance can often be key to seeing a great display. Staying warm by dressing for colder temperatures than expected and having some friends along for company can help make the experience much more comfortable."

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“Aurora Sherbet in the Apostles” – Marybeth Kiczenski

Location: Bayfield, Wisconsin, USA

"The solar storm that wasn’t but was: the events that unfolded from November 3, 2021 into November 4, 2021 will stay with me forever.

"The aurora sparked on this night was from a combination of an M-class solar flare and a CME; on their own, they were not much, but together, they sure packed a punch. No one really saw this coming, and we had recently been burned by the solar storm that was but wasn’t, i.e., the X-class event that never materialized. In any case, I saw the initial “hit” in the data, immediately jumped into the car, and drove eight hours north to get away from the horrible cloud cover over much of the Midwest Great Lakes region.

"I went to a location I had never been to before – which is always a gamble – but made it work somehow! Hunting for compositions in the dark is always a challenge. The amount of color detail in this image is amazing. I’ve never seen so much teal and purple. The whole night felt like a dream. Here’s to solar cycle 25!"

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“Santa’s Cabin” – Olli Sorvari

Location: Levi, Finland

"I know the journey is often more important and memorable than the results, and after taking this picture, I think this was a trip to remember.

"It wasn’t a long hike, but when you don’t have snowshoes and you sink half a meter with every step you take, it kind of feels fifty times longer. The next time I go there, I’ll follow the skiing routes. The whole way up there was partly cloudy with no signs of the Northern Lights but finally, I could capture what I was looking for. I also managed to get some pretty decent shots of the winter Milky Way before the real show started, which was the cherry on the cake of this night."

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“Polar-snow monsters” – Sergey Korolev

Location: Kola Peninsula, Russia

"At the very beginning of my career, when I first started learning how to take landscape photographs, I was not at all impressed by photographs of the Northern Lights because most of them contained nothing in the composition other than the Lights and the sky.

"I always thought it was boring to take pictures of just the sky, but one day, I saw Marc Adamus’ photographs with the aurora borealis over some beautiful mountain scenery and I was really impressed. Since then, I have had a new passion – taking Northern Lights pictures where the landscape and its composition play the main role, and the sky with the aurora is in harmony with the composition. In this picture, I also focused on the “snow monsters” in the composition to make this shot look like an alien scene."

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“Spectrum” – Stefan Liebermann

Location: Vestrahorn, Iceland

"The full spectrum of the Northern Lights over the iconic “Vestrahorn” location in Iceland. What a dreamlike experience! A G3 (strong) geomagnetic storm hit the earth on October 31st, 2021, and produced these wonderful colors."

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“Norrsken over Vintergatan ” – Stefano Astorri

Location: Swedish Lapland

"Shooting the winter Milky Way and the aurora together was one of my 10 resolutions for 2021. I never imagined I would fulfill this one so soon.

"It was a freezing, windy night. I went to this location in the Swedish Lapland, where I hoped to see the Northern Lights rising right between two mountain peaks. When I was there, the “green lady” started dancing suddenly on my left while, right behind me, the Milky Way in her winter dress had joined the party. I was feeling very cold until it was replaced by pure excitement. I immediately re-adjusted the composition to include the red cabin in the shot as well.

"The result is a photo that actually merges 12 vertical shots at 14mm (around 270 degrees) to fully cover the two overlapping arches."

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“Higher prediction” – Virgil Reglioni

Location: Northern Norway

"Northern Norway hosts some of the most beautiful and dramatic sights you can find in northern Europe.

"Some nights, strong intensity auroras are predicted, which leads to incredible, bright displays spreading across the sky. The cold temperatures form ice shapes by the riverbank and these structures help direct your eyes in the right direction."

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To see all 25 of this year’s winners, make sure to visit Capture the Atlas. For those who want to learn how to capture images like these, the blog also has some excellent resources to help out, like this detailed article on how to photograph the Northern Lights.

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Image credits: All photos individually credited and provided courtesy of Capture the Atlas.

#news #spotlight #2021 #auroraborealis #capturetheatlas #collection #competition #images #landscape #naturalphenomena #northernlights #photographs #photography

The Winning Photos from the Hasselblad Masters 2021 Competition

Hasselblad has announced the winners of the 2021 Masters photography competition across 12 categories. The winning photographers gain the title of "Hasselblad Master" and receive a medium format mirrorless Hasselblad camera.

The Hasselblad Masters competition is regarded as one of the world's most prestigious professional photography competitions, and winners are selected through a combination of a public vote and a professional Hasselblad Masters Jury comprised of internationally renowned photographers and imaging experts. A full list of Jury members can be viewed on Hasselblad's website.

Hasselblad says that this year's competition was larger than previous years and expanded to 12 categories to include Heritage, which commemorated Hasselblad's 80-year anniversary. The 2021 competition received a record-breaking number of over 63,000 submitted images, double the amount of uploaded images compared to 2018. Entrants do not need to have taken the photos with a Hasselblad camera.

In addition to the title of Hasselblad Master and a new medium format camera, winners will shoot for a collaborative project that is then published on all Hasselblad channels and in a high-quality commemorative Hasselblad Masters book, which will also contain a special feature on each of the 12 winners along with a selection of their images.

“It was incredible to see the number of professional photographers, Hasselblad and non-Hasselblad users, that participated in the 2021 competition. Not only was this year’s competition extra special due to the celebration of our anniversary, there were more than 89,000 votes overall!” said Hans Cornet, Hasselblad Client Relationship Manager. “With the abundance of creative participants and unique submissions, this gave all the judges involved a difficult task in determining the Hasselblad Masters 2021 winners.”

Below are all the winning photos:

Aerial - Photo by Florian Ledoux Architecture - Photo by Albrecht Voss Art - Photo by Gavin Goodman Beauty Fashion - Photo by Ramon Vaquero Heritage - Photo by Marcus Bitsch Landscape/Nature - Photo by Honghua Shi Portrait - Photo by Marek Würfl Product - Photo by Paul Fuentes Project 21 - Photo by Yihao Wang Street Urban - Photo by Nikolay_Schegolev Wedding - Photo by Matthäus Machner Wildlife - Photo by Alice Zilberberg

The full gamut of 2021 finalists can be viewed on Hasselblad's website as well as all of the official rules and a full timeline of the competition from its acceptance of entrants through voting.

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_Image credits: All photos individually credited and provided courtesy of Hasselblad Masters 2021. _

#news #spotlight #aerial #architecturephotography #competition #fineart #hasselblad #hasselbladmasters #hasselbladmasters2021 #landscape #landscapephotography #portraits #portraiture #product #wedding #weddingphotography #wildlife

Landscape Photography in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland

Torridon, Glencoe, and the Isle of Skye have drawn landscape photographers and artists over the centuries. The highlands of Scotland are extensive and uninterruptedly breathtaking – a Big Country indeed. This is the internationally perceived face of Scotland – a meticulously sculpted land of peaks, glens, lakes, and shorelines. And rain or mist to make or break the scene dependent on your disposition.

But distant from the western shore, an extensive string of pearls awaits the more intrepid traveler. The Outer Hebrides stretch for 140 miles – a sliver of land 40 miles away resting on the horizon. They are comprised of the joint isles of Harris and Lewis, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, and Barra.

Here is a different Scottish landscape. Pure and wild, beaches to melt a heart, rolling hills and lakes, abandoned homesteads left furnished some 70 years ago – a unique landscape tied to culture. Time slows down out here. The clock ticks to a different beat. There is a softness to the landscape that sways with this rhythm.

Tarbert is a port town, a docking place for the ferry from Skye but a taste of other times hangs in the air. Terraced cottages line the side of the hill. We rented a cottage for four nights and set off to dip our toes into the landscapes of Harris and Lewis. Not an hour and a half after stepping off the ferry we walked the length of Seilebost beach.

A little travel weary – but the landscape just soaked us up and soothed us in. I took some initial photographs on the beach into blue hour – just to let the camera out of the bag as the light was dull and dimming. We drove back to Tarbert in the dark. We had indeed arrived.

At dawn the following morning we sat in the sandy car park at Rosamol as the skies provided a free car wash. There were two other cars and a camper van – each seemingly daring the other to take to the beach first. The rain eased and we walked the wet sandy track to the wide beach. The hills of Harris dipped in and out of clouds. The light was a dirty grey and the photographs taken that morning were a reflection of the weather. But the hills and islands encroaching the beach were akin to an amphitheater and made an instant impression that would draw us back to this beach.

The eastern shore of Harris is pockmarked with tiny lochs that meet the sound of the Minch, the strait that divides the isles from the highlands. The western shore could not be more different – the lauded beaches that deservedly act as a magnet for landscape photographers and artists. The beaches lend themselves to the creation of dreamlike impressions that longer exposures serve best. I fully expected my wide-angled lens would live on my camera body for the trip but found that longer focal lengths better served my purposes.

All of the beaches along the western shore deserve a dedicated visit. Horgabost beach is compact and suffers from occasional drifts of dead seaweed as was the case when an unexpected burst of evening light necessitated an impromptu visit. The beach was not an option so I hurriedly ran atop the dunes and shot to exclude it – a 6-second exposure to soften the marram grass as it merged with the Atlantic.

Horgabost beach

The following day we took the spectacular single-track road to Huisinis beach and witnessed golden eagles and a large migration of redwings on the route.

Huisinis beach

This is another compact beach good enough to shoot independently but the jewel of the area is Tragh Mheallan. The beach requires a good 45-minute walk with an incline along a well-marked cliff path.

An otter greeted me along the cliff walk. A white-tailed eagle flew overhead. The beach was enormous and empty. The marram grass held no human footprint but was indented by the tracks of deer. My composition was rushed as the light faded on an overcast afternoon. An enthralling location.

Luskentyre is the most popular beach in Harris – it is effectively a bay – Rosamol and Seilebost beaches at either side. I visited for two sunrises during our stay once on each side.

Luskentyre beach

Rosamol should be your first choice as it was mine. The light on my dawn visit was dull. The dunes and distant mountains though impressive deserved better light. A beach tends to fare better in duller light and so my preferred images were abstract in nature and the compositions drew substantially on the sands. At Seilebost, the light was a slight improvement and I played with a layered composition of rocks, sea, sand, mountains, and sky.

And so we had spent 3 days exploring parts of Harris and had not yet ventured into Lewis – the largest part of the island. A trip to this island would not be complete without a visit to Callanais Standing Stones and that is where our final day took us. Out of the bag came the infrared camera for a noon shot of this archaeological wonder.

Callanais Standing Stones

The afternoon was drawing in but we pressed on further from home to the Mangarsta Sea Stacks.

The Mangarsta Sea Stacks

The light was never going to be interesting but to view the scene and take an image for the sake of it was worth the effort. And so our short sojourn to the Outer Hebrides ended.

Here are two videos of my 2021 trip to Scotland showing my landscape photography outings in a vlog style:

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About the author : Jimmy Mc Donnell is a landscape and wildlife photographer from Co Wicklow, Ireland with an enduring passion for capturing images that reflect the beauty of the natural world. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can find more of Mc Donnell's work on his website and YouTube. This article was also published here.

#inspiration #spotlight #travel #walkthroughs #jimmymcdonnell #landscape #landscapephotography #outerhebrides #scotland #travelphotography

Midas the Four-Eared Kitten is an Instagram Star

Cat photos have always been popular on the Internet, but there is a new kitten stealing hearts on Instagram that looks different from all the rest. Meet Midas, a four-month-old kitten that has four ears.

The kitten lives in Ankara, Turkey, with its owner, Canis Dosemeci, and it was born with a rare genetic mutation that gave it a defective jaw as well as an extra small ear in front of each of its bigger normal ears.

What's even more unusual is the fact that all four of the ears are functional -- Midas' veterinarian tells Reuters that the miniature ears do not interfere with the kitten's hearing at all because all four ears are connected properly to the ear canals.

"Our Midas is [a] very playful cat," Dosemeci tells Reuters. "She likes to cuddle and sit on my lap and sleep on my lap."

Midas gets along well with the two family Golden Retrievers, Zeyno and Suzi, and the trio is often found snuggling together.

Dosemeci adopted Midas after the kitten was born in her city in a litter of six, and she fell in love with Midas after seeing her because she was worried that the kitten would have trouble finding a home.

"We have never thought of buying a cat," Dosemeci says. "We just wanted to rescue a cat from the street and we wanted to adopt her."

Dosemeci set up an Instagram account for Midas in October 2021, and in less than two months the kitten has already attracted over 114,000 followers.

Cats with physical "defects" and/or genetic anomalies are often at risk of being unwanted, but Midas' owners hope that her Internet stardom will create love in people's hearts for cats of all shapes.

"I hope Midas' popularity can raise an awareness of adopting [and] not buying," Dosemeci says.

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Image credits: Photographs by Canis Dosemeci and used with permission

#news #spotlight #adorable #animal #cat #cute #instagram #instagramcelebrity #instagramstar #kitten

Photographing ‘The Gap’ in Torndirrup National Park

The year was 2014. I was seven years younger and because of that, it was a very good year. Do you remember the time when it didn’t hurt to get out of bed? When camera bags didn’t feel like bags of wet cement, and when your eyesight was so good you could spot a discounted Cabernet Sauvignon from one hundred paces? Ah those were the days. I shall remember them fondly.

So how did I get this shot? I am glad you asked. It wasn’t without some serious risk-taking on my part. As you may know from previous lies, I mean stories, I take landscape photography very seriously – so much so my wife has recently purchased Frankincense and Rosehip oil to help straighten out my frown lines. Remember when you didn’t have frown lines?

So really, how was this photograph taken?

First, let me set the scene. It was in Torndirrup National Park at a spot called the Gap not far from the southern town of Albany in Western Australia. The coastline here is battered relentlessly by the Southern Ocean. If you go south from this spot the next landmass you hit is Antarctica. When the swell arrives, it is huge and angry. To say death is a likely outcome when photographing here might be an exaggeration, but it does help set the mood and make things rather more dramatic. What you don’t see behind the camera is the sheer drop into the cold dark water. If you take that drop, you won’t be developing the negs, if you know what I mean!

The coastline, because of all this extreme weather, is rugged and photogenic. This group of rocks are larger than they look. In fact, if you fell off these you would probably die horribly. Luckily, I was born with common sense, or is it just common? Anyway, I didn’t think the view from the top was as nice as the view from the bottom. I was then interested in trying to balance the composition and offer interest in the foreground that would lead your eye to the rocks behind. I used a vertical crop to allow more of the foreground to tell the story. This also allowed me to balance the three rocks with the central one as the main point of interest.

The image was shot on my Phase One IQ280 with the 28mm Phase One lens. The shutter was 2.5 seconds with an aperture of f/12 and ISO 35. The camera was secured to a tripod as the light was low; it was before sunrise. Now you say, “Those clouds look to be moving way more than the 2.5-second exposure would imply.” You would be right in that and please let me offer up a defense.

The clouds weren’t moving fast enough and as a result, the sky looked a little, as an Aussie would say, “poxie.” Roughly translated it means pretty average! So being the purist I am and by asking the viewers to “look away, nothing to see here,” I possibly, maybe, definitely added a bit of motion blur to the sky in Photoshop. I know, I know, I can see you now shaking your fists at the screen screaming, “WHY, WHY?” I guess I just got lazy and must have left the ND filter back in the Lamborghini. Still, it is only a little thing, and the real heroes are the rocks. I have also focus-stacked this image from five individual frames, all focused on different points and combined using PT GUI.

In Capture One I messed around (i.e., carefully selected) the white balance to set the color I wanted. I also wanted to lighten and bring out the detail in the rock. By having blues and oranges, two complementary colors, it added to the visual harmony and overall pleasing aesthetic. Photoshop was used to continue to refine the image and I used simple dodging and burning techniques to lighten the light areas and darken the shadows. This allowed me to make the rocks look more dimensional and increase depth and three-dimensionality.

I hope you have enjoyed my completely honest and unbiased technical report on how this image came together. What I haven’t mentioned was how I love what I do and how much fun I have doing it. Life is too short, so get out and enjoy the pure pleasure of making photographs. There are no rules, just pixels -- do with them what you want!

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The article is courtesy ofELEMENTS Magazine. ELEMENTS is the monthly magazine dedicated to the finest landscape photography, insightful editorials and fluid, clean design. Inside you will find exclusive and in-depth articles and imagery by the best landscape photographers in the world such as Bruce Barnbaum, Edward Burtynsky, Michael Kenna, Erin Babnik, Chuck Kimmerle, Rachael Talibart, Charles Cramer, Hans Strand and Lynn Radeka, to name a few. Use the PETAPIXEL10 code for a 10% discount off the annual subscription.

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About the author: Christian Fletcher has been a professional photographer for over 27 years, and remains dedicated to using photography as a way to reinforce our connection to our natural environment. Christian runs an award-winning gallery in Dunsborough, Western Australia, and teaches workshops both at home in Australia and internationally.

#spotlight #abstractlandscapephotography #elementsmagazine #fineart #fineartlandscapephotography #howitwasshot #landscapephotography #photographytechnique #technique

This Stunning 4K Timelapse of the Sun is Made from 78,846 NASA Photos

Astro filmmaker Seán Doran has used a set of 78,846 repaired, rescaled, and remastered AIA Angstrom 171 photos from NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory to create a dramatic 48-minute timelapse video of the Sun as it moves over the course of a month.

The NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is a mission that the space agency has been using to observe the sun since it was launched on February 11, 2010. The observatory is part of the Living With a Star (LWS) program. According to NASA, the goal of the LWS program is to study the aspects of the Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society on the planet. The SDO itself is used to understand the influence of the Sun on the Earth by studying the solar atmosphere in small scales of time and in many wavelengths simultaneously.

There are three instruments on the SDO that capture different wavelengths of light: Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE), the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA). Below is a collage of solar images from the DO that shows how observations of the Sun in different wavelengths helps highlight different aspects of the Sun's surface and atmosphere:

NASA/SDO/Goddard Space Flight Center

The third of these instruments, the AIA, has the full name of the AIA 171 Å (Angstrom), and it shows the quiet corona and coronal loops, typically colorized in gold. As explained by NASA:

The Sun emits light in all colors, but since yellow is the brightest wavelength from the Sun, that is the color we see with our naked eye. Specialized instruments can observe light far beyond the ranges visible to the naked eye. Different wavelengths convey information about different components of the Sun's surface and atmosphere.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, images 10 different wavelengths, measured in angstroms (Å), with its Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument.

Below is the most recent photo (at the time of publication) captured by the AIA 171 Angstrom as an example:

As spotted by Laughing Squid, Doran used 78,846 frames taken by this particular instrument on the SDO during the month of August in 2014. After repairing, processing, and rescaling them to fit his desired look, he created about 22 minutes of footage at 60 frames per second. After slowing that down to half that for more traditional viewing, the finished video is 44 minutes long and shows a slow pan over the Sun that would normally take 31 days to see.

For more like this, Doran has a large library of stunning astro-focused videos that use NASA imagery on his YouTube Channel.

#culture #spotlight #aia #aiaangstrom171 #angstrom #astro #astrophotography #atmosphericimagingassembly #nasa #sdo #seandoran #solardynamicsobservatory #space #sun #timelapse

Photographer Captures NASA Rocket Flying Over the Northern Lights

Photographer Florian Kuhnt was hiking with a friend in northern Norway in order to capture the northern lights. On his last night, he was about to pack up his camera when he noticed a bright light in the sky, what he would later realize was a NASA rocket.

Kuhnt, who studies aerospace engineering in Hamburg, Germany, and does landscape and outdoor photography part-time, tells PetaPixel that he was in the Lofoten region of Norway in order to specifically photograph the northern lights.

"The plan was to hike up Ryten to capture the sunset and northern lights over the Kvalvika beach, camp there for one night, hike down the next morning to the beach, and then back to the car," he says. "Around 5.5 miles round trip."

The two reached the summit in the early evening and started to take a few photos. They eventually came down a bit from the true summit because the high winds made it impossible to set up a tent.

"After setting up the tent we stayed outside in the cold to wait for northern lights. At that time I had already set up my camera and took a few pictures of our tent under the stars," he continues.

The northern lights are somewhat predictable, but their strength is affected by the time of year and even then varies from night to night.

"Almost two hours later, the first northern lights appeared but were really, really faint," he says. "So I patiently waited for more while my friend went into the tent to prepare everything for the night."

Kuhnt says that after another hour, he was fighting the cold and wasn't seeing the strength of the northern lights increasing by much. Ready to call it for the night, he started to pack up his gear and get to sleep. But as he started to break down his camera and tripod, he saw something in the sky.

"I suddenly noticed two really bright, cloud-like objects moving in the sky," he recalls. "They moved really fast across the sky coming from the south towards the north. The whole event lasted about five minutes and I was able to get a few shots. Due to the fast velocity, I had to increase the ISO up to 12,800 for a higher shutter speed to get a decent exposure without motion blur."

Kuhnt shot multiple photos of the event with his Canon 5D Mark III and Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 II lens. He says that he had never seen anything like it before and was, at first, not sure what he was looking at, but then remembered seeing photos of the SpaceX launch over Los Angeles.

"I googled the latest rocket launches and saw that an Atlas V rocket just launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, carrying the Landsat 9 Satellite," he says. "After a bit of research, I was sure that we just witnessed the deorbit burn of the Centaur Upper Stage and fuel blowout. Those both clouds got illuminated by the Sun which made them visible. The rocket itself is too small to see with the eye since it’s orbiting between somewhere about 550 to 680 kilometers in altitude. The launch alone would be really exciting to witness but that it flew right through the northern lights was just the icing on the cake."

NASA's Landsat 9 recently captured its first images of Earth as part of its mission to document the changes to the topography of the planet over a series of years. Kuhnt says that the path of the rocket went right over his location in Norway, which can be seen in the trajectory animation video below (around the 28-second mark):

Despite the incredible luck of seeing a rocket though the northern lights, Kuhnt says he had to abort their trip in the middle of the night because the wind increased and changed its direction.

"After the second tent pole broke we decided to call it a day (or night) and we descended two hours to the car at 3:00 AM. But overall it was a nice trip," he says.

More of Kuhnt's work can be seen on his website and Instagram.

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_Image credits: Photos by Florian Kuhnt and published with permission. _

#news #spotlight #astrophotography #aurora #auroraborealis #floriankuhnt #landsat #landsat9 #nasa #nasarocket #northerlights #norway #rocketship #space

The Story Behind Los Angeles’s Rare Lightning Storm Photos

My name is Emeric Le Bars and this is the story of how I captured some insane, extremely rare photos of a lightning storm in Los Angeles, without really planning anything.

You don’t need to be familiar with Los Angeles to know that the city has an average of 300 sunny days every single year, which makes it one of the sunniest locations in the country and eventually the world. Even though the city usually gets very dry summers, rainy days do happen between the months of December and March. Additionally, lightning storms are historically quite rare in the region. But this year, it was different…

On October 4, 2021, Los Angeles experienced an insane thunderstorm that even a 50-year-old inhabitant born and raised in the area told me had never seen before. Southern California, including Los Angeles, was hit by over 4,000 lightning strikes in a 24-hour time frame. Even if this happened in Florida, a state that experiences year-long thunderstorms, that’s a lot of lightning in such a short period of time.

It was probably not the safest time to go out and shoot, I should tell you. But what’s crazy about my story is that nothing was really planned. I was light-years away from thinking that a storm like this could happen in early October in Los Angeles. Two days prior, it was still 90-degrees out!

I went out shooting only because one of my friends, Craig who was visiting from Chicago, had a few hours to spare before his flight back. Since he was staying in Los Feliz, I suggested we go to Griffith Park nearby because it offers amazing high vantage points of the downtown Los Angeles skyline, Hollywood, the Griffith Observatory, and many other iconic locations when the weather is clear.

This also happened to be the day Facebook and Instagram were down for several hours and the only way to get in touch with him was through Instagram messages; I did not have his number saved in my phone. Around 3 PM, when the app slowly started to work again, I received his message saying he was ready to go at any time. Sunset was only three hours from then, so we had no time to waste.

As I was driving from my apartment to Los Feliz to pick him up, I started seeing some very scary-looking dark clouds approaching from the south. Once I reached his location, I decided to check the radar and noticed that some heavy rain and lightning was coming towards us. Going to Griffith Park, which is mostly hills and required hiking suddenly became a bad idea. So, we decided to go grab a beer in a local bar while we waited for the storm to pass.

Between Instagram being down and the storm approaching, it felt as though everything was against us that day.

After 30 minutes of enjoying a cold one and catching up, the rain calmed down a bit and we decided to drive to the entrance of the park. That said, it was still raining a lot and the constant lightning definitely did not make us want to go hiking and so we decided to wait another 20 minutes in the car. We didn’t want to give up as we could clearly see that the storm would pass fairly quickly; looking South, the sky was mostly blue. At that time, it was only half an hour before sunset and I did not want to miss the good colors if there were any. Speaking from my experience from the last nine years shooting timelapses, after-storm sunsets can be very, very colorful. I did not want to miss it!

And I am glad we didn’t give up.

Even though we didn’t get a colorful sunset, I came back with some of my favorite photos I have ever captured.

We started hiking to our spot in Griffith Park when the rain stopped. Our goal was to capture the downtown Los Angeles skyline at sunset, but once we reached our spot, we noticed some crazy huge lightning strikes to the West, right above the ocean. We could clearly see the Century City skyline and the Griffith Observatory. The visibility was really clear with all the rain and wind from the past couple of hours, so we decided to change our plans and capture this view instead of Downtown Los Angeles, where nothing was really happening.

I want to explain that I know nothing about capturing thunderstorms and lightning. I specialize in timelapse photography, mostly city skylines and other cityscape subjects, and have only shot one or two storms like this in the past.

The only detail I was aware of to capture a great timelapse of a thunderstorm is to reduce the amount of time between each photo as much as possible. This technique will raise the chances of capturing a lightning bolt since the “dark time” is reduced to the minimum.

After setting up my camera, composition, and settings, I decided to shoot a first timelapse with a 2.5-second shutter speed and three-second interval. This will give me only half a second of delay between each photo. Luckily for me, I did not miss a single lightning strike during the 15-minute timelapse.

The park was mostly empty because of the weather, and we were the only two around aside from a few hikers we saw in the two hours we were shooting up there.

As time passed, the storm started to get even bigger. I changed location, only 100 feet away, and tried timelapsing the downtown LA skyline, but wasn't happy with that since nothing was happening in that direction. We had to leave soon as my friend Craig had a flight to catch in a few hours, but agreed to try one more timelapse.

“Once last one,” we said.

And I am glad we did.

The storm had moved just behind the Griffith Observatory. It seemed closer and bigger than when we started, yet it was super clear right above us.

I started shooting a last timelapse aimed at the Observatory when we witnessed the biggest lightning strikes of our entire lives -- I am not exaggerating. The fact that this was happening right there, right then in a city known for its dry and hot weather all year long, was just out of this world.

Since we were over an hour after the sunset, it was really dark around us and I had to use different settings. I went with a five-second shutter speed and a six-second interval. One second between each shot is not much, and even then I did miss a few strikes. Eventually, I did capture a few that turned out to be some amazing photos of the Observatory.

Since I was shooting a timelapse, I could not look at the photos directly, but I knew I captured some unique shots. We were both super excited and could not believe it!

The timelapses in video form are actually not that exciting since the lightning bolts happen on one single frame -- It’s just too fast! But I am okay with this and am just really happy about the stills I got.

What was supposed to be a fun timelapse session with a friend turned out to be the most exciting shoots of the last 10 years. Besides the location, nothing was planned at all and we even had to change our plan a few times. Even at 3 PM, I didn’t even know if we were still going out or not since I couldn't communicate with my friend Craig.

This story was a way to remind you that sometimes, just going out at the last minute can turn out to be the best session of your life! I tend to overthink everything before going out shooting: Are the clouds moving in the right direction? Are those low, medium, or high clouds? Should I go to this spot or to that one? Where do I park? It’s always impossible to fully predict the outcome and sometimes what you expect never happens, but something better might take its place.

Of course, planning is always good and often safer, but some of my favorite timelapse videos and photos ever captured were actually not really planned. This was the case for my SpaceX Falcon 9 timelapse from October 2018, or La Tuna fire in September 2017 (and countless amazing sunsets).

What a crazy session I will not forget anytime soon!

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About the author: Emeric Le Bars is a French timelapse photographer who has been based in Los Angeles for the past nine years. He has created over 700 clips of the City of Angels and more than 500 of Atlanta, San Francisco, New York City, Las Vegas, Chicago, Paris, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Denver, Miami, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Montreal, Quebec. His work has been used by multiple companies including Adobe, Facebook, OPPO, Google, Netflix, LG, STARZ, Microsoft, Mastercard, Red Bull, and Nike. Today, he teaches timelapse photography through online classes in both English and French on his website.

#spotlight #travel #emericlebars #historic #landscapephotography #landscapes #lightning #lightningstorm #losangeles #nature #rare #stormphotography #storms #thunderstorm #timelapse #weatherphotography

JinkoSolar launches Tiger Pro 415W solar module series

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Increasing demands of the distributed generation market require unique solutions, both for commercial and residential customers. Meeting these is challenging when many PV modules aren’t compatible with the inverters, components, and mounting systems on the market. However, pv magazine’s Spotlight partner JinkoSolar Europe recently demonstrated how it is possible to take customer and developer considerations into account when designing products. In the following interview, Roberto Murgioni, Head of Technical Service & Product Management, discusses the company’s new Tiger Pro 415W high-efficiency module, and explains how stakeholders’ needs have been placed at the core of the design.
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2021/05/26/jinkosolar-launches-tiger-pro-415w-solar-module-series/
#sponsored, #tiger, #efficiency, #magazine, #pv, #spotlight, #high, #jinkosolar, #module

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