One Day – Banff and Yoho
Vermilion Sunrise Burn, Banff, Alberta (Kyle Jones)
I clearly need to post more – I hadn’t realized I’d only written one post this year (although I think it was a pretty good one). In an effort to rectify that, I plan to start a series of posts that each cover a 24-hour period. I’ll see how it goes, but my initial thought is that these will include planning, travel and technical stuff in addition to my normal sharing of photos. Let me know what you think in the comments and I’ll adjust based on feedback.
Today’s entry covers January 27, 2018. I was in Banff with a few friends for a winter photography trip. I’ve traveled with Alejandro many times and it always goes well. We have similar tastes in subjects and trust each other when we make a plan and decide where to shoot. We were joined on this trip by Aron and Matt. I was familiar with the work of each of them but we’d never shot together and I hadn’t even met Matt face-to-face before this trip. Fortunately we all got along really well and we were able to see some beautiful scenes. Continue reading
New Zealand South Island
Wanaka Sunset, New Zealand (Kyle Jones)
I recently took a vacation with my wife to New Zealand and Australia, including 6 days based in Wanaka (rhymes with “Monica”) on New Zealand’s South Island. I figured I’d share my experience here, where it can hopefully be useful for anyone else planning to travel to that beautiful country. This wasn’t a “photo trip”, so while I did make sure to place myself in a couple of good locations at sunrise/sunset, it wasn’t the focus of my trip. With that in mind, this isn’t really a photo guide and some of the shots included are more for documentary purposes than artistic. I have included some thoughts about conditions that might be good for some of these locations and am including the equipment and settings I used for reference. I’m splitting this guide into three parts, the first covering some general thoughts, gear, and the area around Wanaka. Next is the Haast Highway and Lake Matheson and then the area South of Wanaka including Queenstown and Milford Sound.Continue reading
Favorites from 2017
As with everything at year end, it is time for yet another top 10 list. In addition to your 10 favorite movies, albums, TV shows, sweaters, selfie apps, etc., here is the official list of my 10 favorite photographs I created in 2017. Trust nobody else, this is the definitive list! These may not necessarily be my best photographs, since best is always debatable and I want the list to include a sampling from throughout the year. Selecting images was especially challenging this year as I had a chance to visit some really special locations including Banff in the winter, Iceland, Yosemite, Grand Teton, Zion, Yellowstone and even beautiful Corvallis, Oregon for the total solar eclipse. I could have selected 10 shots that I really liked from a 12-hour period in Stokksnes and Jökulsárlón, Iceland and called that a good year. In the end I cheated and created a runner-up list you can check out here. Without further ado, and in the order taken, here are my favorites from 2017:Continue reading
2017 Favorites – Honorable Mentions
I sat down at my computer last week and went about my annual process of selecting my ten favorite photographs I made this year. I always enjoy this and usually find it interesting. There are always some photos that I loved when I took them, often because of fond memories of the experience, that seem less spectacular overt time. There are others that just stick with me. There are photos that others really like that I’m not as enamored with, and some that I think are really cool that didn’t get much of a reaction from my friends. So I mix all that together and create a short list of my favorite photos and then work to cull that list down to ten.
This year was especially challenging and getting down to ten favorites forced me to cast asides some pictures that I really like! Next week I’ll share my favorites, along with some background information on each of them and why it was included. In the meantime, here are the honorable mentions (in no particular order).Continue reading
Shooting the Stars
Tunnel View Stars – Yosemite National Park, California (Kyle Jones)
I truly enjoy making photographs at night. If I’m willing to give up some sleep and risk some cold, I have the opportunity to photograph some beautiful locations in relative solitude. It always amazes me how much detail modern cameras can pull out of a night sky. So with that in mind, here are some of my favorite night images from the last year.Continue reading
Snæfellsnes Iceland
Kirkjufellsfoss Sunset – Grundarfjorour, Iceland (Kyle Jones)
I had the opportunity to spend a little over a week in Iceland back in May with two friends (Alejandro Velarde and Matt Olivar) to explore the country and hopefully take some nice pictures. One area that was on our agenda was the Snæfellsnes Peninsula in the Northwest of the country, and its most famous landmark: Kirkjufell Mountain (pictured above). I typically try to share what I consider my best pictures from the locations I visit, but I felt this would be a nice opportunity to show a little bit more of Iceland, including some of the less iconic countryside.Continue reading