Lake Blanche Sunset Panorama, Twin Peaks Wilderness, Utah

The obvious image is obvious for a reason; it works. It works very well, it's just hard to put a personal stamp on it.

Winter Aspen Panorama, Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

One of the rules of color landscape photography that I’ve always lived by is: you cannot photograph a white sky.  A dark grey, brooding sky, yes, always; but a white sky, never. Well almost never.

A solid white, featureless sky creates perfect light for photographing nature’s intimate details, compositions that take advantage of soft, even illumination without actually including the sky in the frame. Sometimes, black and white conversion is the answer to working with a pure white sky.  An example of this can be seen in my previous blog post. White on white, winter landscapes may offer another avenue of exploration. Still I wouldn’t want to include a large block of blank white sky in my winter landscapes.

Timpanogos Basin Panorama

There's still time. If you missed peak wildflowers in Albion Basin, there's still time to see the best wildflower display in the state. This Timp Basin panorama was created less than a week ago. Of course, you can't just drive right up to these wildflowers, but anyone willing to make the ten mile round trip trek will be rewarded. It will take reasonably fit hikers 2 to 3 hours to reach the basin on the Timponeeke trail. Although the distance makes this a moderate hike, the trail maintains a gentle grade nearly all the way. In order to be there for the best light requires either camping or hiking in the dark. Mid-day light, on a blue sky day, is usually less than inspiring. Dramatic mid-day images can be achieved with a little help from the weather - inclement weather can make for great images. Wind is the biggest problem, whether you're shooting during mid-day stormy weather or at sunset or sunrise. Sunrise is typically the calmest.
This image was made shortly before sunset. Luckily it was realatively calm, so I attempted to create several panoramas. I've made the trek to see the Timpanogos Basin wildflowers at least once a year for the past ten years. This was the first time I've tried to create panoramas. This image was created by stitching together five vertical images. It was a real thrill for me to do something different in a place that now seems so familiar.