Sandstone Abstract

Valley of Fire, Nevada

May 11, 2013

Nikon D3100: Tamron 18-270 at 65 mm: ISO 400: 1/125 sec.: f/8

I stumbled across these rocks while I was lost in a canyon.  They were actually pretty big rocks, maybe 3 or 4 feet long each.

Sun Star

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

May 11, 2013

Nikon D3100: Tamron 18-270 at 18 mm: ISO 100: 1/25 sec.: f/18: Hoya ND 8

Right as I was about to start hiking again, I noticed the position of the sun and thought I would try getting a sun star since Elephant Rock didn't work out.

Sandstone Art

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

May 11, 2013

Nikon D3100: Tamron 18-270 at 18 mm: ISO 400: 1/250 sec.: f/10

After I finished at the White Domes trail, I was off to find pastel (pink) canyon.  I parked at the fire wave parking lot and headed out.  The directions I had said to walk south down the road until you came to a dip and that is where the canyon starts.  It looked to me like I could cut through a little and make some better time, plus its not much fun hiking along the road.  I hiked along with the road in sight for a while, but then I dropped down in a canyon and quickly got lost for an hour or so in the hot sun.  I found this fun formation not too long after I left the parking lot and had dropped down into the first little canyon.

Lone Cactus

Valley of Fire, Nevada

May 11, 2013

Nikon D3100: Tamron 18-270 at 27 mm: ISO 200: 1/500 sec.: f/11

This was on the North-West portion of the White Domes trail.

Chuckwalla Lizard

Valley of Fire, Nevada

May 11, 2013

Nikon D3100: Tamron 18-270 at 270 mm: ISO 400: 1/2000 sec.: f/7.10

In the 7 or so hours I was in the Park, I probably saw about 8 total lizards and 3 or 4 different varieties.  The Chuckwalla was the most common.  This one was going in and out of the small hole there on the white domes trail.

White Domes Slot Canyon

Valley of Fire, Nevada

May 11, 2013

Nikon D3100: Tamron 18-270 at 32 mm: ISO 500: 1/60 sec.: f/8

This is about 15 feet into the canyon looking back towards the entrance.  I started shooting in raw format for the first time on this trip and it really paid off on this photo.  I have a number of shots and they all either expose the background or foreground correctly, but never both.  This shot was exposed for the background and the foreground was almost black, but in raw, I was able to bring out the detail in the foreground and am now sold on shooting in raw format.

White Domes Slot Canyon

Valley of Fire, Nevada

May 11, 2013

Nikon D3100: Tamron 18-270 at 32 mm: ISO 500: 1/60 sec.: f/8

This is the entrance to the slot canyon on the White Domes trail.  It's about 15 minutes from the parking lot, but most of the trail is sand.

Elephant Rock

Valley of Fire, Nevada

May 11, 2013

Nikon D3100: Tamron 18-270 at 23 mm: ISO 280: 1/500 sec.: f/11

I wanted to do a quick stop at Elephant Rock to try my hand at some sun stars.  Unfortunately, the sun was not in a workable location so I had to settle with this pretty standard shot.

Windstone Arch-North

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

May 11, 2013

Nikon D3100: Tamron 18-270 at 30 mm: ISO 800: 1/60 sec.: f/16

Nikon D3100: Tamron 18-270 at 38 mm: ISO 800: 1/250 sec.: f/9

The light was terrible shooting from the North entrance, but I had to get the interesting formations on the South side of the cave.

Windstone Arch-South

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

May 11, 2013

Nikon D3100: Tamron 18-270 at 18 mm: ISO 400: 1/125 sec.: f/9

My wife just had our first baby (I am typing this from the hospital) and being the awesome wife that she is, she told me to take a day before the baby came and go shooting wherever I wanted.  I decided to return to Valley of Fire State Park and try to find many of the sites I didn't see the first time.  First on my list was Windstone Arch (also called Fire Cave).  I had read that it was very hard to find so I used a GPS and found it almost immediately.  Even without the GPS, I think it can be found easily.  It is the first little turnout from the West entrance to the loop on the gravel road.  directly east of the road is a little rock formation.  If you directly behind that rock formation, you should be able to find this small cave.  Although the view from the North entrance of the cave is more appealing, the light worked much better from the South so that is where I started.

Ivanpah Dry Lake Bed 2

Ivanpah Dry Lake Bed, California

April 6, 2013

Nikon D3100: Tamron 18-270 at 25 mm: ISO 100: 1/15 sec.: f/18

This is my second shot from our one day out kite buggying and I think I prefer this one.

Ivanpah Dry Lake Bed

Ivanpah Dry Lake Bed, California

April 6, 2013

Nikon D3100: Tamron 18-270 at 18 mm: ISO 800: 1/40 sec.: f/22

My sister and brother-in-law were in Primm for a kite buggying event so we went out and enjoyed the day playing.  Unfortunately, the sunset wasn't great, but it was my first try at shooting a dry lake bed so I had to give it a try. I have one other shot that I actually like better that will come soon.

Deoksu Gung Palace

Seoul, South Korea

November 25, 2012

Nikon D3100: Tamron 18-270 at 40 mm: ISO 400: 1/125 sec.: f/9

By this point in the day we were rushing to try and find some good Korean BBQ, do some shopping and get back to the airport so we didn't have time to go in this palace, but I loved the trees lining the wall so I stopped to grab this last shot as my wife hurried along without me.  

Korean National Guard

Gyeong Bok Gung, Seoul, South Korea

November 25, 2012

Nikon D3100: Tamron 18-270 at 270 mm: ISO 400: 1/320 sec.: f/6.3

This might be my favorite shot from South Korea.  I love how simple it is, but the contrast of the blade and the guard really stand out to me.