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How I photographed rare moonlit Firefalls at Yosemite National Park

This is the famous and elusive Horsetail “Firefall” Fall in Yosemite, but unlike every other image you may have seen – always taken near sunset around February – the fire effect in this image is caused by moonlight. That’s the only possible way one could see the firefall and stars at the same time!

How does the firefall effect happen in the first place?

Before we dive into the moonlit firefall, let me quickly explain how the more popular firefall event works. That is, the one driven by direct sunlight during sunset.

It’s basically a rare event that happens in specific dates when the sun is about to set (so you get the typical “golden hour” colors) and its rays only hit in the thin area on the El Capitan walls right behind Horsetail Fall, reflecting it right against the waterfall, causing the effect that the water is indeed red or golden color, almost lava-like. Several things must come together for a firefall to form, though.

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The dos and don’ts of landscape photography

I find landscape photography to be a fun but challenging subject. I just often feel let down that the image just doesn’t do justice to the location. Part of the problem I think is that I don’t think a photograph ever can ever really compete with the experience of actually being there. Although, it may just be that I’m just not destined to be a landscape photographer.

Photographer Craig Roberts, on the other hand, likes shooting landscapes. And he’s rather good at it – certainly better than I’ll ever be. In this video, Craig goes through his “Dos” and “Don’ts” for landscape photography. And you may not agree with all of them, but that’s ok. Some of them boil down to personal preference.

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How I planned and shot an erupting volcano with the Milky Way

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Nature has lots to offer for landscape photographers. We love to shoot nature’s paintings. Storms, rainbows, tornadoes, lightning strikes: they’re all a gift from nature that we can play with as a landscape photographer. Volcanoes are one of them, too, especially when they’re erupting. I have been fascinated by volcanoes; they have been on my list to shoot for quite a while.

My younger brother recently went to Guatemala for some backpacking and learning the Spanish language. When he sent me some photos of an erupting volcano, my photography senses were immediately triggered. The erupting volcano was called ‘Fuego’ (literally “Fire”). I managed to find webcams and activity on scopes and checked how active Fuego was. According to the history, the volcano has remained quite active, but you had to be lucky to see a lot of eruptions. Still, the idea of meeting up with my brother and shooting a volcano seemed like a good enough reason to go.

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Costly landscape photography mistakes and how to avoid them

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Regardless of how seasoned we may be as photographers, there will always be mistakes that sneak their way into our workflow.  For landscape photographers in particular, early mornings, late nights, and challenging conditions can lead to fatigue or distractions that cause us to lose focus (no pun intended) on important details that can make or break our photos.

I recently took a trip to California and spent time photographing in Joshua Tree National Park, Alabama Hills, and Death Valley National Park.  It was a trip that was filled with sleep deprivation and shooting conditions that I had not encountered before, and, as a result, I made plenty of mistakes along the way.  Some of these errors were minor and just meant that I would need to spend a little extra effort in post-processing compensating for them.  Others, however, were critical mistakes that made me unable to print a photo due to poor quality, or unable to use them in general.

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Top 18 tips for taking magnificent sunset photos

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When you read or hear the expression, “Photography is all about light,” you clearly understand the definition of each word; however, the true meaning from a photography perspective can be elusive. It takes time to fully grasp.

I clearly remember my first true photography experiment that accelerated my understanding of the basics of photography in regard to light.

It was a family camping trip. We had our campsite set on the beach of a small lake nestled in the Laurentian Mountains north of Montreal. I had plenty of time to experiment with my new Canon Digital Rebel. I set the camera on a tripod and took one picture every hour without changing the camera’s position or settings.

I took a total of 17 shots.

Back home, I transferred the photos to my computer and started analyzing them in Photoshop (Lightroom did not yet exist). I was completely astonished by the results of my seemingly simple experiment. Depending on the time of day, the location was completely unrecognizable. Any photo taken during the middle of the day looked washed out and quite boring. On the other hand, the photos taken during sunset and sunrise looked vibrant and full of energy.

This is when I realized that photography is defined by the quality of light and, contrary to common belief, that location is the secondary component of the equation.

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Checklist for landscape photographers: 27 points you shouldn’t forget

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Has it happened to you that you arrive on location for landscape shots and realize you forgot to do or bring something? Landscape photographer Toma Bonciu has created a checklist of things you mustn’t forget if you are into landscape photography.

Where I come from, we have the expression: “A smart man writes it down; a fool tries to memorize it”. Something like that. Anyways, I believe it’s always better to make checklists, especially when you have a lot on your mind. And this is the list you can write down and have on you every time you prepare for the shot, while you’re on location, and when you get home.

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This photographer creates warped landscapes like you’ve never seen before

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When you are an artist, only your imagination is the limit. With modern technology, you can create pretty much anything you can imagine. And Turkish photographer Aydın Büyüktaş is a living example of this. His vivid imagination, inspired by sci-fi and technical books, resulted in a fantastic series of unordinary landscapes called Flatland II. And “unordinary” may be an understatement. His images show warped reality, landscapes without horizons that seem like they’re wrapping around you. You will feel like you’re watching a sci-fi movie or riding a rollercoaster in another dimension.

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How to use an old photography technique to create surreal digital images

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I re-invented a new photographing technique. The technique is new in the digital domain but, in fact, the phenomenon itself was known since the early era of digital photography.

I don’t remember the name of the camera but I heard that digital cameras could not capture colours before the Bayer filter was invented so you had to take three shots—one for red, one for green and one for blue—and then they were merged into one photograph. However, if there was moving elements such as clouds, waves, cars, pedestrians, cats in the picture, you get unnatural colours.

Although people tried to avoid this effect to capture natural photographs, I thought it would be interesting to create such colours on purpose as a new way of artistic expression, and so I devised this technique. Let me tell you how to do it in details.

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Inspiration, imitation, and landscape photography; is it OK or Unethical?

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Whose image is it anyway? When does inspiration or imitation of a landscape photo cross the line or go too far?

Recently a few things came up that makes me ask if or when does the idea of copying someone else’s photo go too far, or is it just a form of flattery derived from a source of inspiration via the route of imitation? In the commercial photography world, this can have an impact in real dollars and sense (yes, that’s the word I meant to use), especially if you get caught deliberately copying someone else’s work. This was brought up in a recent article on PetaPixel, When someone copies your photo for Commercial Purposes, where the question was raised whether someone who (may have) copied many elements of a photo went so far as to push the boundaries of what’s right and permissible or was it a violation of the original photographer’s copyright? When there are things like models, props, studio lights, camera angles, etc., that gives the court leeway in deciding what elements of an image are protected expressions of copyright. There is a poll on this article where more than 2/3rds or the respondents felt what was done was unethical.

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