In the Moment:
Michael Frye's Landscape Photography Blog
by Michael Frye | Feb 6, 2022 | Composition
Luminous ravine, Death Valley, California. The repeating diagonals and V-shapes create a strong pattern, while the curve of the ravine adds another design element.
Death Valley’s landscapes are elemental. You’re often photographing bare earth: rocks, sand, dirt, mud, and salt. Those things don’t sound very photogenic – not like, say, photographing a snowy mountain peak, or a rugged sea coast.
But in photography, light, composition, and design are more important than the subject. You can have a great subject (like that snowy mountain peak, for example), but if the light or composition are mediocre the photograph will be mediocre as well. On the other hand, a “mundane” subject can make an amazing photograph – with good light and a strong design.
Death Valley is full of “mundane” subjects like rocks, salt flats, badlands, and piles of sand. But wind and water have sculpted those elements into wonderful shapes and patterns. It’s a great place to learn to think abstractly. In other words, instead of thinking about subjects, you can concentrate on finding lines, shapes, and patterns, and putting those elements together to create strong designs.
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by Michael Frye | Feb 3, 2022 | Uncategorized
There’s still time to sign up for the Night Photo Summit! It starts tomorrow (Friday) morning at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
My presentation is called Expressive Night Photography, and that’s just a small part of the lineup, with topics like Night on Earth by the legendary Art Wolfe, Creating Realistic Landscape/Milky Way Blends by Tim Cooper, a light-painting session with Chris Nicholson, Fantastical Fireflies with Kevin Adams, Rafael Pons on using PhotoPills, capturing and processing the Milky Way, and many more.
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by Michael Frye | Feb 2, 2022 | Light and Weather
Blowing sand, Death Valley NP, California
Claudia and I just got back from Death Valley, where I taught at the Out of Death Valley photo conference. What a fun event! I really enjoyed meeting, chatting, and photographing with all the participants. Many hadn’t been to Death Valley before, so it was a treat to introduce them to this amazing place. And it was great to connect with the other instructors – an all-star list including William Neill, Sarah Marino, David Kingham, Jennifer Renwick, Cole Thompson, John Barclay, Michael Shainblum, Colleen Miniuk, TJ Thorne, Alex Noriega, Erin Babnik, Michael Gordon, Joshua Cripps, and Nick Page. It was a wonderful event, and I think everyone had a great time.
We had beautiful conditions during the conference, with a couple of spectacular sunrises and sunsets. But before the conference we also got to photograph a dust storm.
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by Michael Frye | Jan 8, 2022 | Announcements
I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be teaching at the second annual Night Photo Summit next month!
The Night Photo Summit is produced by the folks who created the National Parks at Night workshop series. I gave a presentation at their first summit last year, and that was a really fun event, so I’m excited to be invited back! This online conference is devoted exclusively to night photography, and I’ll be joining over 25 other distinguished instructors, including Art Wolfe, Lance Keimig, Tim Cooper, Colleen Miniuk, Adam Woodworth, Jess Santos, Kevin Adams, Chris Nicholson, Royce Bair, and many more.
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by Michael Frye | Jan 5, 2022 | Announcements
The votes are all in and counted, and here are my top photographs of 2021!
We had a great response this year: 562 people looked through my initial selection of 45 images and voted for their favorites. A big thank you to everyone who took the time to look through these photographs and voice your opinions! I also really appreciate the kind words so many people posted in the comments or sent by email. I wish I could respond to everyone, but please know that I’ve read them all and am very grateful for all your support.
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by Michael Frye | Jan 3, 2022 | Light and Weather, Travels and Stories
Frosted aspens, Colorado
When posting my nominees for best photos of 2021, I realized that I hadn’t posted some of my favorites before. That’s especially true for images I made this fall. We traveled to Yellowstone, Colorado, Utah, and the Oregon Coast, with little break in between trips, and not much time to process everything and post the images.
For me, one of the special treats this autumn (among many!) was the opportunity to photograph autumn aspens with snow. I did write about our brief trip to the eastern Sierra in early October, where I got to photograph some colorful aspens coated with snow. And then we got to do that several more times in Colorado.
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by Michael Frye | Dec 31, 2021 | Announcements
Happy New Year!
It’s become a New Year’s tradition on this blog to pick my best images from the past year, and once again I’m inviting you to help me make these difficult choices. I’ve posted 45 of my best photographs from 2021 below, in chronological order. After you look through these, please use the form at the bottom of this post to list your ten favorites.
Please don’t post your votes in the comments, or send them by email, because they won’t be counted! Use the form at the bottom of this post instead.
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by Michael Frye | Dec 24, 2021 | Announcements
Half Dome and El Capitan as a snowstorm cleared last week
Last week’s storms seemed like early Christmas presents. We need lots of rain and snow to bring us out of our prolonged drought, so any precipitation is a gift. And for me, seeing snow fall in Yosemite Valley, and being able to photograph two clearing storms, made it even more special.
As we approach the holidays, I’m very grateful to live here and do what I do, and to be able to share those experiences with all of you. To those who celebrate the day, Claudia and I wish you a very Merry Christmas! We hope you have a wonderful holiday, full of peace, joy, the love of family and friends, and special moments to remember.
— Michael Frye
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by Michael Frye | Dec 21, 2021 | Light and Weather, Yosemite Photo Conditions
Pink light on El Capitan at sunset, Yosemite, last Tuesday evening. 50mm, 1/8 sec. at f/11, ISO 100.
We’ve reached the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, and this year it actually feels like winter here in the Sierra Nevada. In some recent years the weather has been warm and dry in December – and that’s the way this month began. But last week two separate storms brought over five inches of precipitation to Yosemite Valley.
The first storm was the biggest. It rained hard in the Valley on Monday, but by Tuesday morning rain had changed to snow, eventually piling up about eight inches of white stuff. Our workshop group had to wait out some of that rain on Monday, but then we photographed almost all day Tuesday, with some brief breaks to dry out and warm up.
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by Michael Frye | Dec 12, 2021 | Travels and Stories
Aspens and pines in a snowstorm, Inyo NF, California. 141mm, 1/250 sec. at f/16, ISO 1600.
In early October Claudia and I traveled to Utah and Colorado, and on our way we made a brief stop in the eastern Sierra.
Forecasts predicted a cold storm with low snow levels (for early October). That meant we might get to photograph aspens in snow, with autumn color, if we made it over to the eastern Sierra before the storm. So we packed hurriedly, hoping to make it over Tioga Pass before the road closed – which we did, with about 30 minutes to spare.
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