In the Moment:
Michael Frye's Landscape Photography Blog
by Michael Frye | Mar 17, 2024 | Light and Weather
Half Dome and sunbeams, winter sunrise, Yosemite NP, California
I’ve felt like a hamster on a wheel lately, running nonstop just to keep up with the most essential tasks. But I finally have a moment to breathe, and time to write a blog post!
I made the photographs here in mid-February, after a weak storm moved through the Sierra. In a common pattern, it rained in Yosemite Valley during most of the storm, but the temperature dropped at the tail-end, leaving a dusting of new snow. At least that’s what I saw on the webcams early that morning. But when I arrived in the west end of the valley at first light, I didn’t find any new snow. Could it have snowed in the east end of the valley (where the webcams are), but not the west end? Sure enough, that’s what happened. The east end of the valley is slightly higher in elevation than the west end, and sometimes that’s enough to create a dusting of snow in the east end while the west end gets only rain.
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by Michael Frye | Mar 4, 2024 | Announcements
Lightning over the San Joaquin Valley from the Sierra Nevada foothills, California
What elevates a photograph beyond the ordinary? Light, composition, and technical proficiency all play parts, but is there something more?
I think so. The photographs that I respond to most strongly go beyond just showing what a scene looks like, and touch me on an emotional level. They suggest something bigger, more universal than the literal subject matter depicted in the image. They evoke a sense of mystery, or wonder, or awe, or surprise me by showing the world in an unexpected way.
I think this is such an important aspect of photography, so I’m really looking forward to delving into this topic more in my presentation for Nic Stover’s Nature Photography Classes next Monday. The presentation is called A Sense of Mystery, and focuses on those hard-to-define components that make a photograph richer, and give it more universal meaning. I’ll talk about the what, and the how – what elevates a photograph beyond the ordinary, and how you can make images that convey a sense of mystery and wonder.
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by Michael Frye | Feb 7, 2024 | Announcements
Trail through redwoods in fog, northern California coast
I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be joining Nic Stover’s Nature Photography Classes again for their Winter Speaker Series. This series is focused on “Discovering the Mood and Mystery in Our Images,” and includes three sessions: Franka Gabler, with “Conveying Mood and Capturing the Essence,” on February 26th; Michele Sons, with “The Art of Fog,” on March 5th; and then I’ll be presenting “A Sense of Mystery,” on March 11th.
I decided to talk about mystery because I think this is an essential but often-overlooked component of successful landscape photographs. Brett Weston once said, ” Unless a landscape is invested with a sense of mystery, it is no better than a postcard.” And that rings true with me. Evocative images don’t just show what something looks like; they convey a mood, or feeling, or surprise the viewer in some way. And they don’t necessarily show everything. It’s often more intriguing to show part of something, and let the viewer imagine the rest. Images with a strong emotional impact also usually suggest something bigger and more universal than the particular subject matter of the image.
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by Michael Frye | Feb 1, 2024 | Light and Weather
Half Dome above a fog layer at sunrise, Yosemite NP, California. This is actually two frames from my 50mm lens stitched together, as that lens wasn’t quite wide enough, but my next widest lens (35mm) was too wide.
After photographing the trees in fog I described in this recent post, a few mornings later I went up to Yosemite Valley again as another storm was clearing. I climbed up to a different spot, with a view of Half Dome, and once again saw the valley floor covered in a shallow layer of fog, with trees poking out.
But this time I also saw high clouds, and some mist wrapped around Half Dome. Under those conditions the higher clouds often light up before sunrise, but not this time; probably some clouds farther east, out of sight, blocked that early light. But later, as the sun rose higher, it broke through and backlit the clouds and mist. My favorite moment is shown above, with that backlit mist, and trees poking out of the fog below.
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by Michael Frye | Jan 28, 2024 | Announcements, Night Photography
Yosemite Valley lit by the setting moon, with Jupiter above, Yosemite NP, California
I’ve been working on my presentation The Magic of Moonlight for the Night Photo Summit next weekend. While going through some of my moonlit images from the past I found this set, all from the night of December 19th and 20th, 2015.
Thinking about that night brings back some great memories. A winter storm started clearing around 9:00 p.m., so I headed up to Yosemite Valley, knowing that the two-thirds full moon was due to set at 1:45 a.m., and as it sank I might find some beautiful, low-angle moonlight to go along with that clearing storm.
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by Michael Frye | Jan 23, 2024 | Light and Weather
Trees and waves of fog, Yosemite NP, California
On a Sunday morning nine days ago I headed up to Yosemite Valley as a small storm was clearing. This system was on the warm side, so it rained at the valley elevation (around 4,000 feet). But there was still some snow on the ground from previous storms, and rain on top of snow is a fog-generating machine, so I figured there would be lots of fog and mist.
And there was lots of mist when I arrived in the valley. I climbed up to one of my favorite off-the-beaten path viewpoints, thinking to capture a classic Yosemite clearing storm. But when I reached that spot it became apparent that the mist wasn’t wrapping around the cliffs as I’d expected. Instead, I saw a shallow layer of fog covering the length of the Valley floor, with the tops of tall ponderosa pines poking up through the fog layer. Which looked gorgeous.
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by Michael Frye | Jan 10, 2024 | Announcements
I’m happy to be joining the National Parks at Night team for the fourth annual Night Photo Summit next month!
This will be my fourth time presenting at the Night Photo Summit, and the previous three have been really fun, so I’m excited to be invited back! This online conference is devoted exclusively to night photography, and I’ll be joining over 30 other distinguished instructors, including Josh Cripps, Sean Bagshaw, Jess Santos, Chris Smith, Jessica Rojas, Royce Bair, Melissa Kaelin, Lance Keimig, Tim Cooper, Chris Nicholson, Gabriel Biderman, and many more.
I’ll be presenting The Magic of Moonlight. I think moonlight offers tremendous possibilities for night photographers – but those possibilities are often overlooked.
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by Michael Frye | Jan 9, 2024 | Light and Weather
Misty sunset from Tunnel View, Yosemite NP, California
Last Tuesday night a small snowstorm moved through Yosemite. It’s been a dry winter so far, and this was the first significant snow in Yosemite Valley in quite awhile. It also looked like the storm might clear around sunrise, which was good timing.
So Claudia and I rose early Wednesday morning and drove up to the Valley, where we found about four inches of new snow. It was great to see the trees decked out in white, and to feel the snow underfoot.
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by Michael Frye | Jan 8, 2024 | Announcements
Aspen kaleidoscope, Uncompahgre NF, Colordao
Color can be one of the trickiest aspects of image processing. How do you get the right white balance? How can you dial in enough saturation to make the image appear lively and vibrant, without it looking fake or garish? How do you get the right hues? How can you apply color grading effectively?
In this live webinar I’ll demonstrate how to tackle this challenge as I take you step-by-step through processing one or more photographs, with an emphasis on handling color. I’ll cover all the basics, but also delve into the nuances that can give your images a rich, sophisticated look, including:
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by Michael Frye | Jan 5, 2024 | Announcements
The votes are all in and counted, and here are my top photographs of 2023!
We had a great response this year: 478 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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