The Terra Galleria Blog – QT Luong

“Treasured Lands”, my series of 58 large format images of the National Parks (one for each park) is on exhibit at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, MA. The exhibition opened on Feb 20 and will run through Oct 17, 2010.

I will deliver a Lowell Lecture about the project at the Museum on Sunday March 14 at 2pm. There will be also a Gallery walk (given by the museum staff that I will brief personally) on Sunday March 21 at 2pm.

I’ve posted new images of Bryce Canyon National Park. That park presents the photographer with a dream and a challenge. It offers one of the most striking sights anywhere, the hoodoos of the Bryce Amphitheater, but once you’ve photographed them, what else new can you do ?

On my last visit, in 2008 (my 4th) I tried three ideas: (a) working with a particular reflected light that I had noticed, but not captured on previous trips (b) hiking more extensively below the rim (c) exploring more locations outside of the Amphitheater.

The most interesting was the area around Mossy Cave, which had many natural openings. My previous visit to the cave itself was in November, when the ice stalactites were quite thin (and more photogenic). In this late March visit, I was surprised to find them quite thick. After that first visit, since I had exited the main park road, I assumed that I was no longer in the park, so I labeled Mossy Cave incorrectly for years, before eventually realizing that it is part of Bryce Canyon National Park. It’s well worth checking out to see something different and out of the mainstream sites.

Established in 1872, Yellowstone National Park is America’s first national park. Although Yellowstone preserves a large terrain with varied resources such as mountains ranges, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, canyons, and large wildlife, it was created and is mostly known for geothermal features. There are as many of them in Yellowstone than in the rest of the world combined. With that many geysers and hot springs to choose from, it can be difficult to know where to photograph.

While a visit to Yellowstone must include Old Faithful, the most popular geyser in the world, and its Upper Geyser Basin, as far as to the colorful Morning Glory Pool, I’ll highlight here two other favorite less known locations in the park further up the road to Madison.

The Grand Prismatic Spring is the largest hot springs in the US (third in the world). While you look from the outside at the hot springs in the Lower Geyser Basin, here a boardwalk let you step right onto the springs for great wide-angle compositions. Pigmented bacteria grow in the mineral-rich water. As each bacterium has its own color, and the temperature of the water favors one bacterium over another, the springs is a rainbow of colors.

If you’re into aerial photography, that would be the place to fly over. A straight down aerial image of the springs reveals its size, structure, and colors like no others. Alternatively you could hike up the hill for a view from above. You cannot get there from the springs, the trail head is about a mile down the road. However, the springs would be a bit far (telephoto needed to isolate features of the spring), the angle quite oblique, and some trees are in the way (incorporate them into your composition).

The Great Fountain Geyser, as implied by its name, is a fountain-type geyser, which means that it erupts through a pool of water in a series of bursts. This travertine-decorated pool of water makes for great reflections, certainly more interesting than the dry terrain around Old Faithful. The western ridgeline behind the geyser is quite low, so if you are lucky, you could shoot the sun setting right behind the geyser. Intervals between eruptions range from 9 to 15 hours, thus you’ll need to find the predicted times for eruption at the Visitor Center near Old Faithful. Once you have them, it’s not that difficult to catch, as the prediction times are generally accurate to within one or two hours, and the eruption lasts between one and two hours. Great Fountain Geyser has also the distinction of being the only geyser that can be observed from your car, which makes waiting in inclement weather easier.

A dozen of my images from Vietnam are on display in the ISSI Carnavale exhibit at the Northeastern University’s Gallery360 from February 22 to March 20, 2010.

I was not able to attend the opening, however, I will give a lecture, scheduled at 3:00 pm on Friday, March 12th.

In Vietnamese, the same word is used for “country” and “water”. In this series, I explore the relationship of people’s lives with water through images from thirteen different sites spanning the whole country.

I’ll update that post with installation pictures when available.

Among all the mountains in America, the Grand Tetons – rocky, jagged, and abruptly rising seven thousand feet above the valley of Jackson Hole – remind me the most of the Alps, on the high peaks where I had my first life-changing wilderness experiences that inspired me to become a photographer.

With many lakes laying in the valley, there are quite a few choices for photographing the Teton range reflected, but some are a bit too close, while others are a bit too far. The body of water which yields the best reflections is a modest pond, called the Schwabacher Landing. To reach it, watch for Schwabacher road, a dirt road 4 miles north of Moose Junction on hwy 191, and follow it to the end. Then walk a short distance along the river until you see a spot to your liking.

You will be shooting straight west. Since this is considered by some to be one of the most beautiful mountain scenes in America, many gather there for sunrise. A grad filter helps to brighten the reflection, but even though, I find that without clouds above the mountain (more likely in summer), the scene looks a bit flat because of the lack of cross-lighting.

You sometimes read that landscape photographers should just take a nap at mid-day, as the light is “bad” (this will be the subject of a future blog post), however, after photographing the scene at dawn and sunrise, I made sure to come back for a mid-day shot. I positioned the reflection better, since I had missed a better spot while setting up in a hurry before dawn, anticipating that the contrast of the cloudless sunrise would be to high. More importantly, the cross-lighting brings more relief to the mountains, and the polarization angle makes the autumn colors shine brightly. The enduring popularity of the resulting image (more on that later too) would seem to contradict that “golden rule” of landscape photography.

More images of Grand Teton National Park

I’ve posted images of the Mavericks surf contest which took place this Saturday near Half Moon Bay. This was the first time I attended the event. I’ll give an account of it from a photographer’s perspective.

At Mavericks, an unusually-shaped underwater rock formation can cause waves to top out at over 50 feet (15m) after a strong winter storm in the North Pacific yields giant swells. Possibly the most dangerous spot in the sport, with some of the largest waves in the world, strong currents, dangerous rocks, shallow reefs, and cold water temperatures, Mavericks is a place reserved only for elite big wave surfers. Each year, an invitation-only contest is held. Since conditions cannot be predicted in advance, the two dozen selected surfers must vote on a day to hold the contest only 48 hours in advance of the event. Once the decision is made, many will hop immediately on a plane, and arrive just in time, as did this year’s winner, who flew from South Africa.

The break itself is located approximately one-half mile (0.8 km) from shore at Pillar Point, just north of Half Moon Bay at the village of Princeton-By-The-Sea. Thousands gather at the beach at Pillar Point, just content to be part of the event by watching into the direction of the break, but don’t actually see anything. The contest organizers recommend watching at home, or from a stadium with a big broadcast screen. To have a chance to watch some action from shore, you need to scramble up the muddy bluff. Arriving 15 minutes before the start of the contest, I found the crest of the bluff totally filled up. Although I was able to squeeze in, I couldn’t set up comfortably. To be certain to find a good spot, you need to arrive at sunrise. Once there, you’d need at least 600mm (on a FF 35mm format camera) for decent images, as well as good visibility. In the early morning, the atmosphere was just too foggy on that Saturday for any useful images of the contest from the bluff. However, even without seeing any action, I was still glad that I was up there rather than down, since a couple of rogue waves washed over the seawall, destroying booths, and, as I read later, injuring a dozen of spectators, reminding you of the power of nature.

The only way to get a good view of the action is to ride a boat to the shoulder of the break. That’s how the great photos that you see published in the media are taken. The best option would be to ride the official media boat, however, without accreditation from a major media source, getting on it is a matter of luck. I wasn’t lucky. After waiting in vain for a stand-by opening, I walked to the beach (it took 25 minutes from the harbor to the beach, hence my late arrival at the bluff). I then walked back to the harbor, and got on a private tour boat, the Flying Fish operated by www.fishingboat.com, with an 11am departure – which doesn’t provide for the best light. The early morning boat was filled-up.

I found photographing from the boat to be hard. The Flying Fish was often too far for my 400mm lens (on FF). Moreover, there is a flotilla of more than a hundred watercraft of all sizes (from jet skis and sea kayaks to 50+ feet boats) at the observation spot, and many of them often got in the way. Presumably, the media boat had some priority. Then you are standing on a platform which is rocking wildly (those pesky waves !).You have to brace yourself in order not to hit the rail, wall, other people, or even be thrown overboard. At the same time, you have to pay constant attention in order not to miss any action, while a lot of the time nothing really interesting is happening, as this is the nature of surfing. For tight shots, you’d be carrying pretty heavy “big gun” lenses, and hand-holding them all day long. The predominant sound is not from the huge waves crashing (quite far away), but from the ballet of helicopters hovering overhead.

I did not manage to get any of the clean, spectacular surfing shots that abound on media pages, or on the websites of photographers such as Philip Colla and Jim Goldstein, where you see a lone surfer dwarfed by a wall of water. Only near the end of the runs, the surfers would be close enough, and the line of sight clear enough for such images, but the wave would have already crashed. On the other hand, the experience gave me a new appreciation of what they were able to achieve with those deceptively simple shots. My hat off to them ! I realized that there is a reason I do not photograph much wildlife on purpose (my possibly best wildlife images were obtained when dall sheep walked towards me): looking at subjects and trying to track them through a super-tele lens, is just too different from the way I normally experience the world. In large format landscape photography, I use a very wide lens (equivalent to a 24mm) for most of my work.

Since the other boats in front of mine, and my lack of a longer optic prevented me from making the images that I envisioned, I tried instead to capture the atmosphere of the contest by creating compositions that included the other boats in the foreground. Upon returning home, I noticed that none of those type of images appeared on media sites, yet they captured a reality of being there, an experience to be cherished, whether it results in great photos or not.

view more images of Mavericks surf contest

There was a good scare, last summer, when California threatened to close 100 of its state parks because of budget cuts. 100 out of 278, many worthy of being in the National Park system. A closure list was even circulated, but fortunately, it did not go into effect. Instead, maintenance, administrative staff and some facilities’ hours were reduced.

However, this respite is only temporary. A funding crisis could occur again. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, this is in contrast with Oregon, where the state parks benefit from a fund that is independent from the state’s budget, and therefore cannot be cut. As a result, I had found their facilities to be superb, with campground amenities such as hot showers, and water spigots in each campsite.

A new ballot initiative, the California State Parks and Wildlife Conservation Trust Fund Act of 2010 seeks to do the same for California. If enacted, the ballot measure would provide a dedicated funding stream for state parks by raising vehicle registration fees by $18 per year.

In return, vehicles registered in California would receive free admission to any California State Parks. If you visit the State parks, this is a great deal, since a couple of visits costs more than $18.

Is it unfair to those who do not visit the parks ? I don’t think so. Public infrastructure is provided for anyone as part of the social contract. Whether you use them or not is your choice. If you do not have children, do you find it unfair that your tax dollars are used to fund schools ? You can more easily decide to visit a park than change your family situation. In addition, by providing a dedicated funding source for state park operations, General Fund monies would then be freed up for other uses.

How can you help now ? Make sure that the initiative gets enough signatures to make the November 2010 ballot. There is only 3 months left. I’ve volunteered to this effect with the Sierra Club, but there are many other organizations that endorse the measure and have similar volunteer programs. You can also volunteer directly on the Yes for State Parks site. Even publishing an article on a blog is deemed helpful !

High above the Great Basin Desert in Nevada, the South Snake Range forms a vegetated island protected by Great Basin National Park. At the timberline, groves of Bristlecone pine trees grow, clinging to rocky ridges and cirques. The oldest living things on earth, those trees, with fantastically gnarled shapes and great texture, were already saplings before the Egyptians built the pyramids.

The most well-known and most accessible Bristlecone pine grove in the park is reached by a hike from the end of Wheeler Peak Drive, 12 miles from the visitor center. Because of the high elevation (10,000 ft) the road is often closed by snow from late autumn to late spring. Aspen groves abound in the area around the parking lot, turning bright yellow in late September.

The Bristlecone Pine trail starts at the edge of the parking lot. It is about 1.5 miles (one way), and 600 feet of elevation gain to the Bristlecone pine trees and associated interpretative signs. As it zig-zags amongst them, it provides you with many angles, but you can also wander in the boulder fields to look for more views and specimen.

You can continue further on the trail for about a mile and another 600 feet of elevation gain to a point where you stand in a purely mineral place. You will be standing on large moraine, directly below the impressive headwall of Wheeler Peak, home to an active rock glacier. Wheeler Peak (13,065 ft) is the tallest independent mountain in Nevada.

Morning light is preferable on the Bristlecone pine grove, as a hill casts a shadow in the afternoon. On the other hand, the light on Wheeler Peak is better in late afternoon to sunset. I would make it an all-day exploration.

View all images of Great Basin National Park
Images from Wheeler Cirque

I just saw National Parks maps in PDF format for sale here. A quick glance at the sample Acadia National Park map was enough to determine that those are in fact the excellent maps produced and distributed by the National Park Service.

You may not be aware of that, but everything produced by the US government is in the public domain. This has been the case for a while. To digress a bit, the government commissioned (“work for hire”, paid with taxpayer dollars) the landmark photographic survey of the Farm Security Administration in the thirties, which included images by photographers such as Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange. All the resulting images are public domain, and many can be seen and downloaded here.

Back to the parks, if you go to the NPS page for Acadia, and click on “View Map”, you’ll get access to exactly the same file. Now, this viewer is nice, but maybe you’d like to download a PDF for off-line use ? I didn’t see any way to do that from the Acadia page.

Here is a tip for my readers. Many of the NPS documents are available from the little known Harpers Ferry Center site. For instance, the maps can be found nps.gov/carto. Just click on a state (for example Maine), and you will be given links to full size, downloadable PDF maps (if the “Adobe Acrobat PDF” link doesn’t work, be sure to try the “Alternate direct link”).

Now, don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with repackaging in a more convenient form, and reselling data which in itself is available for free. To begin with, that’s what the USGS was doing by selling to you maps on paper. The information was free, but not the medium. To download all the maps manually will take a little more time. But I thought you’d like to know it can be done.

Looking for topographic maps instead ? The USGS is phasing out the 7.5-minute (1:24000) paper maps, and has set-up a new site US Topo, where the updated maps can be downloaded, all for free. That’s a serious number of files ! If this overwhelms you, National Geographic, amongst others, has been selling those on CD for a while.

I’ve posted new images of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, taken during a trip in May 2009.

When I first visited Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, I limited my explorations to the North Rim. Although the relatively recent park doesn’t see many visitors, the North Rim is even more uncrowded, and it offers more unique perspectives than the South Rim, including the Narrows viewpoint, Exclamation point, and the North Vista Trail. The Black Canyon is one of the rare canyons that are more deep than wide. At the Chasm viewpoint, you are only about 1000 feet from the other rim, yet it takes a couple of hours by car, which explain the lesser visitation of the North Rim.

For the second visit, I spent all my time on the South Rim for the sake of completeness, which confirmed my preference for the North Rim as my research had indicated before. I was tempted to hike down to the river again, but the clouds looked ominous. I was glad I did not do so as torrential rainstorm struck in the afternoon. When I took the third image below, it was pouring, but instead of scrambing on steep and treachery terrain, I was photographing next to the road, almost from my car. That image was with the tripod set below the raised hatch of my station-wagon. On a large version, you can see every leaf glistening with water.