alaska

Photography 101: Landscape
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Photography 101: Landscape

Our Day 15 assignment for Photography 101 was “Landscape”. I have included several photos which feature mountains, glaciers, desert, ocean coastline, and water reflections, with most of them taken at various national parks. I will present them in order from north to south.

I like this first photo taken in Denali National Park, Alaska, which shows reflections in the water from the mountains, trees, and clouds. This day was overcast, but the photo turned out nice anyway (maybe more interesting than if it were clear and sunny).  It’s interesting how the trees frame the photo across the upper middle, left side, and bottom right.  This photo highlights the peaceful remoteness of this beautiful area of the country.

Denali Reflections

Denali Reflections

This is one was taken from a cruise ship in Glacier National Park, Alaska, and it this shows reflections in the water of both the glacier and mountains. The glacier originates many miles inland and moves slowly down toward the water, where you can see remnant of icebergs that fell off the glacier.  It feels cold and looks quite impressive.

Glacier Reflections

Glacier Reflections

Here’s a photo taken while hiking Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park of Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula near Seattle. It’s interesting with the various shades of green in the closer mountains along with the snow-capped mountains in the distance (taken in July).

Hurricane Ridge

Hurricane Ridge

Here is a photo of the Pacific Ocean coastline at La Jolla, California, north of San Diego. The water looks so peaceful and inviting with such contrast to the imposing cliff which juts out into the water; the different blues of the water and sky is nice too.

La Jolla Coast

La Jolla Coast

This shows some of the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park in far west Texas along the Rio Grande border with Mexico. We were hiking to a window opening between the rocks that looked out over the surrounding desert area. This is another very remote area which offers unique quiet beauty; the stars are supposed to be amazing at night for those staying in this area, but we didn’t get the opportunity to see them (it might have been overcast, or maybe we just forgot to look up).

Chisos Mountains

Chisos Mountains

I hope you have enjoyed viewing these landscape photos. These are all great places to visit, if you get the chance.

Photography 101: Water
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Photography 101: Water

When I think of “Water”, I remember all the wonderful and fun places we have visited which all feature water in various forms. I have included a few photos that capture some of these images for this Photography 101 Day 3 assignment.

Here we have frozen water from a wonderful 10-day Alaskan cruise and land tour in Denali National Park we took in 2009.  One of the highlights was visiting this impressive Margerie Glacier in Glacer Bay National Park. It’s about 1 mile wide and extends about 21 miles from Mount Root (12,860 feet high) on the Alaska-Canada border.  We even witnessed it calving icebergs where chunks fall off into the water with a loud cracking boom sound.  Glacial ice is blue because its compacted ice absorbs every other color of the spectrum except blue so that’s what we see .

Margerie Glacier

Margerie Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska

 

Here the water is massive and provides lots of great recreation opportunities as well as views like this.  We love hiking, especially in scenic areas like the Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve in La Jolla, California (San Diego) where we visited in 2012.  There are great views of the Pacific Ocean here with the beaches and cliffs, and wonderful hiking trails to enjoy.

Pacific Ocean at Torrey Pines

Pacific Ocean at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, La Jolla, CA

 

Another place we love to go is Lake Tahoe, which is so large and the water is very blue because it’s so deep.  We’re fortunate that my sister-in-law lives there so we get to visit quite a bit and enjoy this great area in the Sierra Mountains of California which borders Nevada.  There are so many great things to enjoy here like hiking, but sometimes it’s just so pleasant to appreciate the beauty while relaxing in a restaurant by the lake with the trees, boats, and mountains in our view. This was taken in 2011 at the Wild Goose restaurant, which I understand is now closed.

Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe from Wild Goose restaurant

 

Here the water forms the border which separates Mexico and the United States at Lajitas, Texas.  We stayed at Lajitas Golf Resort there in February 2013, and played golf at Black Jack’s Crossing golf course.  This photo was taken from our golf tee looking down to the green where we had to hit.  Beyond that you can see the Rio Grande meandering along between the countries with the Mexican mountains in the background.  It’s not very wide so it’s understandable how easy it must be for illegal immigrants to cross.

Rio Grande

Rio Grande from Black Jack’s Crossing golf tee

 

In this photo from Big Bend National Park, you can see how the water has formed the deep cliffs of Santa Elena Canyon on the Rio Grande over thousands of years.  We hiked on a trail along the edge of the water where we could appreciate the view from the riverbed.  You can’t go much further because you would go into Mexico (illegally).

Santa Elena Canyon

Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park

 

This year we attended my niece’s wedding in Seattle, Washington and the reception was held in the Columbia Tower Club on the 76th floor.  I  took this photo of Puget Sound surrounding the city looking down on all the city’s skyscrapers with the 605-foot Space Needle landmark built for the 1962 World’s Fair in the middle.  It offered wonderful views below in all directions, including Mount Ranier as well as the stadiums for the Seattle Mariners baseball and Seattle Seahawks football teams.

Seattle and Puget Sound

Seattle, Space Needle, and Puget Sound (from 76th floor)

 

Of course, after all the wonderful vacations and fun times traveling to other places, it’s also great to come back home to Lago Vista where we enjoy our lake views and sunsets every day.

Currently, I use an iPhone 5 for my photos, although some of these earlier ones were taken with an iPhone 3G, Canon PowerShot S400, and Kodak C875.  I look forward to share more photos with you.