Artists Palette/Artist Drive - Death Valley National Park (Part 33)

At the end of November last year (2012), I took a trip to Death Valley National Park. This is the second trip there in my life. The 1st time I went, I was still a little kid, and I didn't start taking photos yet. This time, I have a pro camera and I am ready to shoot the scenery. Death Valley National Park is known for its "out of this world" scenery, UFO sightings, and many other things. The desert is a very mysterious and beautiful place. In this chain of blog posts, I will be showing you mainly photos of Death Valley National Park, but also photos from surrounding areas like The Mojave Desert, Alabama Hills, and Rhyolite Ghost Town. I have picked out over 400 photos from my trip to show you guys and I will be dividing them into many blog posts. Unlike blog  post chains before, I obviously can't put a link of ever blog post on every single blog post, so instead, I will do the same thing I did for my Yellowstone National Park photos before, by sticking a link of the Next and Previous post on each blog post instead.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best work from Death Valley National Park, use this link. To see all of the photos from my Death Valley National Park trip use this link.

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Today I continue with the photos from Artist Drive and Artists Palette. Today, I also have a day time shot of where I saw the potential UFO. I actually did not notice I shot a  photo in the same place until I got home and started looking through my photos. How weird is that! Pretty much as I saw the photo, I was like, this photo looks similar to something I saw before. So after some comparison of the photo I shot the night before, I knew it was the same place. If you missed the blog post where I talked about my possible UFO sighting, you can view it here. Also, here is my intro to Artists Palette again for those of you who missed it. Artists Palette is famous for its colorful rocks caused by chemical reactions of the mineral rich soil. Definitely visit the area as the scenery is very beautiful and you don't really have to hike a lot. To get there, you take Artist Drive, which is a one way paved road. For the next few days, I will be showing you photos from Artist Drive (road leading to Artists Palette) and from Artists Palette itself.

Scenery

Artist Drive. One-way road through Artists Palette. 

There are 2 dips like these on the road. Note that my camera is leveled. Pretty much you have to drive down and then up. It was actually pretty fun to drive on.

A sign alerting you of the dip. 

2 cars driving through the dip. 

A closer shot of the dip.

HDR composition of the side of the dip. If you are wondering why there are two dips in the road, it seems that before Death Valley became a desert, the area had 2 rivers or small streams. 

Here is the view from the other side of the dip. From this photo, you can see clearly that a small river or stream used to run through the area. 

Another photo of the dry river or stream.

This was the exact spot where I saw the potential UFO the night before. If you missed the blog post where I talked about my possible UFO sighting, you can view it here.

The colorful rocks of Artists Palette. 

Panorama of the colorful rocks at Artists Palette. 

These are all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them! Next time, I will post the last of the photos from Artists Palette and Artist Drive. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

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Yosemite National Park/Mono Lake (Part 1)

Yosemite National Park is a national park located in California that stretches eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in the central eastern portion of California and covers around 761,268 acres or 3,080.74 km² of land. Yosemite National Park is best known for its waterfalls, deep valleys, grand meadows, giant sequoias, giant wilderness area, and much more. Mono Lake, a salt lake east of Yosemite National Park that is located in Mono County, California, covers a total of 45,133 acres or 182.65 km². The lake is famous for its high salt content and its tufa formations. I have visited both of those areas and are here to show you some of the photos I took at these two places along with some other photos I have taken along the route. These photos will be divided over several blog posts. I hope you enjoy the photos! If you would like to get notifications when I do post, you can Like/Follow me on the following fan pages: Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best Yosemite National Park photos from 2012, use this link. To view all of my photos from Yosemite National Park photos from 2012, use this link.

Parts: Yosemite Falls Comparison | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | HDR Compositions | Panoramas | 

Now let's introduce you to the photos for today. I took these photos on the way to Mono Lake (my first destination). I don't have the exact locations for these photos, and there wasn't really any names for the landmarks. I drove from the SF Bay Area to Mono Lake not crossing Yosemite. I first went onto Highway 108, and then switched over to Highway 395. The photos for today and the next few parts were taken at turnouts on one of those highways.

This was when I first entered the forest. Decided to take a rest. There were a small village with some restaurants and houses there.  

 Scenery from Donnell Vista in Stanislaus National Forest.

Donnell Lake scenery from Donnell Vista in Stanislaus National Forest.

Donnell Lake scenery from Donnell Vista in Stanislaus National Forest.

A bit more down hill, I saw a turn out for a stream. Since the stream was not that deep, I decided to take my tripod and camera into the river to take a photo. The water was very refreshing! It was slightly hot outside, and my feet got dirty from wearing flip flops, so the water did a good job cleaning my feet and also cooling me down.
Update August 6th, 2017: I've taken a few more trips to Stanislaus National Forest, and being more grown up and armed with a GPS, I have the locations on some of these spots I visited years ago. This was on the side of State Route 108 in the Stanislaus National Forest.

 The whole trip to Mono Lake was all up and down and up and down on the mountains. Here it is up on the mountains again. Took a photo of what I assume is a rocky peak.
Update August 6th, 2017: This was on the side of State Route 108 in the Stanislaus National Forest.

Saw a turnout that was next to a giant meadow. I think this was on the side of Highway 108 because according to my photos, I didn't cross Sonora Pass yet. I went down to take some panoramic shots and some wide angle shots of the place and to see what the area has to offer. Loved the open land! Didn't see any animals though. It was extremely quiet and peaceful in the great outdoors! The only thing I heard was a hawk chirping off in the distance. I will post the panoramic photos later. If you want to check if I have posted them or not, see if you see a "Panoramic Shots" in my Parts links at the beginning of the post. I plan on posting them at the very end when I have exhausted the rest of my my Yosemite photos.
Update August 6th, 2017: This was on the side of State Route 108 in the Stanislaus National Forest.

Not too sure what type of flower this is.

At the open meadow, I saw some flowers on the ground. I decided to take some close up photos. Took me quite some time as I had trouble hand holding the shots, so I had to use a tripod. I did not have a flash yet at that time, and there was a light breeze going at that time. Did not work too well for me. Wasted a lot of shots. HAHA 

Another flower in the meadow. Not sure what it's called.  

 Not sure what this is either.

This begins my photos at Sonora Pass and the entrance into the Toiyabe National Forest. The elevation at which these photos were taken is 9624 feet. I know this because I took a photo of the sign. XD Great tip to remember. You can also add a GPS device or get a GPS logger, but I find taking a photo of the signs in the area to be good enough. I sometimes forget like I did for the photos above, but that's just me. HAHA Bad memory, plus I sometimes get lazy.

The view at the top of the mountain was amazing. Again, very peaceful except a few birds squawking. Took photos of them after I spotted them. Got some wide angle shots at this location and one panorama! I will post the panoramic photos later. If you want to check if I have posted them or not, see if you see a "Panoramic Shots" in my Parts links at the beginning of the post. I plan on posting them at the very end when I have exhausted the rest of my my Yosemite photos.
Update August 6th, 2017: This was on the side of State Route 108 at Sonora Pass in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.

Here are the birds I heard squawking.
Update August 6th, 2017: This was on the side of State Route 108 at Sonora Pass in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.

The birds were too high up in the trees and too far away for me to get a clear shot. Can't see enough details to know what bird this is.
Update August 6th, 2017: This was on the side of State Route 108 at Sonora Pass in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.

This is all the photos I have for today! I hope you have enjoyed them. If you can help me out with the names of the flowers or birds, please leave me a comment below! Please don't forget to share my blog posts with your friends! If you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

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Big Sur (HDR Scenery & Panorama)

I recently visited Monterey and went south a bit more also visiting Carmel-by-the-Sea, Point Lobos State Reserve, and Big Sur. This trip along California's beautiful coastline has lead me take many many beautiful photos! I am here to share them with you spread over several blog posts. I hope you enjoy viewing these photos!

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view the best photos from this trip, use this link. To view all of the photos from this trip, use this link.

Before I get started, I would just like to remind you that I made a Facebook Fan page for this photography blog. You can "Like Us" here. I have also made Google+ and Twitter pages. If you follow or "Like" me on these, you can be updated whenever I post something new! :) Please invite your friends too! I'm trying to get more viewers on here. Anyways, as always, enjoy my photos!

Parts

Point Lobos: Birds and Seals | Squirrels | Flowers and Misc | HDR Scenery | Regular Scenery

Fisherman's Wharf - Monterey, CA: George's Birds | Sapporo Sushi & Steakhouse | Scenery | Birds/Misc | Seagulls

Carmel-By-The-Sea: Photos

Big Sur: HDR Scenery & Panorama | Regular Scenery

I have three HDR compositions and one panoramic photo from Big Sur today. Big Sur is located on the west coast of USA in California. I hope you enjoy viewing these photos. After this blog post, I will have one more post from this trip displaying the regular scenery photos I took. Please take note that you can click the photos to enlarge them. The panoramic photo has been compressed and resized for the purpose of displaying it on the blog.

我今天有一些 Big Sur 景色照片。Big Sur 是在加州，美国的西边。

The panoramic view of Big Sur near Bixby Creek Bridge. The bridge is on the left of this photo. 

Ocean scenery

Photography Tip: You see how the water near the beach is clear and you can see the bottom? Do you see how the sky is also a very saturated blue? This photo was taken through a circular polarizing filter. Polarizing filters can help get rid of glare from the sun and also help saturate skies for a deeper, more vibrant blue. When buying filters, make sure you buy the correct size for your lens. For polarizers, there are two types. One type is a linear polarizer (cheaper) which will give you the best polarizing effect, but will render your auto focus system useless. The other type (the one I use) is the circular polarizer (more expensive). Circular polarizers gives a slightly less effect than linear polarizers but it is compatible with auto focus systems. When using polarizers, make sure you set your camera on a tripod as this filter will cut around 1-3 stops of light depending on the filter. I recommend B+W polarizers as it is made of extremely high quality materials. I've touched the filter by accident several times with my finger... My fingerprints did not stick to the filter at all, nothing showed up on the filter!

 Ocean scenery plus flower field. 

 Bixby Creek Bridge

I hope you have enjoyed viewing the scenery on today's post. If you are starting to get tired by this chain of posts, I have 1 more, please bare with me! :) Please don't forget to share my blog posts with your friends! If you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Parts

Point Lobos: Birds and Seals | Squirrels | Flowers and Misc | HDR Scenery | Regular Scenery

Fisherman's Wharf - Monterey, CA: George's Birds | Sapporo Sushi & Steakhouse | Scenery | Birds/Misc | Seagulls

Carmel-By-The-Sea: Photos

Big Sur: HDR Scenery & Panorama | Regular Scenery

Mission Peak Regional Preserve

I recent went hiking on Mission Peak and took some photos. Mission Peak is a mountain in the SF Bay Area. After I gained some altitude, I was able to get some panoramics of the whole Bay Area! I hope you enjoy! Remember you can click on the photos to see the original size!

Also for you locals, I began hiking at the "Stanford Entrance". You know the road called Stanford that intersects Mission Blvd. Yeah...

Anyways, let's start off with the two panoramics I took. If you are not from the area, Mission Peak is probably a very popular mountain for local residents. It is a great place to exercise and once you gain some altitude, you can see the entire bay area.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. If you are interested, please select one of the links below:

• Mission Peak (Best Photos)
• Mission Peak 2012 (All Photos)

Photography Tip: For panoramic photos, use your camera in portrait mode. This way you can get more of the landscape in view. Also, put your camera in manual mode and select a good shutter speed for the entire shot. This will insure equal lighting through out the photos that is going to be stitched later. Make sure you use an Aperture greater than 8/f.

The beginning of the trail.

6 squirrels are in this photo. Can you spot them? :P

With my zoom lens, I got a photo of Central Park. :) You might have heard about this park in my past posts.

This is all the photos for today. Again like last time, I got a wide variety of photos and I don't know what I will be releasing next time. I hope you have enjoyed today's post and please remember to share with your friends and family! See you guys later! Thanks for viewing.

Oh yeah, by the way, are you a lucky owner of  a Canon EOS camera? Do you not like the high cost of CF memory cards? Check out my tutorial here on how to use SDHC cards in your camera!

A trip to Yellowstone/Grand Teton National Park (Part 21)

Hello! This is the pictures of my trip to Yellowstone/Grand Teton National Park. Not all pictures are of the inside of Yellowstone/Grand Teton National Park. I visited Idaho Falls, Mormon Church in Salt Lake City, and some other places along the way. :) So please enjoy!

你好！这就开始我的黄石公园照片了。不是每个照片是黄石公园的。我还去了很多路上的地方。请欣赏。

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see (except the a few photos of my friends and I), they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best photos from this trip, use this link. To view all of the photos from my trip, use this link.

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Today I have more pictures from my floating trip in Grand Teton.

我不太会翻译。:\ 我今天放更多的 Grand Teton 照片。

As you can see my last post was about Las Vegas... I just came back from Las Vegas... After Yellowstone/Grand Teton pictures, I have a few San Francisco pictures I'm going to post. After that comes my Las Vegas pictures...

我上个文章说我从拉斯维加斯回来了。黄石公园照片放完了我还有一些三藩市的照片。那个放完了就是放我的拉斯维加斯照片了。

Yellowstone/Grand Teton videos are still delayed. I am still having trouble uploading to Youtube. It keeps giving me a failure message every time it reaches 4%. This is not the first time it happened. Hopefully Google will fix this problem soon. It seems to be a bug on Google's servers.

I may end up starting my other photos too, and whenever I can get it uploaded, I'll post it on this blog. Hopefully soon... I don't have that much Yellowstone/Grand Teton pictures left. LOL What is this? Half a year now? XD Yeah... Like I said in the beginning, I took a crap load of pictures. HAHA

I didn't take that much pictures in Las Vegas... I got around 64 pictures? I think... It will still take some time... LOL I have around 40 Yellowstone/Grand Teton pictures left.

我在拉斯维加斯没有拍那么多照片。我会放差不多六十四章拉斯维加斯的照片上来。我黄石公园的照片差不多还剩下四十章照片。

Scenery

景色 

Beaver. :) 

河狸。:)

Scenery

景色

Beaver. :D

河狸。:D 

Elk or moose? Not sure... 

Scenery

景色

Next time, I'll be posting more pictures from my floating trip in Grand Teton.
我不太会翻译。:\ 下一次我会放更多的 Grand Teton 照片。

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