Tag Archives: clouds

April 28, 2020 · 8:29 am

It’s Trivia Tuesday 4-28-2020!

A smoky afternoon in Grand Teton National Park

It’s Trivia Tuesday! Did you know that the Tetons are the youngest mountains in the Rockies, and that the eastern front of the Teton Range is one huge fault scarp?

Speaking of Grand Teton National Park, tourism officials in Jackson Hole are looking forward to reaching that new “normal” regarding how they will open up, according to an article published today in the National Parks Traveler:

https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/…/jackson-hole-touris…

As for this image itself, I captured it on my very first visit into this national park, during my 2018 road trip move from Texas to central Washington. It was in the afternoon – I’d checked into my hotel, unloaded some of my stuff, then hopped into the car to drive into the park and do a teeny bit of scouting to see if I could find any good spots for sunrise shots. I didn’t go very far, though, because, in all honesty, I was plumb tuckered out. I’d been on the road for 11 days, driving, unloading, reloading, stopping off at national parks for 2-3 days here and there for full days of photography. I was having fun, but I was tired. Besides, as the afternoon progressed, the smoke from forest fires near and far became heavier. This image was taken not too far from the Windy Point Turnout. I’d gotten some shots there, then drove a little further northward before deciding to call it quits for the afternoon. By then, I’d pretty much figured out what my sunrise location would be.

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Filed under Canon, Grand Teton National Park, National Parks, Photography, summer, Travel, Trivia Tuesday, Wyoming

Tagged as afternoon, Canon, clouds, dramatic sky, forest fire, geology, Grand Teton National Park, Grand Tetons, haze, jagged, July, mountains, National Park, outdoors, photography, rugged, sage, sage brush, smoke, summer, travel, where the trails take you, Wyoming

November 17, 2019 · 6:28 am

A Stormy Day At Cross Trails Pond

I’m up early because the inside of my cheek is killing me. I had a back molar implant put in this past Wednesday and my cheek got the brunt of some burring work on the cap and the upper back molar. Bleah. So, I can’t sleep. I’ll take an aspirin after I have something for breakfast later. Whenever I can’t sleep, I get up, turn on the laptop, and work on photos. I’m still (and will be for months, I’m sure) cleaning up my photo website and I happened upon this image in my Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge gallery. It was an awesome morning on that June day. Sometimes, going to the refuge was a hit or miss prospect. I either saw lots of birdlife, like here, or no birdlife. On this stormy morning, not only were there large numbers of egrets and spoon bills, but the clouds were awesomely dramatic. Out of all the images I took at the refuge, this photo numbers as one of my favorites.

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Filed under birds, Brazoria NWR, nature, Photography, Seasons, summer, Texas, Wildlife Refuge

Tagged as bird, birds, Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge, Brazoria NWR, clouds, dramatic, dramatic landscape, egret, June, national wildlife refuge, pond, spoonbill, storm, storm clouds, stormy, summer, Texas, water, where the trails take you

November 12, 2019 · 9:28 am

Summer Afternoon Monsoons Over The North Rim

I’ve finished working on cleaning up and adding key words to all of the images in my Grand Canyon gallery on my website. Yay me! Actually, this is something I should have been doing years ago so potential customers could run decent searches on my photos. Now, it’s going to take months to give all my images keywords so potential customers can run searches. I’ve started cleaning up the Mount Rainier gallery … All 200+ photos in there. Hoo boy!

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Filed under Arizona, Canon, Canon Lens, Grand Canyon National Park, National Parks, North Rim, Photography, Seasons, summer, Travel

Tagged as afternoon, Arizona, Canon, canyon, clouds, Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon NP, monsoon, National Park, rain, rugged, steep, summer, travel, where the trails take you

August 20, 2019 · 11:05 am

Tiny People, Big Scenery

I was hiking along the Rim Trail between Sunset Point and Lower Inspiration Point in Bryce Canyon National Park when the summer monsoon clouds started to arrive, providing thunder, lightning and subsequent rain. I captured this shot before hotfotting it back along the trail to the lodge cabins, where I took shelter from the storm.

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Filed under 5DSR, Bryce Canyon National Park, Canon, Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L III, Canon Lens, Geology, HDR, National Parks, Photography, Seasons, summer, Travel

Tagged as 16-35mm, 5DSR, Bryce Canyon, Bryce Canyon National Park, Canon, clouds, Inspiration Point, July, monsoon, National Park, Rebecca Latson Photography, rebeccalatsonphotography, rim trail, scale and reference, storm, summer, wide angle

June 25, 2019 · 11:00 am

Time Of Day And Weather Differences

Morning Views of Nugget Pond, The Alaska Range, and Denali Mountain

I write a monthly “Photography In The National Parks” column for the National Parks Traveler. I try to gear the column for any type of photography, from smartphone to point-and-shoot to SLR. I will own up that quite a few of my tips involve things for SLRs, like Neutral Density and Polarizing filters, but for the most part, the tips and techniques I include are for any sort of photographer. One of the tips I emphasize in many of my articles for this column is to visit (re-visit) a favorite spot during different seasons, weather conditions, and times of the day. The images above, taken during an August stay at Camp Denali in Denali National Park & Preserve, were captured during the morning hours, but on different days and under different weather conditions. As you can see, they all look a little different, don’t they?

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Filed under Alaska, Canon, Canon Lens, Denali National Park, National Parks, National Parks Traveler, Photography, Photography In The National Parks, Seasons, summer, Travel, weather

Tagged as Alaska, August, Camp Denali, Canon, Canon 5D Mark III, clouds, Denali, landscape, landscape photography, morning, mountains, National Park, National Parks Traveler, photography, Photography In The National Parks, photography tips, Rebecca Latson Photography, rebeccalatsonphotography, scenery, summer, sunrise, travel, weather

March 4, 2019 · 10:11 am

Clouds In The Mountains, Glacier National Park

I’ve been going through archived photos lately, reworking some and editing ones I’d never bothered with before. Why? In part, that’s what photographers do when they get better at their editing skills, and in addition, I’ve discovered that the square format I’ve never liked is actually quite helpful at creating a photo from something I thought was useless but which I didn’t want to consign to the virtual trash bin.

That square format – the one Instagram likes so much – I’ve learned, once again, to never say never. As a matter of fact, I’m writing an article for the National Parks Traveler about the square format and Instagram, but it won’t show up until probably around June, since I already have articles in queue up through May.

For now, consider this yet another piece of advice to never delete images you think are no good because of that blurry leaf amongst the otherwise clear leaves, or the car you accidentally photographed going over a bridge with a beautiful waterfall beneath it. The squre crop tool can remove those things, but you need to keep an eye out on how you crop your image so you continue to tell the story you want of that particular landscape.

As for this image, it was captured a long time ago. I was driving from the western entrance to the park, up to Logan Pass. The clouds were low and swirling around the mountains and I stopped to get a shot along the way up to The Loop, that first real switchback up Going-To-The-Sun Road.

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Filed under autumn, Canon, Glacier National Park MT, Montana, National Parks, Photography, Seasons, Travel, Travel and Photography

Tagged as autumn, Canon, clouds, forest, Glacier National Park, landscape, Montana, mountains, National Park, photography, Rebecca Latson Photography, rebeccalatsonphotography, scenery, square format, travel, trees

September 21, 2018 · 7:21 am

Early Morning At Willow Flats

An early-morning view of the Grand Teton Mountains across Willow Flats
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

I’d finished my last breakfast at the Jackson Lake Lodge and noticed these wonderful colors and clouds right outside the dining room windows. So I hoofed it to my car, brought out the tripod and returned to this spot to capture a few morning images before heading on to Yellowstone National Park, that day.

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Filed under Canon, Grand Teton National Park, National Parks, Photography, Travel, Wyoming

Tagged as Canon, clouds, Grand Teton National Park, Grand Tetons, July, landscape, landscape photography, morning, morning light, mountains, National Park, photography, Rebecca Latson Photography, rebeccalatsonphotography, summer, willow flats, Wyoming

September 9, 2018 · 8:16 am

Splendid Isolation

It was indeed splendid isolation that day. I stood on the Rim Trail between Inspiration and Sunset Points, all by myself, feeling the breeze in my face and enjoying the vast view. It was the monsoon season and the “thunderbumpers” were moving swiftly toward my area. I knew I needed to hightail it back to the lodge, like all the other sensible people were doing, but I kept having to stop to capture a photo of the scene. I did finally make it back to the Sunset View Point just as the rain began to pummel people still out there. I jogged over to one of the cabins to stand underneath the roof of the cabin’s patio as the rain, thunder and lightning continued. Of course, I was soaking wet already, but at least I was out of the elements. It’s never a good idea to be standing in a thunderstorm because of the lightning strikes, which occur with regularity in the high, exposed altitudes.

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Filed under Bryce Canyon National Park, Canon, Geology, Landscape, National Parks, Photography, Seasons, summer, Travel, weather

Tagged as Bryce Canyon, Canon, cloud, clouds, geology, hoodoos, July, landscape, landscape photography, monsoon, National Park, Rebecca Latson Photography, rebeccalatsonphotography, red rock, rim trail, stormcloud, summer, thundercloud, Utah

April 22, 2018 · 9:34 am

Happy Earth Day 2018!

Happy Earth Day to you, this April 22nd, 2018. I feel like I experience Earth Day every time I visit a national park. On this occasion, I was up with scads of other people at Sunrise Point in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, watching: the sunrise.

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Filed under 5DS, 5DSR, Bryce Canyon National Park, Canon, Canon Lens, Geology, Landscape, National Parks, Photography, Seasons, Spring, sunrise, Travel

Tagged as 16-35mm f2.8 III, 2018, 5DS, 5DSR, Bryce Canyon, Canon, clouds, Earth Day, f22, geologic, geology, hiking, landscape, landscape photography, morning, National Park, Queens Garden, Rebecca Latson Photography, rebeccalatsonphotography, sunrise, sunstar, trail, travel, Utah, wide angle

June 12, 2016 · 11:51 am

Morning Storm Clouds

I finished every single one of my errands/chores yesterday so I could drive out to the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge this morning to see what might be there: tall grass and reeds and cattails with lots of water but not much birdlife – at least, not in the area in which I found myself and nothing near to me and my 500mm lens. The clouds on this morning, however, were dark and fluffy and big and presaged the coming storms predicted for today. So I pulled out the other tripod and my Canon 5DSR with the 16-35mm f//4 IS lens, affixed a circular polarizer to it and used my grad ND filter to bring out the texture in the clouds.

Clouds are a photographer’s best friend. They add drama and character to an already lovely scene and can really spice up an otherwise ordinary or ho-hum scene. The thing about photographing awesome clouds, though, is that you also need a frame of reference or some scale. So don’t just photograph the clouds themselves. Your viewers won’t know whether this was a horizon-filling scene or just a small spot in the sky. Add some ground or buildings or *something* to the cloud scene.

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Filed under 5DSR, Brazoria NWR, Canon, Landscape, nature, Photography, Texas, Wildlife Refuge

Tagged as Brazoria, Canon, clouds, landscape, national wildlife refuge, nature, NWR, photography, Rebecca Latson Photography, rebeccalatsonphotography, scenery, Texas, TX