Evening Sky

Just a quick shot of the sky from last week, my next door neighbor (Thanks Skip) called me and told me I need to grab the camera and get outside. He was right, there were shots lining up every few seconds.

A day on the Bay

Well, my daughter and I finally made the time to head back out on the boat out of Moss Landing this past weekend. It was time to go see the whales once again. It always helps me clear my head to get out on the water, see the whales and take some photos.

This past year has been a tough one and we never really had the chance to get out on the water, this year IS GOING TO BE DIFFERENT…

Anyway, we went out with Sanctuary Cruises once again, the new owners are great and they got us right out to the whales with a nice smooth ride. We ended up going out about 12 to 15 miles would be my guess, pretty close to the outer edge of the bay. Once we got there we had what look like at least two Gray whales and quite a few Pacific White-Sided dolphins.

It turned out to be three Gray whales in mating behavior and it was great, they hung around the same area for about three hours, with dolphins taking turn swimming around them and then around us.

I could not have had more fun…

See Ya..

Horsetail Falls

Well folks, its that time of year again. Time for the hoards for photographers to make the yearly pilgrimage to Yosemite to see if they can capture their own image of Horsetail Falls and the natural firefall.

During the last two weeks in February every year the sunset lines up correctly and weather and water permitting put on a brief but spectacular show.

Here are of couple of Images from 2009

Horsetail 2009

Everyone has a theory about what lens to shoot with, what camera you choose etc… I’ll only give three pieces of advice on this. Bring a camera, bring a tripod, dress warm. I’ll leave the rest for other folks to argue about

Oh, and by the way, be patient… I have seen people over the years take a few pictures of the first glimmer of color and leave. Wait until the sun is all the way down before you pack up and leave. You never know what you might see.

The best times to photograph the falls this year looks like it’s between Feb 15th to Feb 28th, I have heard people say you can wait until early March, don’t believe it… The sun is too far to the right of the falls by that time, and it just doesn’t look the same. On the other hand, with the way the weather is lining up this year we may not have a choice about early March..

See you out there,
Ed

Horsetail 2008

Horsetail 2007

Canon’s Photography in the Parks Contest

I’ve been narrowing down my choices for entry into this years Canon contest, this year we can enter ten photographs. I have a couple picked out so far but here is the first one I’m entering.  Let me know what you think..

Gigapan Systems

If you are a fan of Panoramas like I am,  you need to go check this out.

Bears in the Valley

Well,  since it’s been forever since I’ve updated this blog I thought I’d get off my butt and share what I’ve been up to.  If you have seen my website lately you’ve noticed that we took a trip to the southwest again, been doing some model shoots lately which is a complete depatrure from what I normally shooot,  but it’s been interesting.  I’ll try to cover those experiences in another post.

What I wanted to make a few quick notes baout today were the bears in Yosemite valley.

The bears have started to make themselves a little more visible in the valley lately, as happens this time of year.  And, as usual, I do my best to get up there as much as possible to see if I can get a few pictures of them.  We ran up to the park about a week or so ago and sure enough after a little looking we came across a bear,  it looked like it might have been one of the cubs from last year.   I moved in on his position slowly and made sure he knew I was there, he showed little fear of me, in fact he barely gave me a second look. (pun intended)

The fact that the bear paid little attention to me is more than a  little worrisome, it means this particular bear might be becoming used to people which is both dangerous for people and especially dangerous for the bear.

I paced him at a pretty good distance taking a shot here and there, he moved in on me until he was about 50-60 feet away,  going about his usual business for looking for something to eat on the ground.  I took a few more shots and decided it was time to leave this one alone. When I stood and started walking away the bear started off in the other direction, across a bridge and was heading off toward thicker brush.

I’m always pretty thankful about my brief visits with the bears, and that they tolerate me long enough to get a few shots.

And please remember to SLOW DOWN!
Two bears have been hit by cars this year! Seventeen bears were hit by cars last year, along with an unknown number of deer, squirrels and other park animals. Slow down and save Yosemite’s wildlife.

Take care,

Ed

My Book

My book is finally finished, This is about 40 of my favorite pictures from recent years. I hope you enjoy it.

Days Behind th…

By by Edward Hughes

Book Preview

Monterey Area

Well,  we took of with plans on shooting some sunrise and sunset pictures of the missions on Saturday but things didn’t work out quite the way we expected.  So we ended up visiting our Otter friends in Moss Landing, they have become quite the celebrities, with as many as 40 – 50 people hanging out on the shore with cameras.  Obiviously the otters were just thrilled.

Then we ended up  in Pacific Grove for sunset.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday, my girls seemed to have a blast and got another pile of Sea Glass for our collection.

Another Shot from Maui

I’ve been digging through my shots from our trip to Maui in Feb.  I found one more I think I can live with,  it made a good looking print.   Let me know what you think.

Digging through old pictures

I was unable to get out and shoot this weekend, so I thought I’d dig through some old pictures to see if there were any gems  that I might have missed right after the shoot.   I came up with a few but here is one that I really liked.  It’s from Antelope Canyon just outside of Page Az.  I really need to head back there someday and try it again,  what a madhouse that place is with photographers,  you have a very limited amount of time to get your shots then move on.