Jackson Lake, Grand Teton National Park. The biggest challenge here (as with a lot of landscape photography) is being at the right place at the right time. For this image, I felt it was important to have some foreground elements to balance out the scene in the distance. With rocks in water, I find that having wet rocks rather than dry rocks is important, so I spent some time (along with the people I was with) splashing very cold water on the rocks at the shore. Pentax K-3, Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM. Exposure: ISO 100, 18mm, 6.0 sec, f/11.
Photographer: Philip Esterle
Part-Time Professional Photographer
Photographic Specialties:
Landscape
Travel
Biography
I am a landscape photographer from Colorado, and I primarily specialize in images from National Parks of the western United States and Canada. Still working on expanding my range, and building my portfolio. My goal is to continue in photography education in the field, as well as with image processing with Photoshop, Lightroom, and other tools.
Arches National Park, Utah. The puddles of water near Courthouse Towers in Arches National Park are rarely more than a few inches deep and a few feet wide. So getting a reflection of a distant subject require getting very low to the ground, or being far away from the water. Seeing the composition while walking is rather challenging. In prior trips to this location, I discovered that kneeling was really painful for my knees, so it was here that I decided that knee pads were an essential part of my gear. The other thing that was important here was to be at the location after rains have passed through. These puddles dry up very quickly due to the arid conditions of the western US deserts. So having thunderstorms the day before is almost essential for capturing any reflections here. Pentax K-3, Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM. Exposure: ISO 100, 53mm, 1/25s f/11.Olympic National Park, Washington USA. Two challenges here: First, it’s a popular location. so it’s sometimes difficult to get an image while the bridge isn’t occupied by other visitors. Especially with long exposures, and multiple exposures for an HDR image. So the key here is patience. I think I was at this spot for more than 15 minutes before I was able to get all of the images that I needed in order to put it all together. Second, is the light. Forest scenes are often difficult to capture due to the very high dynamic range between shade and sun. Because of this, I prefer to shoot forests when the skies are completely overcast. At that time, there aren’t any very bright spots where the sun is finding its way through the canopy. For this image, the sky was completely covered, and it was also near sunset, so the light was perfect for the scene. Pentax K-1, Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Ultra Zoom XR. Exposure: ISO 100, 28mm, 5.0s, f/14.
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