Anza-Borrego Wildflower conditions – 2012

Ron NiebruggeAnza-Borrego, California, Photos, Travel 2 Comments

Font's Point, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.

Font's Point, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.

Every year when I get down this way I start getting inquires about the famous desert wildflower bloom – so I thought I would provide an update.  The fact I’m not posting a photo of wildflowers probably says it all.

I have had my running shoes on and have been exploring many of the canyons and past “hot spots” over the last few days.  I have found a few blooms here and there, some chuparosa, a few cactus, desert agave (century plant and lots of oc – just enough options for my workshop this weekend), but by and large, there really aren’t any wildflowers this year.  The sign at the visitor center sums it up well.  The water year begins here on July 1.  For the last two years, the year to date rainfall for this area has been right about 7.5 inches.  This year it sits at just over 2 inches – and about 1/4 of that has fallen since we have arrived which is probably too late.

For those that are adventurous, there are a few wildflowers near water sources, mainly Borrego Palm Canyon and Coyote Canyon.

Fortunately, there are plenty of other things to see and photograph in Anza-Borrego beside just the wildflowers!

Dinosaur Night Sky

Ron NiebruggeAnza-Borrego, California, Photos, Travel 10 Comments

Dinosaur sculpture against a night sky, Anza-Borrego, California.

Dinosaur sculpture against a night sky, Anza-Borrego, California.

Last night I set up a couple of simultaneous time-lapses of the night sky here near Borrego Srings.  It was a perfect, warm, moonless night for such activity!

This is a single frame from one of the time-lapses.  This was shot on a moving 6 foot ramp made for just such purposes.  I had a second camera in a stationary position – so from the camera I have a time-lapse, and I can stack the images and make a long star trail image.  At some point I will probably do both, but don’t know that I will try them while working from a laptop on the road.

Empire Polo Club

Ron NiebruggeCalifornia, Photos, Travel 7 Comments

Players at the Empire Polo Club, Indio, California.

Players at the Empire Polo Club, Indio, California.

Last weekend we drove up to the Palm Springs area to visit a group of friends from Alaska.  We were looking for things to do when someone suggested we check out the polo games at the Empire Polo Club.  Admittedly, I know nothing about horses, and even less about polo, but I’m always game for a new experience.  Well, I’m glad we went – really was a fun way to spend some time in the sun!  Seeing the horses up close, running at full speeding, cutting, turning – really impressive.  And even better then seeing them up close was hearing them up close!  The sound of a group of horses running at full speed is really something – a dull thunder that really gets your attention.

Now I know what you might be thinking – Polo is only for the rich – and the Bentley parked out front only added to that impression.  And I’m sure playing polo takes a large investment in time and money – it’s not like you can just throw together an afternoon pickup game with your buddies.  But, to watch the polo games at the large, beautiful grounds at the Empire Polo Club was completely free.  Heck, they didn’t even charge for parking which is kind of standard procedure in California.  So if you find yourself in the area and looking for something different, check it out.

For the photo, I decided to use a slow exposure in part to hide a busy background, but also to help show the power and grace of these beautiful animals.  I varied my aperture to keep my shutter speed at around 1/15th to 1/30th of a second.  This image was with a Canon 7D and a 70-200 f/4 with a 2x converter set at 238mm.  The exposure was 1/15th of a second at f/45 and iso 200.

Since I was enjoying the day with friends I didn’t spend much time with photography – I would love to go back for some more serious photography.

Dry Lake – Anza Borrego Desert State Park

Ron NiebruggeAnza-Borrego, California, Photos, Travel 7 Comments

Dry lake bed at sunset, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.

Dry lake bed at sunset, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.

As clouds started to form last night and it looked like it might be a good sunset – I headed to this dry lake bed knowing that it’s wonderful patterns would give me something interesting to work with along with the beautiful sky.

I haven’t posted here in a week – it took a bit longer to get situated then I expected as we dealt with a few issues that happen when a vehicle sits too long.  Things like batteries and tires are some of the items that don’t like to sit.  But, I should be back at it now!

Goodbye Ice

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Photos, Travel 16 Comments

Frozen waterfall, Seward, Alaska.

A recent photo of a frozen waterfall, Seward, Alaska.

As a travel / outdoor photographer obviously traveling is an important, and fun part of the occupation. Ironically, aside from a three week trip to Hawaii, we have been near home in Alaska non stop for the past 10 months – although I have done a few week long trips within the state.  For someone who is away from home 150 to 200 days a year – this is about the least amount of traveling I have done in the past 10 plus years..  But, don’t feel sorry for me – there is lots of awesome stuff to see and photograph in Alaska.

This lack of travel is about to change, but more on that in a minute.  I have been working extra hard during all this recent home / office time to bring some big large projects to fruition.  As you may know, for the last two years I have been experimenting and fine tuning the process of creating 3D video.  Well I have finally seen that process through full circle and this week sent out about 90 3D HD clips split between the two stock agencies who specialize in such material – one in the U.S., one in Europe.  These are agencies I had been accepted to nearly a year ago, now it will be interesting to see if they will actually make us any money – until now 3D video has been a big drain of time and money.  Time will tell and it will be interesting to see what happens.

I have also joined and submitted over a 100 regular 2D HD clips to a major U.S. agency.  This is a combination of video and time-lapses.  Again, this is an entirely new business segment for me, and one I have enjoyed .  The learning curve is definitely steep for all these projects, but I have enjoyed the challenge.

But, enough of the office time!  This weekend we fly South and pick up our travel trailer.  The first month will be spent in our favorite desert state park, Anza-Borrego.  We will be doing a lot of photography in and around the area and may take some short trips to nearby areas.  I will also be doing a photo workshop there – unfortunately, I only applied for a permit for one weekend and have had to turn a lot of people away.  After that, I don’t know where I will be going.  Probably Arizona, and maybe Nevada.  I plan on attending the 2012 NAB show again, so that means we will probably be on the road for 10 weeks or so.  It should be fun – one of the nice things about traveling is immersing myself into the creative process.  And now that I have become proficient with 3D – I look forward to doing some more of that as well.

As always, I will keep doing updates here on the blog once we get settled in next week sometime – see you then!

Enchanted Forest

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Chugach, Photos, Travel 2 Comments

Lost Lake Trail, Chugach National Forest, Seward, Alaska.

Lost Lake Trail, Chugach National Forest, Seward, Alaska.

This is a recent photo of the Lost Lake Trail is cutting through a section of forest that we have always referred to as the enchanted forest thanks in part to the cool witches hair hanging from the trees.

Jurassic Falls

Ron NiebruggeHawaii, Photos, Travel 5 Comments

The waterfall featured in the movie Jurassic Park, Kauai, Hawaii.

The waterfall featured in the movie Jurassic Park, Kauai, Hawaii.

“That is the stairway that Jack Black was filmed on in Mission Impossible” says the manager of a rooftop restaurant in Honolulu as he graciously blocked open a door to a fire escape to that I could go out on the roof for some photography.  And thus started a theme.  Everywhere we went in Hawaii there would be a reference to some show and movie having been filmed at the particular location we were visiting.  Like in this case, our pilot explained that this waterfall was featured prominently in Jurassic Park.

Unfortunately, I haven’t seen the Jack Black film, Jurassic Park or any of the other shows referenced so it didn’t mean much to me.  I understand the latest George Clooney movie The Descendants was filmed in and around Hanalei Bay in Kauai.  Hanalei Bay was one of my favorite parts of Hawaii – might be fun to see that film just for the chance to see Hanalei Bay again.  Then the next time I’m there, I could be the one saying ” Hey, I remember seeing this in the movie The Descendants!”