All images and material © 2016 by Mike Clasen Photography • All Rights Reserved • Use By Permission Only
This scene was captured July 8th of 2016. The lenticular clouds on this day, formed and transformed on into the night, what a show it was! What you are seeing here is an ancient landscape formed and sculpted by volcanism, weather, and the waters of Ancient Lake Lahontan. Old shorelines, and partially tufa encrusted hills and mountains, mark the geology around this area. The hills, and peaks in the distance were all islands at one point, thousands and thousands of years ago. There is a little portion of a sub=lake of ancient Lake Lahontan in the background of this image, not visible due to downsizing. When the sub lakes of Lake Lahontan rose, they would eventually spill over into other areas, like the valley below. This is a focus stack for the landscape portion, and exposure blend for the sky. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY www.mikeclasenphotography.com
This image was captured in August 2016, when the California wildfires, and Virginia Mountain Complex fires in Nevada had brought in quite a bit of smoke to the area, which really boosted the power of sunsets and sunrises. This particular sunset went on for roughly an hour or better, and golden colors in the clouds and atmosphere started forming well before sunset. It was one of those days where I needed to go for a ride to get my head out of the funk it was in. I didn’t really plan on doing any photography, didn’t really care to, just needed to go for a ride to get away for a few. This image was the unplanned result. Tech details: - Focus stack of 10 images for the landscape portion (6 auto focused captures, 4 manual focused captures). - Exposure blend of 4 images for the sky portion. - Both the stacked image, and exposure blended image, were then blended together, all with the help of Tony Kypers TK4 Panel. - A little bit of perspective correction in the bottom portion of the frame to create a better flow, and geometrical feel with the image. This photograph is NOT for sale in ANY medium, and is for display purposes only. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY http://www.mikeclasenphotography.com
A sagebrush stands strong, spared from the fast burning cheat grass that surrounded it. A full moon rises behind light smoky skies caused from wildfires in California and Nevada, August 2016. Cheat grass is very invasive, and is a wildfire threat. The recently charred earth in the foreground was due to a fire caused by a “careless/care less” target shooter.. This was not a planned photo shoot, as none of my images are rarely from one. I am very mobile when I do landscape photography, and never could quite understand how anybody could stay in one place for a couple hours or more waiting for the right conditions to occur, etc. I guess I am more into the “picture hunt” aspect of landscape photography, constantly moving, composing with my eyes, seeing different possibilities, and all too often scrambling to find SOME interesting foreground elements for the capture. Or, I am a spaz, and impatient, and can’t sit still for very long. Connie and I were four wheeling, exploring the recent burn scar out here. I did not think the full moon rise would be visible due to the smoke and clouds above the mountains, so we figured we would just head on back home since it was getting dark. Well, you know how it goes, your out there in the middle of nowhere, and you have to take a leak. So, I stopped the Jeep, walked to the back of it to do my business and there it was, a red moon breaking over the mountain range with thin slivers of clouds going through it. So, I grabbed my gear, and started “scrambling” to find some interesting foreground element, which really what I had on my mind when scouting earlier, was a burned up sagebrush – they do look cool as black skeletons. I found this little guy that survived the burn, standing strong next to a wash cutting through diatomaceous earth leading around to the smoky moon. This vertical comp was from the last sequence of shots I captured, specifically for an exposure blend. The red moon with slivers of clouds in it, might be another future work, we’ll see. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY www.mikeclasenphotography.com
