All images and material © 2016 by Mike Clasen Photography • All Rights Reserved • Use By Permission Only
This single exposure was captured using four off camera speed lights to illuminate ancient rock art on conjoined tufa barrels, while balancing the off camera flash with the setting sun and matching its warmth by using 1/2 CTO gel filters. One off camera speed-light was handheld and directed towards the tufa barrels in shade, while each of the other three speed-lights were positioned on the ground at different angles to illuminate the face of the tufa barrel’s to reveal the ancient rock art. An f-stop of f/18 was used to yield a fine crisp sunstar. This image was captured during the fall of 2014 for a project I created called “Light on Ancient Art”, which detailed ancient rock art in northern Nevada that was illuminated by off camera flash. These tufa formations were created thousands of years ago from discharging springs at the bottom of ancient Lake Lahontan. This area is also located in the Great Basin Desert which is the largest desert in the USA and covers most all of the state of Nevada. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY http://www.mikeclasenphotography.com
I know this scene has been captured a gazillion times, but this one’s mine!!! And it’s stormy.. ;-) Mono Lake, can sometimes be a madhouse with visitors and photog’s, but when the day comes to a close and storms roll in the large majority of visitors leave. I was one of the last few in this area after sunset when this storm moved in, it is a very peaceful feeling when you are pretty much out there by yourself. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY http://www.mikeclasenphotography.com
Tunnel View has been photographed a billion plus times, and who can resist getting a shot (or hundreds) for themselves? We just rolled into Yosemite and this was the first stop before heading into Yosemite Valley. I got out of the car to go take it all in, and just grabbed my camera with no tripod. Right when I got about half way across the parking lot, the rainbows popped out so I quickly made my way to the rock wall and propped down my camera to stabilize it, and captured around ten photographs before the rainbows disappeared. They were only visible for around 4 minutes, and the upper rainbow was beaming when I was across the parking lot, but by the time I got to the rock wall with the other 50 buzzing photogs, the upper rainbow had pretty much fizzled out. I searched for this particular Tunnel View double rainbow via specific capture date around 2013-ish, and I only saw one other image, but I KNOW others are out there of this very same atmospheric scene. Out of the 50 or so photogs that were witness to this that day, I wonder how many actually “got the shot”? The interesting thing about this Tunnel View double rainbow, is that Bridal Veil is directly in-between them, perfectly, and its centered in the frame. Most double rainbow Tunnel View scenes I have seen, the rainbows are stemming from high up on El Cap down into the valley or over Bridal Veil, which makes for a dynamic scene, but a very common atmospheric Yosemite scene also. Who knows, after ten years, maybe this atmospheric Tunnel View scene is common too ;-)… I reprocessed this image back in 2015 and tried to get the best detail and quality out of it as possible considering it was shot with a Canon Rebel T1i and its accompanying 18-55mm EF lens back in May of 2010.
