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Ancient Fire (2012)

This image was captured at Mono Lake back in October of 2012. I know there are a gazillion images from Mono Lake and so many are the same or similar, but unique atmospherics can help set them apart from one another. This was the type of afternoon, where you can only hope for the weather conditions that were at Mono Lake on this day. It was a photographers heaven! I was shooting to the east where dark gray/blue ominous storm clouds were swallowing up the horizon while sunset colors were starting to unfold. Calm reflections of the storm spanned across Mono Lake, it was a show to say the least, and I was unaware of what was starting to happen behind me. I was moving rather fast, tripod and camera attached, and trying to get as many tufascape (I made it up) compositions as I could of the storm and sunset colors, which were starting to unfold on the east side. I started to head for another spot and turned around to walk behind some tufa spires, when BAM, there it was! Nobody else was in the area I was at, so there were no photo bombs at all to dodge compositionally. At the time, I could not recall a sunset more powerful than this, and still, I am sure I have seen one, but this one blew me away and gave me photog anxiety. It had been so long, that I almost forgot about this trip in 2012. I revisited the images in 2017, and I found this capture that I had bracketed during the shoot, and created an HDR image using Photomatix Pro back in 2012, I have not used Photomatix since then really. So, I opened up the old HDR image in PS and started working on it, but there was a little funkiness in the sky and other areas from the auto blend, so I decided to do a manual exposure blend, consisting of three bracketed exposures, to expand the high dynamic range, using Tony Kypers TK4/5 panels. I have quite a few more images to work up from this trip. I have found lately that I want to process older images that were captured between 2011 and 2013 when I started taking my photography seriously and educating myself with the visual art of photography through college, online training, and lots of infield and digital darkroom practice. I guess, I liked my perspective back then, and all of my photos from that period were not focus stacked or anything, they were simply bracketed captures. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Tommobu Pooha (2017)

‘Power of the Storm’ translated in the Native American Northern Paiute Language is ‘Tommobu Pooha’. This area of the Ancient Lake Lahontan Basin, has been inhabited by the Northern Paiute for thousands of years. This scene captures a short moment of a very intense lightning storm spanning over 60 miles wide that moved through the area of the Virginia Mountains, Pah Rah Range, and the Nightingale Mountains of Nevada, starting numerous wildfires on August 9th 2017. When I arrived at this area the lightning was consistently firing off in the distance beyond, and I saw a fire start where the main concentration of lightning is located in this scene. The black smoke quickly started rising from burning cheat grass and sage brush, and was then quickly dowsed by heavy downpours that swept across the lake bed, the fire was out within minutes after it started. This is a single exposure for the earthly portion, and an exposure blend/composite for the sky. Five different captures of lightning were blended together to display the intensity, of which all were captured within seconds of each other, which made blending them easy. This isn’t Kansas, so when lightning storms come to areas of Nevada close to where I live, I plan for, and take advantage of the photographic opportunities they have to offer and head into the storms – they are one hell of a show! © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Settling Storm (2017)

This scene was captured in June of 2017. We have been lucky out here on the west coast of the US to have many storm systems come through over the past couple years. These type of Nevada skies were pretty much missing from the equation from 2011 - 2017. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Pieces of the Past (2015)

Captured in early Autumn of 2015 for a class project. Ancient fractured tufa spheroids rest on this dry and barren Lake bed, a remnant of ancient Lake Lahontan. The area where I shot this scene was once deep underwater thousands and thousands of years ago. With changes in nature, and most recently mans involvement, this lake has been a dry lake since the 1930's. This is an exposure blend of two 'point and shoot' bracketed exposures (for the sky). © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Curvatures and Waves (2015)

This is an exposure blend of 5 captures, taken 11-27-2015 for a class project. Sorry for the lack of a description, I just don’t have the time right now. This image is not for sale in any medium, it is for display purposes only. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Grandma's B-Day (2018)

Captured after a storm was breaking up above a sub-basin of ancient Lake Lahontan. Just so happens it was on my Grandma's birthday 02/18/2018. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY http://www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Moonglow Mushroom (2015)

A full moon rises behind light cloud cover casting a ghostly glow beyond a fractured toppled tufa-mushroom in the ancient Lake Lahontan basin. These tufa formations were created thousands of years ago from discharging springs at the bottom of ancient Lake Lahontan, located in what would later be named, North America. This sub-lake of ancient Lake Lahontan desiccated in the early 1930’s due to man's involvement, revealing more tufa creations throughout the area. What this place must have looked like to the native peoples from hundreds and thousands of years ago when they viewed these lands. Imagining the night skies not impacted by light pollution from modern cities, and the beaming stars and moonlight illuminating this ancient landscape, it is truly fascinating! The snow patches in the foreground were from the only light snowfall we received in the beginning of 2015 out here in Nevada, a continuation of the ongoing drought. Needless to say, right after the start of New Year 2017, rain and snow had returned to the west coast, Sierra Nevada, and surrounding areas, with a vengeance! Captured January 2015, this is a single exposure. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY http://www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Remnants of a Land Before Time (2016)

Captured in April of 2016. Coral like tufa formations stand the test of time in haunting stillness on a shoreline of ancient Lake Lahontan. This is an exposure blend… This image is NOT for sale in ANY medium. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY http://www.mikeclasenphotography.com

The Gathering (2015)

This is a single exposure captured in July of 2015 during a series of very wet storms that passed over the Sierra Nevada. What started to seem easy after the first couple hours of processing, turned into a royal PITA. I hit pixel burnout, and just wanted to get this thing over with. This is the end result… I had to deal with a few boo boo’s, issues, and challenges along the way, etc. etc. etc. But, it was time to move on, and maybe revisit this one later. Overall, I am ok with how it turned out. The composition; I was not totally jiving with at first, it was a difficult one to frame to get what I wanted. No perspective warping was done here. Anyway, this image was captured at my favorite high alpine ‘small’ lake in the Sierra Nevada. I have captured a few variations of this scene over the years, with sunny skies, cloudy skies, and then this one with totally diffused light from very stormy weather, drizzling rain, and mist floating over the lake; this was definitely the best of the bunch. Prior to ever capturing this scene years ago, I was eating a freshly barbecued hamburger and then looking at this potential photo op. Yes, there is a barbecue and picnic table directly to the left of where I captured this image back in 2015. Since then, some members of this little gathering have left to never return, the forest service marked and cut half of the tree's down you see in this photograph - I guess they have their reasons, so this scene no longer exists - it is history.... Thanks, for checking it out. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Fire Garden (2016)

Beyond the fire scarred rocky foreground, the Virginia Mountain Complex Fires rage in the distance during sunset on July 29th, 2016. Wildfires are common in Nevada’s dry desert environment due to invasive cheat grass, other grasses, sage brush, Juniper, and other desert flora; fuels for fire. The five Virginia Mountain Complex Fires were caused by a lightning storm on July 28th 2016. The fires were roughly 20 miles from each other, and about 35 miles north of Reno Nevada, where I live. One of the largest fires, the Tule Fire (the one you see here), made its way to Pyramid Lake causing the evacuation of Sutcliffe Nevada on July 30th, and temporary closure of the lake. At the same time wildfires were raging in California, and the atmosphere was already hazy from winds blowing smoke from the California wildfires over the Sierra Nevada into Northern Nevada. The setting sun was creating a golden/orange glow from smoke particles in the lower atmosphere. I missed the local news on July 28th, so I had no idea of the fires. I was watching the 5 o’clock news on July 29th 2016, and it started with a weather report warning for a lighting storm in this specific location, and to avoid the area, stay inside, etc. So I immediately loaded up my gear, and headed out to do some photography during the lighting storms. Right as I came over the hill before this area, I could see large plumes of smoke from the fires stretching the entire span of the mountain range. The sun was casting late afternoon light on the huge smoke plumes, which were mixed in with the storm clouds. It was like driving into hell! I was not sure how close in I could get to the fires safely due to its intensity from winds pushing the fires, and I wanted to avoid and not interfere with all the fire response vehicles heading down the highway to fight the fires. I didn’t even know about the fires until I actually saw them. The picture you see here, was one of the very first captures I took on this day, I figured it was the safest area to do some photography across the highway, away from the fire path. After shooting around this area into twilight, I crossed the highway and went up to a ridge to get a closer view of the fire, and I shot into the night until around 10:30pm. A little geek out tech detail… This is a focus stack for the landscape and sky, with some additional exposure blending for the sky, and some perspective warping in the immediate foreground to line things up better. I enhanced the veiling flare in the image here, the image was also cropped to cut out the Highway which was directly on the middle/right side of the image; a little peeve of mine is to remove any indicators of human interference in the landscape when composing the shot, but it doesn't work all the time. If interested in more details about the Virginia Mountain Complex Fires, including a fire map, follow the link below: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4902/ © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Desolate Awakening (2015)

A sunrise lights up a desiccated lake ‘somewhere’ in Nevada. This was not a capture I planned on working out. I only took three bracketed sequences of this shot (literally setup and captured them in a couple minutes), as I figured it would be a wash due to shooting directly into the sun. For one bracketed sequence; I blocked the sun with my fingers to get rid of the sun flares in foreground. Blending the exposures worked out ok.. If the little cloud would not have been there to diffuse the sun somewhat as it was rising, this would not have worked out with the sun star, as it would have been too bright and overpowering. This is one of the very few times I have woken up early up to shoot a sunrise, and this was the last time... Captured April 2015... © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Exploder Dream Fantasy (2012)

So the name for this image was not totally taken from anything I saw in this scene, except for the sunset explosion over the Sierra Nevada, and the dream like tufa spires in the foreground. The name ‘Exploder’ is a heavy metal guitar solo by Akira Takasaki from the Japanese heavy metal band “Loudness” back in 1984-ish. Dream Fantasy is a song from the band Loudness which includes a drum solo, also from around 1984-ish (been a long time). Combine both names, and there you have it. This was captured at Mono back in October of 2012. This was the type of afternoon, where you can only hope for the weather conditions that were at Mono Lake on this day. I was shooting to the east where dark gray/blue luminous storm clouds were swallowing up the horizon, and light was dancing off the landscape and clouds. Calm reflections of the storm spanned across Mono Lake, it was a show to say the least, and I was unaware of what was starting to happen behind me. I was moving rather fast, tripod and camera attached, capturing the storm and sunset colors that were starting to unfold on the east side. I started to head for another spot and turned around to walk around some tufa spires, when BAM, there it was… I was like, holy shit! Nobody else was in the area I was at, so there were no photo bombs. At the time, I could not recall a sunset more glorious than this, and still, I am sure I have seen one, but this one blew me away. It had been so long, that I almost forgot about this trip, and I only processed a few pics initially after it, and it was pretty crappy processing for what I knew back then. So I revisited the images back in 2017, and I found this capture that I had bracketed during the initial shoot, and merged to HDR using Photomatix Pro back in 2012. So, I opened up the merged HDR image in PS and started working on it, and this is what I came up with. I would probably process this differently now, and may still do that... © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Across Ancient Islands (2016)

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

Caples Moon (2014)

Captured August of 2014, a full moon rises high in the Sierra Nevada. This Sierra Juniper has been sculpted from extreme weather and wind that rips over the crest of the Sierra's. I was heading back to Reno when I saw the full moon illuminating the distant mountains, trees, and shoreline, so I HAD to pull over and do some shooting. It’s like I did not have a choice in this at all!? This is an exposure blend of four captures; the initial exposure, then subsequent exposures stopped down to capture highlight detail in the moons reflection, and to not clip the highlights in the 'glow' of the moon. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Popcorn Explosion (2016)

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

Creature on the Crest (2014)

A friend of mine and I found this magical tree one day when hiking up in the Sierra Nevada in an area I like to call “Hobbit Land” due to the VERY old Sierra Juniper’s that are standing watch on the crest of the Sierra's. Sculpted by wind and weather, this Sierra Juniper has a base diameter of roughly 12 feet, maybe more (I am guessing), and appears to be reaching out for something in a twisted stance. It is very old, and was truly something to witness. The branch in the middle foreground with a flat end, was cut by some careless person long ago, and that is not the only area of this tree that has had portions of it’s limbs cut off. Who would want to desecrate this ancient spirit of the Sierra's? The tree is so old, who knows when the cuts were made… I initially captured this scene for focus stacking and exposure blending, but a single exposure with a deep depth of field at f/13 worked out. This is not an HDR image… I did not have any wiggle room in this composition for cropping, I was completely zoomed all the way out at 16mm, sitting down with my back against a granite wall, to capture what you see here. Captured August 2014 © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Passing through Lundy (2016)

This scene was captured early April 2016 while a storm was rolling over the Sierra Nevada. We were headed to Mono Lake, and decided to head up a canyon nearby. The atmospherics in the canyon were great, and the rain had let up enough to where many low lying clouds were moving through the area, providing for some great photo ops. This is one exposure, a quick snap, no tripod. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Shore and Sky (2014)

This is a single 30 second exposure captured in high winds during a winter storm at a sub-lake of ancient Lake Lahontan in Nevada. It took quite a few attempts to capture a sharp image, due to wind gusts up to 60 mph. I shielded the camera with my open jacket during the long exposure. Captured February 2014… This image is NOT for sale in ANY medium. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY http://www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Calming Tahoe Storm (2015)

This image was captured in May 2015 at Lake Tahoe in mid/late afternoon. The recent storms passing over the Sierra Nevada had brought many photo ops to say the least! This image is an exposure blend of two long exposures to show the rapidly changing light scenario within several minutes. MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY http://www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Moon Glow Tufascape (2015)

A full moon rises behind light cloud cover casting a ghostly glow beyond fractured, and toppled tufa formations. These tufa formations were created thousands of years ago from discharging springs at the bottom of ancient Lake Lahontan, located in what would later be named, North America. What this place must have looked like to the native peoples from hundreds and thousands of years ago when they viewed these lands. Imagining the night skies not impacted by light pollution from modern cities, and the beaming stars and moonlight illuminating this ancient landscape, it is truly fascinating! Captured January 2015, this is a single exposure. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Flowing Through Winter White (2011)

*Published in the February 2017 Winter Wonderland Gallery of Landscape Photography Magazine. This image of the North Fork of the Yuba River in California, is a B&W conversion. Processing for this single handheld exposure, involved using CRAW/Photoshop, with Tony Kypers TK4 Panel, and NIK software's Viveza and ColorFX Pro filters. This was the third time I have re-processed this image since 2011. I am pretty satisfied with the image overall, considering the conditions in which I took the photograph (no water droplets on the lens), and the quality limitations of the camera I had at the time, which was a Canon Rebel T1i with a Canon EF 18-55mm lens. The timing was perfect for this capture, heavy snow fall had temporarily turned into light snow flurries when I stopped the car to photograph this scene, and there was a fresh clean white coat of snow covering the underlying dirty layers of snow along, and atop rocks on the Yuba river. After capturing this scene, we turned around and headed up the Golden Chain Highway to head over the mountain back down to Sierra Ville, and on home to Reno, Nevada. I had just let go of my 2005 Nissan XTerra due to financial woes after the recession, and I had recently purchased a new, better gas mileage, front wheel drive, Kia Forte. We hit a steeper section right at the top of the mountain, and started to slide backwards and sideways. I tried a couple more times to make it over the top, and had to turn around and head back down towards Sacramento to find some chains, and give Donner Summit a try. At this point, the snow was building up and really coming down. We made it to Sacramento, found some snow chains, and then drove the new Kia over Donner Summit in one of the worst white out blizzards of the year. We made it back to Reno safely, and had a few pictures to remember the more peaceful and serene parts of this journey. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY http://www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Ancient Lands (2014)

Photographed in November of 2014 for a TMCC Lighting Photography course project, this is a single exposure using multiple off camera speed lights with CTO gel filters to illuminate ancient rock art on interlocking tufa barrels. These tufa formations were created thousands of years ago from discharging springs at the bottom of ancient Lake Lahontan, in what would later be named, North America. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Thorns of Desolation (2016)

This scene was captured March of 2016 during one of the few photography outings I had been able to pull off that year. Beyond ancient toppled tufa-mushrooms, a full moon illuminates lenticular cloud formations, while thorns dance with the wind. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Ten Minutes of Storm Light (2015)

This image was captured in November of 2015 during a winter snowstorm that was building up throughout the Sierra Nevada and surrounding areas. I photographed for an hour or so within 30 miles of this area in the ancient Lake Lahontan basin, in relatively flat and softly diffused light conditions, no sun whatsoever. Right before sunset, the storm cleared up quite a bit, and a window opened up for about ten minutes, casting the last rays of sun upon the entire span of the partially tufa encrusted Mountains. Shortly after taking this picture, the snow moved in again, I photographed a little while longer, but figured I better get while the getting’s good, it did not take long for the snow to create whiteout conditions with low visibility. It was not so much fun driving back home with headlights creating a “snow warp” effect. I passed several wrecks and overturned cars on I80 heading back to Reno. I made it home safely, with some good memories of this short afternoon venture. This is a single exposure, exposed for the highlights. During post, I created two smart object layers from CRAW, dropping the exposure 1 stop on one of the smart object layers, then exposure blended the two layers, and further processed the image using luminosity masks via the TK Panel, to build up depth and dimension. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY www.mikeclasenphotography.com

Over and Under (2016)

Captured early February 2016 on the North Fork of the Yuba River in the Sierra Nevada. Connie and I took a drive over Donner Pass, then headed towards Sierra Ville and up to the North Fork. For this particular capture, I had my tripod propped in the water a couple feet above the surface, and had my feet balanced on exposed rocks, probably not the smartest thing when spring runoff is at its full potential which it wasn’t, also this area was on an inside bend of the river. When the Yuba is out of control, it’s a done deal if you get caught in it, unless you are fast thinking and a skilled swimmer. The Yuba River is one of the most beautiful river systems in the Sierra Nevada. This is a single exposure. © MIKE CLASEN PHOTOGRAPHY http://www.mikeclasenphotography.com