Vern Clevenger Photography: Latest News

Late Afternoon, Mount Morgan and Autumn Colors

Mon, 09 Oct 2023 17:53:37 +0000

“Meditation is not about believing anything. It is simply about befriending the mind.”

I feel so blessed to have been able to camp in Rock Creek Canyon the last few weeks. It is an amazing experience, watching the colors change slowly each day. Gazing at the greens show their yellow bits, then the yellow and oranges, and the final reds in the last leaves days. It is stunning. I do my best creative work when I have been “befriending my mind.” I have been making Autumn color images here for more than 40 years, and my best captures are still ahead of me.

In the middle of this time, we made time to capture the Full Moon at Tuolumne Meadows, shown above too.

Get out this Autumn, it promises to a be a good year!

And thank you for the many birthday wishes! I appreciate each one!

All the best,

Vern

A Gorgeous Sunset at Ruby Beach

Wed, 08 Mar 2023 01:30:57 +0000

I've made six trips to Ruby Beach. During the first, way back in 2009, it was raining so hard that I could barely see the trail. Last summer, the road was closed. Then this January alone, I visited four times with Dylan, which was special on its own. Each day had possibilities, but the last day was the finest. It was a beautiful, clear day at the end of January -- no wind, and no other visitors. We waited for hours, with the best light happening in the last few minutes. I was also impressed by the 15stop density range with my new Sony. There is incredible range density in this image, from the amazing setting sun all the way to deep shadows in the sea stack.

Earlier, we spent two beautiful nights right on the beach. The winter rates were unbeatable, less than half of what they are in summer, and we got two magical evenings with the windows all the way open to the sea. Ruby Beach is a wonderful place to take time to reflect. Here, I took a long moment to think on how challenges, mistakes, and failures are inevitable in life, and that perhaps we should forgive ourselves more often.

A WINTER DAY AT LAKE QUINALT

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 23:07:51 +0000

“All we have to do is look for beauty, and she is there all around us at any given moment”.
I have visited Olympic National Park many times over the years, but I never had any idea of the beauty of the park in January. Checking the weather, it always seemed to be rainy, wet, and cold, not true it turns out, the Olympics were astonishing that month. Even so the highlight of the visit was the time spent with my son Dylan, and his fiancée, Lyndsey. We had several days of getting to know each other all over again, as adults this time. This is the first of several posts from this journey, but this moment, at this location was a true “stop the car” instant. The gentle diffused light and the floating dock, situated on a huge windless magnificent lake, is a memory we will not forget anytime soon. Lake Quinault is an inspiring locale that I will visit again! And this particular impression will be always be with me…

A Winter View of Mount Tom

Sun, 15 Jan 2023 03:04:51 +0000

These captures, “Winter Dawn over Mount Tom”, are one the best in my portfolio, maybe a career photograph.

But the back-story is fascinating, I awoke at about 2:30AM, things outside looked good. The alarm goes off at 6AM, right in the middle of an unnerving dream. The dream was quite scary, and now fully alive in my consciousness. I lost my then six-year-old daughter in a fancy shopping center, and at the end of the dream at 6AM, she is whispering, “I will be back”. Out of the blue, the dream is gone.

It took a few minutes to shake off the unsettled dream, and then I was getting ready for the drive. Coffee first! I drove to my selected location and took than a few minutes to pay respects to one of my mentors, Galen Rowell. This was a perfect subject for him. Thank you! I planned to take this concept further, using my mature knowledge of mindful photography, and all the wonderful technological advances of the last 20 years since the awful plane crash here in Bishop.

Being mindful, “when it counts” has become quite easy for me lately, I have been shooting the better part of fifty years.

I considered various compositions and made sure to shoot all of them. The incredible light lasted about twenty minutes; in this case the better images were made near the end of this period.

I hope you are as charmed by it too!!

Lake McDonald - The Vanishing of Light at Nightfall

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 22:19:22 +0000

I have been stalling writing this post! Our odyssey has been delightful, and the autumn colors have been past outrageous the past few weeks. We are in Pictured Rock National Lakeshore in Michigan now; the maples and birch have peaked during our visit!
Looking back two weeks or so ago, here is an image from the famous Glacier Park in Montana, during our time there, the colors came into their best over Logan Pass, and we were able drive the road on the last day it was open in 2022. It was a cold cloudy day to start, buy as we slowly drove to the top, the peaks popped out one by one. I was shooting madly at every turn out, but it turned out my vision was clearer lower down, even with the majestic mountains towering over the slow highway. I have included a wonderful aspen image done right on the road, another from down on Flathead River, and my favorite of the trip, a late dusk shot of Lake McDonald and the crest of the Rockies. We wound being “stuck” in Glacier for a week. And it was wonderful! A quote from Headspace is the key to my success on the last day. “If you just grabbed your phone out of boredom, try looking up and inward and notice the world around you instead.” The capture at Lake McDonald was brewing for few days in the right side of my brains!
I hope you have a wonderful experience on your visit!

All the best,
Margaret and Vern

Eclipse - Super Flower Blood Moon

Sat, 21 May 2022 21:17:30 +0000

A story from last Sunday...

The red glow around the super moon was spectacular, but I could not have known that earlier in the evening…

I thought I came prepared for the shoot and quickly realized I was not as sharp as usual, for a number of reasons. Last winter had been hard for me personally and it was still on my mind, the drive from Mammoth to the Patriarch Grove is long and tedious, and nighttime photography requires different skills than I usually use in my work. There are always problems focusing the camera, making careful planning essential. I’ve used Canon for years and recently switched to a Sony A7R IV. It’s a wonderful machine, and all would have been fine with this idea had the eclipse occurred earlier. Unfortunately, I arrived to clouds in the east and was disappointed realizing the eclipse would be hidden and that once again I had missed the opportunity to capture this beautiful eclipse. The same situation occurred back in 2015! So, I packed up my gear and went back to check out another spot that I’d scouted earlier in the evening. I soon realized that I didn't know all that much about eclipses and that later in the evening the total eclipse would be very different, and that I would have another chance after all!

There were many problems focusing my Sony even using the amazing Sony 100-400 lens. The lens is superb in many conditions, but low light does not seem to be one of them, or more likely, I do not have focusing skills with the Sony, I focused manually on the Old Bristlecone Pine, and then again on the moon using AF. The two images put together make a hauntingly beautiful composition and I had quite a surprise when I first saw the two combined in Photoshop! This is a case where I have no problem combining images. The capture was there with the Blood Moon and the Bristlecone and depth-of-field issues needed to be resolved, but overall, it’s an excellent example of how technology can be a good thing!

The Charcoal Kilns of Death Valley

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 00:39:17 +0000

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

This is so true with my Charcoal Kilns capture. I’ve made a small handful of attempts here over the years, starting in 1995 and again in 2010, both with bland results. The digital age of photography brought more possibilities for night photography, and I began to research how to apply this to the Charcoal Kilns. I never quite saw what I envisioned, either in my own work or other images I came across. In the winter of 2021-2022, Margaret and I made two trips to the area. The first time, I forgot a memory card! It was extremely cold when we came out the second time this winter. While Margaret was wonderful, and put up with the cold conditions to help with the capture, my plan still did not really work – accessories weren’t working right, the full moon wasn’t where I anticipated, and so on. But, I was very lucky with my hasty decisions in the field, and ended up with this capture.

I can’t remember where I found this comment, but I’ve found it to be so true with night shooting, where the necessary skills are different from my usual methods: "Immerse yourself in the creative process, look for a special location and do your research. Find the story hidden within, the emotion that evokes. Your goal is to come up with a unique story to tell, a deep emotion to convey, a remarkable message you’ll try to get across combining technique, composition and location power."

As far as what I personally look for in photos, this image is the best I’ve seen of the Charcoal Kilns.

The Harvest Moon, Rising over Drake's Bay

Sat, 30 Oct 2021 20:25:11 +0000

A good friend had planned this image with me for the better part of a year. We have spent many trips over several years photographing at Point Reyes together, but he lives on the east coast and, due to COVID, we ultimately had to put our plans on hold. I decided to still make the trip while I was on the coast for my six-month brain checkups in San Francisco. Margaret and I booked a campsite at one of our favorite spots. It was my first night with my new Sony A7R IV camera, and I admit I was worried on the drive over to Drake’s Bay.

Full moon images are hard to plan, hence planning for a year! There are dozens of Apps that give you moonrise information -- the time of moonrise, the angle and position in the sky, and of course, the night of the fullest moon. While it’s very helpful for planning, it can be distracting in the moment. This image was ultimately the night prior to the full moon, and I shot from the heart, using my knowledge of sunrises and sunsets to guide the capture. This image is special because of the waves leading out to the right-hand horizon, the reflection of the Earth Shadow, and of course, the full moon rising over the famous Drake’s Bay!

All the best,

Margaret and Vern

Autumn in the Sierra Nevada

Sun, 17 Oct 2021 20:45:35 +0000

The first week of October was an incredible time to photograph here in the eastern Sierra. And it was especially so on Friday, October 8th. This happened to be my birthday and I could not have received a better gift that day. Everywhere I turned, there was an image to be photographed. There had been a dusting of snow, and a slow melt as the Aspens went in and out of the clouds all afternoon. There was a smattering of red amongst orange and gold Aspen leaves. Aspens are all really one living organism, and it seemed as if every tree went off at the same moment. Ever since my brain tumor diagnosis, I have been a spiritual person, and on that Friday, I felt connected to the source of all that is living. It was the single most important day of my career for Autumn work.

All the best,

Margaret and Vern

The Milky Way and the Evolution Range

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 22:36:54 +0000

In September 2017, Margaret and I ventured out on a long and exciting journey into the wild farthest-reaches of Kings Canyon National Park. With the weather forecast in mind, I had an idea for an image for the second evening. I expected rain in the afternoon followed by some clearing followed by clear skies in the early evening to shoot the Milky Way over the Evolution Range. I made a few captures after sunset, or what is called the “blue hour” and identified the spot I would place my camera for the Milky Way shot; but with the return of more hard rain hard, I packed up my camera and figured it was over. Then at 8 p.m., there was the Milky Way, just as I’d hoped! I flew out of the tent, once again hopeful. But I couldn’t find the exact location in the dark with the rain; and although I tried my best with a few minutes of light from the sky, once again the rain and cold was back. It was time to abandon the idea.

I realized later that my skills were not up to par for the image that was in my mind’s eye, and the Milky Way over the Evolution peaks remained unrealized for years as I lamented what was likely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. In 2021, I reserved a Wilderness Permit to go out and try it again. As I was packing, it occurred to me to revisit my older images. My understanding of Photoshop and Lightroom and how they work together has evolved every year. Reviewing old images in my files allows me to avoid duplicate shots and, more importantly, I can obtain information which might lead to a more successful capture. Most images of the Milky Way are made up of two or more captures in the field. I was aware of the concept in 2017, but I’d never grasped how effective it was for presenting what is actually there but that the camera cannot record at one moment of exposure. Returning to one of the captures from 2017 from the “blue hour”, I discovered it had all the information Lightroom needs to present the foreground as I envisioned. And the same astonishing sky could be used too. There were issues combining the earlier blue-hour images with the later Milky Way images because I hadn’t placed the camera in the exact same spot in the dark and rain in 2017, but I was now armed with the skills to make the image real. After all was said and done, I returned my permit and stayed home with Margaret.

More: WWW.VERNCLEVENGER.COM
All the best,
Margaret and Vern