This site will provide a place for blog stories I wrote and submitted for use on the Singh-Ray blog over the past several years. These were created with the editorial assistance of Weir McBride (see next story).
Thank you for your interest!
Steve
www.SteveKossack.com
Monday, July 7, 2014
Thursday, March 6, 2014
"Steve... This is Weir." -- A Tribute
Please excuse the lapse in postings to the blog... it has been a challenging time since Weir's passing, as we sort through matters great and small. As the time has come to press on, it seems appropriate to start with a beautiful tribute to Weir from one of his close friends, and frequent blog contributor, Steve Kossack.
"Steve... This is Weir." It was a strong, deep, and graceful voice. One that I knew for over a decade. Whether it was a live phone conversation or a voice mail, it usually started this way.
His name was Weir McBride and when he first called me, it seemed that no one that I knew, knew of him or what he did. My friends had no idea and all the many people who have read the Singh-Ray Blog over the years may not as well. He liked to remain in the background -- coordinating, editing, nurturing and cheerleading. He loved what he did. This was obvious to me from the beginning.
It started all those many years ago with a phone call. He had seen a photo on a website that interested him and he knew that I may have had something to do with it. I told him that it wasn't my image, but it had been done with my filter out on loan for a few moments. Without hesitation he asked where he could see my work. He told me that our conversation had made his week. Thus began a relationship that continued to blossom until the moment of his unexpected death a few weeks ago. He was truly a friend and a member of our family so far away here in the west from his home in Ohio.
"Steve... This is Weir."
Our first communication took place shortly after my parents had died. I had spent the last several years of their lives with them. It was an uneasy time. My mother was in a convalescent home for seven years after suffering a brain hemorrhage. She was the inspiration and driving force behind my journey to learn the art of photography. My father was regimented. He taught me discipline and dedication. When they passed I was simply lost. Through the years, Weir would replace both of them in small ways, at different times. I think he knew this. As time passed sometimes he would start our conversations with the greeting "How ya doin' kid?" I liked these the best!
Sometimes Sandra would grimace when I'd look up from the phone and simply smile at her and say "Weir." She knew that no matter if she had food ready or we were scheduled to go out it would now have to wait but she also knew how much talking to him meant to me. "I'll be there is just a few minutes" would usually turn out to be a half hour, many times much longer.
It worked this way. In the beginning he would call and ask "how are the filters working for you?" and then he'd listen! He'd wait until I finished a thought and then ask another question and again listen. He was interested in what I did and what I thought about what I did. It became a weekly conversation that took place most often on Fridays. I looked forward to hearing from him.
"Steve... This is Weir."
When the idea of the Singh-Ray blog began, he asked if I'd like to try and write. My mother was a polio victim. She accomplished most everything she aspired to in her 86 years, with the possible exception of being published. She was a voracious reader and wrote in her younger years. The idea appealed to me and I gave it a whirl. Weir liked what I did, but added that it needed a little help and asked if I'd accept his. We never looked back!
The last thing I'd do after a workshop or shoot was to add a few images to my gallery and send Weir a link. For me this has always been the formal ending to an outing. The icing on the cake was the phone call that usually resulted. He ask when they were done and in the early years, if there was a filter involved in any of them. I assured him that there was a 99% chance that every frame I post will have a filter in it and that I use a 2-stop Graduated ND at noon o'clock on a sunny day to begin with and work from there, a practice I still observe today. Our formula was simple and a delight for me. Weir would pick an image and listen while I told him of my passion for the place, the moment and what I was trying to accomplish. In doing this we'd find a story line and then he'd pick another image and "down the trail" we'd go again. I soon discovered that I found this partnership far more rewarding than writing for my own website.
"Steve... This is Weir."
These conversations quickly became much more than about filters or photography or about any one topic. The wonderful element for me is that they were about everything and anything. With us it was the big picture. The world as we saw it and our place in it. He would tell me from time to time how fortunate he was and I would always reply that I thought of myself as the most fortunate person on the planet. He would let me go off on a tirade from time to time and there were moments when I would sense anger in his tone. Sure, there were times when I thought that what I did had little meaning and maybe I'd give up. Then we'd stop, and one of us would say "OK, let's talk about filters." We were friends!
"Weir... This is Steve."
You said I wrote better than most. Coming from you it was the highest of compliments. It never mattered to me that a lot of what I did ended up on your editing floor. It was important to me that you read it. Maybe it was too long for a blog story but it was never too much to share with you. I'm so grateful that we had one last conversation together after your fall. You said to me at the end that you didn't know if our conversation helped you or me more and once again you stopped and listened to my answer. No matter if it was a discussion over a new idea for a filter or the inclusion of an image in a blog post, I sent you clearing horizons and in return you sent dozens of rainbows. You passed so suddenly that I'll never know if you knew how much the relationship meant to me. Although I never met you face to face or had the opportunity to shake your hand, or even know what you looked like, I felt I knew you from the inside out. There will forever be an empty place where you were. The phone is silent and lonely as I pass it now. I desperately want it to ring and once again and hear, "Steve... this is Weir."
As we were working on what turned out to be our last story together, you asked "where is this image from again?" It occurred to me again that you weren't actually with me on all the shoots over the years. It just seemed that way. I know there won't be many future sunsets or sunrises, or a time that I don't reach for a filter and feel a big hand on my shoulder and that warm voice saying "how ya doin' Kid?"
Goodbye, my friend.
Steve Kossack will be conducting workshops over the summer. To learn more, visit his website.
"Steve... This is Weir." It was a strong, deep, and graceful voice. One that I knew for over a decade. Whether it was a live phone conversation or a voice mail, it usually started this way.
His name was Weir McBride and when he first called me, it seemed that no one that I knew, knew of him or what he did. My friends had no idea and all the many people who have read the Singh-Ray Blog over the years may not as well. He liked to remain in the background -- coordinating, editing, nurturing and cheerleading. He loved what he did. This was obvious to me from the beginning.
 |
| Weir called this image The Box Tie. And so it has been ever since! An early product of the LB Color Intensifier, He was delighted with the fact that the snow was white. "Yes," I said, "no color cast, no footprint, the true test of a quality filter." |
"Steve... This is Weir."
Our first communication took place shortly after my parents had died. I had spent the last several years of their lives with them. It was an uneasy time. My mother was in a convalescent home for seven years after suffering a brain hemorrhage. She was the inspiration and driving force behind my journey to learn the art of photography. My father was regimented. He taught me discipline and dedication. When they passed I was simply lost. Through the years, Weir would replace both of them in small ways, at different times. I think he knew this. As time passed sometimes he would start our conversations with the greeting "How ya doin' kid?" I liked these the best!
 |
| Weir loved this image. "It's a butt shot" I said. The LB ColorCombo really helped he said. But it's a butt shot! |
 |
| Weir thought that these shots illustrated the benefits of the recently introduced Vari-ND filter. "Yellowstone Falls was a raging torrent, and Merced Lake was a windswept mess," I said. "Not so anymore," he replied. |
 |
| f/8 and be there. I had a camera and I was there. I showed these to Weir simply because I was in New York City and did them. He said "Let's try something different. Photography is photography." I replied, "all the rules still apply." |
"Steve... This is Weir."
When the idea of the Singh-Ray blog began, he asked if I'd like to try and write. My mother was a polio victim. She accomplished most everything she aspired to in her 86 years, with the possible exception of being published. She was a voracious reader and wrote in her younger years. The idea appealed to me and I gave it a whirl. Weir liked what I did, but added that it needed a little help and asked if I'd accept his. We never looked back!
 |
| The ColorCombo. Reflection and color saturation. "Earth Tones at their finest," I told him. |
 |
| "Into the mystic with the Soft-Ray," I told him. It was always one of our favorites. |
These conversations quickly became much more than about filters or photography or about any one topic. The wonderful element for me is that they were about everything and anything. With us it was the big picture. The world as we saw it and our place in it. He would tell me from time to time how fortunate he was and I would always reply that I thought of myself as the most fortunate person on the planet. He would let me go off on a tirade from time to time and there were moments when I would sense anger in his tone. Sure, there were times when I thought that what I did had little meaning and maybe I'd give up. Then we'd stop, and one of us would say "OK, let's talk about filters." We were friends!
 |
| It was a slam dunk. I knew anytime I could show Weir a long-lens drop-in filter shot (in this case the ColorCombo), he'd be ecstatic. This was one of my best and we discussed what we both saw in it for quite some time. |
 |
| Like our friendship, Bryce Canyon was a story we were working on that never quite got finished. Another time or another place perhaps. |
You said I wrote better than most. Coming from you it was the highest of compliments. It never mattered to me that a lot of what I did ended up on your editing floor. It was important to me that you read it. Maybe it was too long for a blog story but it was never too much to share with you. I'm so grateful that we had one last conversation together after your fall. You said to me at the end that you didn't know if our conversation helped you or me more and once again you stopped and listened to my answer. No matter if it was a discussion over a new idea for a filter or the inclusion of an image in a blog post, I sent you clearing horizons and in return you sent dozens of rainbows. You passed so suddenly that I'll never know if you knew how much the relationship meant to me. Although I never met you face to face or had the opportunity to shake your hand, or even know what you looked like, I felt I knew you from the inside out. There will forever be an empty place where you were. The phone is silent and lonely as I pass it now. I desperately want it to ring and once again and hear, "Steve... this is Weir."
 |
| This was from our last story together. Weir stopped me to go back to this image asking "where is this again?" The realization once again hit me that he had not been there. Only in spirit... every time. |
Goodbye, my friend.
Steve Kossack will be conducting workshops over the summer. To learn more, visit his website.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Steve Kossack looks for the locations that may become icons for future photographers
Steve Kossack now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, which enables him to reach many of the most iconic natural wonders in the American West within just a few hours of driving. "What I have found amazing is how differently I respond to a scenic area after exploring it many times. This is especially true for those locations I have explored to the point that I wonder if I have exhausted all their visual possibilities. Of course the landscape does not change much, but I do.
"I believe that if I look harder and longer, I'll find more of the patterns and textures that produced the icons of a particular area. The hills and gullies that show the erosion, the uplift or the growth that has taken place since. If I like what I'm seeing, I usually sense that nature has repeated it somewhere nearby and it may even be stronger. Finding this other 'iconic' place helps makes photography such a great adventure!
"A great example is the Page, Arizona, area just south of Glen Canyon Dam. The city itself is new -- built in the late 1950s exclusively to facilitate the building of the dam. Prior to this immense project there wasn't a road within hundreds of miles in any direction of this city of now over 7,000 people. In the summer months, the population swells considerably as this is one of the boating capitols of the southwest with Lake Powell just outside of town. However the winter months bring a quiet tranquility that provides the serious photographer with some of the best new landmarks of the southwest.
"Back in in the '70s most of us were stunned with great images of what appeared to be caves. We learned slowly that they were in the Page area but little was was really known for some time. Today we all know them as the slot canyons and along with the native guide companies and hundreds of their clients, we find many serious photographers competing for time and space in them almost every day of the year! They have become an icon along with Horseshoe bend, which was not even identified with a sign until a few years ago. There is absolutely nothing wrong with photographing these wonderful places. Standing at Sentinel Bridge at sunset in Yosemite is breathtaking. Zabriskie Point at sunrise is thrilling, as is the overlook at Wild Goose Island in Glacier National Park. My portfolio would be sad, indeed, without all the images taken in iconic places that some might refer to as 'clichés.'
THE SECOND WAVE (above)
"After The Wave was discovered, it took me awhile to find and explore the surrounding area. Coyote Buttes -- both north and south -- are beautiful areas that I've done a lot with over the years. On my most recent trip to this area, I've chosen not to even visit The Wave itself! This time the plan was different. Most will want to charge up to The Wave for early light. This is a strenuous hike and takes at least two hours. Beyond The Wave is a second formation just as striking but takes more time and effort and can be demanding physically after the long hike, but on this occasion I wanted the early light at the second formation. In many years past I had done late afternoon light with good results. However this necessitates a hike in the dark to get out which can be very difficult. I don't recommend it! Reflected light is everything is the high deserts as clouds are a rarity. The low cross light of the winter months helps also, and getting the exposure right is always a major consideration. This is a subtle subject and it only lasts minutes. I used a 4-stop soft-step Graduated ND filter and my trusty ColorCombo Polarizer to capture this image.
DESERT SHIP
"A trip to the moon! Water in the Page area seeks the river. The river is the Colorado and now its main channel is buried under Lake Powell. The formations are varied and scattered and for me they take on some aspect of 'hand of man.' That is they seem to resemble structures or objects associated with people. In this image a ship in a stormy sea was accentuated by the use of my Canon tilt /shift lens to lift up the 'gangplank' and also set the direction of the streaking clouds. On this very bright afternoon a Warming Polarizer was employed to cut the severe blue reflected color cast from the sky and warm the foreground rock formation. A 3-stop soft-step Graduated ND filter was used to give the shadowed side more exposure while still holding the detail of the clouds.
CASTLE
"Again, for the life of me I can't see this composition as anything but a castle, or fortress of an empire city! A no brainer for an exposure in mid-afternoon, all that was needed was the right angle to capture the cloud formation above it. The use of a longer lens compacted the foreground and focal point. The lines of foreground erosion were an important aspect. The hard clay like texture turns to mud when wet and traveling in any motorized vehicle becomes impossible. This area is both beautiful and very dangerous. A Warming Polarizer was once again used for the same reason as the prior example and also to cut the glare of the highlighted rock with special attention given not to over polarize the already deep blue of the sky.
DESERT LIGHT
"The struggle for life is a favorite theme of mine. In the desert the struggle is found just about everywhere! 'Seeing Small' is what I do in vast vistas such as this. In truth they are what I like to call 'reverse images' -- the main portion of the image is distant and I need points of interest to lead up to it. In this case Horseshoe Bend is just below the far horizon, and with the help of streaking morning light, I wanted to tell the story of its surroundings using the tree and shrubs to demonstrate.
"The jewels of the landmarks of America's southwest are well hidden. They demand time, dedication and discipline to uncover. Time well spent in my opinion."
If you'd like to learn more from Steve about photographing in the Southwest, check out his "bite size" lessons on MindBites.com, or pick up his DVD Every Picture Tells a Story. You can always get more information about Steve's photography, travels and upcoming workshops by visiting his website.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Steve Kossack visits Denali National Park at just the right time to join the 30 percent club
Steve Kossack recently treated his wife, Sandra, and himself to a 5-week exploration of Alaska's wild side with the emphasis on Denali National Park. "Not since my 45 RPM record collection dominated my life during the 50's and 60's have I been as interested in gathering information and experiencing a subject in as much detail as I now give to our National Parks system. The parks and the landscapes they present were the reason I returned to school in the 80's to learn the art of photography, but I had no idea I would spend so much time in them.
The green of the tundra is dark and light absorbing. The non-reflective effect would have been intensified by a polarizer with heightened contrast. I did consider using my warming polarizer but achieved better results by using the combination of the Singh-Ray Color Intensifier and 4-stop soft-step ND Grad. Denali Mountain is so grand in scope that scale is most difficult to show. This image was taken only 28 miles from the mountain's base. The McKinley River is visible in the foreground.
"A decade ago I was in Alaska. Yes, it was on my 'someday' list of places that I really never considered possible. I did some incredible things on that brief visit. I saw the bears salmon fishing in the falls at Brooks Camp, but in the few days we allotted for travel to Denali National Park the weather was our enemy and we never got there, let alone saw the mountain! Since then I've always prefaced the thought of a return visit with the sentence 'I'd like to spend an entire summer there next time!'
"The summer of 2013 became 'Our Alaskan Adventure.' For over a month we were on the road. Starting out from Las Vegas, NV, to Glacier National Park. We covered Banff and Jasper, two beautiful units of the Parks Canada system. Across beautiful British Columbia and the Yukon we did sightseeing in Dawson Creek and Whitehorse. We rode the world-famous White Pass and Yukon railroad to Skagway AK and braved the highways north that become worse the further we went. If you think the Mississippi is a big river you need to experience the Yukon River! In the end we covered over 8,500 miles of road even though we took the Alaska state ferry system from Haines, AK, though the inside passage all the way back to Washington state!
"There were highlights each day and places of incredible beauty in every location. However the centerpiece of the trip from inception to completion was Denali, the area as a whole, the mountain in particular and the park. Founded in 1916, Denali Park was actually the first park added to the system after the National Park Service was instituted the year before. Until 1972 when the George Parks Highway was built between Anchorage and Fairbanks, the Alaska Highway known originally as the ALCAN, was the route to Denali. You left the Alaskan Highway at the Denali junction and traversed a gravel road across the tundra for over 120 miles to reach the park, thus heightening the wilderness experience considerably. Today this route is still passable in summer and I highly recommend it.
"Denali was established as a wildlife preserve but soon suffered the consequences of its vast and breathtaking vistas. Since its founding in 1915, the population of Alaska has increased 5 fold, but it's not the locals that have invaded nearly as much as the tourists. A 90-mile park road was built almost immediately and in the 30's the fighting started over what form the park would take in its approach to visitors. The first 16 miles were paved before a halt was granted and today this stretch is open to private vehicles with the rest being left only to the park's system of school-type buses.
A plant called fireweed is almost everywhere in the Alaskan interior. It's difficult not to let it become a cliché when setting up an image. I found myself all too often looking for it before even considering content elsewhere! In this image along the trail however I used it to show contrast of color at "noon o'clock" which can be as much as 10 hours on a cloudless day. The polarizing effect of the Singh-Ray ColorCombo filter helped just slightly to cut some of the haze brought about by the abnormally high temps. The saturated earth tone colors of both the fireweed and tundra that I knew would be produced with this filter had me reaching for it almost before I dropped the tripod!
"For the park visitor there is something called the 30 percent club -- based on the fact that 70 percent of those visitors to the park never get to see the actual mountain! At 20,320 ft. this mammoth peak, which is just a part of the Alaska Range, makes its own weather and is usually obscured partly or completely by clouds. With the park entrance being in a canyon setting and far from the mountain itself you must first enter and then drive or shuttle some 9 miles into the park to get your first glimpse. One evening covering the public portion of the park road looking for wildlife, I could have sold tickets to look at the mountain through the viewfinder of my 500 lens. Deceptive as it was, a white dot on a jagged horizon, even folks with high powered binoculars were hard pressed to find the mountain from 70 miles away under quickly changing conditions. The vistas are that grand!
"Trees that grow in the permafrost (at least 2 years constantly frozen ground) are smaller and only reach a fraction of the size of those not in permafrost. Thus, it is easy to tell which is which and they not only make a clearing in the open tundra but provide interest in formation. In this image, a polarizer again was out of the question with the constantly solid blue of the cloudless sky. Instead the problem of non-contrast mid-day light was solved by increasing the exposure a full stop and using a 3-stop soft-step ND grad.
"Of the 6 days and 5 nights spent in the park, our visibility of Mt. McKinley -- or Denali as most now refer to it -- was more like 95%. In mid-Summer first direct light is about 4 AM and seems to last for hours. In the evenings good light starts about 9:30 PM with sunset around 11:45 PM. Mid-day provides the opportunity for stronger compositions and the clouds seem to come and go quickly, or stay in one shape or another for hours on end! After a few days of this uncommon experience, at least that is what the locals told me, I still found myself unable to look away from the mountain. I did not need to photograph continually, but I never stopped looking for the next opportunity!
On the way to the reflection pond, while gaining altitude the tundra became more reflective and needed help from my LB Warming Polarizer which in turn cut down on the cold blue sky shadows. Since contrast was needed and the dividing line straight I used a 3-stop hard-step ND grad which provided a little more clarity of the mountain and darkened the foothills.
"I have a wicker basket here at home that's full of official National Park maps. It started a long time ago when I worked ski resorts and began collecting trail maps of mountains I'd skied. The rules for inclusion are the same. A map, and only the official NPS map, may be placed in this -place of honor- if I have personally visited the park. In recent years I have taken to the custom of stamping my NPS Passport at every visitor center and also stamping the park map designating the date and place. Even though there are only 52 parks that carry the designation of National Park, there are now hundreds in my collection. Multiple visits dictate multiple maps! Of the 52 units I'm now only a dozen or so short of my goal to grab them all.
"In terms of its layout and feel, Denali National Park itself has everything I'd always imagined. This may be the only park where the vehicle is not king. A preserve of peace and tranquility. The interpretive exhibits honor some of my longtime heroes such as Charles Sheldon, the Kantishna native (the small former mining community at the end of the park road) whose vision it was in the first place for this preserve and later park. It seems that in the case of almost every one of our national parks there has been one person central to its creation. In other places, well placed exhibits pay homage to Adolph Murie, whose study and dedication to wildlife have preserved many species and saved the road from being paved and opened. At Wonder Lake, Ansel Adams and his story of the making of his famous photo of Mt. McKinley, Alaska, 1948, are displayed.
"In the heart of the Alaskan wilderness, it all felt like coming home!
"Denali National Park is very unique and different. Photography is not easily done there. If you are a professional you can enter the lottery system and if selected, you will be allowed to use a private vehicle on the park roads. Only the first 15 miles of Route. 90 are open to private vehicles. in order to achieve successful photographic results it takes both camping (the only way you can stay in the park) and hiking. I'm putting together a small group for next summer. If you have an interest in joining us, please contact me as soon as possible."
Steve will be giving us more reports from his Alaska trip soon. You can find out more about Steve's upcoming workshops, his travels and photography by visiting his website.
The green of the tundra is dark and light absorbing. The non-reflective effect would have been intensified by a polarizer with heightened contrast. I did consider using my warming polarizer but achieved better results by using the combination of the Singh-Ray Color Intensifier and 4-stop soft-step ND Grad. Denali Mountain is so grand in scope that scale is most difficult to show. This image was taken only 28 miles from the mountain's base. The McKinley River is visible in the foreground.
"A decade ago I was in Alaska. Yes, it was on my 'someday' list of places that I really never considered possible. I did some incredible things on that brief visit. I saw the bears salmon fishing in the falls at Brooks Camp, but in the few days we allotted for travel to Denali National Park the weather was our enemy and we never got there, let alone saw the mountain! Since then I've always prefaced the thought of a return visit with the sentence 'I'd like to spend an entire summer there next time!'
"The summer of 2013 became 'Our Alaskan Adventure.' For over a month we were on the road. Starting out from Las Vegas, NV, to Glacier National Park. We covered Banff and Jasper, two beautiful units of the Parks Canada system. Across beautiful British Columbia and the Yukon we did sightseeing in Dawson Creek and Whitehorse. We rode the world-famous White Pass and Yukon railroad to Skagway AK and braved the highways north that become worse the further we went. If you think the Mississippi is a big river you need to experience the Yukon River! In the end we covered over 8,500 miles of road even though we took the Alaska state ferry system from Haines, AK, though the inside passage all the way back to Washington state!
"There were highlights each day and places of incredible beauty in every location. However the centerpiece of the trip from inception to completion was Denali, the area as a whole, the mountain in particular and the park. Founded in 1916, Denali Park was actually the first park added to the system after the National Park Service was instituted the year before. Until 1972 when the George Parks Highway was built between Anchorage and Fairbanks, the Alaska Highway known originally as the ALCAN, was the route to Denali. You left the Alaskan Highway at the Denali junction and traversed a gravel road across the tundra for over 120 miles to reach the park, thus heightening the wilderness experience considerably. Today this route is still passable in summer and I highly recommend it.
"Denali was established as a wildlife preserve but soon suffered the consequences of its vast and breathtaking vistas. Since its founding in 1915, the population of Alaska has increased 5 fold, but it's not the locals that have invaded nearly as much as the tourists. A 90-mile park road was built almost immediately and in the 30's the fighting started over what form the park would take in its approach to visitors. The first 16 miles were paved before a halt was granted and today this stretch is open to private vehicles with the rest being left only to the park's system of school-type buses.
A plant called fireweed is almost everywhere in the Alaskan interior. It's difficult not to let it become a cliché when setting up an image. I found myself all too often looking for it before even considering content elsewhere! In this image along the trail however I used it to show contrast of color at "noon o'clock" which can be as much as 10 hours on a cloudless day. The polarizing effect of the Singh-Ray ColorCombo filter helped just slightly to cut some of the haze brought about by the abnormally high temps. The saturated earth tone colors of both the fireweed and tundra that I knew would be produced with this filter had me reaching for it almost before I dropped the tripod!
"For the park visitor there is something called the 30 percent club -- based on the fact that 70 percent of those visitors to the park never get to see the actual mountain! At 20,320 ft. this mammoth peak, which is just a part of the Alaska Range, makes its own weather and is usually obscured partly or completely by clouds. With the park entrance being in a canyon setting and far from the mountain itself you must first enter and then drive or shuttle some 9 miles into the park to get your first glimpse. One evening covering the public portion of the park road looking for wildlife, I could have sold tickets to look at the mountain through the viewfinder of my 500 lens. Deceptive as it was, a white dot on a jagged horizon, even folks with high powered binoculars were hard pressed to find the mountain from 70 miles away under quickly changing conditions. The vistas are that grand!
"Trees that grow in the permafrost (at least 2 years constantly frozen ground) are smaller and only reach a fraction of the size of those not in permafrost. Thus, it is easy to tell which is which and they not only make a clearing in the open tundra but provide interest in formation. In this image, a polarizer again was out of the question with the constantly solid blue of the cloudless sky. Instead the problem of non-contrast mid-day light was solved by increasing the exposure a full stop and using a 3-stop soft-step ND grad.
"Of the 6 days and 5 nights spent in the park, our visibility of Mt. McKinley -- or Denali as most now refer to it -- was more like 95%. In mid-Summer first direct light is about 4 AM and seems to last for hours. In the evenings good light starts about 9:30 PM with sunset around 11:45 PM. Mid-day provides the opportunity for stronger compositions and the clouds seem to come and go quickly, or stay in one shape or another for hours on end! After a few days of this uncommon experience, at least that is what the locals told me, I still found myself unable to look away from the mountain. I did not need to photograph continually, but I never stopped looking for the next opportunity!
On the way to the reflection pond, while gaining altitude the tundra became more reflective and needed help from my LB Warming Polarizer which in turn cut down on the cold blue sky shadows. Since contrast was needed and the dividing line straight I used a 3-stop hard-step ND grad which provided a little more clarity of the mountain and darkened the foothills.
"I have a wicker basket here at home that's full of official National Park maps. It started a long time ago when I worked ski resorts and began collecting trail maps of mountains I'd skied. The rules for inclusion are the same. A map, and only the official NPS map, may be placed in this -place of honor- if I have personally visited the park. In recent years I have taken to the custom of stamping my NPS Passport at every visitor center and also stamping the park map designating the date and place. Even though there are only 52 parks that carry the designation of National Park, there are now hundreds in my collection. Multiple visits dictate multiple maps! Of the 52 units I'm now only a dozen or so short of my goal to grab them all.
"In terms of its layout and feel, Denali National Park itself has everything I'd always imagined. This may be the only park where the vehicle is not king. A preserve of peace and tranquility. The interpretive exhibits honor some of my longtime heroes such as Charles Sheldon, the Kantishna native (the small former mining community at the end of the park road) whose vision it was in the first place for this preserve and later park. It seems that in the case of almost every one of our national parks there has been one person central to its creation. In other places, well placed exhibits pay homage to Adolph Murie, whose study and dedication to wildlife have preserved many species and saved the road from being paved and opened. At Wonder Lake, Ansel Adams and his story of the making of his famous photo of Mt. McKinley, Alaska, 1948, are displayed.
"In the heart of the Alaskan wilderness, it all felt like coming home!
"Denali National Park is very unique and different. Photography is not easily done there. If you are a professional you can enter the lottery system and if selected, you will be allowed to use a private vehicle on the park roads. Only the first 15 miles of Route. 90 are open to private vehicles. in order to achieve successful photographic results it takes both camping (the only way you can stay in the park) and hiking. I'm putting together a small group for next summer. If you have an interest in joining us, please contact me as soon as possible."
Steve will be giving us more reports from his Alaska trip soon. You can find out more about Steve's upcoming workshops, his travels and photography by visiting his website.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
For veteran photographer Steve Kossack, an unexpected chance to visit Hawaii proves to be a lifetime experience
"The wonderful thing about life is that we never know!" says landscape photographer Steve Kossack. "We create this crazy illusion that we control our lives, yet when I think about it, I realize how little is planned and how much is serendipity. In my quest to see and photograph in all the National Parks, I find myself still twenty-one parks short. Out of the fifty-eight locations that carry the N.P. designation, I've now visited thirty-seven.
"The Hawaiian Islands is about the last place I expected to have any chance to visit. My little rule has been that if I can't drive there, I don't need to go there! However it was easy to break that rule when the opportunity presented itself. Since I had never envisioned myself there, I had no preconceived ideas about what it would be like, other than I certainly wanted to see the two National Parks.
"Booking a pre-dawn flight to Maui and picking up a rental car, I was atop the crater at Haleakala National Park by 10 am. A long switchback drive up the mountain was punctuated by heavy vehicle traffic coming down the mountain. The crater rim is just above 10,000 feet and of course I started from sea level. I'd often been told that sunrise was exquisite and I planned on photographing one, but I'd missed it this first morning and arrived at an almost empty visitor center parking lot. I was greeted inside by a lone park ranger behind a small desk. 'Welcome to The House Of The Sun' was the greeting. 'That's what the word Haleakala means,' he continued. I was quickly off and running. The view of the crater from the window (above) made me want to leap through it!
"Headlong, I plunged three miles down into the Haleakala crater. The trails were deceptive in the same way the distances, scale and scope were to photograph. As a tourist on foot I was overwhelmed and began to mostly document what I saw. Everywhere I stepped there was evidence of volcanic upheaval. The silence was deafening in effect. I could easily see how explosive this place must have been. Noise and heat. Steam and flame! But today it was cold and sometimes damp. I let the clouds substitute for steam. I was afloat in space and time. The rock foreground gave the feeling of a barrier separating safety from the unknown of the inner crater. The three miles back out was proof that I was hiking an inverted mountain. It took twice as long to get out as it did to go in. As I rested often, I was amazed at how much the scale changed. With the blue sky making cold shadows, I used the LB Warming Polarizer and two-stop soft-step ND Grad to hold detail in the clouds.
"Pre-dawn set-up is simply a circus. A deserted park during the day becomes a Disney-like carnival well before first light. People arrive as early as 4 AM and the park rangers become parking lot attendants stacking cars in deep rows in the dark. People coming from the tropical warmth down below were unprepared for the cool air and wrapped themselves in towels and blankets. They took on the look of pilgrims stumbling to the rim for sunrise. Within moments after the main event that is sunrise, the reverse happens. As soon as enough people return and untangle enough vehicles to move, it starts what looks like a line of ants descending down the mountain. I was fortunate enough to experience two sunrises both at around 30 degrees F. I got the feeling that no two mornings would be the same here. I'd like to spend considerable time finding out if this is correct! Made on different mornings, the lead image (top) was taken with a 4-stop hard step ND Grad and this heart stopping one was made with a ColorCombo and 3-stop soft-step ND Grad. It was like flying without an airplane!
"Photographically, it presented big problems. In the gentle but constant breeze, I realized that all the surrounding foliage was moving and would be impossible to stop. Even if it were possible, it would look like a hand grenade had gone off! My answer was a great new tool from Singh-Ray. The 10-Stop Mor-Slo Neutral Density filter. Quick and easy to use, I took note of the existing shutter speed, placed the filter on the lens and added 10 stops of exposure time to my shutter setting... and fired! The light gathered during the 50-second exposure produced the glow. Note that NOTHING in this image is sharp!
"This dilemma eventually led me to choose my Canon 17mm Tllt/Shift lens and many different exposure combinations. As I always do in this situation, I made two exposures of each shot -- one for the shadows and the other for highlights -- just in case a composite was necessary. In the end I was successful with a 4-stop soft-step ND Grad. I took care to block both the reflection and reflected light from behind using my filter pouch just behind the filter and above the lens. This is a lesson I've learned when using this extremely wide angle lens with my ND Grads.
"On the 'Big Island' of Hawaii, the renowned volcanoes of Kilauea and Mauna Loa are found in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. This is a small park in comparison and is just off the main highway that circles the island. Unlike most of our national parks that feature driving as the main way to see the highlights, this park has only a small area available to the automobile. Since its eruption of 2008, the Kilauea crater road is only partially open. Instead the many foot trails in the park provide different views and access to the different areas. The thrill of emerging from deep rainforest on the sheer cliff edges of craters and then back again was most inspiring and at the same time almost impossible to photograph! Here at sunset, the phenomena that sees the rainforest getting over 200 inches of rain because of the volcano became the story. To tell it, I found myself behind the old Volcano House Hotel, which was closed for renovation, making the area quiet and deserted. Knowing that Mark Twain (of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn fame), wrote of this very same location in his novel Roughing It, made me even more aware of the history here. I came very close to just watching this lovely sunset. Photographing it almost interrupted the event. I used my Color Intensifier and 3-stop Reverse ND Grad since the brightest area was just above the horizon.
"This last image called for using my ColorCombo to cut the glare off the foliage and saturate the greens.
"Experiencing these two national parks far outweighed the photography. I'll need much more time and many trips to begin to know what images I should capture, as well as how to capture the best images of these wondrous parks. I'm happy to leave this matter for another time. On this trip, being there was everything. I had to remind myself constantly that I was actually there. In many ways it now seems like some sort of south pacific dream. The warm trade winds with the glow of the setting sun still remain. To the Islands and its people I say a warm Mahalo and Aloha."
You can always get more information about Steve's photography, travels and upcoming workshops by visiting his website.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Steve Kossack reminds us that national parks offer endless opportunities to enjoy nature's blessings
"This summer prompted thoughts of revisiting several of the national parks I've not visited for some time -- parks off the beaten path and the road less traveled. I thought I'd try shooting from a different perspective as well. In a nutshell I would visit three of the quieter parks, two volcanoes, and the tallest trees in the world, with only Canon's four tilt-shift (T/S) lenses in my bag. (In 17mm, 24mm, 45mm and 90mm focal lengths.)
"Tilt-shift lenses are designed to control depth of field and perspective. They can dictate what is in or out of focus, as well as what lines of sight are straight or slanted. They can be adjusted to change size and scale. These lenses are manual focus and take time and effort to use. For the most part I become much like a view-camera photographer making many lens movements and constantly refocusing. For me these lenses offer opportunities not present in fixed lenses but like any tool, they can destroy an image just as quickly as make one! For insurance, I added to my kit a Canon 50mm 1.2 lens. In the low light that I usually like and shoot in, I find some instances when I'm not able to see well enough to focus with the T/S lenses and this fast and bright lens gives me the ability at times to set up a shot, at least initially, that I can't make with the other lenses.
"My first stop was Redwood National Park, which is located on the northern California coast and has a major highway, CA 101, running through most of it. Redwood is comprised of several state parks along with the national park just outside the little town of Orick. This vast woodland could consume months of a photographer's time but like many of the parks, it can also be enjoyed and photographed in short day trips. The national park has two major areas; The Lady Bird Johnson Grove where the park was founded and The Grove of Big Trees which is accessible by permit only. Campgrounds and lodging are almost everywhere!
"The image above was captured with a wideangle T/S-17mm lens that allowed me to get intimate detail up close while still revealing the habitat my focal subject lives in. Here surrounded by hundreds of various species of cluttered trees, I was able to show the majesty and girth of this scarred redwood tree that towered over everything and still hold detail in the forest beyond. Setting up with my 17mm T/S, the rise or shift control gave me the composition I wanted while the camera body maintained the level sensor plane rendering all trees vertical and not falling away as would have been the case with a standard lens pointed upward. This was all that was needed since most of the forest in view was still and I could stop down a bit for depth of field. If you have experience with Canon's new 17mm tilt/shift you'll know that it has a bulbous front lens that makes it impossible to attach filters. However I have been handholding my Singh-Ray graduated ND filters with much success. The trick is to keep the filter level to prevent some parts of the image from blurring. I use my camera's depth-of-field preview to judge where the filter is in my frame. I don't find live view helpful. Of course I needed my larger 4x6-inch versions of the Singh-Ray 3-stop soft-step ND Grad series and had to be careful not to get my fingers in the frame!
"This next image from Redwood National Park was simply breathtaking to make! Again the T/S 17mm was kept level on both planes, horizontally as well as vertically. Then the problem was to place the sun behind the tree with just enough showing to highlight the rays. Next was the use of the Singh-Ray 4-stop soft-step ND Grad and how to place it in the frame. I quickly realized that all would be in vain if the blue clearing at the top left were over exposed. As the sun moved so did I. It was only moments before the effect was gone and I had to set it up a few inches away all over again. The path was the main part of the composition and the grove had very few people in it at this early hour. As a matter of fact most that were there had gathered to watch me working! For perspective, I wanted people on the path and this is the only frame from dozens that answered my request. I was about to ask for volunteers to stage it when these two appeared out of the fog. Can you tell that they are headed in different directions? I waited as long as possible for them to come close to each other. The fact that one is in red was a gift sent along with those photography rays!
"The Grove of Big Trees at Redwood National Park contains some of the tallest trees on the planet and is as much fun to get to and from as capturing this photograph. It is a fairly strenuous hike to the grove. At midafternoon there was almost no direct light anywhere. The solitude and isolation were at once startling, thrilling and overpowering! The tall trees were everywhere but their lower trunks were almost overwhelmed by ferns and maples covered in deep moss. To make a composition from all this was daunting. My solution was again to set the habitat and let the over 200-foot-tall trees be merely the pillars with a foundation of ferns. The only suitable direct light I saw all afternoon led me to it. The tilt feature allowed for the straightening of the trees in the background while the rise set the stage with the ferns. Being down in a gully made both appear to fall away from me. As you can see, that effect was nullified. Singh-Ray 3- and 4-stop ND Grads were combined with the 4-stop stacked slightly higher in the sandwich.
"The parks were never assembled in any set or logical way. They are instead simply jewels strung together one at a time to make a beautiful necklace. Not all are equal and not all are the same. Crater Lake was the fourth National Park to be established (1902), and it is unique and unusual. At first glance it boggles the mind! An exploded volcano that left a caldera that was eventually filled by only rain and snowmelt. There are no rivers or streams that flow into the lake which is why it is the purest and deepest in the country, if not the world. The fact that it became a national park so early is what kept it from becoming what Lake Tahoe is today. The lake is 6 miles across and sports two islands. Today the newly rebuilt lodge is still the main feature with the visitor center and usual concession area. The majority of visitors are harbored here with most of the rest in vehicles at overlooks on the loop road. If you are willing to hike even a short distance you will find that the park is quiet and peaceful. I find this place highly inspirational and almost impossible to photograph!
"At sunrise in the crisp cold air, the 24mm Canon T/S 24mm provided the desired field of view over Crater Lake from this distance. Struggle as I might with various positions, however, I could not find a vantage point that held the scale. That was solved with the fallen tree. As I scouted the area I found this was one of the few places that you can actually get below the rim safely. Most of the rim is sheer cliff and at first even the loop road seems treacherous to drive, let alone hike. The rise/shift enabled the view above the stump and the tilt allowed me to "lean" the stump toward the lake giving the feeling of pulling it up by its roots!
"Lassen National Park in northeastern California is also off the beaten path for most and contains geological features found around the Yellowstone area. A state highway that closes for the winter season is the main access to most of the well-known areas of the park and winds its way around three quarters of the volcano. Although dormant now, Lassen Peak exploded twice in a matter of a few days almost one hundred years ago. It takes a little hiking to witness the thermal features.
"Finding a setting with as many of the parks features as Kings Meadow offers was a gift, and I did this particular set-up three times! I was reminded of Tuolumne Meadows in the high country of Yosemite and how short the time of green meadow grasses are there as I pondered a composition. On this almost cloudless morning in the meadow before the volcano and in the dark I used my Canon 50mm f1.2 for visibility and made several thirty second frames wide open to tweak the composition. As suspected, pointing downhill rendered the trees on the right and the volcano leaning severely and smaller in scale. As soon as I had enough light to focus manually I switched over to the 45 T/S and mounted a Singh-Ray ColorCombo being careful to keep the reflection and still be able to see into the river. At times the wind picked up and the plants in the foreground began to sway.
"This final image was captured at Manzanita Lake, which is located in Lassen Volcanic National Park. One of the inescapable feelings as I visit any of the volcanoes in the Pacific 'Rim of Fire' is the fact that they can become active again at any time. Sure there exists modern equipment to measure movement and loads of people interested in monitoring every aspect every minute, but as I watched a thunderstorm develop to the west and then some of it dissipate over Manzanita Lake with wafts of smoke from campfires, I could not help feeling that I was waiting in tranquility for the next 'blast' and that it might occur before dark! Here the T/S 24mm was used without tilt or shift. I've I learned that in photography and especially in life itself, just because you can make adjustments does not necessarily mean you should! However, I did use my Singh-Ray ColorCombo and a 4-stop soft-step ND Grad to lend the finishing touches to the light."
Steve still has a spot or two available in his upcoming Eastern Sierra Fall Color Workshop October 13-17. You can get more information on the workshop, or Steve's other work, by visiting his website now.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Steve Kossack's visit to Death Valley NP was his first chance to check out his new tilt/shift lens
"I begin each of my workshops in Death Valley National Park by saying that we're standing in the lowest, hottest, driest and windiest place on the planet," says veteran outdoor photographer Steve Kossack. "I then add, 'on most days.' Our visit this year to Death Valley followed a far-from-ordinary winter in California, so we weren't too surprised to be greeted this spring by some rather hostile weather. In a short one-week span in mid-April, the temperatures fell from almost 100 degrees F to the mid 20's, and then headed back to the century mark again as we departed. Snow fell at daybreak, wind and rain tried to chase us off ridges, but colorful sunsets and a break from the really hot weather made for some great shooting days as well. From elevations of almost 300 feet below sea level to more than 6,000 feet above, this magical landscape gave us more to experience and photograph than we could have imagined. "The image above of Zabriskie Point was captured at my favorite sunrise location, bar none. This image is also noteworthy as one of the first taken with my new Canon 24mm Tilt/Shift Lens Mark ll, which, as its name indicates, is one of Canon's newest tilt-shift lenses. Now that I've seen the greatly improved optical performance of this lens, I'm tempted to shoot every frame with it from now until forever! It is just that good. For this image, I wanted to raise 'the platform' we were shooting from. Since the Mark ll allows tilt and shift movements in any direction, I simply made the lens tilt downward along the same vertical axis as the upward shift of the lens. This accentuated the sand-colored shelf on which my tripod was set up, making it look more like a cliff instead of a small hill. The stage was now set for the magnificent sunrise we witnessed. All that was needed, as the intensity of the light increased, was the use of a Singh-Ray 3-stop soft-step ND Grad and then, as the direct light made its way to the Panamint Mountain range across the valley floor, I switched to a 4-stop soft-step ND Grad for this frame
"This next image was taken at Aquereberry Point 0as the morning snow dissipated. Yes, snow in April in Death Valley. We witnessed no more than a few seconds of partial clearing. Setting up a shot I made many times before gave me the freedom to watch and wait. It paid off big after making the movements of the T/S to straighten the vertical lines of the foreground rocks while holding the depth of field at near infinity. Knowing that I would need the quickest shutter setting possible to stop the motion of the moving clouds -- thinking that a slower shutter speed would render fast moving clouds a gray mess -- I then raised my ISO to 800 and again waited. In the moments of clearing and light that followed, I was able to make only 3 frames at a wide open f/3.5 as I inserted a 3-stop hard-step ND Grad horizontally across the lens. At this point, I had to stop and watch the last few seconds before the entire scene disappeared. It was all simply breath taking!"It's been many years since I added anything to my basic photo gear. As I get older, I think more like a backpacker than a pack mule! These days, I'm more inclined to use the smaller lighter pack, with the zoom lenses, rather than the much bigger and heavier one that contains the fixed-focal-length lenses. I've long traveled with both packs and usually make a decision according to how far and how long when I depart the vehicle or campground. Today two zooms and an extender will usually suffice, with one exception. My tilt/shift lenses go with me no matter which pack I choose.
"This sunrise image of the southern basin of Death Valley was captured at Dante's View. After several previous attempts to get a break in the weather, we finally got one. In the pre-dawn light, we could see more than a mile down -- from over 6,000 feet above sea level dropping to almost 300 feet below sea level on the floor of the basin. We stood awaiting the sunrise. Since the wind was sporadic, I began making frames in between gusts but quickly changed my setup to include mostly rock so as not to be concerned with moving objects. After working many frames with the Singh-Ray Color Intensifier, I switched to the ColorCombo at first light to reduce the glare and haze. As the bright sunlight muted the color in the clouds, I then ran through my ND Grad filters starting with a 2-stop soft-step and working my way up to a 4-stop hard-step. The frame shown was captured with the ColorCombo and 3-stop hard-step.
"No place in Death Valley reveals more clearly the hand of man than Twenty Mule Team Canyon. This is where the Borax company had their first operation and where the teams of mules set out on their 120-mile trip to deliver the goods to the railhead. If you stand still in the morning light on the ridges of this now quiet setting, I think you might imagine the sound and struggle that took place here some 100 years ago. For me, this is long-lens country. In the cross light here, there seem to be many compositions that work no matter what the weather or light situation! Here all that was needed was to pick some lines that went dark-to-light-to-dark, then dropping my modified Singh-Ray ColorCombo into the filter drawer of the Canon 300mm 2.8 IS and adjusting the filter's built-in polarizer to cut the glare of the brightly lit rock. I metered for the mid tones. It's a rare day when, using this lens, I don't want the ColorCombo. I have a bad habit of leaving it in the lens. If I can't find it when working with the 500mm, I know it's still in the 300mm, or vice versa, but I rarely have both with me in the field. Having a filter to leave in each lens would be the ideal solution! 
"As much as I enjoy photographing in the Dunes, I find it difficult to come up with images I consider unique and creative. Maybe that's why I've tried long and hard, with varying degrees of success, and so many drastically different compositions! Angle of view and degree of light are the keys. Exposure even more so. To get the highlights glistening off the early morning sand patterns is difficult to say the least. Careful metering gives way to best guess -- as the intensity of the light increases with each second after sunrise. Choosing where to meter for this frame brought both the highlights of the foreground sand and the sweep of the huge dune into usable zones. Just before actual sunrise and direct light, I attached the ColorCombo knowing that I would have to visually check the orientation to make sure I did not cut the highlights from the foreground. With the direct light, the next step was choosing a 4-stop soft-step ND grad to hold as much of the bright blue sky light as possible. This frame is simply all about the exposure and the filters used to get it."Death Valley is the place that initially drove me to learn the art of landscape photography those many years ago. It's a place where I return to remember this fact, to learn more, and to enjoy the beauty of nature."
You can find a number of other images from this year's Death Valley workshop in the "new images" section of Steve's website gallery. He is currently preparing for his Yosemite High Country workshop in September and his Eastern Sierra Fall Color workshop in October. More information is now available on his website.
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