You may recall a post from late last year where I lamented that protecting our beautiful earth requires constant vigilance, that it takes just one person to destroy it and once gone it can be gone forever.  That was about the time the Schulman Grove visitor center in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine forest burned to the ground.  http://ralphnordstromphotography.com/wordpress/2008/09/08/it-just-takes-one/

There was a suspicion that the fire was the act of arson.  At the same time there was a rash of vandalism up and down the Eastern Sierra.  An arrest was made – John Thomas Christiana.  But he wasn’t tied to the visitor center burning although there was some very interesting circumstantial evidence in his possession such as cans of gasoline.

Well, he apparently confessed.

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The second entry into the Orange County Fair this year is one that I planned for well over a year – Bristlecone Moon.  The bristlecone pine are the oldest living trees on the planet.  The oldest of these is over 4,800 years old.  Imagine, not only will it outlive you and I, not only has it outlived our ancestors, but it has outlived whole civilizations.

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Upcoming workshop – Eastern Sierra, July 11-16, 2009  Improve your photography skills, stimulate your creativity and have a fantastic time.

Well, I submitted three photographs to the Orange County Fair again this year.  We’ll see how we do.  The first is a very popular photograph – Virgin River and the Watchman.  It’s probably one of the iconic photographs of Zion National Park.  Another word is ‘cliche.’  I debated whether to submit a cliche shot or now and last year talked myself out of it.  But this year I decided why not give it a try.

One of the things I really like about it is it portrays my personal style in a very strong way.  It’s very intense and dramatic.  Also, many people who view the print ask if it’s a painting.  It is very much in a painting style and more to the point, it’s in the style of an American Romantic painting.  I am very pleased with this effect.

So, in spite of the fact that I shared the bridge over the Virgin River with about 20 other photographers that evening, I’ very convinced that I came up with something very unique, very personal.  So, in case you missed the link above, here it is again…

The Virgin River and the Watchman

Upcoming Events

We have a fantastic workshop planned for July – Eastern Sierra Monsoon.  Check it out.

If you don’t have a reason for your photography then you shouldn’t be taking pictures.

When I first got my Epson 4800 printer I was tackling so many learning curves all at once that I really didn’t spend any time experimenting with papers.  I was learning the virtually unlimited possibilities with Photoshop, getting used to the vast field of color management, Lightroom came along and that presented a new learning curve, HDR with PhotoMatix, LightZone, Photokit Sharpener, Imaginomics Noiseware Pro and more.  Plus I was focusing on composition, light, post processing, soft proofing, etc.

It’s no wonder that paper was not high on my list of things that needed my complete focus and attention.  I settled on Epson Enhanced Matte, a paper that gave me the effect I was looking for; that is, photographs that looked like paintings.  And given the number of artist’s proofs I had to print before I got a print that I was satisfied with, it didn’t hurt that it was a fairly inexpensive paper.

Epson Enhanced Matte is a really nice paper for what I wanted to do.  And I’ve never looked back at the decision to go with matte.  I briefly tried some glossy and luster papers and didn’t like what they did for my photographs.  So I was happy to stay with a matte surface.

But I didn’t realize when I started that the low D Max would be a challenge or that there would also be some color gamut difficulties, especially in the yellow-browns.  These made working with some images rather formidable.  It took a while but I finally started understanding what was going on and anticipating and pretty much avoiding these problems.  Then… Read the rest of this entry »

I just uploaded a new image to the website.  It’s in the Eastern Sierra collection – Lone Pine Peak.  I think it captures the grandeur of this near-13000 footer.  The timing was fortunate as there was a storm a few days before I arrived so the peaks had a fresh coat of snow.  If you love mountains you’ll like this image.

Here’s the link.  Lone Pine Peak.

The May 2009 Print of the Month is up on my website.  Here’s the link.

Sierra God Light

Check it out.