Edward Mendes' photostream  

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Upcoming Workshops
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Mono lake is one of the most unique places in the Eastern Sierras of California and has been a magnet for photographers for decades because of the other worldly tufa formations that can only be found there.

It was the last evening of my annual Fall Colors in the Eastern Sierras workshop and I decided to set up and make an image of my own, a rare occurrence during my workshops. The previous year had been a particularly wet one and I noticed the lake had rose about two feet from the previous year. Because of this rise in the lake's water level many areas I've made images from in the past were now underwater as were the trails leading to many of the more photographed tufas, time to get creative and find some new favorite spots I thought to myself.

I made my way to the south end of the area known as South Tufa and found a formation I enjoyed with an incredible display of clouds above it and an equally impressive reflection below. I quickly setup my tripod and composed a number of images at different focal lengths increasing and decreasing the amount of sky and reflection in the images with more than one variation working very nicely.

This is one of my favorite images from the evening, the bright painterly sky and intense reflection is something special about the Mono Basin where Mono lake lives as very few places in the world has the dramatic skies as is routinely seen there.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 18-200 VRII Lens
Polarizing Filter
No HDR

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Just in case you'd like to visit
My website: www.edwardmendesphotography.com (Join my mailing list if you'd like)
My Blog: www.edwardmendes.wordpress.com
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Podcast: Photography 411 Podcast
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Copyright 2011 Edward Mendes / Edward Mendes Photography

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Upcoming Workshops
2011 Grand Teton Workshop
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Back in one of my favorite places, Grand Teton National Park, no words I can string together seems to adequately describe this awesome place. I was in the area to lead my “Grand Teton in Spring” photography workshop and spent the days leading up to the class location scouting both some of my favorite spots and a few that were new to me.

As I drove the interior park road the beautiful wooden fence that runs for miles along it just seemed to scream out to be photographed, so that’s what I decided to do. Now I know the fence has been photographed before and that’s ok with me, for this particular image I wasn’t trying to re-invent the wheel.

I noticed that in a few areas the fence follows small hills and creates short dips that make very interesting leading lines within a potential image and I started looking for the perfect one. After a bit of looking I found the area in the fence that gave me a nice curve without being too steep and decided to return a bit later when the conditions were better.

I finally had my opportunity the morning after the workshop concluded; I woke up at 3:30am and headed out to greet the sunrise. Because of the scouting I did a few days earlier it didn’t take me long to find the composition I wanted and quickly started my wait for the sun to rise. The morning was beautiful, the dramatic clouds really made for a wonderful sky however the skies to the east were covered in much thicker cloud cover which didn’t allow for much color to show in the sky above the peaks, a perfect opportunity for black and white!

Nikon D7000
Nikkor 18-200mm VRII
Cokin 2-Stop Grad ND Filter
Manfrotto Tripod and Head
4 Vertical Shot Pano
Minor Tonal Work in Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5

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Just in case you'd like to visit
My website: www.edwardmendesphotography.com (Join my mailing list if you'd like)
My Blog: www.edwardmendes.wordpress.com
Facebook: Facebook
Podcast: Photography 411 Podcast
Thank you for viewing, commenting and Faving, I really appreciate it!
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Copyright 2011 Edward Mendes / Edward Mendes Photography

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Upcoming Workshops
2011 Grand Teton Workshop
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I made this image during my recent Big Sur workshop. The Carmel Mission has some of the most beautifully landscaped gardens in the area and I always seem to be drawn to the elegantly shaped contours of Calla Lilies, which the mission has in abundance. As I walked the mission's grounds talking to workshop participates I noticed this lone lily stretching out along the softly colored plaster wall and decided to compose an image. The plaster made a perfect background for the image, soft, neutral colors that actually makes the image look like it was taken in a studio.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 18-200mm VRII

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Just in case you'd like to visit
My website: www.edwardmendesphotography.com (Join my mailing list if you'd like)
My Blog: www.edwardmendes.wordpress.com
Facebook: Facebook
Podcast: Photography 411 Podcast
Thank you for viewing, commenting and Faving, I really appreciate it!
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Copyright 2011 Edward Mendes / Edward Mendes Photography

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Upcoming Workshops
2011 Grand Teton Workshop
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It had been pretty dry in Yosemite Valley for almost two months when a series of large and cold storms finally blew through the Sierras bringing snow to the fairly low elevation of 4,000 feet where the valley lies. As the last of the storms left the area I made a day trip to the park to see what I could find.

What I found was a winter wonderland, the storms had left Yosemite Valley covered in snow and the weather systems had cleared enough to give me some hope that there may be a nice sunset that evening. Earlier in the day I had noticed a clearing in a group of trees and decided to return there for sunset after being deterred by the sheer number of other photographers I had seen setting up at some of the classic and more popular locations.

I was really drawn to the group of trees in the foreground as they pointed up, vertically towards El Capitan and the lovely meadow across the Merced River. By this time the partly cloudy skies I'd enjoyed most of the day had given way to mostly cloudy but I decided to wait and see what the light would do.

As I waited the clouds continued to cover the area to the left and right of El Capitan, blocking most of the view down the valley and ruining some of the images from the valley's most popular photo spots. For me however, I got lucky as the skies around El Capitan cleared very nicely for a few minutes, allowing the warm strip of sunlight to streak across the cliff's face and for me to capture the moment.

Mamiya M645
55mm Lens
Polarizing Filter
Cokin 2-Stop grad ND Filter Bogen/Manfrotto Tripod
Fuji Velvia 100 film

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Just in case you'd like to visit
My website: www.edwardmendesphotography.com (Join my mailing list if you'd like)
My Blog: www.edwardmendes.wordpress.com
Facebook: Facebook
Podcast: Photography 411 Podcast
Thank you for viewing, commenting and Faving, I really appreciate it!
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Copyright 2011 Edward Mendes / Edward Mendes Photography

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Upcoming Workshops
2011 Grand Teton Workshop
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I never get enough of the Big Sur coast in Central California; it’s just one of those amazing places where you can continue to make new photographs for a lifetime. Which is good for me because this is one of my favorite places in the world and one that I come back to many times a year, either for family get-aways or to teach photography workshops.

I was scouting locations before the start of one such workshop and decided to stop by my favorite sea arch at Soberanes point. The prior few days had been overcast but the cloud system had finally started breaking up and moving out of the area so I knew I had a chance to get some nice colorful clouds and some soft light on the north facing side of the arch.

As always I arrived well before sunset to scout the location and choose my favorite composition, after a number of different compositions I choose this as the one I would stick with and began the wait for the light to come along. I made a number of exposures both vertical and horizontal trying to capture different wave action against the arch and the coastline, making things extra difficult were the high winds that continued to slightly shake the tripod, making this one of the few sharp images from the evening.

Mamiya M645
45mm Lens
Fuji Velvia 100
Polarizing Filter
Cokin 2-Stop Grad ND Filter
Bogen / Monfrotto Tripod and head

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Just in case you'd like to visit
My website: www.edwardmendesphotography.com (Join my mailing list if you'd like)
My Blog: www.edwardmendes.wordpress.com
Facebook: Facebook
Podcast: Photography 411 Podcast
Thank you for viewing, commenting and Faving, I really appreciate it!
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Copyright 2010 Edward Mendes / Edward Mendes Photography