Greetings from Utah's red rock country! We are currently enjoying the desert warmth and scenery since leaving a damp and chilly Oregon, Since my last newsletter, it's been a whirlwind of a journey. We wrapped up our Oregon Coast workshop, where our students had dynamic conditions, including sun, fog, rainbows and clouds. Before that, we chased the aurora from Yellowstone to Glacier and even spent time hiking in Mount Rainier National Park. Our fall season has seen over 5,800-miles-on-the-road—exhausting yet rewarding! A recent solar storm provided an unforgettable opportunity to photograph the aurora over Glacier, an experience even more stirring experience than Yellowstone's display back in May. In response to the interest and questions, yes! I'm excited to announce that I'll release a new e-book about the aurora experience in my November newsletter.
I had planned to share new work from Yellowstone this fall, but with the busyness of travel and teaching, I'm now curating a collection spanning the last four years, instead of photos from this past autumn. Sometimes, the business side of photography shifts, allowing new ideas to emerge organically and evolve.
I'm excited to share quite a bit more below in this newsletter, including a new blog post and images, a behind-the-scenes look at a new photo I recently shared, a fun Halloween-themed Naturalist's Nook on Starfish, my new favorite autumn hiking snacks and many new items of interest from colleagues and friends. I hope you're having a productive and fun fall wherever you roam with your camera!
New Blog Post
A Canyon's Reminder
I recently wrote a blog post about discovering mesmerizing patterns in a canyon in Utah that I explored last week. In my post, I share how letting go of expectations and embracing spontaneity sparked a fun and inspiring photographic journey. The post includes eight new sandstone images that reflect this creative exploration.
Read along for the narrative and story behind a photo, from capture to finished image.
"Whispers of Autumn"
I released a new autumn image I photographed in Grand Teton National Park last week. It's been a long time since I released new autumn work (endlessly working through my massive backlog of images!), and this image stuck out in my mind when I decided to process a new image. This image was photographed from a popular overlook in Grand Teton National Park and is a perfect example of how many opportunities can be found at overlooks if you take the time to observe and photograph with a telephoto lens. I photographed this image with my Nikon Z2 and my Nikkor 100-400 telephoto lens with the following settings: 1/40 second, f/10, 250 mm, and an ISO of 320 because I was hand-holding while photographing. This scene captured my attention because the narrow-leaf cottonwood trees had already lost some of their leaves, revealing their skeletal structure, which I always find interesting. The color of the foreground grasses and the smaller bush's fire-red foliage also added nicely to the scene. This was a beautiful autumn scene that I wanted to process in a way that celebrated the softer pastels in the foreground and the trees. When I brought it into Lightroom, I needed to increase my exposure, as I had underexposed. I used the exposure slider to increase it a little, and then I wanted to give the image the softer feel that my eyes saw in the field. I accomplished this by bringing up the shadows to eliminate contrast and using my tone curve to bring a delicate feel to the scene. I then applied a linear gradient to the foreground, reduced contrast, and used my brush tool to dodge a darker area in the foreground that was a bit of a distraction. Once I was happy with the image, I took it into Photoshop to clone out a few distracting branches along the edge and eliminated a few bright leaves near the foreground that were distracting. Below, you can see the before and after.
RAW image before
Final Image after
Travels, Trails and Thoughts
Travel musings, hiking adventures, and spontaneous insights from life on the road
My Current Favorite Autumn Hiking Snacks
Power Up Autumn Blend Trail Mix
Pumpkin Pie Perfect Bars
This fall, two new trail essentials have kept me energized on hikes. I’ve long been a fan of Power Up Trail Mixes, and they introduced a delightful autumn blend this season. It features pumpkin spice pecans, almonds, dried cranberries, cinnamon sweet potatoes (my personal favorite!), yogurt chips, and pumpkin seeds. The combination is seasonal and satisfying, providing a boost of energy and protein, all with wholesome, clean ingredients. I discovered this mix at a Costco in Washington but found it’s mainly available in the Northeast and Northwest at Costcos. But I did see online that grocery stores near my home in Denver also carry it, so it's worth checking out your local grocery store.
Perfect Bars have also been a reliable protein source for me, with their whole food ingredients, organic honey, and over twenty superfoods and nutrients. This season’s new pumpkin pie flavor is the perfect treat after a long hike or for a mid-trail pick-me-up. You can find these bars at local grocery stores or purchase them online. I have found the pumpkin pie bars at local grocers as well.
Note: These products are not sponsored—I simply love sharing the things I find delicious and helpful on the trail.
The Naturalist's Nook
Where curiosity bridges the gap between observation and the art of photography
Spooky Starfish: Lovable Zombies of the Ocean
Orange Ochre Sea Star on the Oregon Coast
We recently finished teaching a workshop on the Oregon coast. Unsurprisingly, the sea stars were a big hit for everyone to photograph and see. Since Halloween is right around the corner, I figured sharing some "spooky" facts about starfish would be fun:
⭐️ Regenerative Power: Starfish can regrow lost arms; in some species, an entire starfish can regrow from a single severed limb. Essentially, they can clone themselves in a strange "living after death" way.
⭐️ External Digestion: When a starfish eats, it pushes its stomach outside its body, enveloping prey like shellfish in its own stomach acids to digest it externally before pulling the stomach (and partially digested food) back in.
⭐️ Suction-Cup Arms: Every starfish's arms have hundreds to thousands of tiny tube feet that act like powerful suction cups. They use these feet to cling to prey and pull shells apart with slow, relentless force—powerful enough to open a clam's shell easily. They also use these feet to attach themselves to rocks to hang on with each crashing wave.
Close-up of starfish tube feet in action
⭐️ Brain-less Survival: Starfish have no central brain and no blood. Instead, they rely on a nerve net to coordinate movement, and seawater flows through their vasculature to provide nutrients. They’re like eerie, living zombies moving by instinct alone.
⭐️ Eyes on Their Arms: A starfish can see you! Well, maybe not clearly. Starfish have tiny, primitive eyes at the tips of each arm, called ocelli. These eyes don’t see details but detect light and dark, helping them navigate and hunt, feeling around with their arms like tentacles while “seeing” with multiple eyes across their limbs.
Next time you find yourself on the coast around these fascinating creatures, take time to appreciate these zombies of the seas! 🌊
Purple and Orange Ochre Starfish
The Collective Lens
Other items of interest from my colleagues and the world of Nature Photography
Yellowstone Forever released an interesting article identifying ten eerie and strange phenomena in the park. It's an interesting read - just in time for the spooky season!
