the formation

Hoodoo in Death Valley, CA - there is something dreamlike about visiting Death Valley.  The landscape is so foreign, even alien to what most of us experience every day that you can’t help but wander down the roads staring off in every direction with so much to see from vast sand dunes, to slot canyons, to the salt flats of Badwater Basin where this hoodoo formed.

find it here:  36°23’13” N;  116°51’5” W

Going to the Sun Road

Glacier National Park is one of my favorites. Grand vistas everywhere you look, probably a little dangerous driving there becuase everyone is looking out and up :)

There is an amazing road you can take up and through the mountains in the park called the Going to the Sun Road.  It keeps climbing up and over Logan Pass, this photo was taken from in the pass looking back out northwest. Put Glacier NP on your bucket list and go if you ever have the chance!

Find it here:  48°41’48” N;   113°43’5” W

Eagle Creek in a Heavy Rainfall

Well we are clearly into the rainy season in the Pacific Northwest.  What I had been able to trail run just a few days earlier was nearly impassible on this day.  Small trickling streams crossing the trail were transformed into raging, waist deep, scary, fast moving flows.  Here’s a photo from the same place with much less water.

Find it here:  45°37’22” N;  121°53’42” W

Twilight at the Rim

We took a family trip down to Crater Lake and saw this beautiful sunset!  Crater Lake is a collapsed volcano that after it exploded, the lake formed inside the rim.  Then the neat island (Wizard Island) started to form in the lake as the volcano cone started to grow again - so cool!

 

It was a great trip - I brought my bike along and had a great day of cycling around the 35mi Rim Road which circles the rim of the volcano and has great views of the lake along the way. The views were amazing as the winding road bumped up near the rim here and there along the way!  Despite a blowout and a flat, it was still an awesome ride!

 

The weather was perfect fall temps for sightseeing afterwards and we had this awesome sunset and pink glow in the lake at twilight. 

 

Find it here: 42°54’39” N;  122°8’30” W

 

a red barn in Klamath county

This barn makes its stand in southern Oregon.

My friend Dave and I were on a short road trip through southern Oregon wandering around fish hatcheries and small towns.  Dave was fly fishing while I was shooting some photos. Along the way we saw this peaceful scene of an old barn making its stand in a vast field.

I’ve mentioned before that I geotag all my photos.  I think it is super cool that you can see this barn on the satellite photos in Google Maps!  Guess I’m just geeky that way :)

Find it here:  42°39’6” N;   121°57’25” W

Lightning Strikes Devils Tower

Spent a night camping here and was treated to a lightning storm!

I’d been to Devils Tower once before but the harsh daylight didn’t make for such great photo so when I planned this trip I knew I had to camp overnight.

Originally, I hoped for a nighttime photo of the Tower with stars in the background, but a storm rolled in. The clouds were dark and moody so I set up on the hill anyway. I was out for a couple hours waiting for a great shot and a break in the rain when the lightning started, so cool (and a little scary!)

find it here:  44°35’4” N;  104°41’49” W

Through the Desert Pass

The night here in the desert had a feeling that time had slowed to a stop like these light trails left by the passing cars.

Ever since my first visit, I’ve always had a love for the Sonoran desert in Tucson. The rough, rocky mountains in shades of brown, reds, and purples broken by the saguaro cactus standing guard.

find it here:  32°13’21” N;  111°6’6” W

brilliance at sun's last light

Wow! Got home from work tonight to see this so I grabbed my camera and tripod.

I’ve never seen crepuscular rays so well defined and bright  It was truly an amazing sunset and gone nearly as quickly as it showed up.

jennesser@gmail.com

The Neon Glow of Printers Alley

Near downtown Nashville, you’ll find this little alley bathed in the seedy glow of neon light.

Let’s see - bars, country music, and crowds of people. Typically not a place you’d find me but a work trip and the awesome team I’m part of made it fun. I was able to get out one night to grab some photos of the city. This alley was my favorite spot of the night, watching the people and pedal cabs milling around.

Find it here: map  

supernova

A while back I took a road trip from Minneapolis to Death Valley. It was an great drive in the early spring so not too hot yet.

Driving home, just after passing through St. George, UT this awesome storm started to form right at sunset so I pulled over on the side of I-15N and scrambled up the embankment on the other side looking west towards the Red Cliffs National Conservation area. Just as I got up there, the sun dropped out of the clouds and I was able to grab this photo. Perfect timing!

I took a little snapshot of my set-up for this one with my iPhone so I thought it would be fun to include that below too :)

find it here: 37°11’21” N; 113°24’26” W

sunrise on the hood

We live just outside Portland, OR in Washington state and one of the many wonderful things about this area (aside from the great trail running, traffic free roads to cycle, and being in the gorge!) is we have a great view of Mt Hood across the Columbia River. Funny, becuase you get so used to seeing mornings like this that you can almost not even notice it day to day :)

I feel really fortunate to be able to spend some time living here and experiencing the Pacific Northwest. Really an amazing place.

find it here: my back porch :)

moon, mountain, alpenglow

Have you been to Glacier National Park? It is absolutely amazing, everywhere you look. There is this really cool road carved right into the mountainside named Going to the Sun Road. There are plenty of pull outs along the way to jump out and take in the scenery on it’s climb up and over Logan Pass.

We made it to the top in time for sunset and grab this photo of Mt Reynolds with the moon passing by. Be on the lookout for mountain goats and rams. It is crazy some of the vertical faces they can climb up! Very cool!

I’m going to have to get back here one day with my bike and cycle up Going to the Sun. Looks like 30+mi and 7,000ft of elevation gain. Hard work going up but awesome going down! :)

find it here: 48°41’43” N; 113°43’8” W

blue hour at wasilla lake

This is one of a bunch of new processed photos I’ve been meaning to post but you know, life get’s in the way :)

I’m fortunate in that my “real” job takes me to some interesting places even on some occassions to Anchorage, Alaska.  During this trip, it was close to the summer solstice and the sun goes just below the horizon for a few hours then comes back up.  This made for an incredibly long and beautiful blue hour.  I was in Wasilla for the day and took a few side detours on my back to Anchorage that night with the first stop at the shore of Wasilla Lake to capture the Chugach mountain range behind it.

find it here: 61°34’52” N;  149°25’40” W

desert racers

Usually my work travel takes me to the Pacific Northwest or Midwest but a meeting in Phoenix let me get to Tucson for a couple days.  I was lucky enough to live there for w few years (15 years ago) and interestingly it hasnt changed much.  The funny thing is the city and the people remind my very much of Portland if you ignore the climate differences.

This awesome place is just outside Tucson, AZ (city lights off in the distance). I scrambled up a rocky hill in the dark to get to this view point and used a wide angle lens capture both the up and down sides of the pass. It was an awesome view with a near full moon out to illuminate the bluffs and cactus!

I thought I was sure to run into a rattlesnake but after an hour and seeing nothing I started flipping over rocks trying to at least see a scorpion. Believe it or not, I couldnt even find one of those - I felt a little let down, ha ha!

A combination of 6 exposures - one for the night sky and city, two for foreground and mountains, and a few for the car trails all hand blended in Photoshop.

Find it here:  32°13’21” N;  111°6’6” W

the divide

Death Valley is one of those places that can feel very surreal.  From the dunes and mud flats to the amazing colors that seem to change throughout the day, it’s like another world.  I never get tired of going there, you know what I mean if you’ve been there too :)

This photo was taken at Ubehebe Crater.  It is an ancient volcano, with lots of loose pumice and a little trail going around the rim that beconed for you to walk down it, and when you do it’s like you have tunnel vision since you don’t want to slip down the loose pumice on either side.  I used a tilt-shift lens to only get that sliver in focus.

find it here:  37°0’34” N;   117°27’17” W

splitrock lighthouse

When most people think of Minnesota, they probably imagine fields, lakes, farms, and snow but when you get up north of Duluth and the Lake Superior coast you get small mountains, amazing streams and waterfalls and a rocky coastline.  Back when I lived in MN, the state government shutdown for a while so I took that opportunity to head up to Lake Superior and see some of the state parks without people in them (parks were shutdown too).  I got to Splitrock Lighthouse late in the afternoon and spend the night perched out on the rocks to get this other photo of it too at night silhouetting the stars :)

find it here:  47°11’59” N;  91°22’12” W

desolation

I started noticing this stand of trees a couple months ago in the Columbia River Gorge near Horsetail Falls.  Ever since then they’ve looked dead, desolate, and dark.  I wonder what they’ll look like in the spring…

find it here:  45°35’28” N;   122°3’53” W

into the fog

It seems like it has been foggy near our home everyday for the last few weeks. Really neat banks of fog roll in and out of the Columbia River Gorge and while I was out road biking I came across this stand of trees that just perfect faded off into the distance.

find it here: 45°36’23” N; 122°11’39” W

oneonta gorge

I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of going to this place, Oneonta Gorge is just too amazing!

find it here:  45°35’11” N;   122°4’26” W

frozen

It was unusually cold here in mid-December, and I was sitting in my office at work when I got a text from my neighbor saying that Multnomah Falls had frozen over!  I did a quick web search and it looked like this didn’t happen very often so I went out early the next morning at sunrise to check it out and this is what I found.  Pretty cool!

find it here:  45°34’34” N;  122°6’57” W