Paul Gardner Photography

Underwater Abstract

PaulBGardner — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:15:21 +0000

While in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in early June I spent some time in the water shooting wave abstracts. The set I previously posted where taken right on the beach in small shore break. A few days later a little bit larger swell showed up and I was able to go out to the sand bar and get in some deeper water. This really let me get under the larger waves a bit to get some other unique angles. I really love how waves look underwater after they have broke. It reminds me of a big thunderstorm that looks like it is about to burst with lightning.

Thunderstorms

PaulBGardner — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:00:53 +0000

Possibly one of the biggest things that I miss most about the East Coast are the frequent thunderstorms. California doesn’t have thunderstorms on any kind of regular basis. I think that I have seen lightning 2-3 times in Los Angeles in the almost four years I have lived here. While I was on vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina in June I had the opportunity to take some lightning photos during a brief late afternoon/evening thunderstorm. I spent a good couple hours, all the way until it was dark and storm had moved too far off shore, shooting the lightning. The first and second photos are composites of several shots taken over a few minutes from the same location and the third is a single exposure.

4th of July

PaulBGardner — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 05:42:12 +0000

Lindsay and I decided that instead of trying to deal with crowds, parking, more crowds and traffic to watch the Rose Bowl Fireworks show that we would instead hike up into the mountains just up the street from our house to get a vantage point over the entire LA Basin. While we were not the only people in Pasadena to have this people it was much more relaxing than sitting in traffic at the Rose Bowl. We managed to find a nice flat spot with a great view not even a quarter of a mile up the Echo Mountain Trail and set up camp for the evening. With two hours to go I set up the camera and then we broke out a card game to kill time until sunset and the fireworks. The view from the mountains was amazing. Everywhere we looked there were fireworks shooting up into the sky with the Rose Bowl show as the centerpiece. The Rose Bowl show was fantastic but the real treat was after the fireworks were done and we were at the bottom of the trail. Looking back up into the mountains we could see the hoards of people walking back down the mountain with their headlamps glowing. Every single switchback on the trail was completely lined with lights. It was as if there were extra stars in the sky. I managed to take two shots before we had to get going to beat all the traffic back home. Another plus to the moment was that the stars were actually out. Lucky for us, to the north of LA there is really nothing but desert so there is no light pollution to kill the skies.

Underwater Windows

PaulBGardner — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 15:51:18 +0000

I am finally back on the East Coast and at my favorite place: Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. First thing I did when I arrived was put my D3 in its water housing and head into the ocean. I was hoping for bigger waves but all I had to work with were one foot and under waves splashing on the shore. I made it work and got some really cool shots.

More Wildflowers

PaulBGardner — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:05:09 +0000

On our way up to San Francisco Lindsay and I stopped by Gorman Hills again to see if the flowers had gotten any better. Lucky for us they had. The temperatures had warmed up and the winds had died down enough for the poppies to come out of hiding.

California Wildflowers

PaulBGardner — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 05:12:55 +0000

Lindsay and I took advantage of a gorgeous spring weekend to go up north just a little bit to search for wildflowers. Our quick day trip took us up CA14 to Lancaster and the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve, then off to Gormon Hills followed shortly by a visit to Carrizo Plains National Monument. All the areas that we visited had great displays of wildflowers. I am hoping that the displays stay around for a few more weeks so I can get back up to shoot some more photos.

Lone Pine

PaulBGardner — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 04:10:07 +0000

This past weekend I made a very very quick trip to Lone Pine to show my cousin Dan and my friend Camilo one of my favorite places in California. We were up there for less than 24 hours but managed to get some good weather and great photos. The famous Sierra Wave cloud formations even decided to make an appearance.

Sierra Panoramas

PaulBGardner — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:23:04 +0000

Here are some more panoramas from my sierra trip two weekends ago.

Inyo Mountains and Volcanic Rift Dikes

PaulBGardner — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:56:17 +0000

Two weekends ago my friend Matt Yachmetz and I took a trip up to Lone Pine, California to see the results of a massive snow storm that hit most of California. We spent two nights camping in 15 degree weather in the snow. It was a really great experience that I will detail more in another post. For now I just wanted to get one of the first of many panoramas that I took up on the blog. We met up with the guys from Xrez.com who specialize in gigapixel photography and they inspired me to get back into taking big panos. This particular shot was taken up in the Inyo Mountains on the road up to the Cerro Gordo Mines. The fins running back into the photo are Rift Dikes from volcanic fissures. This mosaic is composed of 47 images shot at 105mm with my Nikon D3. The final stitched image is 258 megapixels.

Photography Show at Heritage Wine Company

PaulBGardner — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:45:33 +0000

This Saturday will be the opening night of my solo show at Heritage Wine Company in Pasadena, California. I would love to see all my friends that can make it there. Click for Details