John Guilford's Photo Gallery: Travels

Pictures taken on Trips and Travels

All rights reserved. These images are not to be used or copied without my prior written permission.

Unless otherwise noted, through 2011 all pictures taken by me with a Nikon D70 camera.
Depending on the focal length, the lens is most likely either the Nikkor 18-70mm AF-S or the Sigma 70-300mm DG APO.
Starting in 2012, I switched to the Nikon D7000 with either the Nikon 18-105VR lens or the Nikon 70-300 VR lens.
In early 2013 I added the Nikon Micro 85mm lens.

Click on the image for a larger version.

Link back to main gallery page.

View From Glacier Point
Date: 10-Jul-2014 Time: 8:20 PM Exp: 1/13 & 1/80s @ f/10 ISO: 100 Lens: 48mm		This is the view at sunset from Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park. The sun is still shining on the more distant hills though the sun has already set for the foreground. The almost full moon is peeking through the clouds. This was a HDR (high dynamic range) shot composed from two separate exposures.

Wizard Island in Crater Lake
Crater Lake is the water filled caldera of Mount Mazama in Oregon. At 1949 feet, it is the deepest lake in the United States. Its water is among the clearest of any natural body of water. This leads to the stunningly blue color that many remark upon. This is a photo of Wizard Island viewed through the trees from the western rim.		Date: 14-Jul-2014 Time: 5:13 PM Exp: 1/125s @ f/7.1 ISO: 400 Lens: 28mm

Moon Climbing Over Yosemite Valley Rim
Date: 9-Jul-2014 Time: 9:13 PM Exp: 1/60s @ f/8 ISO: 100 Lens: 300mm		While staying in Yosemite Valley, the almost full moon rose over the valley rim, silhouetting some trees along the edge. Since the moon wasn't quite full, the terminator showed some nice shadowing of some craters.

El Capitan in the Moonlight
El Capitan, in Yosemite National Park, is the largest monolith of granite in the world and rises more than 3000 feet above the Yosmite Valley floor. Viewed at night, under the moonlight, it takes on a different persona than during the day. This time exposure was taken when El Cap was lit by a recently risen, almost full moon.		Date: 10-Jul-2014 Time: 9:38 PM Exp: 30s @ f/6.3 ISO: 400 Lens: 30mm

First Baptist Church
Date: 6-Sep-2013 Time: 2:40 PM Exp: 1/640s @ f/6.3 ISO: 200 Lens: 18mm		Like many New England towns, Wakefield, MA has its share of churches with picturesque white steeples. This is the First Baptist church which is nearly 150 years old with a 180 foot spire. The polarizing filter really darkened the autumn sky, perhaps a bit too much in this case.

Flower
Flower at the Butterfly House at the Norfolk Botanical Garden.		Date: 27-Jun-2013 Time: 1:42 PM Exp: 1/125s @ f/14 ISO: 500 Lens: 85mm Micro

USS Wisconsin
Date: 24-Jun-2013 Time: 4:49 PM Exp: 1/125s @ f/7.1 ISO: 220 Lens: 28mm		The USS Wisconsin, a World War II era Iowa class battleship, is now permanently moored in Norfolk, VA as a museum as part of Nauticus, The National Maritime Center. The Wisconsin was launched December 7, 1943; decommissioned on September 30, 1991; and was donated for use as a floating museum on December 14, 2009. It is 887 feet long, 108 feet wide, with a 29 foot draft, and displaces 52,000 tons. While touring the battleship, I looked for interesting angles to photograph. I particularly liked this view from directly in front of the bow.

Caterpillar
This caterpillar, from a cecropia moth, was at the Butterfly House at the Norfolk Botanical Garden. I recently obtained a macro lens for my camera, and this was a great opportunity to play around with it. This caterpillar was stunning with its colorful protrusions covered with black spikes. One challenge with macro photography is the short depth of field from being that close to the subject.		Date: 27-Jun-2013 Time: 1:21 PM Exp: 1/125s @ f/14 ISO: 400 Lens: 85mm Micro

Mount Trashmore
Date: 28-Jun-2013 Time: 10:10 AM Exp: 1/400s @ f/7.1 ISO: 250 Lens: 105mm		Mount Trashmore is a city park in Virginia Beach, VA. It is built on top of an abandoned landfill. While walking through the park, I noticed the Westin Town Center looming over the grassy hillside. I like the incongruous juxtaposition of the isolated tower and the field.

Butterfly
A butterfly at the Butterfly House at the Norfolk Botanical Garden.		Date: 27-Jun-2013 Time: 1:28 PM Exp: 1/125s @ f/14 ISO: 280 Lens: 85mm Micro

Jamestown Ship Susan Constant
Date: 26-Jun-2013 Time: 2:03 PM Exp: 1/200s @ f/10 ISO: 200 Lens: 18mm		This is a reconstruction of the Susan Constant, one of the three ships that brought the first English colonists to Jamestown in VA. This Susan Constant was commissioned in 1991, carries 3900 sq. ft. of sail, and displaces 120 tons. The original Susan Constant sailed from London on December 20, 1606 with 105 passengers and 39 crew, and landed at what is now Jamestown on May 13, 1607.

Dragonfly
The Cape Henry Memorial, part of the Colonial National Historical Park in VA, commemerates the first landing of English colonists in VA. A quarter of an acre in size, it is perhaps the smallest park in the National Park System. It is located inside the military base Joint Expeditionary Base East (formerly known as Fort Story) near to the Cape Henry Lighthouse. The spiny brush near the shore was filled with dragonflies affording ample opportunity to photograph them		Date: 25-Jun-2013 Time: 12:26 PM Exp: 1/125s @ f/10 ISO: 140 Lens: 98mm

Hallstatt Lamp
Date: 2-Jul-2012 Time: 9:19 PM Exp: 1/125s @ f/5.6 ISO: 2000 Lens: 92mm		Hallstatt is a beautiful alpine town in Austria full of quaint shops and restaurants. A lakeside cafe in Hallstatt, Austria had a number of lamps hanging from the tree. This orange one particularly caught my eye.

Dolomites
The Dolomites in the Italian Alps above San Cassiano (St. Kassian), Italy. From the town down in the valley, you can ride a gondola up to the ski area. In the summer, you find miles and miles of walking or bicycling trails, fields of wildflowers, and stunning views of the surrounding Alps.		Date: 8-Jul-2012 Time: 2:53 PM Exp: 1/200s @ f7/1 ISO: 200 Lens: 105mm

Ferienhaus Unterkircher
Date: 4-Jul-2012 Time: 2:29 PM Exp: 1/125s @ f/8 ISO: 1000 Lens: 25mm		A chalet in the Austrian Alps near Heiligenblut, Austria. After crossing Grossglockner Pass in the Austrian Alps, we descended to Heiligenblut where I took a photo of this inn. This image has been post processed (in a manner sometimes called tilt-shift photography) to make it look more like a miniature model rather than the real place. For comparison, the unprocessed image can be seen here.

Salzburg Cathedral
The cathedral and the city of Salzburg viewed from the castle above town. The original image was modified in postprocessing to simulate ("fake") a miniture scene or model. Sometimes this is called "tilt-shift" photography. My goal was to make the picture resemble having been taken of a model of the cathedral rather than a normal picture of the cathedral.		Date: 01-July-2012 Time: 10:27:19 AM Exp: 1/250s @ f/8 ISO: 200 Lens: 18mm

Dome of Salzburg Cathedral
Date: 01-July-2012 Time: 3:26:13 PM Exp: 1/125s @ f/5 ISO: 1250 Lens: 21mm		The dome above the Crossing of the Cathedral in Salzburg, Austria. The cathedral, or dom, was finished in 1628 and is 109 feet high at the dome. It was damaged in World War II, but was fully restored by 1959. When viewed from directly below, the dome takes on an abstract look.

Venice Canalside Restaurant
A canalside restaurant in Venice, Italy. Not too much else to say about it. Venice was definitely a unique place to visit.		Date: 05-July-2012 Time: 7:36:29 PM Exp: 1/125s @ f/6.3 ISO: 1600 Lens: 18

Grossglockner Cycling Race
Date: 04-July-2012 Time: 1:11:31 PM Exp: 1/1000s @ f/7.1 ISO: 200 Lens: 210 Meter: Aperture Priority		While dring over the Grossglockner High Alpine Road, a 8215' pass in the Austrian Alps with numerous hair pins turns, we were delayed for a while when they closed down the road for a cycling race. We were a little ways below the pass and got to watch the cyclists zoom downhill past us, traveling considerably faster than I would have the courage to ride. It wasn't till later at home when I viewed the pictures on the computer that I realized many of the riders apparently got some food up at the pass and were eating it on the way down, as is apparent for several of the riders in this photo.

Alpine Shed
A shed in the Alps most of the way up the Hafelekar (7657 ft) above Innsbruck, Austria. The easy way to get there is via the Hungerburgbahn and Nordkettenbahn cables cars though you can hike up if you want the workout. I don't know what the shed is used for, but I loved its weather beaten appearance as well as the rocks helping to hold down the roof.		Date: 29-June-2012 Time: 12;11:53 PM Exp: 1/200s @ f/7.1 ISO: 200 Lens: 80mm

Waimea Rainbow
Date: 21-Feb-2012 Time: 3:08:07 PM Exp: 1/250s @ f/8 ISO: 250 Lens: 18mm		Waimea Canyon, on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, is sometimes known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. It is about 10 miles long and up to 3,000 feet deep. After we got rained on near the top of the canyon, the sun broke through, resulting in this rainbow.

Butchart Sunken Garden at Night
Butchart Gardens near Victoria on Vancouver Island, BC contains wonderful gardens. My favorite is the Sunken Garden that was built about a hundred years ago on the site of an old quarry where they had mined limestone for a cement factory. In 1953 miles of underground wiring was added to provide night time illumination. I especially enjoy this garden at night. This is a time exposure from the north rim of the Sunken Garden. Several places in the garden you can see "ghosts" of people who moved during the time exposure. The stack in the background is all that remains of the original cement plant.		Date: 06-Aug-2011 Time: 10:39:55 PM Exp: 2.1s @ f/4.0 ISO: 400 Lens: 18.00mm Meter: Manual

Ross Fountain at Butchart Gardens
Date: 06-Aug-2011 Time: 10:26:48 PM Exp: 1.3s @ f/4.5 ISO: 400 Lens: 70.00mm Meter: Manual		In Butchart Gardens, near Victoria BC, is the Ross Fountain, installed in 1964 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Gardens. The fountains are illuminated and constantly changing. At night it puts on an especially colorful show.

Creek Street, Ketchikan, Alaska
They say that Ketchikan, Alaska gets 300 days of clouds and rain a year. We were fortunate to visit on one of their rare sunny days. This is Creek Street built on pilings over the Ketchikan Creek. It was built over the water due to the difficulty of digging out the steep hillside along the creek. A century ago it was Ketchikan's red light district, but now it is home to restaurants and shops.		Date: 21-Jul-2011 Time: 5:10:28 PM Exp: 1/60s @ f/10.0 ISO: 200 Lens: 24.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority

Mt. Orville and John Hopkins Glacier
Date: 20-Jul-2011 Time: 9:44:14 AM Exp: 1/320s @ f/9.0 ISO: 200 Lens: 70.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority		Glacier Bay National Park in southeast Alaska is a stunning place. The scale can be so vast it can be hard to grasp the scale of things. This is Mt. Orville (10,272 ft), first climbed in 1995, towering over the John Hopkins glacier. From this distance, it is hard to appreciate the size of things. The John Hopkins glacier is a mile wide here, extending 250 feet above water (the size of a 25 story building) to 200 feet underwater. The glacier itself is 12 miles long and is flowing about 10 feet a day on average. It is one of the few tidewater glaciers currently advancing (most are receding). The glacier is actively calving as can be seen from all the floating ice in John Hopkins inlet. This picture was taken from a cruise ship about 5 miles away from the glacier's face.

Water Tower Shadows
While hiking in Tamalpais State Park north of San Francisco, I came upon this water tower. I loved the way the shadows of the steps played against the actual steps themselves. It makes the picture more of an abstract image.		Date: 13-Nov-2010 Time: 3:32:13 PM Exp: 1/30s @ f/9.0 ISO: 200 Lens: 38.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority

Golden Gate Bridge Tower
Date: 14-Nov-2010 Time: 1:04:53 PM Exp: 1/100s @ f/10.0 Lens: 18.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority		One of the things I like about photography is lets me look at the world in different ways. I like to view things differently looking for a picture. While walking across the Golden Gate Bridge, I looked up from the base of the tower, and this is what I saw. I love the way the orange of the bridge contrasts with the blue sky.

Golden Gate Bridge After Sunset
The Golden Gate Bridge north of San Fransisco is said to be one of the most photographed bridges in the world. Photographing the bridge after sunset is challenging, however, as the lights (especially from the traffic) are much brighter than the bridge. This HDR (High Dynamic Range) picture was made from six separate images with exposure times varying from 1/2 second to 25 seconds. These images were then combined to form the image you see here.		Date: 14-Nov-2010 Time: 5:26:29 PM - 5:48:21 PM Exp: 25s, 8s, 4s, 2s, 1, 1/2s @ f/8.0 ISO: 200 Lens: 62.00mm Meter: Manual

Colorado Wine Country
Date: 25-Jul-2010 Time: 5:45:53 PM Exp: 1/100s @ f/7.1 ISO: 200 Lens: 70.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority		While visiting Winter Park, Colorado, we were having a glass of wine on the deck. I noticed the refracted and inverted image of the surrounding hills in my wine glass. It was only later I noticed a third image in the stem of the glass.

Sea Lion Arch, Ecola State Park, Oregon
Sea Lion Arch rock as seen from Indian Beach at Ecola State Park near Seaside, Oregon. As is often the case on the Oregon coast, the day was foggy and not the best for photography. We had driven down to Indian beach and saw Sea Lion Arch at the far end of the beach. I hiked down to get as close as I could without getting wet. You can see some of the myriad of birds who live on and around the rocks. The ones on the arch are hard to see at this resolution; the ones at the top left are clearer. Due to the fog the picture was virtually monochromatic, and I decided it would make a better black and white image.		Date: 21-Jul-2009 Time: 5:40:24 PM Exp: 1/320s @ f/10.0 ISO: 200 Lens: 270.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority

Cape Meares Lighthouse, Oregon
Date: 20-Jul-2009 Time: 5:11:39 PM Exp: 1/60s @ f/13.0 ISO: 200 Lens: 70.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority		Cape Meares Lighthouse near Tillamook, Oregon is a lighthouse built in 1890, and deactivated in 1963. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. A nearby hillside offers a rather unique vantage point to see inside the lens assembly. This tight crop of the first order Fresnel lens almost has an abstract feel to it.

Evening Beach, Seaside, Oregon
Seaside, Oregon has a wide beach with soft, white sand. In the evenings small bands of people would gather around small campfires along the beach. I was surprised to see how many fires dotted the sands over a wide area. We saw this during our whole stay at Seaside, even on a cool evening with a light mist falling. I took this photo after dark but before all the light faded from the sky. This gave what I think is a dramatic look to the clouds. The fifteen second exposure blurred the cloud edges enhancing the effect. The railing in the foreground separates the beach proper from the promenade that runs the length of the beach.		Date: 20-Jul-2009 Time: 10:03:57 PM Exp: 15.0s @ f/14.0 ISO: 200 Lens: 40.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority

Butchart Pansies
Date: 14-Apr-2009 Time: 1:38:30 PM Exp: 1/80s @ f/16.0 ISO: 400 Lens: 50.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority		While visiting Butchart Gardens, north of Victoria, BC, on a rare, sunny April day, we came across these pansies. There's no great story here - just an explosion of color. These flowers where on a hillside above the walking path, so I was able to get below them for a shot from a different perspective than normal.

Acapulco Sunset
This picture is pretty self explanatory. It is the sun setting into the Pacific Ocean on a beach in Acapulco, Mexico. It was shot from the grounds of the Grand Mayan resort. During our entire stay in Acapulco we enjoyed incredibly pleasant weather with clear skies. Often the lack of clouds means a boring sunset. Here, it gave a great view of the sun's orb sinking into the watery horizon. My 300mm lens allowed me to make the sun look large compared to the trees in front.		Date: 19-Feb-2009 Time: 6:42:19 PM Exp: 1/200s @ f/10.0 ISO: 200 Lens: 300.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority

La Quebrada Cliff Diver
Date: 16-Feb-2009 Time: 8:51:13 PM Exp: 1/40s @ f/2.0 ISO: 400 Lens: 50.00mm Meter: Manual		During an evening performance of Acapulco's world famous La Quebrada Cliff Divers, I shot this time lapse picture of a single dive. It is actually a combination of six individual shots taken in rapid succession. Here you can the diver starting off at the top of the right hand cliff, leaping off, and finally splashing into the Pacific Ocean. These professionals (the La Quebrada Cliff Divers were formed in 1934, though people were diving long before then) put on one show in the afternoon and several more in the evening. They dive into the ravine from a (relatively low) cliff on the left side of the photo. They swim across the narrow channel and climb the rock face on the right side of the photo. There, they progressively dive from higher heights until the finale of diving from the top of the 148 foot high cliff. The cliff isn't vertical. This makes it a bit easier to climb, but it also means the divers have to leap outward enough to clear the rocks on the way down (but not too far outward!). I've read that they need to time their jumps to coincide with the crests of waves to ensure enough water to land in, though when we were there I didn't see significant wave action. One can watch the show from a viewing platform or from the La Perla restaurant at the El Mirador Hotel, which is what we did, catching two shows over the coarse of dinner. I had my camera set up on a tripod. As the diver dove, I'd squeeze off a number of rapid shots. I later combined a series of shots taken during one dive into the image you see here.

Dead Tree At Sunset
Sedona, Arizona is red rock country with beautiful rock formations all around. While on vacation there, we climbed to the top of a small knoll near the airport in order to photograph the sunset. We got there an hour early. Waiting for the sun to set, I shot various pictures enjoying the fantastic quality of the low angle sun. This shot is a dead tree lit by the soon to set sun with more of Sedona's red rock formations visible in the background.		Date: 27-Jun-2008 Time: 7:05:10 PM Exp: 1/80s @ f/8.0 ISO: 200 Lens: 27.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority

Sedona Redrock At Sunset
Date: 26-Jun-2008 Time: 6:55:32 PM Exp: 1/125s @ f/7.1 ISO: 400 Lens: 31.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority		Another picture of the beautiful red rock in Sedona, Arizona. This shot was taken on the Broken Arrow trail during a Pink Jeep Tour. We were driven into the back country by a four wheel drive jeep. During one of the stops, I got this shot of the rock formations lit by the low angle sun.

Grand Canyon North Rim
While visiting the north rim of the Grand Canyon, we were eating dinner at the lodge on the rim as the sun was setting. Outside on the patio people were enjoying the lengthening shadows and warmer colors of the canyon rock. The lodge, located at Bright Angel Point, was built in 1927 and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.		Date: 24-Jun-2008 Time: 7:29:25 PM Exp: 1/80s @ f/8.0 ISO: 200 Lens: 46.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority

Fireworks In The Magic Kingdom
Date: 10-Nov-2007 Time: 7:03:53 PM Exp: 5.0s @ f/16.0 ISO: 200 Lens: 48.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority		While vacationing in Florida, we visited Disney's Magic Kingdom. In the evening, they had a fireworks display near the central castle. The cloud like background is actually the smoke from earlier fireworks blowing in the breeze blurred out by the time exposure. The fireworks show was pretty impressive and *almost* made up for the hassle of the crush of people, who, like us, stayed for the show and then all tried to leave at the same time.

Hazardous Conditions
While staying at Palm Beach Shore, FL, we found this structure on the southeast corner of the island. I really don't know what it is or what its function is, but I thought it might make a good picture. I hiked out onto the beach on several evenings trying to catch the dim light of the just-set sun. I wanted dim light so that I could use a longer exposure time to blur the waves, but not so long that they were indistinguishable. There was only a narrow sliver of time between too bright and too dark, but this was one of the results.		Date: 24-May-2007 Time: 4:36:25 PM Exp: 2.0s @ f/5.6 ISO: 640 Lens: 18.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority

Palouse River Trail
Date: 30-Oct-2005 Time: 11:39:38 AM Exp: 1/320s @ f/11.0 ISO: 200 Lens: 70.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority		Between the towns of Pullman WA and Moscow ID, in the Palouse area of eastern Washington lies the Bill Chipman Palouse trail. It used to be an old, abandoned railway line before being converted to a trail in 1998. On an early summer morning, this was the view down the trail.