Hot Spring Curves by MAPhoto

High temperature springs steam through the cold early morning air. A few years now I’ve been coming here, looking for the right conditions. Snow on the peaks while the foreground is clear, sunrise light, a nice sky, below freezing temps that make the mist show up well, etc. This morning while with a group on my Eastern Sierra tour, it finally all came together.

The next morning there was an all-out blizzard…..

This is a SINGLE image file processed extensively from RAW and in PS. Exposure was 4 seconds at 45mm with a 4-stop ND on there. Thanks for looking.

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Everest (Kangshung Face) by MAPhoto

I wanted to make sure I got to post at least one of my images of Mount Everest here, since there is nowhere like Tibet if you want great views of the great one. If you are like me, you would prefer this one of just Everest’s summit: http://ift.tt/1NooVXx

But here I wanted to show a little more, and show off the mountain in a more hospitable type of light. I made an X on the map at this spot before we even went hiking because based on my map research of the angles and my knowledge of how glacial rivers carve wide drainages, I knew there must be some good opportunities here for a landscape shot that put Everest in the forefront with fall colors nearby, probably the only place in the world where such a shot exists, and one I had not seen before.

To the left of Everest is Lhotse and Lhotse Shar, all 8000m +

Thanks for looking.

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Himalaya Autumn by MAPhoto

From this viewpoint I was able to combine some of the world’s highest peaks with some of the best of the fall colors. A busy week of trekking this area to get out here followed by an hour or three wandering around in seemingly impenetrable neck-deep brush to find this spot. This shot is a combination of several exposures.

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Sun Valley by MAPhoto

The incredible uniqueness of Tibet’s Kharta Valley is that it may be the only place on Earth where you can be find the colors of Autumn near the base of 8000m high peaks, like the Makalu massif in the background here. While the logistics of getting the permits to get here are outrageously forbidding, we had some great local help and great luck getting in, so my highest priority became finding a way to capture this landscape with these two elements together. While this particular rendition shows off both, it shows off the light more than anything, which was a fair trade since it was one spectacular evening for light. The image involved an unusually large amount of work on just about everything in post processing, including hours of color and contrast work to cut through the haze and retain the correct tones. Anyway, hope you like it. It’s a stitch of 3 14mm images.

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Wonder of Being by MAPhoto

Of all the Himalayan images I made, this one shows the scale of the mountains best. Even though these are somewhat smaller peaks, at around 6000m in height, they towered over our camp from across a deep valley and I used a 60mm lens to fill the frame with them. I photographed them as the daily convective clouds started to build in the afternoon light, adding the depth needed. I decided on a custom-toned image here and while it may appear to be B&W there are actually various colors painted into highlight and shadow, increasing the feeling of light entering the scene.

The lone figure is one of the great people I’ve ever had the privilege to meet in life, Steve Zigler. When I had a chance to visit a remote region of the Tibetan Himalaya with him, he was constantly enthralled with the magnitude and splendor of the peaks around us. It was for this reason I choose to use him to fulfill an idea that I had, reaching arms outstretched to the glory of the mountains above our camp, in constant wonder of being there.

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Fury by MAPhoto

VIEW ON BLACK!

Well, let’s start with the fact that the new http://www.marcadamus.com is up and running today, and all images have now been updated and are viewable in higher resolution.

Next up, let’s talk about 500px. We DO NOT know what happened to the last picture I posted here. I did NOT take it down myself, and no amount of contacting the admin so far has accounted for its loss. Weird, huh? Maybe they should get back to me.

Now for this photo, well, this is a favorite of mine from my recent travels. There aren’t many images that capture the power of these greatest peaks in the world very well, but for me this comes close. These are the spires below the 8000m summit of Makalu in the light of an approaching storm. Snow is blowing over the ridge and clouds are building below. This was taken at 400mm.

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Shark’s Tooth by MAPhoto

On November 15 my new website will be released. Contained therein will be 300 images spanning my fifteen year career, all of which have been remastered to be on display at industry-leading high resolution. Included in this collection will be 15-20 images never seen before from my recent travels, including the Himalayas, and 50 other photographs from this past one year.

This photograph here is one of them. It was the absolute best Aurora show I have ever been fortunate enough to capture, and to do so I used several images, but with the main aurora shown in the middle here and its refection being captured at the same time.

It is extremely important to view this in a well-darkened environment. If you can’t see the fine details of the rocks on the bottom edge of the frame clearly then try again some other time, because there are a lot of subtle details I enjoyed in this landscape. In particular, the moonlight emerging onto the peaks.

Anyway, thanks for having a look and I’ll see you on the 15th.

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Desert Fireworks by MAPhoto

If you missed this image the first time, here it is again. I have never reposted any images here before, but had said that I would do so in this case, because the first image did not meet my artistic vision nor standards despite being well received with 2500 favs. I removed the first version amidst much complaining and I do apologize if you had left a comment the first time.

In other, more important news, I have returned from the Everest region of Tibet after a month spent in China recently and am busy preparing to launch my new website on November 15th of this year. At that time only will my new images be posted, including dozens of new works, unless you happen to be at YellowKorner Gallery in Hong Kong tomorrow evening for my media event and pre-release showing.

Until then, this shot from this past summer’s storm chase in Arizona will need to suffice, as it makes too good an addition to my portfolio collection here to leave out despite the fact it won’t see as much attention the second time around. This image was 2-second exposures minutes after the sun had set, and to obtain it I pretty much drove around like crazy following storm cells until that time occurred, and composed what I found.

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Temple of Night by MAPhoto

This year was a particularly special year for the Aurora shoot in the north of Canada’s Yukon. I explored a lot of new country, new perspectives and got some pretty amazing Aurora shows 5 nights in a row at one point. While this isn’t the best aurora I captured all trip (that still to come) this composition was one of my favorites ever, and the clouds passing by throughout the night were the icing on the cake. This shot is 3 exposures blended for various details ranging from 4 seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 6400 for the sky to 1 minute at f/4.5 and ISO 6400 for the foreground. All exposures from the same place within a few moments of each other. And yes I was standing in the stream. Thanks for comments.

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Desert Fireworks by MAPhoto

In this shot under a powerful monsoonal storm cell in Arizona the landscape to me seemed it was only an audience there to take in the show. I feel like the variety of cactus add depth to the shot, but it is obviously more about the sky in this one. It was an incredible light show, taken right after the sun had sunk below the horizon and very nearly illuminated the clouds from underneath. To capture something like this I had to accept that I would follow the progress of the storm and take whatever foreground it offered me at the time the light was right, and fortunately I found the clearing you see here. While it may not flow as easily as my previous post, I still like this view for the power of the skies and sunset light.

This image comes from multiple exposures all taken without moving the camera within the span of a minute or two. All exposures were at 1 second, ISO 100.

Thanks for having a look!

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