Hanalei by RyanBuchanan

Hanalei Bay—one of our favorite places to stay in northern Kauai, Hawaii. Such a peaceful place with some jaw-dropping landscapes. This was one of the evenings we watched the sunset from the popular pier and caught some nice light and clouds. Even a couple enjoying the moment on the pier.

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Born Again by RyanBuchanan

Without any new images to work on I had to dive back into the Iceland stockpile again and have some fun with a shot I took back in June 2014. This was taken in the small town of Vik. Shot this on a cloudy day. This image is a composite—the way I envisioned it prior to that evening. Just having a little fun and needed to brush up. Thanks for looking.

Check out my drone video from Iceland here:
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Battle Born by RyanBuchanan

+better view on black+ Logan Pass has always been a battleground. Over thousands of years, glaciers have carved out some of the most magnificent mountain peaks in North America. With relentless winters that allow for only a small window for life, survival here is tough. And this year even more so—drought conditions, forest fires, a nearly non-existent water flow, even the flowers were, for the most part, long gone all due to the lack of snowfall this past winter. Even in such harsh conditions, it’s amazing how life still perseveres.

This evening, on our second trip up to Logan Pass, we were rewarded with interesting cloud cover mixed with a smokey haze from the fires—resulting in some interesting light. I’ve always wanted to capture Clements Mountain with it’s unique, castle-like appearance and this was my chance! My daunting search to find a foreground began… I finally came across this lonely patch of flowers that was somehow still in full bloom.

My goal was to create depth in the scene by getting extremely close to the flowers, making them appear as large as possible. I positioned the angle of the camera to where the flowers would lead the eye up through the mid-ground to the mountain. So, with a few passers-by wondering what the hell I was doing with my face and camera buried in this cluster, I took a few series of shots of the foreground at 7 different focal points which I was able to blend in photoshop for sharpness throughout. The light was more intense at this point, allowing me to keep the shutter fast enough to freeze any flower movement. Then I waited a little longer for the right sky light to set in. The clouds made for some great patterns coming out from behind the mountain as the hazy glow intensified. The lens distortion at the top of the frame helped lengthen the mountain and cloud lines.

Thanks for looking and I appreciate your comments.

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Hidden Lake by RyanBuchanan

It was a long week out in Glacier National Park, dodging fires, escaping the smoke and hunting for clouds—tough even finding flowing water and flowers. With apparently just 15% of snowfall this past winter, drought conditions were in full effect—flowers were long gone for the most part and creek beds were nearly dry. This evening though, we were able to get out from most of the smokey haze and catch some nice, interesting light up at Logan Pass. This is Hidden Lake at the foot of Bearhat Mountain. The search for foreground life led me to this spot where I was able to get a slight sideview angle on the mountain and some greater depth out to the horizon. Blended around 6 shots to get sharpness throughout. With Going to the Sun road closed I was worried we weren’t going to be able to make it up here. Was incredible to finally see it—a photographer’s dream.

But the real treat was finally getting out to shoot with Ryan Dyar and Miles Morgan. We had a blast and it was obviously great to get to know and learn from these two pros. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend checking out Dyar’s instructional processing videos for some expert tips. Good stuff.

Thanks for checking out my work!
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