In early years, vessels sailing the Pacific Coast were wrecked on the rocky cliffs of Point Reyes on the westernmost tip of the peninsula. In 1870, a lighthouse was built to guide ships lost in the dense fogs that blanket this coast. It was decommissioned in 1975. In winter, skies over Point Reyes National Seashore are dramatic, and Pacific storms push huge waves onto the outer beaches. The first rains of winter bring wild mushrooms to Mt. Vision.

In this newsletter issue #087 - Point Reyes in Winter, California are some of my favorite trails to some unusual places to set up a tripod and a camera. Before driving out to the coast, check the weather forecasts. If you want to visit the lighthouse, find out when it is open to the public. Down the western side of the peninsula, wide sandy beaches face the open sea. Wind, salt spray, and the steady roar of breaking surf challenge photographers searching for new images.

A few blocks north of San Francisco's Financial District is Chinatown. There are many ways to frame the entrance to San Francisco’s Chinatown at Bush and Grant. For eight blocks, all the way to Columbus Street, Grant Avenue is festooned with red lanterns. Brightly-lit shops offer electronics, jewelry, T-shirts, and lots of restaurants. Make a series of overlapping vertical exposures as you stand in one spot and rotate 360 degrees. Stitch them together in Photoshop and you’ll be able to capture what you’ll experience on a walk through Chinatown.

​Street photography is easier without a tripod. Bring your monopod, raise your ISO to 400 and use a VR lens. Pick an aperture that will give you adequate depth of field and a shutter speed slow enough that you’ll see a bit of blur in moving traffic and pedestrians pushing their umbrellas against the wind. Freight loading doors are seen everywhere in the sidewalks of the downtown areas of San Francisco. Try to avoid walking on these slippery metal doors when they are wet.

In winter, skies over Point Reyes National Seashore are dramatic, and Pacific storms push huge waves onto the outer beaches. The first rains of winter bring wild mushrooms to Mt. Vision. In this newsletter issue #087 - Point Reyes in Winter, California are some of my favorite trails to some unusual places to set up a tripod and a camera.

Before driving out to the coast, check the weather forecasts. If you want to visit the lighthouse, find out when it is open to the public. Down the western side of the peninsula, wide sandy beaches face the open sea. Wind, salt spray, and the steady roar of breaking surf challenge photographers searching for new images. In early years, vessels sailing the Pacific Coast were wrecked on the rocky cliffs of Point Reyes on the westernmost tip of the peninsula. In 1870, a lighthouse was built to guide ships lost in the dense fogs that blanket this coast. It was decommissioned in 1975. 

Hundreds of waterfalls can be found with easy treks anywhere in New York’s Finger Lakes region. Streams flowing into the lakes cascade down rolling hills covered with hardwood forests of maple, beech, ash, and birch. Many of the streams that flow into the Finger Lakes drop as much as a hundred feet a mile. Streams flowing from the higher surrounding mountains erode deep canyons. Discover the best times to visit and how to find the best photography in my issue #112 - Finger Lakes of New York.

Seven miles north of Truxton, NY are two parking areas, one on either side of Route 91, with a painted crosswalk connecting them. This trailhead is hard to miss. The trail to Tinker’s Falls is a quarter—mile long and follows the Creel Tributary flowing into Labrador Creek. Yellow and red leaves, fallen from the forest above, litter the edges of the stream in October. My favorite spot along the trail is directly across from the first of three wooden benches for hikers using the trail. Because of the low light levels in the forest, I used exposures in the six—second range and did not need an ND filter.