Hoover Dam...

So at the tail end of the Vegas trip, we ran out to see the Hoover Dam...it's only 45 minutes from the city and definitely worth the visit.

Click for more!

As usual, I appreciate you taking a look...let me know what you think!

Lyle
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The city that never sleeps...

So I took a couple of days to head down to Vegas for the Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds show (which was amazing, by the way) with one of my best friends Nick and make some pics of the city at night...it's been too long since I've done any serious night shooting, so it was nice to get my feet wet again. We got into the city too late for the ideal light (from sunset until an hour or so after), but I got some decent stuff. 

More after the jump, as always!

On the left side of that image you can see The Cosmopolitan, which grand opens tomorrow...I couldn't get any good shots of the building, they were still hard at work with the construction. Next time...

A (rare?) shot of the Bellagio without the fountain going off...

And finally, I'll leave you with a little holiday 'Where's Waldo?'

We took a little time before our flight out to head out to the Hoover Dam, which I'll post up in a few days...thanks for looking!

Lyle

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Holiday Portraits...

I was down in Mendocino for a family wedding and took the opportunity to squeeze in some Christmas portraits for a couple of clients down that way. 

As always, more after the jump:

There is still time if you'd like to schedule a shoot before the holiday gets here! Email me: lyle@krannichfeld.com

Happy Holidays!
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Fort Bragg Sunset...

Took a quick trip to Fort Bragg for Thanksgiving...here are a few of the pics:

More after the jump, as usual!

The top one is Point Cabrillo Lighthouse, about 5 miles south of Fort Bragg. Thanks for looking!

Lyle
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Kitten on white...

Spent some time in the studio with Mo, an energetic (if unwilling) model...

More after the jump, 9 in total:

Thanks for looking!

Lyle
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Traffic Spike!

Hello there! I've been seeing an increase in traffic here on the blog, I think due to the Hawai'i pictures I posted recently. Just in case you haven't seen it and are curious, my website has all different work than is found here on the blog.

krannichfeld.com

If you'd like to contact me, please feel free to email me and thanks for coming by!

Lyle SEE MORE!

The first snow of winter, 2010...

Took a nice drive up Hwy 32 and into Lassen over the weekend. There was just a touch of snow on the ground in places and it was absolutely beautiful. I spent more time playing around with some portraits than shooting landscapes, but here are the two I managed...I like the first one quite a bit, on the fence for the second one...feel like I definitely missed the moment. Click the link below for the 2nd one =) Enjoy!

Thanks for looking, as always! 

Lyle

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16th Ave steps, San Francisco...

Went to San Francisco for the day on Monday, thought I'd post a couple of shots from just after sunset at the 16th ave steps. Nothing too spectacular here, but it makes me want to spend an extended period of timing shooting at night like I did in Seattle during April, 2008. Click the link below the picture for the other shot and as always, thanks for looking =)

 

 

More Hawai'i to come in a couple of days!

Lyle
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Eagle Rays...

 I had the pleasure of running into a group of Eagle Rays on two separate occasions. They were slow-moving and graceful and elegant, but MAN could they move if they felt uncomfortable.

 

Six images total after the jump, just click the link below...

The ray below had recently been hooked by a fisherman and still had a hook embedded (with bait attached) in its mouth and a length of line trailing behind.  Couldn't have been hooked more than 48 hours before we ran into it. I was surprised to find that it didn't feel threatened by us. Obviously it wouldn't associate being hooked with running into us, but I figured it would still be skittish and on edge...it spent quite a bit of time swimming right next to my mom.

You can add these awesome creatures to my list of favorite things in Hawai'i.

Aloha!

Lyle
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Spinner Dolphins in Honolua Bay...

On our last morning of snorkeling we decided to revisit our favorite spot, Honolua Bay. We got their early to beat the crowds and arrived to find it gray and raining. Low visibility and a little bit chilly. A couple women were already leaving as we walked in, saying there was nothing going on. Fortunately they were really wrong...

More after the jump, click the link below! There's another video...

We noticed a huge pod of Spinner Dolphins out in the middle of the bay near open water, so I skipped the reef entirely and swam hard for 1/2 mile or so against the current out to the pod. As I swam out visibility improved, especially out in the deeper water. It stopped raining and the sun began to make an occasional appearance. Before I'd even caught my breath they were all around me, coming within 6 feet along side of me, swimming underneath me...they were everywhere. I've never experienced anything like this...one of the best moments of my life so far. I hope it's not the last time I get to enjoy being up close and personal with them.

Spinner Dolphins are fascinating to watch as they play and interact with one another. We could hear them echolocating, sending chirps and clicks through the water that I could hear from at least 60' away. Below you can see the larger Spinner whistling by blowing through its blowhole. The sound they each make doing this is unique to the individual and is used to identify one another.

They get their name from their acrobatic displays, leaping WAY out of the water, spinning and flipping. I saw it happen within 40' or so, it was jaw dropping. Hawai'i was really laying it on thick at that point, with a huge, full rainbow directly behind the dolphins jumping around. Just unbelievable. I was fortunate enough to share this with my best friend, who you can see briefly in the video below...all we could do was gawk and laugh and enjoy the moment.

Thanks, Hawai'i. I can't express enough gratitude for that morning...you opened my eyes.

More to come in a couple of days, lots of underwater stuff left to share =)

Lyle

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Maui Turtles...

So here are the first of the underwater shots from the trip. I think I have five or six posts worth of images, which surprises me. All of these images (and the HD videos!) were shot with the Canon sd1400is inside the Ikelite underwater housing. All in all a pretty effective, sub $500 way to capture some nice memories on your vacations.

Sooooo turtles, everybody's favorites! Click the link below for a couple more images and my first HD video. 

That lazy behemoth was the largest turtle any of us had ever seen and seemed totally uninterested in its surroundings. I guess when you hit 100+ you become hard to impress...I was down around 20' to capture this.

I wish I had more awesome turtle shots to share, but in all honesty we couldn't seem to run into them in any sort of decent water conditions. Lastly, here is my first video attempt. Consider it less of an artistic creation and more just sharing this awesome experience. It's fairly shaky because I was on the surface, but it's still fun and worth sharing. It was a great moment, he was definitely curious about me.

It's 1am, I don't have the patience to figure out how to center that video, sooooo...forgive me?

Next up to share? Dolphins? Rays? Trevally? Reef fish? I can't decide...

Lyle
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Haleakala and Hana...

I just returned from another wonderful week on Maui. I have a lot of images to sort through, but you can click on the link below for some highlights from the Haleakala Crater, the road to Hana and Hana itself. The image above is the crater. At just over 10,000', it's the tallest point on the island and a completely different experience than the rest of the island. Think long pants and thermal underwear. 

This somewhat abstract shot is of a Silversword, one of the rarest plants on the planet. It's been listed as a threatened species since the 1920's when goats and humans nearly erased them from existence. They lead quite the interesting life, quietly living for 50 years before dramatically changing appearance, blooming for a brief period and then dying. They live their whole life for one moment...

Geographically these are out of order, but whatever. These two falls are along the road to Hana and were flowing nicely even though most of the creeks were completely dry. The one above is a tough shot...it's a gorgeous waterfall, but it sits awkwardly in a canyon of sorts. I'm about 90% happy with this one...

This is a Banyon tree...another unique species. It's sacred in India and their national tree, although I doubt they really are too worried about the ones in Hawaii. I have some ideas for shots with one of these...next time!

The next two are form one of the many roadside fruit stands along the way. At this particular one, Adam had to ride on a bicycle that powered up the blender to make our tropical smoothies. He did all the work, I just supervised...

Just a random shot of some 1/4" flowers from the house we stayed at in Hana.

Finally (for now), another version of the crater. Normally I won't post up two shots that are this similar to one another, but I can't help but make an exception here...I like them both quite a bit. What is your preference?

Aloha!
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