Mountains Scenics - 24 New Images!

Well it has been a long while since I have added any new images to my website - they have been just backing up! So in grand fashion I thought I would release a whole bunch at once. Many more to follow..... But for now check out the Mountain Scenics and Grand Vistas Gallery, here you can see 24 new images!

They are the first 24 images in that gallery, so you don't have to go searching for them. If you like what you see, please leave a comment in the gallery comment box.

Enjoy, Shane

It's Been a Busy Summer!

For any of you folks that have enjoyed following my blog entries, I apologise I have been unable to make regular posts throughout this summer. It is not because I have not been out taking photos, but rather because I have been pursuing some rather intense and time consuming studies in the art of "Integral Coaching" - which is part of my ongoing passion and practice of Holistic Healing, something I have done and offered for 25 years!

When ever possible I have been out photographing as much as I can. I set an intention early this year to more deeply explore the local natural wonders of where is live in Flagstaff Arizona. I was determined and convinced that there was an amazing local shot yet to be discovered.....

In addition to exploring northern Arizona, I also lead a photo tour into the Great Bear Rainforest in May of this year, in pursuit of photographing wild grizzly bears. This turned out to be yet another remarkable excursion into this remote wilderness area of British Columbia - my second visit now to this area.

The other trip I took this summer was to Colorado - into the high alpine basins of the San Juan mountains to photograph wild flowers. In fact I just returned home from this trip, and have quite a new few images I am excited to share with you all.

So in a nut shell this has been my summer, and now I would like to share with you a few of the images that have made this summer so memorable and exciting! The following three blog posts highlight this summers photographic adventures.

I have a couple of more trips planned this fall, both wildlife and landscape, so watch for those upcoming blog posts as well.

Enjoy, Shane

Colorado Wildflowers

Well I just returned from a 5 day trip to the San Juan mountains in south west Colorado. I was in search of wildflowers and spectacular mountain vistas. My friend Rick and I visited four different alpine basins, Gold King, Yankee Boy, American and Ice Lake Basin. I had visited Ice Lake last summer, and knew that it was shockingly beautiful, so I was really excited to re-visit this grandeur of natural wonders! Especially because last year I really got hammered hard by the summers worst storm, reducing my trip to a measly two days!

But first we needed to experience the other three high alpine basins. In hind sight, the weather and our planned agenda worked perfectly. On our visit to Gold King, Yankee Boy and American Basin, we barely seen a cloud for four days. However just in time for our excursion into Ice Lake, the weather turned - and these fabulous clouds started to roll in. we had a tremendous Sunset and sunrise shoot before we needed to clear out to avoid another a heavy and typical summer rain storm. But not before we managed to capture some beautiful images. Have a look!




Ice Lake Basin - Nikon D3, 17-35 f2.8







American Basin - Nikon D3, 17-35 f2.8





Taken from a vista near Island lake, Nikon D3, 17-35 f2.8






Ice Lake Basin, Nikon D3, 17-35, f2.8







Ice Lake Basin, Nikon D3, 17-35 f2.8

I found Ice lake to be so beautiful and diverse in what it offers, I plan to make it an annual photo event. In fact I am presently planning to offer a small group tour to this area next summer. If anyone is interested in joining me, please contact me by email (shanemcdermottphotography@gmail.com) and let me know. I will provide more information and details in the next couple of months.

For now, please feel free to leave a comment,

Enjoy, Shane

Nothern Arizona!

As I mentioned in a earlier post, I was determined to find and create the opportunity for an amazing "local" shot. At least by my standards I think I was lucky enough to get two! Here they are.



Nikon D3, 17-35 f2.8






Nikon D3, 17-35 f2.8

Both of these images were taken at Government Prairie, about 20 minutes out side of Flagstaff, Arizona. I have both of these images hanging in the local fine art gallery where my work is displayed, and needless to say, both have attracted a heap of local attention! Most locals of Flagstaff have never seen this area or this perspective of the San Francisco Peaks. Funny, how I didn't either until I went looking for it.

Again, please feel free to leave a comment.

Enjoy, Shane

Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Tour

In May of this year I lead my first photo tour into the remote wilderness of British Columbia, into a place known as the Great Bear Rainforest. This was my second trip to this area (last year I went there to photograph the elusive Spirit Bear), and it did not disappoint, truly living up to it's astonishing reputation as the best and wildest place to photograph wild grizzly bears, as well as black bear and spirit bears!

Here are a three of the images I returned with.



Nikon D3, 24-70 f2.8




Nikon D3, 200-400 f4





Nikon D3, 200-400 f4

I will be leading another photo tour into this remarkable area again this Oct 4-11 to photograph the spirit bear as well as grizzly bears. There are still spots available if you would like to join me. If you would like more information, please check out the link off of my home page.

Please feel free to leave a comment.

Enjoy, Shane

Quick Trip to Southern Utah

Over the weekend of March 20-22 my friend Rick and I decided to take a quick three day foray into Southern Utah! In fact Southern Utah is perhaps my favorite location for landscape photography - and particularly Cottonwood Canyon road, perhaps the most scenic drives in the whole south west.

Anyways here are a few images. The first two are from Lake Powell/Glen Canyon, an area known as Alstrom Point. Rick had been here several times before, but this was my first. Here is what I seen.

Lake Powell - Fingera



Nikon D3, f16, 1s, 24-70 f2.8



Boulder Vista



Nikon D3 f19, 4s, 24-70 f2.8



The next day we were off the Yellow Rock off of Cottonwood Canyon road. Here are a couple of sunset images.

Cottonwood Canyon vista



Nikon D3 f16, 3s, 24-70 f2.8



Pink Castle Sunset



Nikon D3 f16, 4s, 24-70 f2.8

Then after sunset at yellow Rock we headed off to Bryce National Park hoping to catch a spectacular sunrise. Well the sun did rise, but there was not a cloud in sight! So in an effort to come away with something different I mounted my 200-400 f4 on my D3 and headed out to the rim. Here is what I seen.

Cliff Hanger



Nikon D3, f 9.5, 1s, 200-400 f4

Well that is it, hope you enjoyed them. Please leave me a comment (now that I have the comment feature of my blog turned on), if you feel so inspired.

Thanks, Shane

New Images From Zion National Park

My trip to Zion National Park last fall was an incredibly productive trip for me. In fact I managed to capture so many images that I really liked I was unable to process all them immediately.

In going back through my files this past week I have found several more that I would now like to share with you. This fall for the first time I will be leading a small group tour into Zion National Park, anyone interested can check out details here:

2009 Zion National Park Photo Tour

So here are a few new images from Zion National Park!

Autumn Cascades



Nikon D3 F16, 1s, 17-35 f2.8



Cavern of light



Nikon D3 f16, 15s, 17-35 f2.8




Lone Tree Cascade



Nikon D3 f16, 2s, 17-35 f2.8



Boulder Mountain



Nikon D3 f16, .7s, 17-35 f2.8



Autumn Crack



Nikon D3 f22, 1.5s, 17-35 f2.8


Enjoy, Shane

Accepting blog Comments?

G'Day

It was brought to my attention today from a blog visitor that my blog is not set up to accept comments. I needed to make some preference changes to enable this function, which are now complete. So anyone so inspired to leave a comment on my blog, feel free to do so. Sorry for this oversight in the configuration of my blog.

Thanks to all who follow the journey of my photography.

Shane

Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Tour

If you have ever dreamed of photographing huge wild grizzly bears up close, this could be opportunity you have been looking for! During May 23-28/09, I will be leading a small group of photographers (Maximum of 6) into the Khutzeymateen bear sanctuary on north coast of BC. Only Three spots are left, so you will need to act quickly!

For complete information please go here: Khutzeymateen Bear Tour

Death Valley & Alabama Hills

Considering the big snow storm forecasted to hit Northern Arizona during the Christmas holidays, I decided it would be a great opportunity to checkout Death Valley National Park in CA. So I packed up my car with everything I would need for 10 days (including a make shift bed), and headed west for the desert. My timing seemed appropriated, Flagstaff received three and a half feet of snow and Death Valley was partly cloudy, which would mean fabulousl skies!

The first evening I headed to Badwater, 280' feet below sea level - heres what I saw! For my first time photographing Death Valley, this seemed like a pretty good start to the trip.



Nikon D3, 24-70 f2.8

Next morning on my iconography tour of Death Valley I was off to Zabriskie Point. Again the skies went off!




Nikon D3, 24-70 f2.8


Later that same day I visited the Mesquite Dunes. Unfortunately the skies started to clear, which made for nice day time temps in the high 60's, but made capturing sweet images considerably more challenging. This was my first really shot at dune photography, and it became quickly apparent it would all be about lines, textures and shadows. Here is what I came away with.




Nikon D3, 24-70 f2.8

After three days in Death Valley, I decided to head further west to Lone Pine and the Alabama Hills. I had seen great images of this place but one particular structure really intrigued me - Mobius Arch. I had seen plenty of great shots of Lone Pine through the arch (which I would also capture), but I was looking to capture something I had personally not seen - but knowing full well someone had captured a similar composition - I have just not seen it.

I am always partial to expansive vistas that really capture the fuller essence of the place, so this is what I tried to capture here. And in fact I also composed a 4 image panorama of this same scene, which will eventually be posted on my website.




Nikon D3, 24-70 f2.8

This final image is of Whitney Portal arch, captured on a fine crisp morning with wonderful skies.




Nikon D3, 17-35 f2.8

I will not have a chance to post these images to my website until Jan. 20 as I am off on the road again. My next images may come as a bit of a surprize......so stay tuned!

Have a great new year,

Shane

Zion Fall Colors

Welcome to Fall!

Well I seemed to have missed the fall here in Northern Arizona. In fact most everyone did, one huge wind storm and all the pretty little yellow gems were stripped from the trees!

Unfortunately my spirit bear trip although incredible, didn't correspond with a trip to Colorado to photograph falls colors there either. So not to be denied, I pack up my gear and headed off the Zion National Park in Southern Utah. I have never really photographed fall colors in the Virgin Narrows before, so I didn't know what to expect. But I was definitely not disappointed!

Here are a few of my favorites that I feel really capture the amazing radiance of this spectacular place:





Nikon D3, 17-35 f2.8 Left Fork of North Creek, towards the Subway.

This is perhaps my favorite image of the southwest deserts! Hopefully you can see and feel why. Next I worked my way up the Virgin Narrows for the first time, and bumped into beautiful scenes like this.



Nikon D3, 24-70 f2.8

In approximately 10 hrs the first day, I only covered maybe 2 miles! I couldn't walk more than 100' and yet another astonishing scene would halt me in my tracks. Like this one here.



Nikon D3, 17-35 f2.8

Oh and this one as well, which I almost missed. A tiny a little scene, but the light was... well you can see - mesmerizing!



So, if you like what you see, and would like to see more images from my trip to Zion, please go here, where the first 13 images on the first page are all new, captured within the last 2 weeks.

South West Desertscapes

Thanks for having a look! Whooping Cranes are next, I hope!

Have a great Thanks Giving.

Shane McDermott

Great Bear Rain Forest

G'Day Nature Lovers

I just arrived home from a one week trip to the "Great Bear Rain Forest", on the central coast of British Columbia. The intention of the short excursion was to first try and find the elusive and extremely rare "Great White Bear" or "Spirit Bear". My second intention of this trip was to scout out this area for the possibility of offering small group photography tours to this area next year.

So how did it turn out? Well, having read many of the stories of the folks who had previously seeked to find the great spirit bear, I was a little doubtful about the possibility of actually finding one of these great bears. I had read of wildlife biologists searching the great bear rain forest for over 2.5 years before getting just a glimpse of this elusive rain forest giant.

So imagine my surprise when our head guide spotted our first white bear after being on the boat for less than an hour! We did see one other spirit bear two days later fishing under a water fall - needed to work really hard to get into a position to photograph this bear though. So I definitely consider myself extremely fortunate to have seen two "Spirit Bears" in less than a week!



Image Capture: Nikon D3, 200-400 f4 VR

This was the first white bear we seen, and due to the serious lack of salmon this year it has forced all bears, wolves, eagles and all other wildlife dependent upon the salmon spawn to search for alternate food sources at this time of year. This spirit bear was scouring the mountain sides looking for, finding and gorging himself on wild crab apples!



Image Capture: Nikon D3, 200-400 f4 VR

The search continues for more crab apples, amoungst the beautiful fall foliage. while waiting for 9 hours in the pouring rain in hopes of catching a glimpse of the great white bear fishing, this beautiful black bear showed up. I loved this situation and conditions (wet, cold and windy), so much so this has ended up being my favorite image of the trip!




Image Capture: Nikon D3, 200-400 f4 VR

white bears, black bears & last but not least, the grizzly bear. I like the setting of this shot with the bear against the dark wall.



Image Capture: Nikon D3, 70-200 f2.8 VR

If any of you are interested in seeing more images from this recent trip please visit this gallery on my website.

North American Bears


And finally, within the next month I will have details worked out for two up coming photo tours I have planned to the Great Bear Rain Forest in 2009. The first one will be May 23-28, to the Kutzamateen to photograph grizzly bears, and the second tour will be Oct. 4-11 to photograph the Great white "Spirit Bear".

Enjoy, shane

Three Sisters Wilderness

G'Day

Just returned from a brief four day trip to the Three Sisters Wilderness in Oregon. This is really my first attempt at photographing back country mountain wilderness scenes. Shooting conditions were really tough, lots a clear sunny days with high winds. There were really no clouds at all during the golden hours of the early and late day.

However, the last morning before returning back to Flagstaff, we were treated with one of the most amazing sunrises I have ever witnessed. Then the rest of the morning remained overcast which was ideal for waterfall photography.

Here are a few teasers, I should have a few more images loaded on to my site by the weekend.

Thanks for your interest.

Enjoy, Shane





Nikon D3, 17-35 - 2 stop GND





Nikon D3, 24-70





Nikon D3, 17-35, 2 stop hard GND

Outdoor Photographer Invitation!

This is not a date I will soon forget. May 12, just a week before I was to depart for my photo trip to Tanzania. I opened my email to see a message from the editor of Outdoor Photographer, in short, he was inviting me to participate in the upcoming annual "Landscape Special Edition".

Shocked was I .... what an honor and privilege to be invited to participate in something that has inspired my own photography since the beginning. It is not really clear how my work will be presented, from my interaction with their writer, it seems as though it may be a personal profile. Regardless, I am completely thrilled to even think that in just a few days I will be able to see my work in Outdoor Photographer. Wow! From what I can tell, here are the images that will be appearing:



Nikon D200, 12-24




Nikon D200, 12-24





Nikon D3, 17-35

Watch for the August issue, I sure am.

Thanks for your interest, Shane

Tanzania Migration Safari

It has been awhile since I have last blogged. There has been many time consuming and significant developments regarding my photography career. The least not being a safari I recently escorted to Tanzania Africa in June. This was my first time to the Serengeti in Tanzania, had an absolute fabulous time, and capture many memorable images. Here are just a few:



Nikon D3, 70-200




Nikon D3, 70-200




Nikon D300, 200-400





Enjoy, Shane

Romancing the Stone Part II

Hello Again

Here are a few more images from my recent trip to Vermilion Cliffs in Northern Arizona. These are all from White Pocket. All images were taken with the Nikon D3, 17-35 f2.8 or 70-200 f2.8.





















The second last image is a 3.5 minute exposure, the stars were starting to come out. Even at 3.5 minutes, still there was no noise!!! The D3 is an astonishing piece of equipment.

Till next post, shane

Romancing the Stone

G'Day

Just got back from a fabulous road trip to Northern Arizona's Vermilion Cliffs area. My friend Ken and I first visited South Coyote Buttes. This was my second visit to this particular area, first time was last sept. Here are a few of the images I managed to capture. This was my first landscape trip with my new Nikon D3. What an awesome landscape rig! I love the FX sensor.










All of the above images were capture with the Nikon D3 17-35 f2.8


After two day at South Coyote Buttes, we then visited White Pocket, a definite favorite for both of us. Tough to get to but worth the effort.




This image was captured with the Nikon D3 - 70-200 f2.8.

Part II to follow, hope you enjoy.

Shane