Blog - James Griffiths Photography

Grand Teton National Park

March 20, 2019 3 min read

Grand Teton National Park

If you love jagged edge mountains as much as I do this should be one of your favorite parks. I'm sure I've only scratched the surface of this place, but the views are amazing almost anywhere you find yourself. The top picture here was taken on a beach off the side of the road that travels along Jackson Lake, and you have this view for most of that drive. The park is situated just south of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and may be overshadowed by the more famous park. I'm not here to say one is better than the other, I love them both, but it usually seems easier to find yourself alone with the mountains down in the Tetons. It's easy to visit both parks on the same trip anyway, so there's no need to decide between them. On the trip where these photos were taken my friends and I only spent a day here, I wouldn't say that's enough time but you can definitely still see a lot.

National Park And Monument List

June 8, 2018 2 min read

National Park And Monument List

I set myself a life-long goal a few months ago to visit every National Park and Monument in the United States. The way I'm counting there are currently 61 National Parks and 131 National Monuments (March 2019). This number changes occasionally, for instance when I started this goal there were 59 National Parks but in February 2018 Jefferson National Expansion Memorial was renamed to Gateway Arch National Park and in February 2019 Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore was designated as a National Park, so they made the list. All National Parks are managed by the National Park Service and National Monuments may be managed by a number of different agencies. So this list really depends more on the name of the place than what it actually is, but I needed to draw the line somewhere and they do all have some form of historical, cultural, or environmental significance.As of now (March 2019) I have visited 17 National Parks and 19 National Monuments. Below is the list of the ones I have been to in the order that I have visited them with links to associated blog posts (if I made them yet).NATIONAL PARKSGreat Smoky Mountains - August 2011Olympic - January 2017, January 2019Grand Canyon - March 2017, March 2018Zion - March 2017Badlands - June 2017Yellowstone - June 2017, October 2018Grand Teton - June 2017, October 2018Glacier - June 2017Crater Lake - June 2017Redwood - June 2017Yosemite - June 2017Rocky Mountain - June 2017Acadia - October 2017, October 2018Petrified Forest - March 2018Mesa Verde - March 2018Arches - October 2018Mount Rainier - January 2019NATIONAL MONUMENTSStatue of Liberty - 2000Grand Staircase-Escalante - March 2017, March 2018Devil's Tower - June 2017Capulin Volcano - June 2017White Sands - June 2017, March 2018El Malpais - March 2018El Morro - March 2018Montezuma Castle - March 2018Tuzigoot - March 2018Walnut Canyon - March 2018Sunset Crater Volcano - March 2018Wupatki - March 2018Canyon de Chelly - March 2018Hovenweep - March 2018Canyons of the Ancients - March 2018Chimney Rock - March 2018Petroglyph - March 2018Colorado - October 2018Mount St. Helens - January 2019

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument

June 8, 2018 2 min read

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument

The Grand Staircase-Escalante is a large National Monument in southern Utah. It was originally established in 1996 by President Bill Clinton as a 1,880,461 acre monument managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM,). In 2017 President Donald Trump reduced the size of the monument to 1,003,863 acres. There are 3 distinct areas of the monument, the Grand Staircase, Kaiparowits, and Escalante Canyon. It's one of the more diverse monuments and is most often characterized by it's colorful cliffs, slot canyons, and various desert monoliths.I went there for the first time in March 2017 and spent some time in the Paria area, which is basically this road leading to the remains of a ghost town. I thought it would actually be a ghost town with buildings and what not but it's really just some markers of where the town used to be, although the graveyard is still there. The easily definable layers in the cliffs and the vast stretches of the plateaus and mesas in this area give a clear view of the staircase that gives the monument it's name. You can see an image I captured from just off the road here on the top of this post. And keep in mind this "road" is not for the faint of heart. It seems like a normal dirt road when you first start out but around a particular corner the you'll find yourself driving on the top of these cliffs that drop off on either side. It's really not as bad as it feels once you step out of the car though, and in my opinion the best views are from the side of this road.

Neutral Density Filters Vs Stacking Images

March 6, 2018 9 min read

Neutral Density Filters Vs Stacking Images

The more traditional way of taking a long exposure photograph is, as the name would imply, keeping your shutter open and exposing your sensor or film for a long time. Of course the longer you keep your shutter open the brighter your image will get, meaning that a long exposure in daylight is nearly impossible without a neutral density (ND) filter that reduces the amount of light going through the lens. There is another option though, taking several shorter shots and then blending them together with software. The idea here is that you can expose each image properly without any filter and when the blending software combines the images it will smooth out the differences giving you the same effect as a long exposure.I've taken long exposures both ways, and I've seen and read tutorials on both techniques, but usually the blending (or sometimes called stacking) option seemed to be considered an option only if you didn't have an ND filter. So I decided I wanted to do a real world comparison of the two techniques and try to really get into their differences.I wanted to keep it simple yet realistic. I thought the late afternoon would be a good time because the light is nice but not changing as fast as it does around sunset. I was going to be using my Nikon D7200 (crop sensor) with a Sigma 10-20 3.5 lens (I used this at 15mm, I love this wide angle but if it's all the way open at 10mm it can introduce some technical issues that I wanted to minimize). I had 2 screw on filters that I was going to be comparing to not using a filter, the Hoya PROND 100 6 2/3 stop (100 times darkening) and the Tiffen 3 stop (8 times darkening). I would be using my camera's light sensor to get the correct exposure for each set of images as the light might change slightly throughout this, kept my ISO at 100, and my aperture at f/8.

Long Island Beach Photography In The Winter

January 27, 2018 3 min read

Long Island Beach Photography In The Winter

I guess I like solitude, and nothing quite says it like a cold beach covered in snow. It's empty here this time of year, not like a warm summer day when you can barely find room to get to the water. I think it's the idea of taking a photo of something that's normally associated with warmth and relaxation and then showing it in a completely different way. It's so much more interesting in the winter, and it changes so quickly. One day it might look nearly identical to how it does in the summer, just without all of the people, and the next it could be covered in snow and ice. I particularly like finding the transitional phases of it, like a few days after a snowstorm when the sand starts to come through from beneath the snow. The first image here is an example of that from Hecksher State Park a little over a month ago. I had this spot in mind and waited until it just started warming up so that the snow cover would be receding.

2017 In Review

January 20, 2018 9 min read

2017 In Review

This is a little late, January kind of got away from me, but I wanted to share a recap of my year. This was the first full year that I've really focused on improving my photography, before this point I was a very casual photographer often going months at a time without even picking up my camera. It was in the fall of 2016 that I realized how therapeutic it can be through the entire creative process, and it quickly grew from a casual hobby to something of a passion. I also have done more traveling this past year than I ever have before. I've been to 32 states (14 of which I'd never been to before) and spent 59 nights away. It's particularly been interesting since I quit my job last may to focus on myself and my own projects (both with photography and programming). So I thought I'd go through this past year month by month using my favorite photos from each month (when they were taken not necessarily when they were posted) as the subjects.JanuaryThe photo for this month is at the top of this post. Kind of fitting because I think it's still my favorite photo of the year (or at least a close runner up). I'd wanted a photo like this for a while, a cool lake leading up to a snow capped mountain, and I finally saw it with the waning sunlight hitting the peak while driving through Olympic National Park in Washington State with my sister. We were in the Seattle area for a long weekend and made the most of the time there, but this was actually taken only a few hours after landing in Sea-Tac.

The Finger Lakes November 2017

December 9, 2017 7 min read

The Finger Lakes November 2017

I was in upstate New York the week after Thanksgiving spending some time at my parent's cabin and exploring some areas that I haven't been to before. My original plan was to go north to either the Niagara Falls area or the Thousand Islands, but it looked like rain in both of those areas. I did some more research and decided on a few parks in the Finger Lakes Region, an area that I had never been to before and felt like I should.A major reason I love taking landscape photos is that it gets me out into some beautiful locations and helps me appreciate them more than I would otherwise. When I force myself to focus on finding the best way to show a location I start to notice details that I otherwise wouldn't. Because of that I usually want to be at great places in great light, and today that was kind of a problem because I was trying to visit 3 parks in the area. My reasoning for that was that I knew some of the trails would be closed and they all seemed pretty accessible, so I didn't think I would need much time to get to the icons (mostly waterfalls) in the parks. This would also be kind of a scouting trip, giving me a good idea of what I would want to come back to.

Acadia National Park October 2017

November 2, 2017 8 min read

Acadia National Park October 2017

I meant to write this a few weeks ago, but I didn't. This is my trip to Acadia National Park last month. I had just spent the previous day in Baxter State Park (Maine) and was now on my way to Acadia. I've wanted to go here for a while and it's really not too far from my home in New York. It was about an hour drive from Bangor where I spent the previous night, I left in the mid morning and got there with plenty of time to do some exploring. I wanted to find a good place to come back for sunset, and I figured I'd want that spot to be on the water, so my first real stop was around Otter Point (I think that's what it's called, possibly Boulder Beach). I loved the look of the granite rocks going into the ocean with the hills and forests climbing out on top of them. I spent an hour or so climbing around until I found a view that I really liked. Of course it was on top of a slightly more difficult to get to rock, but I made it up without falling the 20 or so feet down into the ocean. I wandered around the park for the rest of the day walking through forests of birch trees and the gardens and stuff, it was all really beautiful but I was set on Otter Point for sunset. I went back leaving enough time to find another spot if I had to (I figured it would be a busy spot at that time). Surprisingly when I got there I was almost alone. I think I saw a total of 3 other people around those rocks for the next hour that I was there. I don't mind people being around me but one of my favorite things about taking landscape photos is being alone in nature. It's really peaceful and clears my head, which is the main reason I do it. Still, I didn't expect to be alone here I just really wanted the shot. I climbed up to the rock I had scouted earlier, having a little more anxiety getting back up but kind of throwing myself up the rock face did the trick. Below is my selfie from the rock and above is the image I took (from the other direction).

Baxter State Park In Maine

October 10, 2017 4 min read

Baxter State Park In Maine

I decided to head up to Maine for the fall colors I hear they have this time of year. It's really only a few hours from me so I thought it was a little weird I had never explored there (other than when I was about 2 years old I think). The people who say it's a really beautiful state aren't lying, although I did get there at least a week before "peak" color when the entire state apparently explodes with the colors of autumn. There were still plenty of patches of color and beautiful scenes everywhere, it actually added a kind of fun challenge to try to get the colors that were there into my compositions.

Minimalist Photography in Bad Weather

September 12, 2017 3 min read

Minimalist Photography in Bad Weather

I've started to realize over the past year or so that one of my favorite times to capture images is in or right after "bad" weather. I don't take many photos of actual storms, I'm usually into the grand or intimate landscapes often around sunrise or sunset. What I've realized is that overcast or foggy weather is one of the greatest ways to simplify an image, and I like simple images. In these weather conditions the sky and therefore the rest of the image is more uniformly lit, and the details are softer even without a shallow depth of field or a long exposure. It's a natural way to bring in focus to the subject and has the added benefit of an emotion that is difficult to replicate with a clear sky.

My 10,000 Mile Journey (or, A Cross Country Trip in Selfies) - Part 6

August 8, 2017 2 min read

My 10,000 Mile Journey (or, A Cross Country Trip in Selfies) - Part 6

The next couple of days were mostly focused on driving from Oklahoma to Tennessee. We left Elk City Oklahoma in the morning and drove through the rest of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and into Tennessee. We made it to my sister's house in Nashville that night. It was great to see her and her family, and it was nice to have a place to stay for a few days. We spent the next couple of days just relaxing and catching up. I didn't take too many pictures during this part of the trip, mostly because we were just driving and then hanging out at my sister's house. But it was a nice break from the constant movement of the previous weeks.

My 10,000 Mile Journey (or, A Cross Country Trip in Selfies) - Part 5

July 24, 2017 4 min read

My 10,000 Mile Journey (or, A Cross Country Trip in Selfies) - Part 5

Today was the first full day travelling with my Dad. We left Denver in the morning and drove over to Estes Park. After lunch and walking around the town a bit we drove into Rocky Mountain National Park. This was a really cool experience for me because it was my first time above the tree line. I could look out and see the tops of the surrounding mountains bare with patches of snow. My favorite picture from that day is the one I put at the top of this post, I loved the curving mountain ledges outlined in snow and how you can make out the road snaking over the top. We finished driving through the park and went down into Silverthorne for the night.

My 10,000 Mile Journey (or, A Cross Country Trip in Selfies) - Part 4

July 17, 2017 6 min read

My 10,000 Mile Journey (or, A Cross Country Trip in Selfies) - Part 4

I finally got my car back today. I got the call in the late morning while I was still in Coo's Bay Oregon (about 4 hours away). So I drove straight over to make sure I was able to get there and return the rental car before everything closed. I actually made it in plenty of time and was down into California before sunset. I got to see Mount Shasta along the way, which my mom actually pointed out. She was on the phone with me looking at where I was and asked if I saw a big mountain coming up in front of me. It was pretty cool because my route took me around it so you could see it pretty clearly for about an hour. Then I continued on to Red Butte California where I spent the night.

My 10,000 Mile Journey (or, A Cross Country Trip in Selfies) - Part 3

July 11, 2017 6 min read

My 10,000 Mile Journey (or, A Cross Country Trip in Selfies) - Part 3

I left Washington (on the Idaho border) in the morning and headed southwest towards Oregon. It was kind of surprising to me when it started to turn into a desert kind of landscape, not what I envisioned for Oregon. It really is a diverse state, everything from the desert to the mountains to the coast can be found there, and I got to see a lot of it. I made it to Madras a few hours before sunset and headed to a nearby park called The Cove Palisades. I loved this park because it was beautiful, in the bottom of a canyon, and I only saw a handful of people the whole time I was there. I found a nice spot on the water and just hung out there with my camera waiting for sunset. I don't know if it was the most beautiful sunset of this trip, but probably the most peaceful one. I headed back in to town when it was getting dark and spent the night there in Madras.

My 10,000 Mile Journey (or, A Cross Country Trip in Selfies) - Part 2

July 6, 2017 4 min read

My 10,000 Mile Journey (or, A Cross Country Trip in Selfies) - Part 2

I left Yellowstone in the morning and headed south towards the Grand Tetons. I had been there once before but it was only for a few hours and I really wanted to spend some more time there. I got there in the early afternoon and spent the rest of the day driving around and taking pictures. The first image here is from a spot along Jackson Lake where you can see the mountains reflected in the water. I really loved this area, it's so different from Yellowstone but just as beautiful in its own way. The mountains are so jagged and dramatic, and the lakes are so clear and reflective. I spent a lot of time just sitting and taking it all in. The second image is from a different spot along the lake, and the third is from a trail near Jenny Lake. I hiked up to a viewpoint where you can see the mountains across the lake, and it was just incredible. The light was perfect and the mountains were so clear. I could have stayed there for hours, but I had to keep moving because I wanted to make it to Glacier National Park the next day.

My 10,000 Mile Journey (or, A Cross Country Trip in Selfies) - Part 1

July 1, 2017 2 min read

My 10,000 Mile Journey (or, A Cross Country Trip in Selfies) - Part 1

I quit my job about 2 months ago. There were a few reasons but the big one was I had reached a point where I wasn't sure if I was doing what I wanted to anymore. I felt like I was just keeping my career path because I was making decent money and it would be irresponsible to leave it without something else lined up. I was kind of trapped because it's hard to figure out what you want to do with your life when your working full time and there's no real motivation to find something else because you already have something that supports you. Then I realized that I have no one depending on me, and a bunch of money in my savings, and I'm a pretty smart guy so I could probably afford to take a break and figure stuff out. So I did. For a long time (feels like most of my life but I don't know how accurate that is) I've wanted to drive across the country and back. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to do that and clear my head, hopefully I'd figure out what to do with my life along the way but if nothing else I'd accomplish something I'd always wanted to. I planned an outline of my trip and figured it would take about a month to see a few things along a loop around the country.

Southwest in March 2017

May 27, 2017 8 min read

Southwest in March 2017

So I finally kind of finished going through my photos from my trip with my dad to the southwest this past March. It was a lot going through all of the photos I had taken and trying to find the best ones from each spot, especially because it was my first time in the region and I really fell in love with it. Besides you can never fully capture the feeling of a place with a photo, but you can try. We flew into Las Vegas on a Thursday, which ended up being a Friday because of a delay, and got a hotel outside of the city around 2AM local time (which was about 5AM our time). I didn't take any pictures of the city, we drove down the strip just to see it but we were both exhausted and really just wanted to find a place to sleep. The next day I got my first glimpses of the southwest landscape, and honestly just driving through it was one of my favorite parts about this trip. Our first stop was Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. I didn't take too many pictures that really stood out to me here, but the one below looking over the spillway at the dam was kind of cool.

Red Butte - Panorama vs Wide Angle

May 22, 2017 1 min read

Red Butte - Panorama vs Wide Angle

This is from my trip to Utah last March. We drove into the northern part of Zion National Park and took a short walk down the Hop Valley Trail. The light was coming through the clouds and started hitting Black Ridge in the background when we weren't far down the trail. It seemed like a good viewpoint to see Red Butte in front of Black Ridge with the flatter lands below. I tried this both as a single shot with my wide angle lens at 17mm and as a panorama with my 60mm lens. After cropping the wide angle shot it covers about the same scene, but the way the longer lens brings the mountains in closer makes such a difference to me. I was happy with both of them so I thought I'd share them, but it's really cool to see the differences. The first one is the 60mm panoramic and the second one is the wide angle. They do look very similar but if you look at the peaks you can see how much more of the frame the panoramic takes up. At least I thought it was cool to see that, and to capture the light hitting the mountains :)

Tennessee in May 2017

May 18, 2017 2 min read

Tennessee in May 2017

I took a trip to Tennessee with my family last week. We stayed in this cabin in the hills about an hour east of Nashville. It was a really fun and relaxing time in a beautiful landscape, so I didn't feel like I had to go far to take some nice shots. The first one is right outside my bedroom window at sunrise on the first day we were there. When I saw the large windows overlooking the valley the night before I knew it would make for a cool perspective in the morning. The next one I took during sunset the next day, there wasn't much going on in the sky but I thought the colors really made up for that. The last one I took the last night we were there, I planned out when the moon would be in the right spot above the cabin and framed the shot earlier in the day. It was just a matter of getting enough light to really bring out the scene without turning it into a star trail shot (which are awesome shots, but not what I was going for) while being able to use the right aperture to get that sun-star effect on the moon. I ended up with a 90 second exposure (which only gives a slight distortion to the stars because I used a 10mm focal length - a longer length would have given them more of a trail) and f/8 on my Sigma 10-20. Overall I was really happy with how these images came out.