Silver Lake Michigan

The dunes at Silver Lake Michigan is one of those unique places that don't really reveal themselves until you get to see them personally. I expected some sand... I found real dunes, as in "a lot of sand". What I didn't expect was the omnious engine noise. Pick-up trucks, ATV-s, bikes, all kinds of shapes and colors. A celebration of american "happy motoring" way of life. It's ironic that after just a week,  General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, hitting hard the already depressed economy of the rust belt in general and of Michigan State in particular. 

Nevertheless, the weather was fine, we had a lot of fun and I came back with some nice sunburns and a few cool shots. Enjoy them at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/calinleucuta/SilverLake#

Playing with light

Going camping in Michigan during the Memorial Day week-end, I met the coolest indian guy ever, Henry. With good food and a lot of beer comes inspiration, so I got to do some experimenting playing with light...

Winter ascent to 4000m

The ridge connecting Cupid and Grizzly Peak

Looking south from Grizzly Peak. Thin air above 4000m

Silhouettes

Nicest backdrop ever!

Alin climbing the north face of Grizzly Peak

After a noisy night spent in tent in a parking lot next to Co 6 (No overnight parking or camping permitted in Loveland Pass) we started climbing the ridge linking Loveland Pass and Torreys Peak, on the Continental Divide in the Front Range. Perfect weather (although windy at times), asolutely nobody up there, amazing visibility with mountain ranges everywhere you looked. A true alpine landscape captured with my Canon G10. Very happy with my latest aquisition, small, sturdy, capable camera. No more lugging big cameras on the mountains. Enjoy the rest of the pics here

Colorado2009

Now, that's a slope! Hard to go back to Wisconsin after this

Patterns

On the Continental Divide, snowmobil day

Arapahoe Basin, Keystone and Breckenridge in the background

CO 6 towards Loveland Pass

Our trip to Colorado was awesome. Couple of days snowboarding on the slopes of A-basin, one snowmobil race in Swan River Basin Area, climbing a 4000 m peak in the Front Range... Way to go!

Some shots from the A-Basin Ski Area, a remote place with just a few connoisseurs around during the week-days. See the whole album here

Colorado

Looking through my old photographs taken with the Rebel, nostalgia has taken upon me... That damn place is so irrisistible for me that I decided to just jump into my car and go back. Not in the distant future, not in the spring, not next month. This Sunday. My brother, me and my camera. Some snowboarding and some mountaineering. Sleeping in a tent, cooking on a propane stove. Kicking steps with our crampons. Kicking ass on the slopes of Vail or Aspen. Ultimate fun, ultimate freedom. Stay tuned for some new shots, until then enjoy the old ones. Here they are...   

A friendly bird, possibly a Northern Shrike but I'm not sure 

Leadville, Colorado

Chris aka SeaPea, my mate from UK

Frozen moments...

Defreezing moments... Mezcal!

Utah Revisited

La Sal Mountains, Utah. The early spanish explorers

named this beautiful and remote range La Sal (Salt). 

The were convinced they were covered with salt as 

couldn't believe it was possible to have snow-capped

mountains in the middle of the dessert

Selective erosion sculptured these amazing cliffs

Balanced rock

Feel free to imagine what's the meaning of this

My dear friend Chris, practicing levitation

On January 1st 2006, on route to Las Vegas, Nevada coming from Colorado, we made a quick stop to visit Arches National Park. It was well worth it, the park became one of my favorite places on the face of Earth. Here's some images that I like, click on the link to see more. 

Photographs taken with a Canon Rebel XT and kit lens + a cheap Sigma 70-300 mm. 

http://picasaweb.google.com/calinleucuta/ColoradoUtahNevada20052006#

More commercial shots

Alain Mikli

Orgreen

ICBerlin

Mykita

Gold&Wood

This is what I do for fun at Contacts&Specs, Chicago. The 13x19 prints on Museum Etching Paper look phenomenal. That is currently my favorite paper from Canon, developed by Hahnemuhle.

Advertising shots

Shooting products for an online store could be boring at times. Think routine, think hundreds or even thousands of shots taken in the same position, same light, same set-up.

Well, not this time. When I saw this Bevel frame, I knew exactly what kind of shot I wanted to get. Quick set-up in my living room, front natural light coming from the balcony sliding door, a little touch of flash from left side to fill in.

And of course, my little star here: Angelina, a red-eyed tree frog from Costa Rica, my pet.Not really cooperative that day, she kept jumping around, very uncomfortable with her new modeling job. Still got a few keepers...

Climbing Mt Whitney

Alpenglow, September 20th 7:00 am,
four hours into the climb

Rock formation as seen from the
infamous 99 switchbacks

Looking down from the summit

Me and my brother, on the summit

One last look back at the ridge

All rise! This is the one. The highest peak in the continental United States, that is, excluding Alaska with its mighty Denali. Situated in the dry and rocky Sierra Nevada, California, it stands at an elevation of 14,497 ft. While this is not a difficult technical climb, the trail leading to the summit is 11 miles (17 km) long, elevation gain being a whopping 6,500 ft, making for a good 2-days hike.

Obtaining an overnight trip permit depends on literally winning a lottery, so we opted for a one day permit, meaning that we only had one shot, one single day to bag it. The lucky day was set to be September 20th 2008.

Long story short, we started at 3:15 am, using headlamps and walking continuously for 4 hours into the dark in order to stay warm, as the temperatures were in the mid 30's (coming from daily highs of 90's and even three digits in Vegas and Death Valley the previous day).

After a glorious sunrise and a quick snack, we started to climb the strenuous switchbacks, about 99 of them in total. I didn't bother to count them... but I can tell that was really the most difficult part of the trip. When we managed to get past the junction to Muir Trail, we knew we were going to make it.

Easier said than done, because the altitude starts to take its toll: breathing gets more difficult and your head starts to feel a little light. But we made it, after hiking for 7 1/2- 8 hours. We spent about 45 minutes on the top, calling our parents in Romania (friggin' technology!) and then we started the downhill part of the trip. Oh Boy! It seemed that it would never end, it felt like the distance just doubled, especially the in lower part which we didn't get to see early in the morning.

A total of 15 hours, 22 miles round trip that ended with a cold beer and the best hamburger I ever had in my life at the foot of the mountain, at Whitney Portal.

As a side note, I've learned my lesson on Mount Rainier: don't bring the 5d at high altitudes! I shot the pics with a low quality Fuji digicam and I couldn't be more happy with the decision I made. The 5d with my 24-70 mm zoom feels like a brick in my backpack, there was no way I would carry it during this 22 miles marathon.

More pics here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/calinleucuta/MtWhitney#

This climb set my new personal altitude record. In order to beat it, I will have to travel to Alaska or South America. I was invited to join a romanian expedition to Aconcagua, in the Andes, in 2010-2011. I couldn't pass, and therefore, this is my new goal: Mt Aconcagua.

Southwest Trip

Venice Beach, Los Angeles, California

Rodeo Drive, L.A.

Santa Monica Beach, L.A.

Death Valey, California

Grand Canyon, Arizona

The winter is here, the days are shorter but the memories from our recent trip to the American Southwest are still fresh. The snapshots I took during this trip are long due, I apologize for taking so long. I was very busy editing weddings, portrait sessions and other gigs. I'll add some pics covering the ascent of Mt Whitney in a future post. More pics here

http://picasaweb.google.com/calinleucuta/SouthwestTrip#

A lion with attitude

I needed to relax so badly... it was a stressful week. I decided to go go for a mini-safari at the Brookfield Zoo. The weather was superb so I just grabbed my 1D Mk2N and 100-400 mm IS on a monopod. Bad luck: most of the animals were sleepy and the whole place was so crowded! I just took a long hike around, enjoyed the exhibitions I was interested to see and by the time I was ready to leave, I noticed the lion was slowly coming back to life.
Oh boy! What a beautiful, majestic animal! He's got some attitude too, I really like the expression he's putting in some of the shots, almost like he was posing for me.
For more shots, here's the link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/calinleucuta/BrookfieldZoo#