LANDSCAPES AND AERIALS
I've been all over the United States but regret to admit that I did not own a camera until 2000. I'm having a blast photographing everything I can now, and I can't wait to get back on the road and do some real traveling.
I have a large portfolio of film images, and a growing portfolio of digital images. The images presented here are images made during my favorite times in the field. If you require a photograph that you don't see here, please contact me at gloriahopkins@gmail.com
My New Book
NATURAL DESIGN:
Image Design for Nature Photographers
NATURAL DESIGN is unique among all nature photography books because of the "Composition Maps."
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They've helped hundreds have a better understanding of the basics of image design, how they apply to nature photography and how we can use them to make unique and memorable photographs.
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FAVORITE TRIPS
Middle Keys, Florida
I love going to the Keys. When you enter Key Largo it is as if you have stepped back in time. Just past the point where Card Sound Road merges with Highway 1 there are Gilligan's Island-style tiki huts, harborside bars, every kind of palm tree you can imagine and if you listen closely, you could swear you could hear Jimmy Buffet's "Margaritaville" drifting through the air.
The drive down is awesome. When the sun is out the water is turquoise blue and there are zillions of seabirds: pelican, cormorant, opsrey, eagle and great white heron.
Locals say once you pass Seven Mile Bridge (aka The Overseas Highway) you are really in "the Keys." You pop your favorite brew, or light your favorite smoke and when you stare out at an endless sea of turquoise green you can almost feel your tensions and stress dissolving into thin air.
Seven Mile Bridge
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Big Island of Hawaii, August 2001
During this trip we stayed at a five star resort and enjoyed the lifestyle of the rich and famous for a week.
We snorkeled, photographed green sea turtles on the Black Sands beach. We drove the famous Kohala coast, had some awesome food, great Kona coffee, we toured the island by helicopter and shot the lava fields of Hawaii on foot. We hiked down into the Botanical Gardens, up into the rain forest and photographed some very neat looking birds around the resort.
Most depressing moment: fell asleep from exhaustion waiting for room service cheeseburgers. Waited two hours and then had to pay $50.00 for them. But all-in-all, it was a great trip.
MEMORABLE MOMENTS
There is a little key I like to visit near Little Torch Key where frigatebirds and double-crested cormorants rest during the day. Sam drives me out there in the boat and leaves me for several hours and I walk around the key and photograph the birds from every angle. At sunrise the colors and light are magical and make for a spectacular sunrise and a very intense moment with nature.
I remember being out there before the sun came up one day and I called a friend on a cel phone to describe the scene. It was the first time I'd used a cel phone in the field.
It was a surreal moment: the silence, the stillness of the vast body of water, the sun coloring the sky and water with colors I'd never seen before. I couldn't tell water from air and the brilliant light was almost blinding. Pelicans dove into the water for breakfast and frigatebird took flight from the mangroves at the arrival of the sun. It was just me, nature and the sun. It was beautiful.
Frigatebird and Mangrove
FAVORITE SUBJECTS
Anything that has a great design I will love. I get as excited about great designs as some folks do about subject matter or lenses. And I can spend a long time on a great composition.
FAVORITE QUOTES
"It is horrifying that we have to figh our own government to save our environment."
-Ansel Adams
FAVORITE LOCATIONS
Yosemite National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Everglades National Park
The Florida Keys
Big Island of Hawaii
Louisiana's Swamps
DREAM LOCALES
I've been to many of these locations already but I would very much like to go back with a camera someday.
California Coast
Coast of North Carolina
Canada
Mexico and Baja
Denali National Park
Teton National Park
Glacier National Park
Death Valley
Utah's Canyons
Southern Louisiana
San Francisco
Giant Sequoias
Antarctica
Pribilof Islands, Alaska
Las Vegas at Night
Saguaro Cacti in Arizona
CAMERAS USED
Canon EOS Rebel
Canon EOS20D
Canon EOS10D
Canon EOS3
Shen Hao 4x5 field camera
Nikon F-100
Nikon N60
LENSES USED
Canon 600mm f/4.0 IS
Canon 500mm f/4.0 IS
Canon 300mm f/4.0 IS
Canon 100-400mm f/4.0 IS
Canon 50mm f/1.4
Canon 85mm f/1.8
Canon 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6
Canon 28-70mm f/2.8
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8
Tamron 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6
Tamron 200-400mm f/5.6
A THING FOR THE MOON
As you can see from this page, and from my moonlight paintings, I have a little thing for the moon. Actually, I love all things related to space.
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Landscapes | Plants & Trees | Wildlife | Birds | Herons & Egrets | Domestic
The mighty Akaka Falls on the big island of Hawaii.
This was a highly productive trip photographically. Although I dropped and broke my friend's very nice lens, and he gave me another to use (!), for me it produced several of my very best photographs. It was a great trip and you can read about some of it on my "about" page.
Waimanu Valley Falls, Waimanu Valley, Hawaii. Read the story behind this image on my "About page."
This is kind of an aerial. It is the shadow of Aspen's gondolas on Aspen Mountain. If you look very closely you can see tiny ski tracks. I spent about a month in total in Aspen Colorado in 2005-2006 and although the focus of the trips were not photography, I did catch a couple of neat images. Others can be seen on my "domestic and hand of man" page.
Pahoehoe Lava, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The lava was very hot and the time I could expose myself
to it for the images was short. This type of lava is neat stuff. It rolls over onto itself, making these braids.
Surise near Little Torch Key, Middle Keys, Florida. A favorite place to go in the Keys is Parmer's Resort on Little Torch Key. It's serene and a short 45 minutes to Key West.
Tropical Storm Noel, Green Cay Wetlands, Boynton Beach, Florida.
There was no keeping me inside during the approach of "Noel" one of south Florida's tropical storms in 2007. I had a great time and it was a great storm. No damage, just a little dance off our southern coast to give us some sweet color and groovy shapes. When I look at this I think of Pink Floyd's Great Gig in the Sky.
This is an ugly shot, but it's really very fascinating. It's an aerial made from a helicopter, and that ugly blob of dark-grey in the middle is actively flowing lava that is forming new land. You can see how it rolled over the road in the upper left corner. The trip to Hawaii was great and I completely forgot about my fear of heights in the face of such magnificence.
This is just outside my house. We get great sunsets here. There are benches by the lake where you can feed the ducks, watch the sunset, whatever. There are always lizards and geckos scampering around, and all kinds of birds. It's a great little nature escape several feet from my door. It's also a great vantage point to watch the approach of the many storms we get here in summer.
Lunar Eclipse, Delray Beach, Florida. This eclipse was a lot of fun as it was my first with a digital camera. I put it on manual and experimented to my heart's content.
Full moon rising, Delray Beach, Florida.
I've always wanted to watch the full moon rise over the Atlantic Ocean and after 13 years in Florida, and unfortunately after selling my 400mm f/5.6, I finally did it. It was a magical night.
Waipio Valley, Hawaii. There is a tiny road that leads down into Waipio Valley but with our little rental car we could not get down there. So we perched atop the cliff and shot from there. I experimented with filters and used a graduated ND filter for the first time.
Another image of Hawaii's beautiful coast by helicopter. I can't wait to go back.
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Thank you for your interest. If you are in need of a species you don't see here,
please contact me at gloriahopkins@gmail.com
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