All Posts By

Phil Colla

Best Photographs of the Year

Best Photos of 2009

Best Photos of 2009 Looking back on 2009, I realize I was fortunate to spend a lot of time outdoors -- alone, with my family and with friends old and new -- pursuing photographs and adventure. During the course of those outings I brought back some images I am proud…
December 31, 2009
Sea Lion

Sea Lions of Santa Barbara Island

Santa Barbara Island Sea Lions Santa Barbara Island, part of Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, is home to a large population of California sea lions (Zalophus californianus). Since Santa Barbara Island lies only 38 miles off the coast of Southern California, it is possible to visit the island by boat…
December 8, 2009
Marine LifeSan Clemente Island

Red Gorgonian, Lophogorgia chilensis

The Red gorgonian (Lophogorgia chilensis) is my favorite species of sea fan. I got some nice shots of red gorgonians at San Clemente Island a few weeks ago. Like the golden gorgonion alongside which it is commonly found, the elegant red gorgonian is a colonial invertebrate that grows on rocky…
November 30, 2009
CaliforniaSan Clemente Island

Back in the Saddle

After a hiatus of almost four years away from the SCUBA gear, I decided to take a 3-day dive trip on my favorite vessel, the dive boat Horizon out of San Diego, for some diving at Catalina Island, Santa Barbara Island, and San Clemente Island. I got my regulator serviced…
November 27, 2009
Wisdom

SEO For Photographers, Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is important for photographers. With the growing number of photographer websites on the internet, it is increasingly difficult for a photographer's website to be noticed by photo buyers who rely on search results. Good positioning in search engine results translates into revenue. Here in a nutshell…
November 10, 2009
Ocean RealmRose Atoll

Rose Atoll, A World Treasure in Peril

by Phillip Colla and Harrison "Skip" Stubbs, Ph.D. This blog post is now available as a downloadable PDF article. This post was originally published in Ocean Realm Magazine in the Spring 1997 issue, one of a series of articles I contributed to Ocean Realm in the '90s. In August 1995…
November 8, 2009
CaliforniaOcean RealmSan Clemente Island

Kelp Forest Reminiscing

  Kelp forest underwater photography. This story was originally published as a pictorial in Ocean Realm Magazine in the Spring 2001 issue, the last of a series of articles I contributed to Ocean Realm in the '90s.   This blog post is now available as a downloadable PDF article. My…
November 7, 2009
Skip's Trips

Skip Stubbs in the Sea of Cortez (2009)

My friend and diving partner Skip Stubbs was doing a little diving in the Sea of Cortez with a group of long-time diving friends. Skip shoots primarily video, but on his trips he always takes some time out to shoot a few still photos with his Canon G10. I particularly…
November 4, 2009
Birds

Northern Shoveler, Anas clypeata

I photographed this Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata) Sunday morning at Santee Lakes. The coast near my home was totally socked in with pea soup fog, but once I got inland to Santee Lakes the skies cleared. Santee Lakes has some great duck photography. I am not a bird-centric photographer, but…
October 20, 2009
Sierra Nevada

Aspens in Fall Beside a Creek

One image that just screams "eastern Sierra fall color" that I wanted to make when I last visited Bishop was one of turning aspen trees alongside running water. The three basins in the mountains above Bishop drain into the three three forks of Bishop Creek, and with aspen trees surrounding…
October 7, 2009
Sierra Nevada

The Aspen Tunnel

Along the road that runs beside North Lake in the Bishop Creek watershed is a section I have heard referred to as the "Aspen Tunnel", an apropos name certainly. Tall quaking aspen trees (Populus tremuloides) on either side lean over the road, creating a impressive cylinder of color. If you…
October 6, 2009
Sierra Nevada

Banzai Run To Bishop Creek and Rock Creek

I got reports that the Eastern Sierra fall colors in the Bishop Creek Canyon basin were starting to peak at higher elevations, and that one or two weather developments in the coming week might affect the weekend of 10/3-4, so I decided to jam up to Bishop (5 hours from…
September 28, 2009
Wisdom

Expose to the Right

Are you exposing to the right and using the best in-camera settings for contrast and saturation? If you shoot RAW and expose to the right and think contrast and saturation settings don't affect you, think again. If you judge your exposure settings on whether you are clipping the highlights on…
September 22, 2009
Sierra Nevada

Photo of Devil’s Postpile National Monument

We wrapped up our end-of-summer family vacation in Mammoth, which we love to visit in the summer. We took the bus to Devil's Postpile National Monument, never having seen it before. Our timing could not have been better, we got there just before the sun went down, leaving the Devil's…
September 7, 2009
CaliforniaSierra Nevada

Eastern Sierra Fall Colors

I recently posted some new images from a September 2009 visit to the Bishop Creek and Rock Creek watersheds, as well as a list of resources for learning more about where and when the fall colors can be expected to appear, and how to best photograph Fall Colors in the…
September 6, 2009
Sierra NevadaTreesYosemite

Giant Sequoia Pictures

Many of my giant sequoia pictures are now on Photoshelter, which is the source of this nifty slideshow. Sequoia trees really are the most majestic of all plants. They are the largest (i.e., most massive) life forms on earth, and they are nearly the tallest (exceeded only by their cousins…
September 2, 2009
CaliforniaSierra NevadaYosemite

Photos of Glacial Erratic Boulders

Some years ago I posted a blog entry about photos of glacial erratic boulders on Olmsted Point in Yosemite National Park. Well, I was recently there and got a few more. Glacial erratic boulders are so named because they are erratic (i.e., differ materially from the naturally occuring stone nearby)…
September 1, 2009
CaliforniaSierra NevadaTreesYosemite

Giant Sequoia Tree Photo

My in-laws live year-round very near the south entrance to Yosemite National Park. It only takes a few minutes for me to drive in and reach the Mariposa grove of giant sequoia trees (Sequoiadendron giganteum), so I will often go into the park early in the morning and take a…
August 31, 2009
Surf

Gift from the Sea

A wave truly is a gift from the sea**. We are baking in a heat wave right now in Southern California, and the only respite is water. I have not been out to photograph waves for a really long time, so I decide to go out this morning since even…
August 30, 2009
General

A Note To Visitors

Please link to this website! Do you like these photos? I hope so! I've gone to a lot of effort to not only take these photos but put them on the web for you and others to enjoy. If you like them, please consider linking to my web site. That's…
August 8, 2009
Humpback Whale

Humpback Whale Pictures (Megaptera novaeangliae)

I was fortunate to assist Dr. Dan Salden of Hawaii Whale Research Foundation on the waters near Maui for quite a few years studying humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), and have some interesting photos that came from those efforts. North Pacific humpback whale, breach. Image ID: 00205 Species: Humpback whale, Megaptera…
August 5, 2009
Aerial Photography

Alien Spaceport Discovered In California

Last year on my flight home from Albuquerque (where I went to photograph birds at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge), our plane was driven off-course by a strange stream of magno-gravitronic pulses, and we found ourselves over an area of California not normally seen from commercial planes. The pilot…
August 1, 2009
CaliforniaSierra Nevada

Bodie State Historical Park Photos

I recently made a banzai road trip run up to Bodie State Park, near Mono Lake, to make some photos. I got to the park gate about 30 minutes before sunrise, and to my delight found that only two other photographers were there that morning. Solitude, at sunrise, in one…
August 1, 2009
Aerial PhotographyCaliforniaSan Diego

San Diego Pictures

My San Diego pictures are now organized into a gallery of photos of San Diego on this website. San Diego Coronado Bridge, known locally as the Coronado Bridge, links San Diego with Coronado, California. The bridge was completed in 1969 and was a toll bridge until 2002. It is 2.1…
July 30, 2009
General

The Evolution of Oceanlight.com

Oceanlight.com is a natural history stock photography website that first appeared in 1998 as an exercise to learn what the world wide web and websites were, learn to write the HTML to bring a site into being, get it hosted and see if the world thought anything of it. Considerable…
June 21, 2009
Abstract

Fluid Carpet, Abstract Photo

OK, I admit it, my youngest daughter shot this image. I let her loose with our uber-mikro-digi-kamera one day while we were crashed at a hotel. I set the camera up for long exposures, and this is one of the images she came up with. Kids don't know any rules…
June 19, 2009