Chris Kayler Photography

I’ve been working on my stock gallery for the upcoming version of my website lately, and came across this image that I hadn’t processed yet. This photograph of a male Tree Swallow sitting on a branch was taken outside of a nest box in Brandywine Creek State Park, Pennsylvania. Tree Swallows are really cool birds, and always a favorite of mine to photograph. I like the patterned-yet-diffused background in this image.

As a bit of side news, I’ll be leaving today for a weekend in Upstate New York for a family reunion. I’m not sure how much photography I’ll be able to do, but I will be back on Monday. Take care, everyone.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

I’ve been hard at work lately on a new stock gallery for my website. It will include many of my images, likely over a thousand. This photo of a Fowler’s Toad was one of the images I’ve recently processed for the addition to this gallery. I’m not sure why I overlooked it the first go around, but I really like the pose and the shot overall. In additional news, I’ll be on spring break for the next week and a half and hope to get out shooting quite a bit. Tomorrow looks like rain, so I may head to the mountains and get some foggy (in the clouds) landscapes. I plan to make a trip out to the Chesapeake Bay to photograph ducks as well. I’ll keep the blog updated on my progress, and hopefully I’ll have some new images to share as well.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

After reading an article about using the “Photomerge” function in Photoshop, I decided to give it a try myself yesterday. Photomerge basically imports multiple images and then stitches them together to make a single, highly detailed photograph. Using this function, I can take multiple images in a row with the intention of combining them to make a panoramic photo. Before yesterday, panoramic images seemed complicated and out of reach, but with this newfound ability I can see my entire way of thinking compositionally changing when out in the field. I’m very excited, to say the least! The following (set of) image(s) was/were taken when I visited the island of Oahu, Hawaii last winter in a dense rainforest. I feel that the panoramic format really captures the lush, dense, complicated feeling of the rainforests there that a single image could not capture as well.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

I haven’t been able to get out and take any new photographs this past week, partly due to lack of free time but mostly due to not having enough money to fill my tank and ram the roads (anyone want to buy some prints?). Anyways, this image is for the cloud/snow gods. With my offering, I hope they will stay away and not block my view of the lunar eclipse at 10PM EST tonight. We’re pretty socked in with clouds right now, but it’s worth a try, right? Maybe? Oh well.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

I’ve been going through even more old folders of images and came across this image taken along Dark Hollow Run in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. Dark Hollow Run is perhaps my favorite stream in all of Shenandoah National Park. There are countless small drops and waterfalls as the stream makes its course downhill. A classic scenic mountain stream!

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

With the unseasonably warm temperatures and thunderstorms rolling in today, I’ve got a bit of “Summer Fever”! So, I’ve been going through some older images from last summer and found this unprocessed gem taken in the forests of Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. This was one of the most dense areas of ferns I’ve ever had the privilege of seeing.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

Here’s another one from my growing stock photograph collection. I photographed these fallen leaves in a stream in the Potomac highland region of West Virginia this past autumn. There was a large pool of still water semi-connected to the stream and within it floated a huge number of fallen leaves. Instead of going for close ups, I backed up a bit and let all the leaves fade into a mosaic of different colors and shapes. When photographing complex scenes such as these always be aware of the edges of your frame. While it is usually impossible to not cut off any leaves at the edge of the frame, you can minimize distraction by maintaining as many bright, colorful, or otherwise noticeable leaves (or any other object in other situations - busy forest scenes for example) within the frame and fully intact. The resulting image will seem much more whole as a result. Little details like these often make or break a photograph.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

I was processing more images last night for my future stock gallery and this photograph taken at the Savage River in western Maryland caught my eye. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but within the last year I have begun to take and enjoy many more abstract photographs.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

Continuing my theme, here is another older image from Rickett’s Glen State Park, Pennsylvania. With the low water levels during my trip, this was one of the most magnificent falls there. I imagine it looks great in high water too. The difference between low and high water is often drastic visually. Don’t be afraid to keep going back to an area even if you’ve “done it before” - the resulting images may be markedly different depending on many factors - water level being one of them.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

As I process more images for my planned future stock gallery, I am finding many nice photographs from a trip to Rickett’s Glen State Park, Pennsylvania, taken in the early summer of 2007. The park has over 20 named waterfalls within its boundaries - a truly magical place that I hope to return to sooner rather than later!

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

Here is another image from my foggy visit to Great Falls National Park, Virginia. While I got grand scenic type shots that I liked (as in my previous post), the diffused light provided by an overcast sky was especially excellent for close up images. The rocks surrounding the Potomac River near Great Falls are incredibly unique. They have been smoothed by the constant rushing of water over it’s surface. Additionally, there are many potholes and puddles of various sizes caused by loose, swirling rocks in rapids. This image shows a bit of both of those characteristics.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

I have been pretty busy with other things lately and consequently haven’t had the chance to get out and shoot. Until I get some more new images, I may be posting some older images in my new “Random Images” section - a category where from time to time I will post older images that I feel like posting for whatever reason. I took this photograph about a week before I put my blog online and it was taken at Great Falls National Park, Virginia. The weather forecast called for overcast - not the best conditions for the grand scenic type of shot I was trying to accomplish. However, I decided to go anyway and see what I could come up with. At the very least I could sit next to the river and just relax a little. It turns out luck was with me on that day and some beautiful thin fog began to materialize. I captured many subtle images of the falls in fog with fall color in the background. The following image, however, is my favorite. I found this crimson red scrub oak on the cliffs surrounding the falls and used it in my foreground to add a punch of color to contrast with the foggy backdrop.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com