James Jennings Photography
Huntington Beach Pier, California
October 2025- I took this photo on a clear morning in Huntington Beach, California. Standing with a dear friend, I used my Canon 6D set on a sturdy tripod with multiple ND filters. This shot took about 4 minutes to complete. I did minimal post-processing to convert it to black and white and judicious dodging and burning. As proud as I am of this photo, my favorite memory was spending time with a friend who has blessed me for decades. We shared a lot of laughter that day.
Landscape photography has been an interest of mine for years, but recently it’s become a love. Here are just a few of my favorite photographs that are available for purchase.
Photographs don’t merely capture a memory but allow for considerable artistic expression. Ansel Adams said that the secret to a good photograph is location. How the photographer chooses the composition is as important as the geography. In post processing, the photographer can choose to crop, color, lighten and darken areas just like a painting. They can combine different objects and alter perspective.
My primary interest is landscape photography, but I also enjoy drone photography. I’m especially enjoying Milky Way photography. In May 2025, I took an extended trip to the American Southwest. My time in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico reminded me of the importance of getting outside and spending time under the stars. In October 2025, I completed a trip to Southern California to continue developing some new ideas.
I’ve learned how to professionally print, mat, and frame my photos. I’m often asked to make them available for purchase. In the last year, I’ve gotten awards in a couple of regional art shows. I hope you enjoy these. Some of the photos here are a demonstration of being a work in progress. Especially for the Milky Way photos, conditions and location have to be perfect to get a shot that is spectacular. I think a few of these qualify, while others can be appreciated as essentially being in utero. I have some aerial photos that are wonderful but not currently listed here. These are also landscape photos. Let me know if you are interested.
For any photos that you would like to purchase, I’m currently printing, matting, labeling, signing, framing, and shipping them one at a time. It typically takes about 2 weeks from the time they are ordered until they will be received. All photographs are on a high quality, semi-gloss paper. The prints are 13×19 and in a 22×28 frame. I’ve printed on 8.5×14 paper but the larger ones are so much better. I use a luster-metallic paper, for the Milky Way Photos, which makes them really shimmer. If you’d like to hang one of these on your wall, head over to my store to order one. The photos displayed here are smaller jpgs. I’m now selling the unframed prints by themselves, if you’d prefer to mount them yourself. If I eventually sell the digital versions, they will be the larger .tiff files.
Factory Butte and Milky Way, Wayne County, Utah
#1- Factory Butte, Utah– I took this photo in May 2025. The landscape of Southern Utah is extraordinary and unique. To get to this location I had to drive a pretty rough road to the northern end of the butte and plan it out during the day. I returned that evening and took a “blue hour” photo to capture details of the butte and surrounding land. The Milky Way shot happened around 2:30 in the morning. Standing in an isolated place like this, without another soul around, and only the breathtaking sky above was a memory I’m unlikely to forget.
Arches National Park, Utah- Milky Way
#2- Arches National Park- Milky Way. May 2025. It was pitch dark when I hiked to the rear of this arch. I had scouted it out during the day and marked the path on GPS. Setting up my tripod on the side of the hill was a challenge because of the loose, almost volcanic earth. At dusk I had gotten a photo to capture the details of the arch and returned to capture the galactic core of the Milky Way when it passed through the eye of the arch around 2 am. There’s something so peaceful and healing about being in the quiet under the stars.
Mountain Run Lake, Culpeper, Virginia
#3- Mountain Run Lake, Culpeper, VA. July 2025. I’ve always tended to take photographs on sunny days, because I love the look of a deep blue sky but on this cloudy day, I decided to visit a lake near my home. The dark clouds muted the colors and lent the scene to a Black and White image. I took this with a long exposure to create a smooth and mostly disturbance free appearance. If you look closely at the summit of the tallest branch you will see a bald eagle.
Molas Lake, Silverton, Colorado
#4- Molas Lake, Silverton, Colorado. May 2025. Elevation- 10,508′. About an hour north of Durango, CO you can find Molas Lake. This and Little Molas Lake beside it are both breathtaking. The day I got there, the weather was perfect and there was no one else around. The scriptures tell us that the heavens declare the glory of God, but the mountains are pretty efficient at it as well. I took this in the parking lot of the Molas Lake Campground. This would be a beautiful place to spend the week during the Summer.
Courthouse Butte, Sedona, Arizona- Milky Way
#5- Courthouse Butte- Milky Way, Sedona, Arizona– May, 2025. I arrived here around 5:30 pm. People were still hiking through the area and taking pictures. I wanted to find a location with some items of interest in the near, middle ground, and distance. There were a few colorful flowers, cacti, and the remnants of a tree and of course the butte in the middle ground. Being a new moon, the Milky Way was dramatic. I took a nice “blue hour” photo to capture the plants and landscape and remained until after 1:30 to get the Milky Way. Sedona is a beautiful place but during the day, the temperature was over 105 degrees so scouting locations meant drinking a lot of water. People often ask about how to take these photos with the “galactic core” of the Milky Way. In the Northern Hemisphere, the galactic core is above the horizon from about March to October. The rest of the year it is above the horizon during the day. You need a clear and dark sky. You need a camera with a wide-angle lens. I use a 24mm lens that has a generous aperture (opening), so I can get a 10-12 second shot without significant “star trails.” I take about 20 photos and use a piece of software to combine them. I do significant post processing to bring out the colors and “dodge and burn” and combine the “blue hour” photo with the Milky Way photo. I’m still learning but it’s rewarding when a shot captures an ideal scene.
Valley of the Gods, Mexican Hat, Utah- Milky Way
#6- Valley of the Gods, Mexican Hat, Utah– May 2025. I scouted out this location during the day but failed to get a blue hour shot from here. I had been travelling during the day and shooting at night and my afternoon nap stole my chance for a decent twilight photo. Even with a 30-second exposure, the new moon didn’t provide enough light to get a sharp landscape photo, but the sky was spectacular. One of the tricks you can use to get light onto your foreground is to “paint with light” but even my car’s headlights were soaked up like a sponge in the dark. It was 2 in the morning and these campers may have wondered who was on the bluff behind them with their headlights on. Valley of the Gods doesn’t appear to be a heavily visited site but the scenery is straight out of an old Hollywood Western. I captured a number of drone photos from here in addition to this Milky Way photo. A spectacular place to visit.
Sedona, Arizona- Near Courthouse Butte
#7- Sedona, Arizona– May 2025. While I was waiting to take the photo of Courthouse Butte and the Milky Way, this is the scene that was behind me. The landscape there seemed to match the temperature that day- hot. Even in early May, to be out in the desert during the day is draining. If you go, don’t forget to bring plenty of water, wear a good hat that shades your neck, and use sunscreen. The younger and more adventurous were hiking and climbing. I walked around and scouted a location for that night’s shot.
Aspens at Hogan's Pass, Utah
#8- Aspens- Hogan’s Pass, Utah– May 2025. Along Utah State Route 72, in Fishlake National Forest, I stopped at the peak of and decided to hike to the summit of the hill that was next to it. On the way, I came upon a massive clonal colony of quaking aspen. I walked through this grove of beautiful Aspen trees near the base of the trail. This massive grove is known as “Pando”, meaning “The Trembling Giant.” Spanning roughly 106 acres, Pando consists of approximately 47,000 genetically identical quaking aspen trunks connected by a single sprawling underground root system. While individual tree trunks live and die on a roughly 130-year cycle, the ancient root network has been estimated by various scientific studies to be anywhere from 14,000 to 80,000 years old. This particular tree is connected to all of the trees behind it. Additionally, they are some of the oldest trees in the country.
As I continued hiking upward, the altitude forced me to stop every 20 steps or so as I neared the summit, but the view was magnificent. I’m grateful that no bears decided to have me for lunch. You don’t need to hike to the summit to see the grove as it begins not far from Route 72.
Arches National Park, Utah
#9- Arches National Park, Utah– May 2025. While the arches themselves are magnificent, the landscape within the park, just outside of Moab, Utah is breathtakingly beautiful. If you love the desert- it’s there. If you love the mountains- they aren’t far away. Utah is paradise for anyone interested in landscape photography- just plan ahead of time. It’s a heavily visited park so if you can plan your visit before school lets out, that would be preferable.
Spud Lake, Colorado
#10- Spud Lake, Colorado. May 2025.
You can get to Spud Lake via the Potato Lake Trailhead, about 29 miles North of Durango, Colorado. I enjoyed the hike to this beautiful lake. The drive to the trailhead- not so much. The road getting to the trailhead was undoubtedly the worst I’ve ever driven on. While I had a jeep, it was a smaller one and I don’t think I ever went over 3 mph for the duration of that drive. Upon returning from the hike, I realized I’d left my favorite hiking hat there. I’m hoping someone’s gotten good use out of it.
Huntington Beach Pier, Huntington Beach, CA
#11- Huntington Beach Pier, Huntington Beach, California. October 2025. Black and White photo with a long exposure creates the effect of the waves being a mist. I wrote about this photo at the top. One interesting thing about long exposure photos is that if the exposure is long enough and people walk through quickly, they are not picked up. There were quite a few people on the beach that morning but most were surfing or laying on the sand. We used to live in Southern California. It’s a beautiful place and we have so many fond memories of our years there.
Convict Lake, Mono County, California
#12- Convict Lake, Mono County, California. October 2025. Convict Lake is about 10 miles south of Mammoth Lakes, off of Highway 395. It’s located on the Eastern Range of the stunning Sierra Nevada mountains. The lake gets its name from a group of escaped convicts who made their way there in the late 19th century. It’s a peaceful place with an easy trail around the lake. I was there with sunset approaching when I spotted this long-downed tree laying beside the shore. I made my way down the hillside, set up my tripod, and did a focus-stacked shot- combined focus near, mid-range, and distant focus. The darkening clouds provided a dramatic sky while you can see a lone boater on the water. I spent a lot of time getting the focus crystal clear. What a beautiful and peaceful place.
Mobius Arch and Sierra Nevada Mountains
#13- Mobius Arch- framing Sierra Nevada Mountains in the Alabama Hills, near Lone Pine, California. October 2025. This is a popular place for photography. It was an easy hike getting to the arch with a small scramble to climb to an adjacent rock. I framed this shot, believing that it was Mount Whitney in the frame. I’ve since been told that Mount Whitney is further to the right. In any case, shooting this in black and white makes me think of the cowboy westerns that I watched growing up as a boy. Many of those westerns were filmed in the Alabama Hills. I converted this to Sepia tone. If I had been there later in the year, those peaks would have been covered in snow. Next time, perhaps.
Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, CA
#14- Santa Monica Pier, California. October 2025- I took this long exposure about 9:00 pm on the pier. The pier has a small amusement park and many colorful shops. All of this is awash in Neon lights. Setting up my tripod on the pier I shot a long exposure. As with my shot under the Huntington Beach Pier, the long exposure accomplished two things- it softened the peaks and valleys of the waves into the shimmering and calm water you see, and it picked up the colors of the Neon lights. There were hundreds of people enjoying a night walking the pier, visiting the shops, enjoying the rides, people watching, and eating. If you’re in the area, the Santa Monica Pier is well worth a visit. I wish that we’d had more time to wander there.
Purchase a Photo
Framed Photos– If you’re interested in purchasing one of my photos in a frame, they come with a 13×19# photo that will be matted, labeled, signed, and framed in black 22×28″ wood frame under clear plexiglass.
Unframed Photos– If you prefer to frame them yourself, the photos will be mailed with a backer in a clear, archival bag.
In both cases, I will ship your purchase to you. Give me 2 weeks to get the frame and do the mounting. In my store, I give you the opportunity to name your price (within reason). The suggested price is $200 for a framed photo and $115 for an unframed photo. Shipping and handling is included in the price. If you choose a Framed photo and pay $200 or more, I will include a printed copy of my book- “Salt and Light- Meditations on the Sermon on the Mount” and a CD (with download link) of my album- “Hitchhiking on a Narrow Road.” I do have numerous other photos available for purchase that I will add as time permits.