Aurora over mountains Lofoten Islands, Norway Prior to 2017, I had visited Iceland 3 times: once in the summer and twice in the winter. I wanted to go back again to explore more ice-caves and see more aurora but Rebecca convinced me that I should do Norway instead. We compromised: a stopover in Iceland on our way to Norway. We invited Andy along, partially because I wanted his help actually *planning* the trip, but also because we thought he'd enjoy the views and the photography. Turned out he had another, even better idea: skiing. Our 7 day Norway photography trip became a 5 day one, with 2 days of backcountry skiing tacked on. He found a ski lodge in the eastern part of the Lofotens. A beautiful lodge provided a home base while trained alpine guides took you out to mountains. We had never done backcountry skiing (also known as "ski touring") before so it was a great way to get our feet "wet". They had gear to rent to us, so we didn't have to significantly increase our packed luggage. The ski lodge was in a quaint fishing village off the main road. As we turned off to arrive we came across this beautiful scene of mountain peaks (from left-to-right: Vågakallen, Kallebordet, Glomtinden (main peak), Nordfjellet, Nattmålskaret, Lyngværfjellet, Høgtinden). The fjord crossed this little bridge and would reflect the mountain peaks. So when the aurora started going off while we ate dinner, we raced back to this spot to capture the lights over the peaks. This was one of my favorite spots to sit and watch the aurora dance. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 20mm, f/2.8, 6 sec, ISO 3200
MoonriseMoonrise and Last Light on Half Dome Yosemite National Park, California Every year I travel to Yosemite around my birthday in May and my camera is always with me. One photo I have always wanted was the moonrise over Half Dome. At this point in my photography career I didn't know enough to calculate when this would happen and I just kept hoping I would be in the park at the right time to catch it. Although this evening wasn't that night I was excited when I saw the moon pop up over the meadow near Yosemite Falls. I was driving back to our campsite with my girlfriend at the time when I noticed the moon and the last light on Half Dome. I immediately asked her to stop the car so I could take some photos. After receiving the evil eye ... she was hungry after all ... she relented and pulled over. I grabbed the tripod and snapped away as quickly as I could. It wasn't until she had been fed and the smile returned to her face that I was able to finally relax and enjoy the photos I had just taken. Nikon D80 w/Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5: 27mm, f/4.5, ISO 320 (Please excuse the poor settings, I didn't really know what I was doing back then)
Sunrise over Mt. Rundle Vermillion Lakes, Banff National Park, Canada Willie and I had grand plans of exploring as much of the Banff National Park and surrounding area as we could. Kananaskis County and Jasper, Yoho, and Kootenay National Parks are all nearby. Unfortunately, a giant snow storm hit and impeded our ability to travel beyond Banff. We spent more sunrises than we would have liked visiting Vermillion Lakes, trying to capture icy mountain reflections with a pink and red sky. There are actually 3 Vermillion Lakes and they're all one right after another. I imagine during floods, they turn into one giant lake. The First Vermillion Lake was mostly frozen by the time we arrived and the Third Vermillion Lake, while pretty, didn't have much exciting shoreline for us to explore. Second Vermillion Lake, however, became our go to sunrise location and we visited on 3 separate occassions. When we woke for this morning, we weren't sure if the sky would be entirely clouded over, or entirely clear but we hopped out of bed and drove to the lake anyways. On the drive we noticed that they sky was already glowing purple, illuminated in pre-sunrise glory. This early burn, we knew meant that a beautiful sunrise was coming. Sure enough, once the sun began to approach the horizon, it lit the clouds in beautiful pinks, oranges, and reds. Light beams even managed to streak out from behind Mt. Rundle, giving off a divine appearance. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 50mm, f/10, 1/25 sec, ISO 100
