Mountains

Surprise Awakening

Surprise AwakeningSunrise over Dead Tree Glacier National Park, Montana I normally try not to get too excited for things in the future that have a high probability of changing but as Willie, Alan, and I checked the weather forecast for our upcoming trip to Glacier National Park I couldn't help but let the excitement build up. The weather looked perfect! Things didn't go quite as planned. We would watch beautiful clouds fizzle away right before our eyes, thunderstorms roll in, rain pour for hours and the fog get so thick you could barely see your feet. For a day and a half we sat around doing nothing because the weather was so bad. On the 3rd morning we woke up at 4am and saw a few stars peaking out. "Maybe the storm will break" we thought. Dragging ourselves out of bed we made our way into the park and started to get excited! It looked like the clouds might be thinning! You know what happened next, right? Mama Nature was right on queue and within a blink of an eye made those clouds disappear completely. At this point we felt pretty defeated - even almost to the point of anger. It's a good thing we're not quitters because just as quickly as the clouds disappeared they came back and positioned themselves perfectly in the mountains. They say the best photos come from patient photographers and in this case it's true. When the sun rose above the horizon it lit the entire scene in a beautiful orange glow. The word "dynamic" continuously came up whenever we talk about this scene. Everything came together perfectly: the glow in the branches, the S-curve in the river, and the illuminated mountains all made for the perfect scene to wake up to. And let me tell you -- we had quite the "wake your tuchas up" moment ... Earlier in the morning, I asked Willie and Alan: "What do we do if we see a bear while we're there?" Willie replied "it's too steep for a bear to be up there. We should be fine." I didn't really believe his answer but it was too early in the morning to argue. While snapping away I noticed something move in the background. "Oh hey, look… Bear" I thought to myself. About 2 seconds later I realized what I just said in my head: BEAR!!!!!!!! GRIZZLY BEAR! About 40 feet away! The first thing out of my mouth was "holy sh!t!". Willie and Alan looked at me like I was crazy. "BEAR!!!!" I scream as I run for the bear spray. Willie backed up. Alan picked up a rock. When the bear realized who we were it too freaked out and galloped off. My previous 2 photos had picked up the bear! Can you find the bear here? Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 17mm, f/16, 1/4 sec, ISO 100

Drought Rock

Photography. Skiing. Hiking. The 3 things I tell people that I spend my time doing ... or at least I used to tell people until California started enduring drought after drought. When I planned a February ski trip I never thought that there would be so little snow that many Tahoe resorts were forced to close early. After spending a fun day avoid rocks while skiing at Squaw, Rebecca and a few friends and I decided to go to my favorite spot for sunset: Bonsai Rock. It was immediately apparent how low Lake Tahoe is. When I first visited in 2011 you could practically swim right up to the edge of the “ramp”. Now it’s 5 feet above the water. On the other hand there’s a ton of boulders that are great as foreground elements! Sunset that night was gorgeous but cloudless. The next day our skiing at Alpine Meadows was a lot like the day before but with one noticeable difference: the sun kept getting hidden behind thin clouds. With the sky looking juicy we left the slopes early and made our way back to Bonsai. A quick text message from Jeff/Escaype confirmed my own research: tonight was going to be beautiful! Rebecca and I were one of the first to arrive and we quickly staked out 2 different spots. Thanks to Social Media and Google Maps I had the feeling that it would get crowded quickly. By the time the sun had set there was a line of 20 photographers elbowing for spots (which is insane in itself because this area is so huge). In fact, I had to somewhat forcefully remove a photographer from setting up directly in front of her! Sure enough once the sun set, the sky lit up with reds, pinks, purples, and oranges and lasted that way for over an hour! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8: 17mm, f/11, 1.0 sec, ISO 50

Rundlerise

Sunrise from Tunnel Mountain Rd Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada I've always seen epic mountain scenes from the Canadian Rockies and thought "one day I'm going to go there. I finally got my chance in November when Willie and I spent almost a week in Banff. We came for a photo trip and we ended up not only getting spoiled with our photography outcome, but our bellies left quite a bit larger from all the amazing food in the town of Banff (it's a surprise we even fit on the plane!) I really wanted to explore more of the area and visit all of the gigantic mountains that I had seen in other photos but the area was hit with a pretty big snow storm and road conditions confined us to the closer Banff area, with a few trips out towards Lake Louise and Peyto Lake; I was definitely glad for the 4-wheel drive vehicle! After days of exploring the same few areas I told Willie I needed to see sunrise at a new spot. We weren't sure if the weather forecast would be accurate but at the last second we decided to head to the Tunnel Mountain viewpoint, which looks out onto Mount Rundle. The Bow River snaked below us and an early morning snow storm draped the evergreens in white just as the sunrise lit the sky in reds, oranges, and pinks. I loved how even the fog and snow picked up the purple-red color of sunrise. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 14mm, f/11, 0.4 sec, ISO 100

To All In Awe

Sunset over Lembert Dome, Tuolumne Meadows Yosemite National Park, California For the last 8 years I’ve gathered my friends in Yosemite National Park to celebrate my birthday (or, as of late, more of a “belated birthday” celebration). A few of us drove up early Friday morning and spent the day setting up camp, relaxing, making dinner, and then racing out for sunset. While cooking dinner I looked up at the sky and noticed some high clouds had moved in but they were primarily only in one small patch of the sky. We all agreed to head to the Meadow to watch sunset: my friends wanted to walk while I wanted to drive so I could continue on to shoot the Milky Way at Olmsted Point. When I got to the Meadow I realized I was wayyy too close to Lembert Dome — I needed to be further away. Ditching my friends, I drove towards the Visitors Center and got out by a nice little pool of water facing west. To my frustration, there was not a cloud in the sky to the west. The old saying of “look behind you!” couldn’t have been more true on this evening. When I turned around and saw the absolutely GORGEOUS lenticular clouds behind me, I didn’t even think “grab your camera bag” — I just took off running for the Tuolumne River. I knew I wanted Lembert Dome, the river, and the amazing sky in my photo. Thankfully neither bear nor human touched my camera bag during the 30 minutes I was away shooting. I took quite a number of photos as the amazing lenticular clouds glowed orange and red. In this case I stitched 11 photos together to form a 63 megapixel image and then cropped to this 40 megapixel image. The title of this photo, is a play on the name of the area, "Tuolumne" (pronounced Two-all-um-knee). Click here to see the original pano. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 24mm, f/10, 1/3 sec, ISO 100 11 image panorama, cropped

Twilights Painting

Indian Paintbrush at Twilight Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington I’ve been wanting to visit Mt. Rainier for a number of years. When the snow melts around the dormant volcano, wildflowers pop up everywhere. Fields and fields and fields of wildflowers, so much that it often just looks like sheets of color. The wildflowers bloom in August every year, but some years have more flowers than others and it’s all dependent upon how much snow the area gets and when it melts. The winter was a nice wet one, and Willie and I had high hopes that the wildflowers would be out in full force. Unfortunately Mama Nature had different plans. The endless fields of flowers we wanted just weren’t there. We found a patch of flowers here and a patch of flowers there. This particular patch was one such example and in this little area we saw mostly Indian Paintbrush and Purple Lupine. We hiked up the mountain early one morning, knowing that clear skies meant our only chance at a nice photo would happen at twilight, before the sun came up and while it was still “blue hour”. We went to our trusty “Paintbrush Field” as we called it, and used the beautiful red flowers as the foreground, while the massive Mt. Rainier towers behind. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 15mm, f/5.6, 2.5 sec, ISO 160

Mr. Sentinel and his Fiery Falls

Horsetail Falls, Fire Falls, at Night Yosemite National Park, CA I first photographed Yosemite National Park's "Fire Falls" in 2011. Although Galen Rowell might be the first person to photograph this, it was John Harrison's photo that inspired me to go see it myself. I was mesmerized when the clouds parted and the falls lit up as if someone had stuck a match under it. I went home and created a computer program to indicate exactly when it would happen each year and I've been using it to help me (and others) come see the falls ever since. Hordes of people visit Horsetail Falls in February when the setting sun causes the waterfall to glow but most don't know that the moon can do it as well. Willie and I returned a few months later, in April 2011, to photograph the moon lighting up the falls. I ran the computer program through the next 50 years and it became clear ... the moonlit Fire Falls is a rare event. First, the moon has to be in the right portion of the sky and it needs to be low in elevation to cast an orange light; the sun also has to be low enough in the horizon to not wash out the light of the moon. Next, there needs to be a cloudless night. Lastly, there needs to be an actual waterfall flowing from snow melting off the top of El Capitan. While the moon may be in the right part of the sky each year, most often this occurs in May and June when the waterfall has stopped flowing. With all the snow we've had this year I knew it was a possibility that things might line up properly. The May occurrence was ruined by a large snowstorm but it was also a blessing because it created just the extra bit of snow to cause a trickle of water to flow in Horsetail Falls in June. Most photographers take photos of the Fire Falls from 2 locations: either near the El Capitan Picnic grounds or from a spot along the riverbank off Southside Drive. Lately I've seen photos where people scrambled up the south wall of the valley, which provides a beautiful wider view of the scene. Although Sentinel Dome provides a perfect line-up, I've never seen a photo from here since the road to Sentinel is closed in the winter and the snowshoe up to it is grueling. This June occurrence was my chance to do something new! As far as I know, this photo is the first of the Fire Falls taken from Sentinel Dome! (if someone else beat me to it, I'd love to see it) I left work at 3pm and picked up Jeff, who had decided to join me at the last second. We arrived at Glacier Point at 10pm, napped for 2 hours and then hiked to the top of Sentinel Dome. We took photos for 4 hours, slept for another 2, and then drive home. I was back at work by 11am! In 2011 I had learned that photographing this scene is *hard*: focusing in the dark is difficult and with so little light, it pushes the boundaries of the camera and lens. We arrived early knowing we'd want time to setup and get things right. I also brought a lightweight chair and some beer with me so I could sit and enjoy the scene. Sure enough, just as I had predicted, the trickle of a falls lit up beautifully from 2:45am to 3:15am. The view from Sentinel Dome is spectacular and I'm so glad I could share it with someone because it was breathtaking (even with only a trickle of water). It's a much wider scene than the 2 popular locations which allowed me to make the photograph really feel like it was nighttime. From the Dome you can see into the Valley, with Cathedral Peaks on the left, El Capitan towards the middle, Horsetail Falls on the right and the town lights of Coulterville in the background. The warm night brought a haze into the air that created small light rays as the moon set in the sky. From up here we had a perfect view of the moon crossing from left to right as it sunk towards the horizon; we could see the hills it has to stay above in order for Horsetail to glow. The trees below Sentinel Dome created a perfect "frame" at the bottom of the photo. Although I wish there had been more water in the falls, Jeff and I will remember this night for the rest of our lives! Nikon D850 w/Nikkor 24-70mm: 50mm, f/3.5, 20 sec, ISO 800

Arctic Swallow

Stormy clouds in the fjord Lofoton Islands, Norway I always had said that Iceland was the most beautiful place I had been ... until I visited Norway. Andy, Rebecca and I made our first trip in 2017 and were blown away how every turn in the road led to some more amazing view. The fjords with their mountain peaks, snow, and waves are just breathtaking. We ended our first visit by spending 2 days backcountry skiing in the Lofoton mountains, which proved to be one of the highlights of the trip. Since then we've trained ourselves to avoid Avalanches (as best we can), purchased backcountry ski touring equipment, and planned return trips. We returned in 2019 to do the reverse: ski 5 days and then sightsee for 2. Our 5 days of skiing were wonderful. Andy, Amanda, Eric, our guides and I climbed some amazing mountains and had days of great skiing. The views continue to blow my mind. Unlike last trip (which had great weather), this trip had rainy/snowy weather every day. I barely took the camera out because it was so gray. Our sightseeing days were no different, with rain consuming most of the day. I had previously seen a photo from Mike Mezuel from a beach near here that I thought was just superb. On our way to our cabin we passed by the beach and I knew I had to stop. The storm seemed as if it was breaking up and I grabbed my tripod so I could capture the wave movements with the ominous clouds. Rather than shooting ultra-wide like I normally do, I wanted to zoom in a little to make sure I didn't make these beautiful mountain-peaks feel so teeny. D850 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 21mm, f/22, 1/5 sec, ISO 31

Cathedralglow

CathedralglowUpper Cathedral Lake Yosemite National Park, CA Many people refer to this scene as "alpenglow", since you can see the color of the sun glowing off the mountain. I, instead, have decided that this particular phenomenon shall be renamed as "Cathedralglow". Named after the sun reflecting on Cathedral Peak in Yosemite National Park, Cathedralglow occurs when the sun is just below the horizon. Thunderstorms hovering over Cathedral Peak also pick up some of the color of the setting sun. One thing that I like to do with my each of my posts is to tell the story behind the photo and this one (I think) is a good one! This particular story involves the flu, long hikes, rock bouldering, cops, meteors, and more. I woke up on this particular morning with absolutely no energy. A large breakfast didn't help either and I started to get worried because I didn't know when we would eat again. As the day wore on I felt worse and worse. I started getting the chills. I had a fever. I had no appetite. I didn't want to move. It was only getting worse. I took a nap. Finally we stopped at the general store and I bought some DayQuill and a hamburger. I took another nap. When I woke up, all of a sudden … I had energy!!!! Just in time too -- it was 5 minutes before we were set to leave for Upper Cathedral Lake! Off we went! We left with plenty of time to hike the 4 miles, scout and wait for sunset. We didn't plan that I'd be sick, nor did we realized we would get lost and find ourselves climbing up hill more often than not but we arrived at Upper Cathedral Lake with plenty of time. When we arrived our jaws just dropped. Man is this place beautiful! After climbing around, walking over rocks, and doing a bit of bouldering we found what we wanted. Except … we were 100 feet too low! Above us loomed a huge rock-cliff. From down below, the lake was too small and squished; we needed to be on top to view the lake properly. Luckily Willie and I have both rock climbed at some point in our lives and we arrived at our spot with enough time for me to take another nap. As we waited for sunset some beautiful clouds rolled in and it started to rain behind Cathedral Peak. Man were we getting excited! As the sun dipped below the horizon the mountain peak just lit up with Cathedralglow! Wow were we in for a treat! As had been typical on this day, our emotions went up and down, up and down again; much to our dismay a number of thick, dark clouds rolled in and only a touch of pink color appeared in the clouds. That's when we turned around and saw the sky behind us was on fire! I had absolutely no energy to sprint down the cliff to get a better composition so we turned and just watched the wonderful sunset with our own eyes (and maybe a few shutter clicks too). It was a long hike down and thanks to another DayQuill I made it safely back to the car. This night was supposed to be the Perseid Meteor Shower maximum and we were eager to get to Mono Lake to photograph the meteors. A park ranger, on the other hand, was not so happy with our eagerness and decided to quiz us on why it was a better idea to slow down before eventually letting us go with just a warning. We spent a couple hours photographing meteors and then I finally made it back to bed where a long sleep found me feeling much better the next morning. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 22mm, f/16, 3 sec, ISO 100 Lee Filter Holder + HiTech 0.6 ND Grad 2 explore blend

Worth a Vermillion Bucks

Sunrise from 2nd Vermillion Lake Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada November in Banff National Park is known as the season of Ice and Fire. The November temperatures cause the lakes and rivers to begin freezing, while the stormy skies light up in beautiful pinks, reds, and oranges. Planning a photo trip to the mountains is always risky because the weather can be so fickle. We had high hopes, though, that our trip would be both icy and fiery. Willie and I spent almost half of our mornings at the Vermillion Lakes. Poor weather preventing us from traveling further or exploring new areas, but we found this spot along 2nd Vermillion Lake that caught our eye. It had icy banks, reflecting water, and beautiful views of Mt. Rundle. There were a number of spots along the lake that caught my eye, but when the sky exploded like it did for this sunrise, I knew I wanted to use the frozen lakebed as my foreground. Getting low meant I could get as much of the reflection as possible, and Mama Nature provided the rest. My favorite part: the glowing light rays shooting out of Mt. Rundle! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 22mm, f/11, 1/6 sec, ISO 100

Frozen Tom

Sunrise Over Mt. Tom Bishop, California One scene that Willie and I knew we wanted to photograph in the Eastern Sierras was sunrise at Mt. Tom. One of the most iconic and largest peaks in the Owens Valley region, there are many ways to photograph Mt. Tom but we felt this angle showed off its best side. The combination of trees, meadow, and mountains, along with the line running up Mt. Tom, make for a spectacular scene. It was freezing when we woke up. Let me correct myself ... it was *well* below freezing. It was barely over 5°F when we set out and on that day we didn’t see above freezing temperatures for many hours. This morning was also cloudy and as we drove to our spot we started to get really excited — there was going to be a ton of color in the sky. Willie and Alan had scouted this location a month or two previously but Willie’s GPS unit somehow deleted the coordinates. Alan’s attempt to remind us of the spot resulted in the wrong location. I think we did 4 U-Turns before finally getting to the spot we wanted! The light to our east was going crazy and as soon as I put the car in “Park” we were grabbing our gear and running through the snow to setup our tripods. To the east the color in the sky looked like a giant explosion — massive oranges filled the sky and slowly faded to pink. To the east, in the direction we were shooting, the sky filled up with wonderful streaks of pink. The clouds provided a nice amount of layers to contrast the sky with pink and purple lines. We came home cold, but happy campers! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF: 80mm, f/11, ISO 100, 0.4 sec

Bonsai Milk

Bonsai MilkMilky Way over Bonsai Rock Lake Tahoe, Nevada One of the challenges in photography is to find something that nobody else has taken a photo of. Around the Bay Area there are so many amazing photographers that it's very difficult to find a scene that they haven't already photographed! One of my favorite places in Lake Tahoe is the iconic Bonsai Rock. I first saw this place a couple years ago when David Shields uploaded a couple shots from here and I knew I had to go to the place One photo that Willie and I had never seen was a photo of the milky way over Bonsai Rock. We did some research and decided that we would head to Tahoe on August 16th. Unfortunately for us, a couple other photographers must have read our minds because almost less than week before we were scheduled to head to Tahoe a couple photographers took the exact shot we were going to take! After a long day at work in which we were both exhausted, we left the Bay Area and I drove up to Tahoe and over to Bonsai Rock. We arrived early, hoping to light-paint the rock before the milky-way was in position. Quickly we realized that light-painting gave a fake looking view of Bonsai Rock and the tree on top. After photographing the Milky Way sitting on-top of Bonsai Rock we proceeded to take several minute long exposures taking advantage of the natural light to show Bonsai Rock in our photos. Luckily there was enough light pollution to provide a nice orange glow in the background and also light up the rock. This is a 3-shot blend: an 8-minute exposure to show Bonsai Rock, a 15 second exposure of the Milky Way above Bonsai Rock, and a 6 minute exposure for the foreground rocks framing the bottom left of the photo. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24mm f/1.4G ED: Milky Way: 24mm, f/1.6, 15 sec, ISO 3200 Bonsai Rock: 24mm, f/2, 8 minutes, ISO 640 Foreground Rocks: 24mm, f/2, 6 minutes, ISO 400

Love is in the Air

The Aurora Dances Over Mountains Vatnajökull, Iceland I've been to Iceland three times now and every trip has been absolutely amazing. My first trip was during the summer and we saw more waterfalls and beautiful scenes than I could possible count. I drove around the entire island and saw as much as I could, but some things that I had wanted to see in Iceland just weren't possible in the summer. I had to go back in the winter if I wanted to see ice-caves and the northern lights! So go back I did ... with Willie, Alan and Rebecca. We spent 10 days at the end of February and early March exploring Iceland in the winter. During the trip we were treated to 2 (and a half) beautiful nights of northern lights! On our first night the sky was crystal clear and the 4 of us saw the lights for the very first time. None of us wanted to go to bed because we were so mesmerized! We had spent a good portion of the day scouting locations for photographing the aurora and as soon as we finished dinner we raced to this spot. We learned what people mean when they say that the lights "danced" across the sky. At one point the lights twisted and turned into the shape of a heart - love was definitely in the air! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 32mm, f/2.8, 4.0 sec, ISO 800

Milky Von Anna

Ben, Anna, and the Milky Way Through Mobius Arch Alabama Hills Recreation Park, Lone Pine, California Superstar photographer Ben Von Wong joined SmugMug on our epic company retreat this year in Park City Utah and I enjoyed getting to know him and his girlfriend Anna over the 7 day trip. When they asked me to cancel my flight home and spend 4 days driving to San Francisco with them and Nick, I knew I couldn’t refuse! I shouldn’t have been surprised to learn that Ben, whose photographs always include people, didn’t have the patience to wait for Nick and I to do our landscape photographer thing. As long as the hike or the scene would be epic we might capture his interest long enough not to make us pack up and head somewhere else. We hiked The Narrows. We walked the Vegas strip. We explored eroded landscapes and salt flats in Death Valley. And on the last night we showed him the Milky Way for the first time with his naked eye. Ben and Anna have been creating a “selfie-series” of photographs, taking fun and unique portraits of themselves in unique places. Mobius Arch was going to be another stop in this series. We made our way to the Alabama Hills in Lone Pine, California and arrived at Mobius Arch just after sunset. We made a quick stop to use the “Sky Guide” app to figure out when the Milky Way would align properly and went off to grab a pizza dinner. When we got back to the arch, Ben knew immediately where he’d be setting his camera down for his epic Milky Way selfie! I on the other hand, struggled for almost an hour to find a composition that I liked (for an epic landscape). That’s when I decided “you know what, let’s get in on this portrait photo!” I found a different spot to place my camera and while Ben composed his as a landscape photo, I placed my camera as portrait orientation. To capture this photo Ben and I would set my camera on a 10-second timer. At the 8 second mark, Ben would use an app on his Android phone to trigger a 2-second timer on his camera. Meanwhile, I would grab my flashlight, right to the right of them and prepare to light-paint them. I fired a quick flash of the light on Ben to provide the light on his legs, arm, and face. Meanwhile, Nick, hiding behind the arch, lit Anna’s face and then painted the underside of the arch. Once we had a light-painted version we were happy with, Ben and Anna moved out of the scene, and I took a second photograph with a longer exposure and no lights to get a photo without strange shadows on the rocks. Lastly, we refocused on the stars, and took a 3rd photo to capture the Milky Way in all its sharpness and glory. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 15mm, f/2.8, 15 sec, ISO 2000

Witches Brew

Sunset over Kirkjufellfoss and Kirkjufell Mountain Grundarfjörður, Iceland I spent almost 2 weeks in Iceland with 6 friends: 5 of whom were not photographers. This meant that rather than following the weather like I would have preferred, we followed our itinerary instead. Mama Nature had the perfect chance to attach a rope between our RV and the rain clouds and boy did she take advantage. It wasn’t until 9 days into our trip that I finally saw the sun. The first 8 days were filled with rain, fog, more rain, more fog, and grey grey sky. Fortunately the last 2 nights ended quite spectacularly. There’s a few places in Iceland that photographers love and Kirkjufell Mountain is one of them. Of course it was high on my list of places to visit and we saved it for almost last. We arrived at Grundarfjörður, the town next to the mountain, parked the RV in their marina and made dinner. Dinner seemed to last for hours. Every few minutes I would get up, look at where the sun is, and say “guys, can we hurry up?!” Of course the non-photographers responded with “relax, it’ll be fine!” Finally I jumped into the drivers seat, told everyone to hold on, and drove us over to the spot. Surprisingly, this view is right off the road (you can, in fact, see the road at the bottom of the mountain) and offers countless compositions. As we arrived though, the clouds started to thin out and it forced our compositions to move to the left, towards the 3-pronged waterfall and the bridge. Fortunately the sky lit up beautifully long enough for us to snap a few photos. About 20 minutes after this photo was taken, a marine layer moved in, the clouds disappeared, and the beautiful sunset was gone. Thanks, Mama Nature, for a yummy bit of dessert! I loved the way the mountain looks like a witches hat while the waterfall and river brew below it. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 17mm, f/9, 1/6 sec, ISO 100

Vermilliworks

Canada Day Fireworks over Mt. Rundle Banff National Park, Canada I first visited Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada in November with Willie. Both of us fell instantly in love with the area (just drive around for 15 minute and you’ll see why). I returned a few months later to ski with some friends and knew I’d need a few more trips back to explore more of the area. Wanting to share Banff with Sammi, we decided to spend our 4th of July long weekend exploring the area in the summer when the snow wouldn’t prevent us from hiking around and exploring. We never realized that July 1st is “Canada Day” and there’d be fireworks to watch! When I found out where the fireworks were being launched from (the town square) I knew that I’d be able to watch them explode from across the other side of Vermillion Lakes. We met a number of other photographers and we all battled the mosquitos as best as we could while trying to enjoy the show — and sure enough it was quite a nice fireworks show! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 58mm, f/6.3, 3.2 sec, ISO 500

Inspiration

Sunrise over fishing village Reine, Lofoten Islands, Norway I'm often asked why I take pictures? The answer is two-fold: for myself, to remember the places I've been, and for others, to inspire them to see the world. Every day for 6 years I would walk by a photo of this scene in the Lofoton Islands of Norway. SmugMug had a giant panorama print of Reine -- it took over the whole wall -- and it was hung in one of the main hallways. Every day I'd walk by it and say "one day I'm going to go there." After 3 trips to Iceland, Rebecca finally said to me "damnit, we're going to Norway. I'll plan the trip. You can come along if you'd like." So we booked flights, invited Andy along ... and then promptly kicked Rebecca out of planning the trip. Andy and I did most of the planning and a 7 day photo trip turned into a 5 day trip with 2 days of backcountry skiing. I'll cut to the chase and skip the long story about how we nearly didn't make it here and just leave it at this: We stopped in Iceland on the way, photographed some ice-caves, beat the largest snowstorm in Reykjavik's history and caught our flight with 5 minutes to spare. Everything was easy after that. This is probably the most photographed scene in all of the Lofoton Islands, with a similar photo from Hamnoy coming in a close second, but I don't care. This inspired me to travel halfway across the world and see and do something different. So here's my own take, taken at 6:30am on a cold morning, when the wind died down long enough for the unnamed mountain peak to reflect in the water. Reine (pronounced Ray-nuh), is a gorgeous fishing village, now turned into tourist attraction. We stayed in some of those red huts on the right. I find it interesting that the tallest peak here is, as far as I can tell, unnamed. All the other peaks are named except for the main peak. Strange. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 38mm, f/11, 4 sec, ISO 400

Ancestor's Delight

Ancestor's DelightSunrise Over Ancient Petrogylphs California It's not every day that you can witness snow capped peaks and 5,000 year old petroglyphs while the sky explodes with color around you. As fate would have it I was treated to this amazingly rare scene while on a weekend trip to the Eastern Sierras. Knowing how special this morning was I made sure to cherish every moment of it, as well as to step away from the camera to embrace the scene and take it all in. Carved thousands of years ago by removing the top layer of granite these symbols let ones imagination run wild as to their meaning. The weekend was spent with early mornings, long car rides, constant Wunderground iPhone App checking, a little bit of prayer, much less complaining than the previous weekend, and most importantly beautiful scenes. In all I drove about 1,000 miles, saw my first Joshua Tree, roamed around dry lake beds in Death Valley, bundled up in jackets, stripped down to just shorts and t-shirts, survived a snow storm, and explored natural sandcastles. The weather reports for this weekend had been changing daily and it wasn't until the hotel cancellation deadline had passed that the trip became a reality. Boy am I glad it did! The previous afternoon started with clear skies and no cameras but as the sun started to set I caught my first glimpse of the clouds. After sprinting back to the car, lots of exhaustion and a race with time my 4th attempt at photographing the petroglyphs ended with a colorless sunset. It was early to bed and an even earlier to wake but my 5th attempt turned out much more successful! The storm clouds had finally rolled in and as I began my trek to the petroglyphs I watched as the sky lit up with beautiful pinks, oranges, and reds all around me. I constantly walked in circles just to take it all in. What an amazing morning! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 17mm, f/11, 1.0 sec, ISO 125

Minne Wanka and the Glow Factory

Night Sky over Mt. Inglismaldie Banff National Park, Canada In March 2015 I visited Iceland and was treated to several nights of absolutely stunning aurora. Living in California means that I'm too far south to ever see the sky turn green and dance, but I had high hopes that we might see a bit of the northern lights while spending 6 days at Banff National Park. On our first night in Banff there was a possibility that the northern lights would come out. Willie and I dashed off to Lake Minnewanka, which had a clear view of the northern sky, and waited. Only an extremely small patch of sky managed to glow green and that was the last of the aurora that we saw during the whole trip. While waiting for the aurora I happened to turn around with my camera and point it back towards Mt. Inglismaldie. My guess is that light pollution all the way from Calgary was enough to cause these clouds to glow orange (the town of Banff is further southwest, or to the right). I loved looking back at this mountain range and seeing the clouds glowing, while the snowy river bank framed the photo. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 14mm, f/2.8, 20 sec, ISO 3200

Earth's Eye

Reflection Lake at Sunrise, Spring Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington “A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.” ~Henry David Thoreau I was struggling to come up with a name for this photo and hoped I could find inspiration from someone better with words than I am. Of course I came across this quote from Thoreau, and there in the middle was the title: Earth’s Eye. That’s exactly how Willie and I felt as we enjoyed sunrise from Reflection Lake on this particular morning. It was cold but it was amazing: a perfect reflection on the lake, Mt. Rainier standing above us, with beautiful patches of wildflowers in front of us. We had briefly stopped at this spot the previous morning only to find the entire scene covered in thick fog. We didn’t have a clue where Mt. Rainier would even be (we thought it was further to the left). To come the next morning and see something completely different was inspiring, and breathtaking. By the time we left we were surrounded by tens of photographers. Luckily we arrived first and could scope out the 2 largest patches of flowers along the lake. The flowers were still blooming (or dying), so there wasn’t much to choose from. We watched the fog form on the lake, then disappear completely. Hopefully you enjoy the beauty of this scene as much as we did, even without an epic sunrise sky going with it. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 16mm, f/16, 0.4 sec, ISO 100

Sparks Fly

Sunrise at Sparks Lake Bend, Oregon A number of years ago Andy and I quickly drove through Bend on our way to photograph some spring waterfalls. I've always wanted to go back and Sammi had heard some amazing things and had been pushing for a summer trip ever since. In fact, she was ready to move to Bend before she had even visited solely based on opinions of other people and the price of housing (which is way cheaper than the Bay Area). We had planned on spending her October birthday in Smokey Mountains National Park but kept putting off buying flights. One day she woke up and said "we're going to Bend in October. Book it!" So Book It I did! Our plan landed in Bend late at night and just as we were about to go to bed I checked Escaype: epic sunrise predicted. We quickly set the alarm, dashed to bed, got a few hours sleep and then woke up bloody eye'd but excited for sunrise. Then we stepped outside: our beloved 80°F California weather was replaced with 22°F Oregon weather! And to top it off, not a cloud in the sky. A quick check on the satellite told us *the clouds were coming* so off we went. Sure enough, the clouds came in, and while I pranced around trying to find a photo composition that I liked, Sammi stayed warm in the car. As the sky got juicy she came out and joined me. She always asks if I'll put my camera down and enjoy the sunrise with her, so that I did. After sunrise we quickly jetted off for a few mile hike, getting back to the car just as the giant raindrops came hurtling towards us. Got it all in, just in the nick of time! Nikon D850 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 21mm, f/11, 1.0 sec, ISO 64

Winter's View

Winter's ViewMoonrise over Half Dome, from Tunnel View Yosemite National Park, California One photo that has been high on my bucket list was a snowy Yosemite photo. Willie and I have been keeping an eye on the recent storms in the Eastern Sierras and a huge one hit over Christmas weekend, dropping over 7 feet of snow in one day in some areas! I rented a 4 wheel drive vehicle and Willie, Alan, my girlfriend and I drove into Yosemite just as the storm cleared. We arrived at Yosemite to see the entire place covered in white! It was insanely gorgeous. The storm had moved out a bit quicker than we had hoped and we arrived late, to clear skies. As we looked west we saw another set of clouds coming in and we hoped we might be in luck! After scouting several locations we decided that Ansel Adams had it right and we found our way over to Tunnel View for sunset. We were not disappointed! Some low fog rolled into the valley, the trees stayed covered in white, and a slit of light made its way onto El Capitan for a beautiful view! To my surprise, my favorite image from the day happened to be one I had not expected at all. An almost full-moon rose just after the sun set, right during blue hour, and everyone raced around to capture the moon rising over Half Dome. I threw on my 80-200mm lens until Alan mentioned, "hey, try going wide." By this point I was cold, tired, and ready to get home before the roads turned awful so I fired 1 quick shot, packed up my bags and went to warm up in the car. When I got home I realized how right Alan was … I liked this shot more than all my others! In the end we spent twice as much time driving as we did in Yosemite but it was well worth it! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 55mm, f/11, 30 sec, ISO 200 No Filters

Sky Rider

Milky Way over Half Dome, from Olmsted Point Yosemite National Park, California For the last 8 years I’ve gathered my friends in Yosemite National Park to celebrate my birthday (or, as of late, more of a “belated birthday” celebration). A few of us drove up early Friday morning and I watched an absolutely AMAZING sunset in Tuolumne Meadow: the sky to the east was filled with amazing lenticular clouds that glowed orange in the sunset. Afterwards, I hopped back in the car and drove to Olmsted Point. I knew that the moon wouldn’t rise until 2am and I had plenty of time to try to capture the Milky Way above Olmsted Point. I had recently downloaded the app “Sky Guide” and it told me the Milky Way would rise near Olmsted Point sometime around midnight. Most of my friends, including my photo friends, hadn’t arrived yet and I was all alone at Olmsted Point. It’s amazing how much creepier Yosemite can feel when it’s just you, crickets, and random eyes watching over you. Luckily the stars and the light pollution were so bright that I could see most of Olmsted Point without having to use a flashlight! In early June the Milky Way is more horizontal in the sky and I loved the way it almost paralleled the mountains as it crept towards Half Dome, almost as if it was flying through the sky on its way to take a break on The Dome! In September 2014 the "Meadow Fire" broke out on the back side of Half Dome and up the ridge to Clouds Rest, on the opposite side of the entire left ridge shown here. Hikers on Half Dome had to be rescued by helicopter and the fire caused many popular hiking trails to close. The fire, which burned over 5,000 acres, was naturally caused by lightning and extreme dry conditions due to our severe drought. Nikon D800 w/Rokinon 24mm f/1.4: Foreground: 24mm, f/2.0, 30 sec, ISO 500 Sky: 24mm, f/1.8, 13 seconds, ISO 1600

R.I.P. Whitney

Sunrise over Mt. Whitney Alabama Hills, California Dedicated to Whitney Engler: Sept 9, 1987 - Mar 27, 2015 (see more below). In 2017, Willie and I drove to the Eastern Sierras and met up with David Thompson, Nolan Nitschke and Paul Rojas. I had known Paul and Nolan for years on flickr and facebook but had never met either of them in person, so it was super awesome to spend the weekend with them. We ran back and forth chasing the light and trying to find new scenes all weekend. On our last morning we stopped back in the Alabama Hills to see if the clouds would part and give us a glimpse of Mt. Whitney, the tallest peak in California (I suppose it's also the highest peak in the contiguous US too). A thin layer of clouds gave us hope that we might catch a little color in the sky as the sun started to light up the peaks. We were in for a treat, as mother nature honored our last morning here (the sky behind us was going crazy). I don't think David, Willie, or Paul had any idea how emotional this scene was for me. I don't talk about it too much. Every time I think of Mt "Whitney" I think of a friend I don't get to see anymore. On March 27, 2015 one of my good friends, Whitney Joy Engler, was shot and killed by her roommate, in their home at UC Davis. To this day we have absolutely no idea what caused this tragedy to happen. I met Whitney during my grad school year at the University of Michigan. I was a 5th year graduate student and she was a freshman, who happened to live on the same floor of the dorm as one of my roommates sisters. They came over for an orientation-week party at our house and we bonded over living in California, a love of strawberries, and Jimmy Eat World (ugh, don't remind me). Over the course of the year we became close friends, a friendship which continued even after I graduated and moved to California. When she *finally* graduated, she moved back to California and eventually enrolled in Vet school at UC Davis. Being so close, we'd meet in San Francisco for drinks or I'd drive to Davis to whisk her away from the stress of vet school for the weekend. We had plans for her to come spend the weekend with me before she graduated but at the last minute I cancelled, asking to reschedule because I had a busy week at my new job and wasn't sure I had the energy to play host. We never got to pickup that raincheck. Before taking his own life, her roommate shot her in the head and chest. The only insight was a note he left on his computer, telling his family he was sorry for taking his own life. It mentions nothing of involving Whitney and we have no idea why he took her life along with his own. Her roommate had no signs of mental illness. He owned several guns for recreational purposes. Nothing anyone could have done would have prevented him from purchasing those guns (including any proposed regulations on screening for mental illness). Some could argue that someone who wants to kill will do it regardless of whether or not they have a gun, and while that might be true, had Whitney's roommate not had a gun she might have had a chance to survive. That chance was stolen by this person and the specific weapon that he owned. She might have found a way to fend him off. Her dog may have helped come to her rescue. She might have been able to dodge a knife, block an axe, stop a beating, or slipped out of being strangled. A weapon less brutal as a shot to the head could have given her a chance. As I sit here contemplating the recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida, I don't know what the solution for the future is. But I do know that the brutality of this weapon, of a gun, decreased the chance that my good friend could have been sitting next to me as I watched the sunrise on Mt. Whitney. As I sit here, remembering the warmth glowing off the peaks of this majestic mountain, I can't do anything but hope that our leaders will use the massive intelligence within this nation to come up with a solution to decrease the brutality in which we're currently living in. If we can send a man to the moon, build rockets that can land themselves exactly where they took off from, and can build cars that can drive themselves, can't we do something to make this world safer? Whitney, I miss you terribly. I wish we could be enjoying more adventures together. I wish you could have seen Mt. Whitney with your own two eyes. But thank you for shining down on us on this cold morning in February and letting me take a photo to help remember you by. Nikon D800 w/Sigma 150-600mm 210mm, f/11, 1/30 sec, ISO 100

Perfect Dance

The Aurora Dances Over Vesturhorn Mountain Hofn, Iceland Preparing for a photo-vacation is both exciting and frustrating. I research locations, lookup moon and sun rise and set times, track the weather, figure out the best place to stand, view hundreds of photos ... the list goes on. By the time I’m ready for the trip I have a pre-visualization of the exact photo that I’d like to take. I also know that the perfect photo rarely happens. Still, I had my hopes up for an aurora-filled visit to Vesturhorn Mountain in Iceland. Willie, Alan, Rebecca and I had enjoyed an amazingly spectacular display of Northern Lights the night before, when the sun kicked up a Kp 5 solar storm for us. We watched in amazement as the aurora danced before our very eyes and took hundreds of photos of the amazing display. Selfishly we hoped it would repeat the following night when we made our way further east to Vesturhorn. The following night we drove to Vesturhorn, parked our Happy Camper RV’s on the side of the road and waited. Clouds had rolled in after sunset and we were a bit discouraged. We could see the Northern Lights hiding behind the clouds but those dang clouds were obscuring it! We went to bed hoping the clouds would clear. Every hour I would wake up, check the sky, reset the alarm and go back to bed. I repeated this 5 times and, finally, at 5am, with a few hours left before sunrise, I noticed the clouds were disappearing. I grabbed the camera and raced outside. Before our eyes the northern lights danced, twinkled and streaked across the sky. Rebecca and I were so engrossed with watching the aurora perfectly dance through the sky that we almost forgot to wake up Willie and Alan! The next 3 hours were spent taking photo after photo, mostly in complete silence, as we made sure to soak in the scene. The images coming out of my camera blew me away — they were better than I had even imagined: an amazing mountain, a beautiful display of Northern Lights, and the aurora reflected in the ice ... what more could I ask for?! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 14mm, f/2.8 2.5 sec, ISO 1600