Sunrise over a frozen Kirkjufell Mountain Grundarfjörður, Iceland When I visited Iceland in the Summer of 2014 I tried to cram the entire island into a 12 day trip. So when Alan, Rebecca, Willie and I spent 10 days in Iceland in the winter we tried to simplify and keep our locations to some key places. We spent the majority of the trip in the southeast portion of the country, exploring glacial ice-caves and watching the northern lights over amazing peaks. A bucket-list item would have been the aurora over Kirkjufell so we left the southeast, spent a night in the Golden Circle, and then departed for the western part of the island. We knew a storm was coming in and hoped that we could get most of the way to Kirkjufell Mountain before it arrived. That didn’t quite work out ... as we found ourselves in the middle of a massive hurricane-force blizzard. The only way we stayed on the road was by finding the giant yellow sticks carefully placed along the road by the wonderful Icelandic Department of Transportation. Willie and Alan, in the car behind us, often lost site of our vehicle, despite only being a car lengths behind. The winds and weather became so horrible that we stopped in a small town to take shelter. Alan, who had recently lost his 6-pack abs, wasn’t strong enough to hold the door to their vehicle, and found the wind nearly ripped it off its socket, damaging the door and eventually requiring replacement. After much (and I mean MUCH) debate, we finally decide to leave the shelter and risk the drive to Kirkjufell. Turns out it wasn’t so bad of a drive! Arriving at Kirkjufell was quite wet and we spent the night listening to the rain and wind pound on our little camper vans. When we woke up, though, the clouds began to clear and we hoped they would catch a little color. While exploring the tidal pools I came across this little section of broken ice and thought it made for a perfect lead-in towards Kirkjufell. What do you think - does the cracked ice provide enough of an interest point in this photo? Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 14mm, f/11, 1/25 sec, ISO 100
Ice Bubbles at Vermillion Lakes Banff National Park, Canada Just outside the town of Banff lies 3 beautiful lakes known as the Vermillion Lakes. By the time we arrived in November the first lake had mostly frozen over and was covered with snow. The second lake was starting to freeze and the third lake was somewhere in the middle. What makes the Vermillion Lakes special is that Mt. Rundle sits behind them and when the sun rises, it can leave some amazing scenes in its wake. On this particular morning the clouds were a bit too thick for the beautiful sunrise that we were hoping for. What we did witness, however, was a beautiful light display, with the clouds and the sun shooting rays of light out over the mountains. We happened to be hanging out at the Third Vermillion Lake when we found these frozen air bubbles, just as the sun decided to peak out and send lightrays in every direction. We ran around, very carefully, making sure not to break the ice! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 17mm, f/11, 1/500 sec, ISO 100
Blue Hour over Silver Lake Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah Working for a photography company has its advantages and when the entire company ends up spending a week in Park City, Utah, I knew I’d get out at least one night to do some photography. Fortunately a few of my co-workers lived in the area and wanted to take several of us to a few lakes to photography the Milky Way. Ryan, Nick, Dan, Mike, and I drove over to Silver Lake and I came upon this spot on the lake that I knew I would spend the rest of my night at. The clouds looked perfect for a beautiful sunset and I was eager for the sun to dip a bit lower and light up the clouds. In typical mountain photography fashion, the clouds disappeared right before sunset and the sky fizzled to a dull grey. Fortunately, the Salt Lake City light pollution lit up the clouds with a new orange glow during blue hour! Once the clouds disappeared I had high hopes for capturing a stunning Milky Way in the reflection of the lake. Of course Mama Nature felt like being mischievous and just as the sky got dark enough to see the Milky Way, she blew in a new patch of clouds to cover the sky. If you visit my blog I’ve posted another photo of the Milky Way peaking out from the clouds. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-3245mm f/2.8: 17mm, f/2.8, 10 sec, ISO 1000
