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
Snow covered trees Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada Willie and I woke up to find several inches of fresh, beautiful snow on the ground. We had grand plans of doing a bit of driving and kept our fingers crossed that the roads would be clear enough to visit all the spots we had planned for the day. The plans involved finding as many snowy trees as we could, plus a drive all the way up to Peyto Lake to see a grand vista. We stopped at a number of spots before making our way to the highway and over to an area known for rows and rows of trees. We had stopped at the Castle Mountain vista point before and couldn't help but find ourselves drawn to this pull-out off the highway once again. The way the clouds kept pulling at the mountains in the background drew us in. Willie and I both grabbed our big lenses to continue with our theme of intimate photos. Neither one of us spoke but we happened to both see the same thing in this scene; the clear patch of trees was just calling to be photographed. I love how the mountains peak out in the background while the clearing just begs for someone to lay down and take a nap. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 56mm, f/11, 1/125 sec, ISO 320
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
