Snowshoeing to Peyto Lake Banff National Park, Canada The Canadian Rockies are known for epic mountain and lake scenes, beautiful peaked mountains with colorful lakes sitting at their base. Moraine Lake, Lake Louise, and Peyto Lake, just to name a few. When we set out on our nearly week long trip to Banff National Park I expected to see as many of these mountain scenes as I could. Willie and I explored the area close to Banff National Park on our first few days, when the weather was clear and easy to get the lay of the land. Then a big snow storm hit and dumped over a foot of snow on the area. Our ability to venture further out and see many of these epic mountain scenes began to decline. On our last full day in Banff I turned to Willie and said "there's no way we're coming here and not seeing Peyto. Hop in the car, we're going!" And off we went ... which Willie was perfectly fine with since he wasn't driving and could do his typical thing: fall asleep. I was quite glad we had rented an all-wheel drive SUV because the road to Peyto, Icefields Parkway, really wasn't plowed. By that I mean that one lane had been plowed and it became a game of dodging cars. On the way to Peyto we had the plowed lane but on the way back ... well, lets say that was not the most fun time to be the driver. I had brought snow-shoes with me, in the event of needing to hike through the snow, and it turned out to be a good decision because the mile long trail to Peyto was filled with 2 feet of snow! A nice family from Colorado, whom we exchanged contact info with, sludged through first and carved out a path that made our hike with heavy camera gear much nicer! Although the epic mountains behind Peyto Lake never made an appearance, it was still an epic view! I've been wanting to put more of a "people element" into my photos lately, so when Willie was done taking his photos I hopped on down and placed myself in the photo. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 24mm, f/11, 1/125 sec, ISO 100
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
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
