The Aurora Dances Over Mountains Vatnajökull, Iceland I've been to Iceland four times now (once during the summer and 3 times during the winter) and every trip has been absolutely amazing. There's something captivating about going in the winter when the island is transformed into this frozen, dead tundra. Gone are the beautiful green hills, the gushing waterfalls at every turn, the endless number of RV's, and the sheep greeting you at every bend in the road. Instead you're greeted with snow and ice and green sky that dances before your eyes! During this trip Willie, Alan, Rebecca and I spent 10 days at the end of February and early March exploring Iceland. 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
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
BreathlessIguazu Falls Iguazu, Argentina In 2009 I spent 10 days traveling around in Argentina. Although we saw some amazing things my absolute favorite part of the trip was the 2 days we spent at Iguazu Falls. At the border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay are a majestic collection of over 300 waterfalls. We spent 3 nights at an amazing hotel run by the nicest and most helpful brother and sister pair. I also ate one of the tastiest meals I've ever eaten: a delicious steak the size of my hand and 2 inches thick, 3 appetizers, 2 bottles of wine, and dessert all for about $20! I spent 2 days exploring the waterfalls. As the water cascades down the Iguazu River there are a number of locations with gigantic waterfalls. Trails along the side of the bank provide viewpoints to watch the momentous amount of water flow past. I even hopped aboard a powerful inflatable boat and took a tour into the waterfalls. This was my favorite photo of the falls. Here you can see the following waterfalls. From left to right: San Martin Island, Salto San Martin, Salto Mbigua, Salto Bernabe Mendez, and on the very bottom right, Salto Bossetti Nikon D80 w/Nikkor 17-80mm f/3.5: 26mm, f/10, ISO 200
