I have resolved that I will get through my backlog of photos from my past trips. This photo is from my trip last year to Glacier National Park with Jeff Clow. It was my second time to Glacier, and I had never been to the Hungry Horse Dam area. Jeff knew of a number osprey nests there, and, while I don't go out of my way to shoot wildlife, I do try to get a decent shot if I can. I was not sure that my lens was long enough to get a good shot, but, thanks to some cropping, I was quite pleased with the result.
Spirit Island Bound - Maligne Lake, Jasper National Park, Alberta
One of the absolute must dos for any visitor to Jasper National Park is to take a 90 minute (round trip) boat ride to see the iconic Spirit Island. The tour begins at the northern end of the 14 mile long beautiful waters of Maligne Lake. All along the shoreline of the lake are some of the most amazing mountains that the Canadian Rockies have to offer. I have taken this trip twice, and the anticipation of waiting for the departure of your scheduled boat just builds and builds. As I walked along the lake, I couldn't stop taking photos of the Maligne Lake Boat House, with the mountains off in the distance that I would be shortly seeing close up.
Getting Low in Acadia - Acadia National Park, Maine
Labor Day has come and gone and the unofficial end of the summer is here. What that means for photographers in New England is that the glorious foliage season is about to begin. I really feel for visitors that want to travel to the area, because it is almost impossible to predict the peak of the season here. Depending on the rainfall and summer temperatures, peak foliage can range from late September through early November. Picking the exact right week is virtually impossible in advance. If you are not a local, you must reserve your hotels in advance, as they sell out quickly. Thankfully for me, I can hop in a car at a moment's notice, and within a few hours be in the middle of it all.
Last year, a number of the NxNW crew headed to Maine with hopes to catch the foliage at its peak. Unfortunately, we were a bit early and, while we got some colors, it wasn't in all of its glory. This is a shot from Acadia where we stopped along the Park Loop Road where I got down quite low to catch some of the fallen leaves with the colors changing on the trees.
Canoe View - Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta
The Valley of the Ten Peaks is one of those iconic scenes that keeps attracting me to visit Banff. This magical place is about 9 miles from nearby Lake Louise and is a far better location (in my humble opinion) than its nearby sister lake. The drive down Moraine Lake Road fuels the anticipation of the magic that lies ahead. As the road gets near the large parking lot, the surrounding peaks of the Canadian Rockies come into view and the crystal clear blue-green water of Moraine beckons you. I could spend a lot of time there just soaking in all that Mother Nature has to offer.
I have been here more than a few times and I have yet to get the perfect image that I know is there waiting for me. All I need is golden hour light, great clouds and a perfectly still lake that shows the ten peaks reflected on its surface. I have had two of the three conditions on almost every visit but am still looking for the trifecta. Perhaps next June, when I visit Banff again, I will hit the jackpot.
Rocky Shore - Cliff Walk, Newport, Rhode Island
Many visitors to Newport go there for the magnificent mansions, the great restaurants, and active boating and sailing. It is a very popular destination during the non-winter months and can attract large crowds. My favorite thing to do when I go there is to take a pre-dawn walk along the 3.5-mile Cliff Walk. This public access trail leaves from Bailey's Beach and gives a terrific view of the surrounding water. A bonus is that the walk goes along the back of many of the huge mansions with a different perspective of them. The first half of the walk is paved and the second half is uneven and rocky. It was from this rocky part of the walk that I looked back toward the mansions and captured this photo.
Navajo Tapestries - Navajo Canyon, Lake Powell, Arizona
I am sure that when you read the title of this photo, you were expecting to see one of the beautiful hand-woven tapestries that the Navajos were famous for. Instead of textiles, this tapestry was "woven" into the sandstone walls of Antelope Canyon by Mother Nature.
This was on our first (and only) visit to Page. One of the must dos for me was to take a boat ride (the primary way to visit it) to see Rainbow Bridge National Monument. This 50-mile one way boat trip allows you to relax and take in some fabulous desert scenes on the shores of Lake Powell. As you near Rainbow Bridge, you enter some very narrow slot canyons, including Antelope Canyon. Upon entering Navajo Canyon, you are faced with the scene above known as the Navajo Tapestries. It gets its name for the mix of colors and striations which were created by a natural mineral process over the years.
Denali Beauty - Denali National Park, Alaska
There are times that taking a good landscape photograph can be a challenge, particularly when you are on a bus tour. Such were the challenges of our visit to Denali National Park. While I would have preferred to drive a rental car on the park road, private vehicles are only allowed to drive 15 miles into the park from June to September. Only shuttles and bus tours are allowed beyond the 15 mile marker. So, bus tour it was. Taking images of a landscape while traveling in a moving bus can be difficult while trying to minimize the reflections from the windows. Another factor is the speed of the bus. I never like to shoot in a "spray and pray" mode, but sometimes it can be the only way to get a decent photo. In this case, I took a ten shot burst and this was the only one that made the cut.
Shipwreck - Cape May, New Jersey
Just offshore from Sunset Beach in Cape May are the remains of a ship. The S.S. Atlantus was built by the Liberty Ship Building Company and was actually made of concrete. Launched in December 1918, it was used to bring home US servicemen that fought in World War I. It was retired in 1920 to Virginia. In 1926, it was privately purchased to be used as a dock for a proposed ferry. Unfortunately, a storm hit and the Atlantus broke its moorings and ran aground where it is today. Now, it's just a twisted hunk of concrete and rebar poking out of the bay.
Rainier Fog - Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
My very first photography workshop that I ever took was in New England in the fall season. There was a presentation about the five different types of fog. For the life of me, I can't remember much more other than the right type of fog can really add a great mood and atmosphere to a landscape photo. Of course too much fog can also result in a white-out situation. On my morning visit to Reflection Lake this past May, I was hoping to get a little fog rising from the water that would add a nice mood to a reflection of Mount Rainier. The best laid plans didn't materialize, as the fog was a bit too thick. Instead, I was treated to this ethereal scene, as the rising sun backlit the trees and gave me this unplanned photo that may have come out better than the planned one.
Falls - Bridal Veil Falls, Telluride, Colorado
I guess this is a Colorado centric week for me. Three of my posts this week are from my trip to Colorado last year. This photo is of Bridal Veil Falls on the outskirts of Telluride. The falls overlook a box canyon that contains the town. The falls are two-pronged and flow 365 feet to the ground below. At the top left, there is a plant that was recently renovated that provides about 25% of the electrical power for the town. In the winter, the falls freeze and, at one time, ice climbers would climb to the top. The land is now private property and ice climbing is prohibited.
Puddle Reflection - Maroon Bells, Aspen, Colorado
Last fall, I captured my favorite photo of 2014 at Maroon Bells. That wonderful location just outside of Aspen had long been on my bucket list, especially during the foliage season. The scene was what you might expect at this photographic iconic location. Get there around 4am and wait in the dark and cold morning for the 7am sunrise. You need to get there that early to get a good spot. By the time that the light began to light up the sky, there was no space to be had. Tripod legs were interlocked with other photographers, some of whom were unknown. When the sun began to hit the peaks, it was almost impossible to vary the composition of the mountains and lake other than zooming in and out, changing from horizontal to portrait, or going for a higher or lower perspective.
After shooting more shots that I probably should have, I untangled my tripod legs from my neighbors and looked around for different subjects. Two of my habits are to look behind me and to look for water and both came into play on this shot. The mountain peaks behind me were lit up quite nicely, and there was standing water on the path from the previous nights downpour. Lesson to learn: get the iconic shots and then look for the unusual ones.
Prey Spotted - Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
I have been going through my Grand Teton images from May again and realized that I must have shot over 300 images of the Great Gray Owl that our group spotted. Even with my relatively short telephoto zoom lens and my lack of skills with bird photography, you would expect that I got a couple of good shots. I was particularly proud of one that I posted a couple months ago when I got him in flight. I was so excited about that shot that I neglected to look at some of the photos I took right before it. This is one of those shots where the owl had just spotted its prey and was beginning to launch itself toward dinner.
Still Leaning - Piazza dei Miracoli and La Torre di Pisa, Italy
There are some locations that when you say its name, everybody envisions a picture of it in their mind. That is so the case when one mentions the city of Pisa. An image of the famous leaning tower of Pisa comes to mind almost immediately when the city is mentioned. A few years back, we had the opportunity to spend an afternoon there and it was as magnificent as expected.
The tower lies behind the Pisa Cathedral on the Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracle). The tower is actually the free standing campanile (bell tower) of the cathedral. The construction of the buildings is marble. The tower was flawed from the beginning, with a foundation that was not sufficient to support the weight of the marble. Rather than rebuild the lower floors, engineers of the time concocted a scheme where the upper floors were built with one side taller than the other. Because of this, the tower is actually curved.
Million Dollar Highway - San Juan Mountains, Colorado
Summer is just about over and fall is just around the corner. Last September, I joined my buddy Rick Louie's Fall Colorado Photo Tour to explore the foliage season somewhere other than New England. Colorado has always been one of my favorite places to visit, but I had never been there during the fall. The New England foliage and the Colorado foliage couldn't be more different. In New England, you have a larger variety in the colors, while Colorado is mostly yellow with some orange thrown in. The other difference is Colorado's rugged mountains that serve as a backdrop to Mother Nature's color display.
Rick's tour is a terrific one that explores the area around Telluride. He takes you on some back roads that you might never visit if you are on your own. This scene is from the famous Million Dollar Highway just north of Silverton. This road is highly visited, but how we got there was memorable. Traversing over Ophir Pass from the Telluride side of the San Juan Mountains was an adventure by itself. Just one morning's experience that I hope to repeat in the future.
Road to Athabasca Glacier - Jasper National Park, Alberta
One of the very popular stops along the Icefields Parkway is the Columbia Icefields in Jasper National Park, just over the Banff National Park border. Here you can experience a unique adventure that will take you onto the surface of the Athabasca Glacier. From the Glacier Discovery Centre, you take a "transfer" bus (you can see one in this photo) to a staging area where you board an Ice Explorer. This unique vehicle (there are only 23 that exist in the world) is capable of climbing a 60% grade at a top speed of 25 miles per hour. Once on the glacier you disembark and are able to walk on it. Even in summer months, it is cold and many cup their hands and drink the pure glacier melted water. Quite the experience.
This shot was taken from the parking lot and shows the road that leads to the glacier on the right.
Glacier Bound - Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada
One of the places that you can get a very close up look at a glacier is in Jasper National Park. Located about forty minutes from the town of Jasper at the end of Edith Cavell Road is the trailhead of the Path of the Glacier Trail. The trail takes you to two glaciers, namely the Cavell Glacier and the Angel Glacier. They are both terrific to visit and photograph. That is not to say that there isn't beauty along the trail itself, as this photo reveals.
I had gotten up early to try to catch a sunrise at the glacier, but there was a slight drizzle and a layer of clouds. Already awake, I decided to go anyway and hiked to the glaciers. I was unable to get a sunrise photo, but, as I took in the beauty of the area, the skies began to break. On my way back to the trailhead, I spotted this scene of one of the mountains.
Lunar Landscape - Badlands National Park, South Dakota
How do you convey the ruggedness and diversity of the landscape of the Badlands to someone who has not been there before? My conclusion is that you can't. I have posted a number of photos that show microcosms of this unique area, but it is hard to give an overall picture of the place. First there is a 100-mile "wall" of rock formations that rises out of nowhere from the plains of South Dakota. Second, the diversity of the rock formations found on the wall are impressive, ranging from jagged peaks to water and wind eroded rock.
As one looks at this landscape from one of the numerous trails and overlooks, you get a great appreciation of how it got it's name by the Lakota People (one of the seven tribes of the Sioux). Remote and rugged, you almost feel that you are looking at a lunar landscape. This photo shows the erosion that has carved the rock over the past half a million years. Water accounts for an inch of erosion each year. I picked a black and white treatment for this photo because I felt that it shows the details that appear in the rock formation.
Glacier Banking - Denali National Park, Alaska
When we went on vacation to Alaska a few years ago, we were fortunate to spend some time in Denali National Park. I was quite excited about our first day there, as we were scheduled to get in a small plane in Talkeetna to fly by the "High One". My wife, Carol, who doesn't like to fly, was muttering "Why did I agree to do this?" Despite a light rain, we boarded the plane. Carol had the prime seat next to the pilot and I was right behind her. That turned out to be a big mistake, as I had to shoot through a propeller out my window. Fortunately, we did a lot of banking over the great mountains of the Alaskan Range and glaciers.
In this photo, I was able to get both the mountains and a glacier in the composition as well as the plane's wing. It was quite the experience, but if I ever get a chance to do this again, I will make sure to get a window that doesn't have a propeller next to it.
Banff Bound - Icefields Parkway, Jasper National Park, Alberta
I have been way behind going through my photos from my various trips over the past year or so. I hope to get through most of the backlog before I head back out on the road in September. My current focus is reviewing my photos from Banff and Jasper National Parks from last year.
You can't mention Banff or Jasper without thinking about the Icefields Parkway that connects these two amazing parks. This 140-mile road has so many things to experience, from pristine mountain lakes to the towering Canadian Rockies and the wildlife, that it is hard to see everything in just one visit. Don't take my word for it though. The parkway was named “One of the 10 Most Beautiful Drives in the World” by Conde Mast magazine and “One of the World’s Great Scenic Highways” by National Geographic.
This photo gives you an idea of what to expect when driving the parkway. My buddy Jeff Clow and I were headed back toward the town of Banff from somewhere north of the Columbia Icefields one late afternoon. I am not sure where exactly we were, as these scenes appear throughout this amazing road.
Sunrise Color - Steptoe Butte State Park, Washington
I have posted a number of shots of the beautiful and amazing farmland that surrounds Steptoe Butte State Park. Most of the shots were taken just after sunrise, which was at 5am. However, our group was out of the hotel by 3:30am to capture the twilight light that started at 4:15am. Now no one really wants to get up this early for anything, but let me tell you, it was worth it. This particular morning, we were blessed with some terrific clouds that lit up the scene in such a beautiful way. The colors were amazing. If you look closely in the foreground, you can still see the contours of the landscape as well as some low hanging fog. You can't get this type of shot after sunrise.