Electric

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Electric

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Taken at Stirling Falls in Milford Sound, New Zealand on May 4th, 2018.

Stirling Falls in Milford Sound is surely one of the world’s most unique waterfalls. First of all, it’s tall, stretching nearly 500 feet in a pure, elegant drop from its precipice down to the rocks at its base where it crashes and splatters in cacophonous melody. If it ever looks small it’s only because it’s being dwarfed by the mile-high mountains surrounding it that erupt almost vertically out of the fjord. Secondly, the waterfalls leaps into space only to land directly on the ocean below it. There is no land to interrupt the descent; it’s a free-fall with a salt water landing. The height of the falls and the ocean landing contribute directly to the third unique thing about the waterfall: if the flow of water and the direction of wind is just right, a marvelous display of interference patterns appears at the base of the falls, radiating out from the crash zone like so many jagged rings of electricity. The electricity extends from the waterfall to you. Something about the sounds, the grandeur, the dancing mists, and the beauty of the location makes your hair stand on end, and causes energy to course through your body.

I’ve photographed Stirling Falls from a boat about half a dozen times now and while the experience is always incredible, this particular voyage was the first time I saw these radiating lines of force. As we rounded the cliff to reveal the falls I was dialing in my settings and snapping a few quick test shots to ensure my exposure was spot on. The boat spends 3-4 minutes at the falls, though in the moment it only feels like seconds. And so for me it’s an adrenaline-fueled race against time. My senses start to tingle and my fingers get itchy. On this trip I started off photographing some intimate scenes with my longer lens but as soon as I saw the patterns at the base of the falls I switched over to my wide angle and began snapping away. I had only enough time to create 20 frames over the course of 55 seconds before the boat started to rotate out of position and back away from the falls. But those 55 seconds were some of the most breathtaking and exciting of that particular trip to New Zealand, and they kept me grinning the rest of the day. Even as I write this I am reliving the excitement of the moment and feeling the joy and exuberance wash over me in little electric waves.

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Phantasm

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Phantasm

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Taken from a boat cruising down Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park, New Zealand on April 12th, 2016.

Stirling Falls is an impressive waterfall by most standards of the world: it’s a thunderous, 500-foot, single-drop falls. What makes it even more incredible is the fact that it plummets from the mountains directly into the ocean. And it does so in Milford Sound, one of the most scenic locations on the planet.

However, getting a photo of the falls is not easy. The only access to the Stirling Falls is by boat, and even the largest boats are subject to a rocking and swaying that makes shooting from a tripod essentially impossible. Not to mention that the falls itself puts off so much spray that your lens is often coated with water droplets within seconds.

In order to combat these issues for this photo I extended a single leg of my tripod, turning it into a monopod. This allowed for increased stability with some freedom of motion. I also used a telephoto lens; not only did this allow me to isolate just this fascinating interaction between the rocks on the water, but it also allowed me to focus past any droplets on my lens. Then I used a shutter speed of 1/15 sec, which was slow enough to show motion in the fast-falling water, but fast enough to capture the detail in the rocks.

In the end I loved the fantastical shape created by the rocks under the cascade, as it seems everyone sees something different in the photo.

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See more beautiful Fiordland photos here.

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Light Sandwich

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Light Sandwich

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Taken along the side of the road near Colfax, Washingon in the Palouse on June 10th, 2017.

Jim Patterson and I were up in the Palouse scouting for a workshop we were holding in a few days. Driving around the beautiful backroads and highways of the region Jim mentioned a tree he’d seen in a few photos and would like to find. In one of those bizarre moments of serendipity minutes later we rounded a bend on the road and saw the exact tree hiding in a small valley between two hilly fields. We sailed past, slammed on the brakes, whipped around and drove back to investigate. Finding a small turn off just barely big enough for the car we jumped out, confirmed it was indeed the tree he was looking for, then marveled at our luck while grabbing a few scouting snapshots.

A few days later with the workshop in tow and ponderous, thick clouds filling the sky overhead we once again stopped at the tree and walked our photographers around the scene suggestion different ideas and compositions. As I was showing a couple of photographers some telephoto shot ideas the sunlight slipped through a crack in the clouds overhead and lit up just one side of the tree along with the hillside behind it. The deep shadows on the ground in front of me combined with the moody skies above made it seem as though I was about to sink my teeth into a light sandwich. So I did, I clicked the shutter, and it was delicious.

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See more beautiful Palouse photos here.

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Heads in the Clouds

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Heads in the Clouds

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Taken in the Cocora Valley in Colombia on April 22, 2017

The wax palm is the world’s tallest species of palm tree. Amazingly, they spend their first few decades on the ground, building a crown of fronds that lifts barely a few meters from the earth. But once they reach their teenage years the trees rocket skyward, reaching as high as 200 feet. In the Cocora Valley, where the trees have reached almost legendary status, thunderstorms and humidity reign. There is often a lingering mist of clouds sweeping down off the mountains through the valley, blanketing the trees in a thick of cloud. But like thunderstorms everywhere those in the Cocora Valley often begin to lift and evaporate around sunset, allowing the beautiful tropical light to drizzle in.

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Underneath

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Underneath

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Taken near Chena Hot Springs resort in Alaska on January 1st, 2014

While exploring Alaska in winter with friends we spent New Year’s at the Chena Hot Springs resort. On New Year’s Day we set out under overcast conditions for a snowshoe exploration of the nearby countryside. At the late hour of 2:30 pm the sun set, finding a crack in the clouds and lighting them up an incredible ruby color from underneath.

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See more beautiful Alaska photos here.

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Non-Sequitur

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Non-Sequitur

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Taken at Isla Incahuasi in the Salar de Uyuni on April 10th, 2017

“This is the weirdest place I’ve ever been.” During the few days I spent in southern Bolivia, this one phrase continually sprang to mind. This is Isla Incahuasi, an island covered with giant cactuses, sitting by itself, surrounded by thousands of square kilometers of salt.

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The Rolling Rainbow

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The Rolling Rainbow

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Taken from Steptoe Butte in the Palouse, Washington, on June 9th, 2017

I took this photo while leading a workshop with Sea to Summit Photo workshops. On this morning we were discussing how to creatively use camera settings to emphasize the scene you’re creating. As an example I used a 150-second exposure to turn the clouds into waves which mimicked the shape and feel of the rolling hills beneath them.

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See more beautiful Palouse photos here.

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Things Are Not Always What They Seem

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Things Are Not Always What They Seem

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Taken at Lago di Sorapis in the Italian Dolomites on July 19th, 2017

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See more beautiful Italian Dolomites photos here.

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The Waiting Game

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The Waiting Game

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Taken at Cinque Torri in the Dolomites, Italy, on July 26th, 2016

An o’dark-thirty wake up led to a beautiful pink and purple sunrise at Cinque Torri in the Dolomites. But soon it became clear that the sun itself would make an appearance behind the towers, so the wait began. And the guessing game along with it…where exactly would the sun pop out? At first it seemed like it would rise perfectly in the notch in the middle of the towers, but ultimately I was positioned too far to the right for that to happen and I didn’t want to change my composition. I spent the next 20 minutes waiting, walking around, and watching the sunlight shift on the fields of flowers down below me. Then, when the sun finally popped into view beside the second tower, I snapped this shot. Or should I say…these shots. Five photos blended for depth of field, and another two for dynamic range.

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Shine On, you Crazy Palm Trees

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Shine On, You Crazy Palm Trees

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Taken in the Cocora Valley, Colombia, on April 22nd, 2017

I spent the last two weeks of April traveling in the country of Colombia. One of the places I visited was the spectacular Cocora Valley, where wax palm trees tower 45-60 meters (that’s almost 200 feet!) above the surrounding landscape. I was fortunate to spend more than a week in the area, and every day I enjoyed large thunder and lightning storms that blanketed the lush valleys with dramatic light. It was a fantastic place for photography and I have lots of photos to share with you all in the future.

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Tech Notes
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Nikon D810
Nikkor 70-200mm f/4 lens @200mm
f/11
ISO64
1/320 seconds

Josh

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See more beautiful Colombia photos here.

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Plummet

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Plummet

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Taken at Upper Yosemite Falls, Yosemite National Park on May 17th, 2017

In late May 2017 I spent a few days in Yosemite Valley and everything I’d heard about the waterfalls this year was true. There was water everywhere, the meadows were all flooded, and there were ephemeral falls I’d never seen before. One day I hiked up to vantage point on the east side of Upper Yosemite Falls and noticed that when the wind was absent comets of water would plummet all the way from the top of falls 1400′ to dash on the rocks below. In order to capture this image I knew I wanted a tight frame, so chose my 70-200mm lens. I also knew I’d need a very fast shutter speed to freeze the water in place, so increased my ISO.

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Burst of Life

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Burst of Life

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Taken at Death Valley National Park, California on March 5th, 2016

Death Valley, despite its name, is actually a place bursting with life. Every spring wildflowers bloom throughout the park, and there is a surprising variety of plants in the different regions. In spring of 2016 that flowering life was demonstrated grandly as the previous fall’s flooding helped set the stage for a profusion of wildflowers.

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