A Godley View
Behind the scenes of this photo
Taken 6,000 feet above the Godley River delta at Lake Tekapo, South Island, New Zealand on April 24th, 2012
This photo was taken during a scenic flight around Mt. Cook and the surrounding mountains. I was sitting up in the very front of the plane and as the pilot performed a steep banked turn over the head of Lake Tekapo I had an awesome view straight down onto the Godley River delta. Even though the flight led to many breathtaking views of the majestic Southern Alps, this intimate view of the river and the lake turned out to be my best shot from the flight.
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View more beautiful New Zealand photos.
Tranquililty
Taken at Lake Rotoiti, Nelson Lakes National Park, New Zealand on April 21st, 2012
I first visited Nelson Lakes National Park in New Zealand in 2007 under a thunderous downpour. Outside the tropics I don’t think I’ve ever seen such power in a rainstorm. Overnight the level of Lake Rotoiti rose at least 3 feet. During my more recent visit in 2012 the conditions couldn’t have been more different: mostly clear skies, no wind, and -aside from the ducks quacking- almost no noise. The contrast was remarkable and served to underscore the tranquility of this scene I shot from the dock.
The Light Within
Taken inside the Fox Glacier, South Island, New Zealand on April 16th, 2012
Glacierology 101: A moulin is a hole carved through a glacier by meltwater. Sometimes a moulin will grow until it becomes a cave in the ice, much like a blue slot canyon. And then, abruptly, the feeder stream will change course, allowing the cave to dry out and stabilize. Then it can be safe to venture into the cave and explore, which is exactly what I did on the Fox Glacier in New Zealand. Walking into the depths of the cave I watched as every color except blue was leached out of the light until eventually everything glowed with an internal cyan aura.
Shades of Gray
Taken at Hooker Lake in Mt. Cook / Aoraki National Park, New Zealand on April 10th, 2012
A moody, rainy day in Mt Cook National Park made me want to go on a walk. The dramatic clouds and milky glacial runoff lent themselves beautifully to black and white photography.
Some Views Are Worth the Itch
“The mosquitoes will eat you alive.”
2011 had been an extremely snowy year in the Sierra and the massive snowpack was keeping the meadows marshy and bugs buggy a full month later than usual. As I chugged my way up the Blue Lake trail into the Eastern Sierras’ Sabrina Basin that refrain kept ringing in my ears and I debated turning back because of the dire warnings.
Day After Day
The Sierra high country is timeless. These granite mountains, these meadows, and even this tree sentinel have been here longer than I’ve been alive and will be here much longer after I am gone. They stand day after day, month after month, year after year. Not waiting for anything, not expecting anything. No deadlines, no schedules, no Mondays, Wednesdays, or Saturdays.
If you spend enough time in the mountains, you begin to tap into that endless cycle. The feeling of “having to do something” slips away, along with pressures, schedules, and responsibilities. I don’t know anything quite so pacifying and relieving as connecting with the stillness of the mountains.
Monolith
Taken in Yosemite Valley on December 29th, 2011
At the very end of 2011 I found myself camped in Yosemite Valley. One morning I forced myself out of my warm sleeping bag only to see a lovely pink glow already filling the sky. The color quickly faded, but the sky remained full of wispy clouds. Making my way to the Merced, I found a bend in the river where a near-perfect reflection of El Capitan filled the icy waters. Stamping my feet and flexing my fingers to ward off the cold, I waited for the sunlight to make its way down El Cap’s bulk, and then I snapped this shot.
Global Warming
Taken on Tenaya Lake in Yosemite on December 27th, 2011
It all started before Christmas when I saw a video of people ice skating on a frozen Tenaya Lake in Yosemite’s high country. Wow, that’s cool, that doesn’t happen very often, I thought. Then, about halfway through the video, the filmer unwittingly showed something that had my eyes bugging out of my head: thick and crunchy pressure ridges and cracks running through the vast ice sheet covering Tenaya’s surface. And that sealed the deal: since Tioga Pass is open this late into the year maybe once in a generation, I knew I needed to take advantage of this unique photographic opportunity.
The week after Christmas I set out for three days of camping, hiking, exploring, and shooting the high country near Tuolumne Meadows. My timing was just right and I had three days of incredible shooting conditions and more natural beauty than you can shake a stick at. This shot is from the sunset on the first night: a rip-roaring pink and purple glow which set the icy reflections and cracks aflame on frozen Tenaya Lake.
Tuolumne Tundra
Taken in Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park on November 27th, 2011
Just when I thought Tioga Pass was closed for the season, a magical thing happened: some late season warm weather melted the ice from the road and highway 120 reopened. How fortunate then that I was visiting my family a mere 1.5 hours from Yosemite when this occurred. I was already planning on going into Yosemite Valley to camp, but with the fortuitous reopening of Tioga Pass, I decided to spend the day instead exploring Tuolumne Meadows under a blanket of snow. My mom came along as well and we spent the day freezing our toes off, exploring the icy Yosemite high country.
Yosemite Thunder
Taken at Olmsted Point in Yosemite National Park on September 12, 2011
I was in Yosemite to help my mom celebrate her 61st birthday by hiking to the top of Half Dome. Because of the new permit system, the date of your hike is not changeable. So we started to worry a bit when the weather forecast called for massive thunderstorms the entire week of the hike. But secretly I was overjoyed at the prospect of shooting a thunderstorm in the park. The night before the hike I drove up to the Yosemite high country to shoot Tuolumne Meadows. But when it became clear the best light was happening out over the Valley, I flew back to Olmsted Point to witness this awesome display.