The setting sun ignites the horizon in central Texas as a small group of trees bears witness.
Walking back to the car lot after a great afternoon exploring Knocksink Wood south of Dublin, Ireland, I came across this old, fallen tree and a sapling crowned in newfound golden sunlight.
After yet another early (early) wake up call in Glacier National Park, we headed out to this vantage point along St. Mary Lake to catch sunrise. For just a few brief minutes, the clouds lit up with color as alpenglow simultaneously brushed the mountain peaks. In the span of two frames, the moment was gone.
A lone, distant peak refuses to relinquish its grip on the fleeing sun, resisting the encroaching darkness beginning to envelope the weathered formations of Alabama Hills in California.
It's easy to be disappointed when the weather doesn't cooperate with your plans. In this case, we were hoping for a hint of mountain peaks through the clouds across Two Medicine Lake but they never broke apart... yet that missed opportunity forced me to find another composition. The still water provided a perfect reflection of the trees on the far shore, and the low clouds created a minimalist backdrop. As soon as I saw this scene on the back of my camera I was immediately reminded of a chaotic audio waveform; a sharp contrast to the quiet scene that lay before me.
As I walked further out into Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park, I began to notice little hints of unexpected color scattered across the salt flat; upon closer inspection I realized they were broken and battered butterflies (often just a wing, or a part of a wing). Everywhere were these small, tragic reminders of the beauty and harshness of nature. Eventually, I found this lone, intact specimen, a memory of the beauty of life in the valley of death.
Can you find the spiderweb? It wasn't until I viewed this image on a larger screen that I discovered that subtle hidden detail, invisible to the naked eye but not my camera with a telephoto lens. I loved the contrast of the yellow spring leaves against the backdrop of the waterfall but now it's that little unexpected detail that really makes this image stand out as one of my favorites of 2019. It's little surprises like this that bring me joy through photography.
After a cold morning shooting the iconic Maroon Bells we ventured along one of the nearby trails to shoot some more intimate shots within an aspen grove. This bent new growth with its brilliant gold leaves easily stood out in the morning light. Walking through a grove like this, with the golden crown far above catching the early sunlight, was an experience unlike any other I've had. Click image to purchase
After our original plan to capture the night sky in a bristle cone forest was busted due to snow-blocked roads, we headed to this overlook of Hot Creek to capture the Milky Way. Temperatures were in the 30s but the crystal clear skies and amazing experience far outweighed any physical discomfort as we spent several hours shooting at this location until the arrival of dawn erased the Milky Way from the sky.
On the evening I captured this I had intended to venture much further along the boardwalk at Logan's Pass in Glacier National Park but when I came across this view I was completely drawn in. I absolutely love the look of mountain layers, and this is one of the best examples I've seen.
Captured during a trip to Aspen, Colorado in the fall of 2018, this image sat in my archive for over a year before I decided to release it. I finished editing it shortly after returning from the trip, and it was one of my favorite captures, yet over time I devalued it for a few different reasons. Upon revisiting it late in 2019, I once again fell in love with it.
Taken in April of 2019, fellow photographer Jon Fischer and I ventured out to Broken Bow, OK to shoot before meeting up with a larger group in Arkansas. We had originally planned to wake up in the middle of the night to capture the night sky but were greeted to a dense wall of fog when we opened our motel door. Although the stars were out of reach we headed out early the next morning to take advantage of the atmosphere as the morning slow struggled to burn its way through the veil behind which it was hidden. The conditions created this ethereal scene of bald cyprus emerging from the fog.
This particular scene caught my attention in 2018 for the way the sunlight was filtering through the canopy and lighting up the white aspen trunks near the middle of the frame. The high contrast of the brightly lit trunks created a compelling focal point within the brilliant gold leaves and darker shadows as the sun crept towards the horizon. The shapes created by that contrast of light and shadow bring to mind a crashing wave.
Having given myself essentially just one full day to explore the southwest of Ireland before heading back to Dublin for my flight, the Kerry Cliffs were high on my list of locations to photograph. Not realizing they aren't accessible around the clock, I had to charm my way into entering only 15 minutes before closing time, and then had to struggle to climb the steep slope to the top of the cliffs as quickly as possible. Exhausted but not wanting to waste time resting, I was able to capture a few different compositions, aware that rain was also quickly approaching; it was a race against the rain in one direction as the sun burst through the clouds in front of me. I got the shot but immediately after the sky opened up and I had to scramble to cover my gear as I trudged back to my rental car.
Mother Nature put on an amazing show at sunset, creating this stunning view of sun-kissed peaks as seen from the Weeping Wall in Glacier National Park. Steady wind made this a challenging shot as I fought to freeze the foreground flowers, avoiding motion blur as I worked to get the shot before the distant light faded. One of my most popular releases of 2019, yet this image does little to convey the sense of awe I experienced witnessing this scene in person.
A trip to Ireland back in 2015 sparked my passion for photography, inspiring me to purchase my first DSLR soon after returning home. When another opportunity arose to visit Ireland in June 2019, I had hopes of recapturing my favorite shots from my 2015 trip - specifically, from my day tour of Northern Ireland - with something besides a cell phone and utilizing the skills I'd honed over the past several years. As luck would have it, Mother Nature disagreed and, after seeing forecasts of heavy rain and flash flooding in and around Belfast, I made a last-minute decision to head the opposite direction from Dublin and explore the Killarney region instead. I discovered this scene on my way to shoot one of the largest waterfalls in Ireland. What should have been a 30 minute walk turned into roughly three hours of exploring and shooting; it seemed another amazing scene was revealed every 20 feet. I found capturing the intimacy of areas like this far more interesting and beautiful than fighting the crowds at the main waterfall.
After capturing some compositions of this bridge from above on the other side, I decided to wander downstream a bit with the hope that I could find a vantage point where I could shoot back through the arch of the bridge with a longer focal length, framing the tree within the glow of the morning light.