After years of drooling over photos by photographers like Enrico Fossati, I finally made the trip last October to shoot the French and Swiss alps. I had a trip like this lined up last year during the same time frame, but I had to cancel at the last minute due to a family emergency. To help with the exploration this year, I rented an apartment in Chamonix, right at the foot of Mt Blanc and used it as a home base as I explored much of the Jura Mountains and French alps around me before moving on to shoot in nearby Switzerland. I thought three weeks would be more than enough, but it turned out to be far too short a time to get to all of the locations I wanted to explore, so I definitely need to go back. If you’d like to see my behind the scenes footage of these areas including time lapses, etc, my France & Switzerland episodes will be going up in a few weeks on my youtube channel, so please feel free to follow me over there via the link below.
Driving through the Jura Mountains and the French Alps easily surpassed my expectations. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I had no idea that France had that many waterfalls. Some of these valleys have been described as “Rivendell” by other photographers, and for good reason. On my way into Chamonix every day, I would pass one particular valley that had several waterfalls visible from the highway, and NO ONE was stopping to take photos. One of them was very similar to Bridal Veil in Yosemite and when I finally managed to find my way off of the highway, I seemed to be the only one enjoying the view. We get used to powerlines and freeways here in Southern California. In Southeastern France, they get used to having waterfalls around every corner, especially after a big storm.
If you ever have the opportunity to shoot there in October, while the leaves are changing and a storm is clearing, I definitely recommend taking it. I can’t begin to tell you how many times my head exploded over those three weeks. I haven’t always had the best luck as a photographer, but I definitely had some ideal conditions while I was there this year and even managed to snag a shot of the Tsuchinshan-Atlas Comet over the Matterhorn after missing the train, which made up for the 3 hour walk back down to Zermatt. I had the time of my life and I definitely can’t wait to go back.
If you make it over to my YouTube channel, please be sure to say hi! :)
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Thank you so much for your views and/or comments! If you have specific questions or need to get in touch with me, please be sure to send me a message via flickr mail, or feel free to contact me via one of the following:
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Tags: Alps Autumn Waterfall France
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I’ve just returned home after a 3 week road trip that took me from Southern California up to Tombstone Territorial Park and the Olgivie Mountains in the Yukon, the Chugach Mountains in Alaska, and finally down through the Canadian Rockies before heading home. I just posted my first episode of “Into The Yukon” on Youtube so please feel free to check it out at the youtube link below. On my way back down through the Canadian Rockies, I spent a couple of days camping at Abraham Lake. On the morning of September 21, I was very surprised to open the door to my van in the morning to find that it was snowing. The snow didn’t stick around very long around the lake, but the peaks above received several inches of new snow. I had a great time shooting before finally heading for home after 9000 miles of driving.
This particular trip was very gratifying in that I was finally able to shoot the aurora for several nights in a row, and was able to make the 7 mile hike out to camp at Grizzly Lake. I had to bail on both Talus and Divide due to an unfortunate bear spray accident (LOL) but I had a fantastic time up there and hope to make the trip up there again in a couple of years.
If you make it over to my YouTube channel, please be sure to say hi! :)
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Thank you so much for your views and/or comments! If you have specific questions or need to get in touch with me, please be sure to send me a message via flickr mail, or feel free to contact me via one of the following:
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Tags: Abraham Lake Alberta Canadian Rockies Autumn Snow
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Sunset WX probably gets quite a bit of well deserved criticism from time to time, but on May 1, 2024, I looked at their sunset forecast and took a chance on the 2 hour drive to Malin Head from my airbnb which was close to Bushmills in Northern Ireland. In this instance. Sunsetwx had the whole northwestern corner of Ireland lit up in red, and after a lengthy delay due to google taking me to a Ferry which had closed for the night, I finally showed up at Malin Head, just as the sky went nuclear. So a big shout out to the folks at SunsetWX for nailing this forecast. For those of you who might not be aware, Sunsetwx has a European model, and even though their batting average is about 40%, it can be a very useful website when used with other weather apps.
After shooting Malin Head, I headed South to support Mt San Antonio College at the Cork International Choral Festival and to shoot the Southern Coast. Both of my Ireland episodes are now up on Youtube along with Part I of my trip to the Dolomites last Spring. If you want to see what I have been up to, please feel free to visit my YouTube channel at the link below and be sure to say hi if you make it over there!
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Thank you so much for your views and/or comments! If you have specific questions or need to get in touch with me, please be sure to send me a message via flickr mail, or feel free to contact me via one of the following:
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Tags: Ireland Northern Ireland Malin Head Sunset
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I'm finally catching up a bit after a couple of crazy months of photography. In early April, I headed to Newfoundland in an attempt to shoot the total eclipse on April 8 at a lower angle and I BARELY managed to get a couple of shots in between the clouds that had begun to move in. Newfoundland turned out to be an AMAZING location for landscape photography, and if you want to see what Newfoundland looks like in early April and how crazy it was getting to the total eclipse, please feel free to check out my latest YouTube episode at the link below.
A couple of weeks after I returned home, I was off again, but this time on a two week trip to Ireland. The learning curve is pretty steep when you hit the road in a rental car in that country as you are not only dealing with driving on the left (which is terrifying) but also dodging cows and sheep and signs that switch without notice from kilometers to mph. I had a fantastic time spending the first week on the Northern coast before heading down towards Cork in the South. My good friend and colleague Bruce Rogers was in Cork competing with his Mt SAC Chamber Singers at an international choir competition and his choir knocked it out of the park with a performance that brought them within a single point of first place behind the choir from Brigham Young University. After attending the choir competition, I had an amazing time shooting the Southern Coast, especially the area down around Red Strand Beach.
“Discovering The Magic Of Ireland, Part I” will be coming up soon, so if you would like to see more photos and video footage from my time in Ireland, please feel free to head over to YT and subscribe, and please be sure to say hi if you make it over there!
For this particular shot, I was up at 3:30 AM to make the 2 hour drive from a B&B near Bushmills to Fanad Head. As the sky lit up, it was just me and a couple of dozen sheep listening to the waves crashing below. Pure magic. I also wanted to give a shoutout to Sunrisewx, without whom I would have completely missed out on this particular sunrise.
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Thank you so much for your views and/or comments! If you have specific questions or need to get in touch with me, please be sure to send me a message via flickr mail, or feel free to contact me via one of the following:
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Tags: Fanad Head Ireland Northern Ireland Fanad Head Lighthouse Sunrise
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After four days with just a glimpse of the sun, I was beginning to think that my trip was going to turn out just like it did in 2023. Barely a glimpse of the sun during my entire time shooting on the Lofoten Islands. The 7 hour layover in Copenhagen...the cancelled flight out of Bodo due to the wind...It took two and a half days to get here and now my trip was already almost half over and WHERE was the light?
So...yeah. I was grumpier than usual as I set off from my Airbnb. As I made my way down through a small fishing village, I kept staring at the clouds on the horizon. Yet another day with no sunrise. Stupid clouds...
And then...a bit of pink on one of the clouds. Not wanting to spook it off, I crept up through the deep snow to this small corner of the fjord. Sure enough, the clouds were breaking and the entire sky began to light up in front of me.
And then...it just kept going! I hiked out to the coast and shot the coast! I came back and shot this small lagoon from the other side! I shot the entire fishing village! And the light was STILL GOING! I knew the sun was lower in the sky in early February, but this was SIX SOLID HOURS of great light! Good light is like crack for me. I just can't stop. And yet...after several hours, I finally tore myself away...and HAD LUNCH! And the light was still good!
So jealous of the residents on the Lofoten Islands. The rest of my trip went by in a blur, but I was able to take advantage of incredible light for a few more days before my trip was over. Episode III of "Winter On The Lofoten Islands", detailing the windstorm that took out the power in the whole archipelago, my ticket in a blizzard, and other adventures will go up soon on YouTube, so if you are interested in checking that out, please head on over at the link below. :)
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Thank you so much for your views and/or comments! If you have specific questions or need to get in touch with me, please be sure to send me a message via flickr mail, or feel free to contact me via one of the following:
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Tags: Nusfjord Lofoten Lofoten Islands Winter Snow Sunrise
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