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Independence Lake Trail, Independence Pass, Colorado

2010-07-22T01:32:59Z

We decided to drive up Independence Pass and hike up to Independence Lake this morning even though weather looked a little bit glum in Snowmass. Of course, up on the pass it was raining softly, but we figured our new raincoats were up to the task and we set off up the trail. The grass lining the valley was made more intense and saturated by being wetted from the rain, a deep shade of yellow green. It made the perfect backdrop to the various white, red, and purple wildflowers. I wish I was better with their names, but I’m not, perhaps someone else can chime and let us know what we’re seeing here. As we got further up the valley we ran across this magic carpet of wildflowers up against the burbling stream, a perfect little Colorado Mountain Summer vignette!

Maroon Bells Wildflowers, Colorado

2010-07-20T23:57:41Z

We’re up in Snowmass for the week for my daughter’s theater camp and we mosied up to Maroon Bells after the big BBQ this evening. Boy, the wildflowers are out, as you can see in this photo. It really looks like a yellow and green carpet in front of the aspen trees with the very occasional purple accent, it was absolutely wonderful, a beautiful way to finish off the day!

Eyjafjallajokull Eruption, Day 4

2010-05-04T20:47:08Z

This was, unfortunately, the last day of our adventure trying to photograph the erupting volcano. After our first few days we had little luck with the weather and so no luck with the photography. Of course as we were packing up the bus to drive back to Reykjavik the clouds lifted and afforded us some stunning views of the volcano. For the first time we were actually able to see the volcano from our hotel. So, we decided to head back up for one last chance at photographing the volcano in nice conditions, a move that we were sure would upset Einar’s schedule at the restaurant this evening. But we figured that could wait! I was happy to be able to get this panorama of the eruption and the long ash cloud as it headed off towards Europe to wreak havoc, a perfect end to the trip. What an adventure this has been, bumping around for five days with thirteen other crazy people trying to get as close to the volcano as possible. I loved every minute of it and am sad to be heading back now, but life awaits me back home.

Eyjafjallajokull Eruption, Day 2 (cont.)

2010-05-02T20:37:20Z

After the day’s activities we headed back for a nice dinner at the wonderful Hotel Ranga and then had a lecture after dinner. As the weather was quite bad at the hotel we figured it was at the volcano as well, but someone checked the webcam and became very excited that something was happening. A group of us loaded onto the bus very excitedly and headed out, hoping to get the magical shot of the lighting in the ash cloud. Of course, when we got out to the volcano it was clear that the whole area was completely socked in. We did stay around to take some pictures, as long as we were there, and this is what we saw. The increased humidity level must have caused the steam clouds that can be seen emanating from the heated water coming down off the glacier. And just we could see a faint glow from the lava at the base of the thick cloud cover, it created quite a surreal scene.

Eyjafjallajokull Eruption, Day 2

2010-05-02T18:00:19Z

The clouds have returned this morning and enveloped the volcano preventing us from getting any interesting pictures from our usual location in the valley. So, Einar arranged for us to drive up the backside of the volcano onto the glacier and try to get as close to the crater as possible. We would be escorted by the chief of police and the entire mountain rescue squad, just in case something bad happened to any of us. We met them at a farm at the base of the mountains and transferred ourselves and cameras into smaller super-jeeps that would drive us up the glacier. I ended up in the vehicle driven by the chief of police and it was a nice opportunity to meet some other Icelanders. As we drove up on the hillside it was apparent that quite a bit of ash had rained down on the this part of Iceland. Usually the terrain is verdantly green, covered by the spongy moss that grows in much of Iceland. But the terrain was a grayish brown, dead looking, and the Icelanders were amazed by this as well, as you can see in this photo.

Eyjafjallajokull Eruption, Day 1

2010-05-01T17:22:32Z

We had a very full day of trying to photograph Eyjafjallajokull today, our second day out trying to photograph. The weather was unfavorable yesterday so we just wandered around shooting the landscape of Iceland, a very nice day really, and we ended up at Jokelsarlon to shoot the wonderful icebergs there. But we all came here to take pictures of the volcano and were eager to get at it today. There was some uncertainty about how close we could get to the volcano, but we set out from out hotel after breakfast and after a 45-minute drive we ended up at a police barrier on a rough dirt road looking across a wide river valley at a mountain ridge on the opposite side shrouded in clouds. We were told the volcano was behind the clouds, but we couldn’t really see much of it. What we could see was the utter destruction of the stunning glacier that happened to unfortunately be situated right on top of the volcano. The heat from the lava is systematically melting the glacier and the resulting water has flowed down, eroding a gaping chasm in the glacier. The serene lake created by the terminal moraine of the glacier was overtopped, breaching the dam and the floodwaters creating havoc downstream. We can see house-sized blocks of ice littering the plain below the lake, the melting water creating braided rivers that glisten in the morning sun. An overwhelming scene by itself, and we haven’t even seen the actual volcano yet.

As the morning progressed the gaps in the clouds revealed the ash and steam clouds emanating from the eruption. A group of us ended up hiking up the hillside behind us to get a better perspective across the wide valley below. We spent hours watching the clouds moving along, patches of blue sky moving tantalizingly towards the volcano but never really getting there, depriving us of a good view of the eruption itself. Eventually we retreated to the bus for provisions, overcome by hunger.

Einar was able to arrange a scenic flight in a Cessna 185 for the afternoon’s activity. We had hoped for a helicopter, but a new regulation requiring the helicopters to operate out of Reykjavik so they could be inspected, rather than much closer to the volcano, rendered that idea financially out of bounds. We backtracked to a small grass airstrip a couple of miles down the valley and waited for the plane to arrive. Being a small plane with only enough room for three passengers, we spit our group of 12 into flights and waited for our turn. Each flight lasted about 45 minutes, so it was a couple of hours wait for my third flight, but it was definitely worth the wait. As we climbed out from the airstrip I was mesmerized by the wonderful textures of the braided river valley below us. In less than 10 minutes we were above the eruption and shooting pictures. I was in the front seat and had a wonderful perspective of the destruction when we opened the window. It was incredible to think that there, a couple of hundred feet below us was a completely inhospitable environment that we were perched over in our small plane spying down on. It was hard to take it all in and shoot pictures at the same time, so I alternated just admiring the scene below me with mad bouts of shooting as many pictures as I could. The best part to me was getting a bird’s eye view of the water flowing out from the base of the glacier creating a large alluvial fan before coalescing and flowing off towards the ocean.

The continuation of this incredible day came after dinner when we ventured out to shoot the eruption at night. There was not a cloud in the sky and even though the sun had been down for over an hour, it was obvious from the brightly glowing sky that it was not very far below the horizon. The snow on the ridgeline absolutely glowed with this light throughout the night and provided wonderful atmosphere for the eruption. The two clouds emanating from the eruption were clearly visible, one being the darker ash cloud to the right and the second being the white steam cloud from the melting glacier. Both clouds reflected the glowing lava in the crater, the white steam obviously showing it better. On the right side of the crater we could see the rocks and debris being thrown from the crater, the time exposure on our cameras recording the sometimes irregular flight of these projectiles as they littered the edge of the crater. It was a mesmerizing scene and we couldn’t leave, but finally succumbed around 3 am and returned to the hotel for a little sleep.

Needless to say, this has been one of the best days of my life!

Walpole, New Hampshire

2010-02-08T02:25:25Z

Last stop on my tour of New Hampshire, visiting with Peter Roos, an excellent painter and photographer that I met on my Iceland trip last summer. We got up early this morning and made a quick stop at Burdicks for the world’s best pan au chocolate and a cup of coffee before heading up the ridge to explore. We happened to pass by Ken Burns’ house on the way up and just beyond that found a nice open field overlooking the Connecticut River valley below. I especially like the contrast of the white barked birch tree to the other trees as an interesting foreground element to the view across the valley. It was really a nice morning of exploring and shooting and I treasure the time that I got to spend with Peter.

Castle in the Clouds, New Hampshire

2010-02-05T02:19:31Z

Visiting with my wife’s cousin near Lake Winnipesaukee and we decided to take a hike up to the Castle in the Clouds. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for a hike, clear blue sky and plenty of shelter in the trees from the slight wind, though the temperature was still in the low 20’s. As we wound through the forest on the way up to the castle we crossed a bridge that afforded us a nice view of the ice formations in the stream below. I thought it was interesting how the ice seems to outline the shapes of all the rocks in the stream, a stunning scene as we climbed on up the hill.

Kancamagus Highway, New Hampshire

2010-02-04T02:13:47Z

I continued driving through the White Mountains and ended up on the Kancamagus Highway, a gorgeous road with a high pass and lush valleys on either side. I pulled over numerous times to shoot pictures of the various scenes, the birch trees mostly catching my eyes. As I descended the far side of the pass I was struck by the icicles formed by the seeps from the fractures along this granite face, especially in contrast to the bare trees in front. I love the contrast of the verticality of the ice to the horizontality of the rock, a classic composition.

White Mountains, New Hampshire

2010-02-04T02:00:36Z

After a very nice visit with a long-time family friend in White River Junction, Vermont, I drove across the White Mountain National Forest and had a wonderful day. The weather out here has been a little unusual in that there has not been that much snow, but there was a 3-inch rainstorm a couple of weeks back. This had the effect of damming up some of the rivers and creeks with ice and causing wonderful formations of ice along the banks. This scene caught my eye as I was driving along a very roller-coastery frost-heaved road (that’s a whole other story!) and luckily there was a pull off just next to it that I could park at. The weather was rather blustery, at least for a Colorado wimp like me, an overcast and breezy 23 degrees, and it definitely felt like winter. As I walked down to the river bank I noticed that the river was choked down into a narrow spot by some granite boulders. The greenish river was running under the ice that had piled up on the shore closest to me. I thought the angular granite boulders were a nice contrast to the softer curves of the water winding its way through the ice.

Infrared South Platte River, Colorado

2010-01-15T21:37:00Z

Camped out in the van next to the river the last couple of nights and it was incredible. The temperature obviously dropped overnight and the windows were all frozen from the moisture in my breath condensing on the windows. It was about 20 degrees both morninga and it took a while for the propane heater to warm the place up enough for me to want to get out of my sleeping bag. I didn’t see much color in the sunrise either morning anyway, so I didn’t feel like I was missing anything anyway. As always, it was nice to get a little extra sleep as well.

Shot a lot of pictures with my Infrared DSLR today, first chance to really play around with it and I like it! I think that the river bottom is a perfect place for this camera, the way that it responds to vegetation and the blue sky creates intriguing contrast and colors in the image. The sky goes very dark and coppery while the vegetation is lighter with a bluish hue to it, very interesting. You’ll see more from this camera in the future, that’s for sure.

South Platte River, Colorado

2010-01-14T21:13:44Z

I have been meaning to get out to Eastern Colorado for a couple of months now and I finally had the chance this week. Got the Campervan all packed up and headed northeast from Denver along I-76 and got more excited with each passing mile. I was headed out to a place that I have been going to since I was about 8 years old, a club where my dad and I duck hunted while I was growing up. Oh, the stories I could tell about some of the times that we had out here, but that’s not for this entry. So, in a way, it feels like driving back in time every time I come out here, like visiting an old friend, seeing what has changed and what hasn’t. It’s always a little different, but also I have changed and see things just a little differently than last time, sometimes it’s hard to tell which is which.

I got down to the river about an hour before sunset and grabbed my camera and tripod and started wandering around the river bottom. The air had that old familiar earthy almost rotten smell, I could hear the cows and geese in the distance, the sounds of motors and dogs barking, the wind rustling through the last of the dried up leaves on the cottonwood trees, it was awesome. There was a high, thin layer of clouds, just perfect to catch the light of the setting sun and all of a sudden the world in front of me was all orange. I was shooting the orange glow reflected off the river ice when I noticed a strange angled cloud formation just above the trees and I knew I had the picture.

The sunset just kept getting better and I noticed an owl silhouetted in a tree by the purple orange clouds behind it, just waiting to catch a glimpse of its dinner. I kept taking pictures, there was barely any light and I was a ways from the van when I heard the coyotes yapping. I know that sound carries, but they sounded pretty close and I was getting pretty nervous, I didn’t want to become anyone’s dinner myself, so I broke into a trot and safely made it back to the van before anything could happen.

Another awesome day out taking pictures!

Snake River, Colorado

2009-12-31T19:07:43Z

Last chance for a photo outing in 2009, I’m up in Keystone with my family and decided to sneak out early this morning. As I drove out of the garage I saw the almost full moon peaking out under the clouds just about to set. It will actually be a blue moon when it rises again in the evening. As I drove up the Snake River Valley on Montezuma Road the thermometer on the car kept creeping down and finally settled in at -2. There was actually not that much snow and I was able to drive up the Peru Creek Road for my first stop, making first tracks in the new dusting of snow on the road. I wandered around and shot some pictures of the snow on the trees and the color from the rising sun on the clouds, it was awesome to think that I was the only person in the valley.

As I drove back down the valley I made several stops along the river to shoot the gorgeous openings in the ice along the river. Then at one spot I hiked down to the river where some beavers had been busy creating a pond, the reflection of the frosted bushes and trees in the water caught my eye, you can see the results above. I think I really caught the wintry mood. There was also some incredible ice formations near some water cascading down the beaver dam, but I was getting cold and headed back to the condo for breakfast, happy to have been able to experience the great outdoors that Colorado is.

Happy New Year!

Squaw Pass, Colorado

2009-09-22T22:17:56Z

On my way back from a photo shoot on Rabbit Ears pass I had another visit to Squaw Pass, this time I drove all the way over to Bergren Park. There was a beautiful pullout looking over in to a valley below Mt. Evans and the fresh snow on the pine trees really set them apart from the yellow-green aspen trees.

Eldora, Colorado

2009-09-16T22:11:50Z

Drove up to the mountains to pick up my daughter from her school camping trip and had a few minutes to take pictures while waiting for them to arrive. I happened across this scene of the changing leaves of the bushes in front of the wonderfully detailed pine trees, all reflected in the beaver pond in front, a nice little composition of the season.