Capturing the Moment

  Beautiful scene today at Bingham Falls. The falls are still flowing among the frozen ice, snow, and icicles here at Bingham Falls, Stowe, Vermont. Winter can bring some challenges here in Stowe, Vermont. Temperature stay below freezing for weeks at a time. Snow covers everything, but then turns into ice on the trails. Snowshoes can tackle the winter terrain, but then take away the agility needed to work your way to the perfect photo spot. So today, after hitting the ski slopes all morning, I took off into the backcountry to see what one of my favorite local waterfalls was looking like in the winter weather. The entrance to the Bingham Falls trail was totally white. Everywhere was covered in snow. There was one set of older tracks, but it looked like noone had been here in a while. I wasn't even sure if the trail was open, but there were no signs saying closed, so on I went. The trail had definitely gotten a little icy, but I walked carefully. The sounds of the road quickly got le...

  Columbia Glacier, as Good as it Gets. 3 MIN READ 421 WORDS Reflection in the Water. View of the Columbia Glacier. After several days of rain and cold, we scored the perfect weather for our trip up the Columbia fjord to the famous Columbia Glacier. We had blue sky and sunshine, plus mirror-like conditions on the water. The jagged mountains, the glacier itself, and the thousands of icebergs all casts reflections in the water. It was a photographers delight. After breakfast we loaded up our skiffs and worked our way to the face of the glacier, often just taking in the scenery in silence, soaking it all up. Since we had the entire fjord to ourselves, the only noise we would hear was the glacier talking to us in creaks and groans, and thunderous roars. We saw several calvings, creating loud booms when the ice chunks hit the water. Guests heading out in the skiffs from the mother ship. The Columbia Glacier, located in Prince William Sound, Alaska, is one of the most significant and rap...

  Luckily I had my camera handy as I drove around Vermont yesterday. There had been a light dusting of snow the night before, and unusually cold temperatures for April made everything look like we were back in the middle of winter. It made for some fine snowboarding at Stowe, but also provided a wonderful chance for landscape photography.   I always enjoy the beauty of the farms that you can find out here. Old barns looking over vast fields have always caught my eye. It seems like every side road you take in this part of Vermont will eventually lead you to one of these beautiful farm scenes. Rolling mountains in the background add a bit of Vermont flare to the scene.   Something else that the mountains provide are rocky streams, cascading down the slopes. It is not hard to find a waterfall or two here, and now is the perfect time to capture moving water and frozen water in the same picture. I used a long exposure to blur the cascading falls as the icicles held ...

  A bonus of flying with Emirates Airline from Seattle to Dubai on a 14 hour leg to our final destination of South Africa is a rare chance to look out of the window down upon the frozen landscape surrounding the North Pole. On such a long flight the shortest distance is to fly up and over the globe instead of around. I was lucky enough to think about this just in time to check out of one of the windows to see the frozen coastline rapidly approaching. Snow capped mountains provided relief with massive glaciers in between. I could even spot giant ice bergs drifting through the water around the land. It was an otherworldly landscape that few will ever see. Even with all the people on our flight I don't think anyone saw except the pilots. Its a shame that there is no announcement for a sight so rare.   I tried to take a picture of the map on the seatback screen although the glare from outside made it quite difficult. If you look closely you can see our path leaving Seattle and...

Ice Garden at LeConte Glacier Bay  LeConte Glacier is the southernmost tidewater glacier in the United States. It empties about 12 miles southeast of the fishing town of Petersburg. The fish packing plant at Petersburg gained prominence early on for using the abundant ice breaking off from the nearby glacier to pack the fresh fish and ship it to far off places like San Francisco.   LeConte glacier has receded about 9 miles from its terminal moraine. Now, a very shallow mud bar is all that remains to show how far the glacier once advanced to. This bar is a worry to boats trying to navigate through these waters, but it creates a pretty incredible sight just inside of it. All of these huge icebergs created by the actively calving glacier get grounded on the shallow bar and remain stuck inside the bay until they finally break apart or melt away. It was my goal to anchor safely outside the bar, then use small zodiacs to zip in and among the icebergs. I call this area the LeC...