Switzerland, August 9: Totensee
August 9, 2019; Totensee. And yes, the sky was moody. (Canon G7X II. RAW processing in DxO PhotoLab 2, Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)
All posts tagged: Michael Scandlng Landscape
Switzerland, August 11: Bucket-List Shot
August 11, 2019; East end of Stellisee, Switzerland. Think of Switzerland and you think of the Matterhorn. Probably when you think of a mountain you think of something like the Matterhorn. The quintessential mountain. And this is the quintessential shot between two rocks at the end of the lake. The Stellisee is about ten miles — line of sight — from the Matterhorn. People line up to get their shot from this exact spot. This […]
New Zealand 6: Otago
June 28, 2018, Northwest of Dunedin, New Zealand. After the photography workshop, we rented a car and headed southeast from Queenstown to Dunedin and then took a week to drive all the way up the east coast of the South Island. We fell in love with Dunedin, which reminded us a little of San Francisco — although it beats San Francisco by having the steepest street in the world. While there we took a tour […]
New Zealand 5: Lake Pukaki
June 25, 2018, Peter’s Lookout, Mount Cook Road, New Zealand. Lake Pukaki is fed by the runoff of two glaciers. The fine silt in the runoff, known as glacial flour, makes the water turquoise. Take a look at satellite photos of the Southern Island and it will stick out like a turquois thumb. We stopped for a lunch break on the way to Lake Tasman and fed our stomachs and our cameras. These two photos […]
New Zealand 4: Thunder Creek Falls
June 22, 2018, Haast Pass-Makarora Road, New Zealand. A quick stop on the way to Fox Glacier. I posted photos of Fox Glacier back in February. The road we were on leads through a temperate rainforest pass in New Zealand’s Southern Alps out to the Tasman Sea. There are many waterfalls along the way. This is a small somewhat abstracted crop of one of the most impressive. (Nikon D850; Tamron SP 24–70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD […]
New Zealand 3: Wanaka
June 21, 2018, Wanaka and Lake Wanaka, New Zealand. You can’t go to the South Island of New Zealand without going to Wanaka and getting your own shot the famed lone willow. Here’s mine. Water: Mirror flat. Late-afternoon sky: Entertaining. Tree: Noble. Gary and Don showed us shots they made just a week earlier when the water was all the way up to the base of the trunk. Conditions change fast. Just before dinner we […]
New Zealand 2: Fast Frosty Sunrise
June 21, 2018, Te Anau-Milford Highway, New Zealand. Our planned sunrise shot was a wash: thick fog meant no sunrise to speak of. Actually, no visible sunrise at all, although the sky sort of got lighter. A bit dejected, we got into the van and motored off. But as we headed north toward Mirror Lakes, another opportunity presented itself. A soft frosty hillside lay before shadowed mountains with the sun just behind them about to […]
New Zealand 1: Lake Wakatipu
June 18, 2018, Closeburn Beach Lookout, Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand. A year ago this week, on our first evening of a photo workshop led by Gary Hart and Don Smith. A few kilometers west of Queenstown. Although Mother Nature was very kind to us regarding lighting and sky, we were not yet used to freezing fingers from her June winter. (Nikon D850; Tamron SP 24–70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2. RAW processing in DxO Pro; Editing […]
Sunrise, Smoke, Spots
September 12, 2015, 6:52 a.m.; West Shore, Lake Tahoe. When we arrived for our annual reunion of friends on September 11, the 2015 Butte fire had been burning for two days. It was about seventy miles (as the crow flies) to the southeast of us—the same direction as the prevailing wind. The smoke was ominous. No stars that night. When we woke up early the next morning the omen had fully manifested. A thick pall […]
Mount Tam
Enveloped in fog. (Nikon D500; Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR zoom. RAW processing in DxO PhotoLab 2.2; final editing in Adobe Photoshop.)
Distant Shores
December 7 and 8, 2018, Point Reyes National Seashore. Horizons are beautiful in their simplicity. Engaging in their subtle complexity. Their moods are varied. They have endless color and texture possibilities. For all these reasons I never tire of them. But there’s another reason as well. Horizons are calming. Soothing. Stabilizing. Horizons are therapeutic. Stand on a bluff looking outward over the sea for only a few minutes, and if you’re like most people you’ll […]
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