Landscape
“There are distant worlds on our own planet.”
– David Morring
THE PAINE MASSIF – Early morning rays of sunlight striate the Paine Massif in Torres del Paine National Park as clouds build overhead.
EARLY RISER – While driving into Sedona at sunrise, a single hot air balloon floated above the canyon rim. I jumped out of my vehicle, hiked to a nearby ridge and captured this perfect moment.
PERITO MORENO – The power and force of the Perito Moreno Glacier is on display long before you ever see it. Gunshots of exploding ice shatter the silence as the 30-kilometer frozen river pushes into Lake Argentino at a rate of more than 2 meters a day. When you meet Perito Moreno face-to-face for the first time, you're struck with awe and fear imagining how anyone could cross such a mine field of crevasses. I wanted a wide shot that would captured the enormity, brutality and beauty of this geological butcher knife.
NIGHTWATCH – On the upper banks of the Santa Maria river east of Bagdad, Arizona stands an ever-vigilant Saguaro watching the stars as they make their nightly foray across the heavens. Using two strobes and an 11-second exposure, I captured this cactus on its “Nightwatch” beneath The Milky Way.
THE END OF THE WORLD – The weather in Ushuaia, the southernmost town in South America, can cycle through four seasons in an hour, much less in a day. Clouds rolled in at dusk as we approached the port from the Beagle Channel.
TOTEM POLE – No longer open to climbing, this dramatic rock spire is the tallest in the world at 400 feet.
MITTENS IN THE MORNING – The morning breaks behind the West and East Mittens of Monument Valley.
FIRST STRIKE – Pounded by hail and wind, I weathered the elements while perched atop a mountain ridge to capture this singular bolt of lightning over Thumb Butte in Prescott, Arizona.
NIGHT CLIMBER IN THE DELLS (Published in Alpinist Magazine Issue 87) – Erin Connery climbs The High Rappel Wall under The Milky Way in Prescott, Arizona. I positioned myself with a tripod on a narrow ledge on the opposite side of the canyon. Erin and I communicated via walkie-talkie and I instructed him when to flick his headlamp on and off and so as to not over-expose him while I took the long-exposure. He also had to remain as still as possible to not be blurred in the image.
LOS CUERNOS – Los Cuernos (The Horns) in Torres del Paine, Chile are the overlords of the Rio Serrano valley. Terrifying and mesmerizing at the same time, these jagged saw-blade peaks command your eye and defy you to turn away. Knowing the moments to catch these peaks when they're not shrouded in a stratocumulus blanket are few and fleeting, I arose an hour before dawn and parked myself on the bank of the Serrano River. Without a tripod, I constructed a camera support from a piece of driftwood and river stones in order to shoot at a longer-exposure. The skies cooperated and the blue hour didn't disappoint.
TREE AT SANDSTONE BLUFF – (Int'l Photography Awards Official Selection) Overlooking the black lava fields of El Malpais National Monument stands a lone pine atop Sandstone Bluff.
CELESTIAL PINES – Thumb Butte is the signature geological feature in Prescott, Arizona. I wanted to capture The Milky Way towering vertically above the mountain as if it were a volcanic eruption of stars. Thumb Butte was illuminated by the city lights only a few miles away, and the Lodgepole pines added a perfect framing for the image.
FLAT TOP – A tabular iceberg drifts in the Bellinghausen Sea at dawn just off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.
WEST TEXAS WINDMILL – Evening shadows drape over the flatlands of the Texas panhandle.
THE HEART – Sunlight peers through a heart-shaped skylight carved in the roof of Upper Antelope Canyon.
ICEBERG IN NEKO HARBOUR - An iceberg drifts by a arrow-sharp pinnacle along the glaciated Antarctica coastline.
KING OF THE PINES – A Lodgepole pine asserts itself in the Prescott National Forest.
GRAND SUNSET – The Grand Teton silhouetted in fire-breathing orange.