River To The Sky

Sunrise on the river is one of my favorite ways to start the day.  When the water is calm it’s hard to image a more peaceful place.  Approaching the river fills me with a sense of wonder and a profound appreciation of what lies ahead.  Soon I’ll be out there among the herons and geese.

Kona Coast, Sunset, I

A woman explores the jagged coast of Kona, Hawaii as waves fill tidal pools and the sun begins to set.

Storm Gathering Over The Rappahannock

My friends I and were on a multiday canoe trip on the Rappahannock River in July.  One evening we rounded a bend in the river to see massive storm clouds building down river.  Fortunately the storm took an alternate course and we were spared scrambling ashore to wait it out.

 

 

Corolla Sunrise

 

Sometimes being a morning person pays off.  I took this photo during a trip to the beach last August.  I noticed the cloud bank that night and thought it was a shame the clouds probably wouldn’t be there at sunrise.  To my great surprise, the clouds barely moved overnight!  I awoke before dawn and watched this amazing sunrise slowly transform into morning.

Alpine Meadow

 

The boulders you can see in the this photograph were most likely deposited by glaciers quite some time ago.  Boulders like these are pretty common throughout the glacially carved valleys and meadows in Yellowstone National Park.

For The Benefit And Enjoyment Of The People

The North Gate to Yellowstone National Park is quite impressive.  Although I would guess most visitors no longer arrive through this gate, it struck me as a nearly perfect entrance to the park.  It’s large, rugged, and beautiful in it’s own right, much like the park itself.  You also have to love the inscription at the top “For The Benefit and Enjoyment Of The People”.  It kind of sums up the whole National Park system.

We spent a week in Yellowstone in mid-June which was a wonderful experience.  The downside was after a few days the park food starts to get a little monotonous.  On our fourth night we left through the North Gate to find pizza for dinner.  After getting our fill of non-park food, we returned through the gate and I was pleased to be able to photograph it with some interesting clouds in the sky.  Luckily the lighting at the time allowed the same exposure for the clouds and the gate so no HDR trickery was needed to make this image.

Lamar Valley

Puffy white clouds fill the sky over the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park.

Clouds Over the Vineyard

Dark clouds swept across the sky as I searched for photographic subjects in this vineyard.  I blended two differently exposed photos of the scene to create this HDR version of the image.