Journey
I am thankful to be able to make it out to these remote locations. It’s almost always worth the journey when you get to have moments like this to yourself to reflect. Here at Toroweap, when you're standing on a 3000' ledge overlooking the Colorado River, you can't help but feel the power of nature. At this time of year, the sun aligns with the river at sunrise. An incredible place.
Cradle
Some places just blow your mind with scale and beauty. This is one of them. A 3000’ sheer drop down to the Colorado river at the Toroweap overlook - a remote area of the North Rim. Over 60 miles of off roading brought us to this special place. Had a great evening of passing storms, rainbows and lightning. Just us and the rattlesnakes.
Unity
The incredible Sunwapta Falls in Jasper National Park right after sunset with moonrise.
Athabasca
The sunlight cuts through the clouds for just a moment at Athabasca falls in Banff, Canada at sunset.
Elowah
One of the more elegant and impressive looking waterfalls in Oregon's Columbia River Gorge—Elowah Falls. The flow was just right to catch some nice water movement in the foreground with a slightly longer exposure.
Cloaked
Fire Watch
Walking back from Hidden Lake in the dark, we were greeted with a huge full moon rising from behind the mountains. To the naked eye, you could see the faint smoke plume over St. Mary’s from the forest fires we had been dealing with all week. After setting up a couple quick test shots, I realized that a full 30-second exposure revealed this incredible red glow from fires illuminating the smoke. I set up to where I could use the nice moonlight reflections that accentuated the flowing stream as my foreground. The smokey haze created a warmer moonlight than usual. This is one, 30-second exposure that I was able to pull a ton of detail out of the darkness and another exposure for the moon detail and another star shot.
Brúará
Perched alone on this edge, in the dark afterglow, standing in the water, with it flowing all around me was a surreal experience I will never forget and a personal highlight for me on my Iceland trip. I guess that’s why I went with the more surreal look. I felt like this composition in combination with the sky light captured some of the magic of amazing place. And I feel the longer you stare at it the more details come out and the tones balance out more. This was taken on Saturday, June 21—summer solstice—when the sun bounces off the horizon, never setting. Was taken after midnight and the glow in the sky was just gorgeous—like I had never seen before. Had been raining all day and I came back at night for some long exposure action. All the moisture and mist in the air allowed for the most interesting, even, saturated glow across the sky right when the sun ducked below the cloud layer for a short time.
Into The Mystic
Got blessed with some great light here at Goðafoss in Northern Iceland. Before heading down to shoot below along the cliffs I wanted to get some shots from above. I hiked around the falls and liked this point of view, however, the wind was blowing the mist from the falls directly onto this location—I mean like white out, cold, drenching mist clouds. For some reason, I still thought this was a reasonable idea and got my trusty full-size microfiber towel draped it over my head and the camera and ran out to this point. Took a minute to get the tripod, settings and focus set, and right before I was ready to fire I would wipe my lens off with a Kimtech Science wipe (awesome for cleaning lenses btw) then wait for an opportunity to lift the front of the towel and shoot—sure we’ve all been there. I only got 2 useable shots out of about 30. The slightly long 1/3 of a second exposure either got misted or hit by my hand trying to pull up the towel. Slightly frustrating. But I am relatively happy with this image and the more unique angle it has. I like the curve of the waterfall edge, the sun flare and the light on top of the foreground water and although the mist did make it hard to process some of the areas, at the same time it created a very nice soft sunlit glow across the image.
Origins
A 20 second exposure and a different angle of the popular Seljalandsfoss in southern Iceland. Used a 10-stop ND filter. Some color cast in this one but along with the long exposure I chose to keep it looking dreamy and different.
Rush
Got some of my best light here at Godafoss (Waterfall of the Gods) in northern Iceland. This was taken at around midnight in June and the water level was higher than expected probably due to the beginning of the summer melt. This made it hard to find any sort of foreground as most rocks were completely covered. I hugged the left side cliff and worked my way up very close. I was soaked but luckily captured this shot with nice water movement and a rock up front.
Fade Away
I was at this incredible location in June and spent about 3 hours here—alone for the majority of the time—which was pretty special for me. Maybe it was because it was a little too windy, cold and cloudy for most, but I couldn’t resist a chance that some of that amazing Iceland light would crack through. At around 12:30 I had a short-lived glimpse of color
Fractured
Hypnotize
The elusive Bruarfoss waterfall in Iceland. This place is not exactly easy to find—but I was not going to miss it. It is located in the very small town of Brekkuskogur on a main route from Thingnellir to Gullfoss… After searching for hours and finding the coordinates (64.264305, -20.515338), I was able to look on google satellite maps to pinpoint exactly where to turn, park and hike to the falls (message me if you want the details). I made one stop there in the morning to scout out the place and on my way back from my long day trip, I couldn’t pass up the sunset glow that was now breaking through the cloud cover. This was a 26mm shot from the bridge—enough to fit in the nice swirling pool of water at the bottom and still capture some sky. I took a few 1 second exposures at f/16, ISO100 to make sure I caught a few swirls that I liked. In post, I used multiple luminosity masks to adjust tones and contrasts throughout. Had to avoid doing much to the water, as it is already incredibly blue in person. All in all, this is a shot we’ve all seen before, but I’m glad I captured it in these conditions. more info
Middle Earth
Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon - There were a bunch of places throughout my trip to Iceland where I felt like I was on some fantasy planet. This canyon, in particular, seemed like it’s straight out of a fairytale—blue glacial water, sheer cliffsides, green mosses blanketing the landscape. The incredible spires and archways made it really feel other-worldly. We spent a long evening here hiking along the top of the cliffs and then of course it was time to go down into the canyon where I got a little more than I bargained for. So I brought a flying drone camera on this trip to Iceland shooting some stills but mostly video: ( http://exposurescape.com/aerial-iceland-flight-of-the-drone/ ). After a few previous successful flights in Iceland, I thought it would be a great idea to really test my piloting skills. With no GPS connection inside the canyon, and my confidence high, I took off filming upriver about 700ft. Long story short, the wind quickly took over and panic set in as I saw my drone fly out of sight towards a canyon wall. Then the fun part—a frantic run through multiple river crossings like I was Bear Grylls—completely soaked from the waist down. Luckily ended up crashing 5 feet from the river bank in some bushes. Took 30 minutes but I found it. And there I was wet, defeated and slightly cold, but my animalistic photography hunger set in as the sky was now getting some nice color. I took another half hour to get a few shots—and since I was already wet, I hopped right back into that river to get this shot. I knew I wanted to include these two dramatic cliff points on either side of the river so I went from there. As far as processing, I applied numerous luminosity masks to balance tones and colors throughout. I also selectively sharpened (and blurred) this image to enhance the fairytale atmosphere of this incredible place. Contact me for purchase information.
The Falls
Europe's most powerful waterfall, Dettifoss. It's power and scale cannot possibly be captured in a photograph.
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Selfoss
Selfoss is an incredible waterfall located just up river from Dettifoss—europe's most powerful waterfall. Selfoss is a wall of water that extends as far as the eye can see up to this location where I made this photograph at around midnight with the sun setting directly on the falls. more info
The Proposal
The one and only Skogafoss. The night I proposed to my wife, Natalie. more info
Endure
Dettifoss
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Origins
The Quinault Rain Forest is a temperate rain forest, which is part of the Olympic National Park and the Olympic National Forest in the U.S. state of Washington. The rain forest is located in the valley formed by the Quinault River and Lake Quinault.
Streamline
The Pennybacker Bridge on Capital of Texas Highway overlooking Lake Austin in my hometown Austin, Texas. This 30 second exposure allowed for a colorful sunset glow and the lines of light from the moving cars. more info
avalanche-river-montana
