resident of Indiana wetlands

closeup texture shot of a purple Iris

I'm standing at the top of Mount Haleakala in Maui as the sun is rising above the clouds. Although I'm in the tropics, it is below freezing here at two miles up and I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked. My day started at 1:30am to initiate the drive up the mountain in time for this event, and wasn't about to leave due to cold air. I got a good location scouted out and quickly set up my gear with some jumping jacks in between to keep the blood flowing. The sun seemed to be extra slow this morning (it must have been cold, also) and in time, I got the shakes from loss of body temperature. Fortunately, the event finally started in all its beauty and the cable release removed all my thermal tremors from the image.

Temple of the Sun in Cuzco

I was camping out on one of the lower peaks (about 8500 feet) in the Andes Mountains. It was a wet and somewhat tropical area and had a light rain most of the night. As daylight started making itself known, the remaining rain clouds started dissipating and swirling about the neighboring peaks. Once again, I grabbed my camera gear and prepared for a moody shot. The sunlight was peaking out here and there, clouds blowing by and changing each second, I just had to wait for everything to come into balance and squeeze the shutter's release cable. The dark neighboring mountain peak intertwined with scattering clouds created a mysterious and suspenseful image, expressing the drama in the air this morning.

the extremely popular Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge happens to be the second tallest in the states, and is very easily accessible - just off the highway. This convenience allowed me to return many times to study how the moving sun dramatically changed the whole area's appearance. Most of the time, part of the falls are very brightly lit with direct sunlight and other parts are in significant shade, which makes for a terribly unbalanced exposure. Persistence paid off one day, when i arrived and the trees had a lovely pattern of light shining through and the entire upper & lower falls were evenly illuminated.

northern Montana