British Columbia Canadian Rockies (July 2018)

Mountain basins during the summer months hold a special place in my heart after shredding many pairs of jeans as a kid running around the Sierras with my dad. On our trip from Colorado to the Artic Circle Stacey Stewart and I charted a route that would lead us through a spectacular collection of these places during what we hoped would peak wildflower season. I stumbled over fuzzy satellite imagery of this area in my research and was taken aback by what looked like sculpted terraces of rock for amphitheatres in this jagged landscape. Miles of forest roads lead to the edge of a bridgeless rushing river and a distinct abscence of any signs about any trail. To reach this basin one need only cross the river and slog 15 steep, unspectacular miles through what occasionally could be called a trail, but mostly consists of avalanche chutes choked with fallen trees. Needless to say, the juxtaposition of effort vs. reward was extreme, but all doubts were erased when I caught this view. We enjoyed three days exploring around this area and as I look at this image there are still places I am upset I didn't get to. I guess I'll have to make the slog again sometime soon. 
Technical info:
Nikon D850 Nikon 50mm 1.2 f/8 8 row vertical panorama and exposure blend

Yukon Territories (September 2018)

Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska (September 2018)

Yukon Territories (September 2018)

Wyoming (July 2018)

Matanuska Glacier, Alaska (August 2018)

Wind River Range, Wyoming (July 2018)

Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, Alberta (November 2018)

Toad River Provincial Park, BC November 2018

I'm curious what you guys think of simple serene scenes like this compared to my usual offerings that tend to have a lot going on (lightning, milky ways and sunsets oh my!!!). As a proud card carrying ADHD guy, I'm a sucker for pterodactyls flying through rainbows arcing over erupting volcanoes with a couple of flowers in the foreground, but some folks still appreciate nuance and refinement. Let me know what camp you're in.

Also curious about people's color preferences. This scene has an analogous color palette, which basically means all the colors are varying degrees of one of color, blue in this case. The vast majority of my work relies on complimentary color palette where most tones lie on the opposite side of the color spectrum from each other to create warm/cool contrast.

Take a moment to think about the colors of clothes, decor and imagery you are drawn to and let me know in the comments whether you tend to keep it analogous or complimentary, warm or cool.

Back to the scene itself, the juxtaposition of these wild horses in such a un-wild hockey formation in front of such a wild and stormy back drop is what this image is all about for me. The expected iconic-ness of their stereotypical horse poses in such an atypical setting is akin to why comedy with people (ex: nuns) doing unexpected things (ex: talking about how hot pastor Jim is) always works. Don't worry if the cold horses didn't make you laugh though.

Tumbler Ridge, Alberta (October 2018)

Wyoming, June 2018

Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska (August 2018)

Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska (September 2018)

Wind River Range, Wyoming (July 2018)

Wrangell St. Elias National Park, September 2018

Canadian Rockies, October 2018

After a fresh batch of snow dropped overnight I was excited to go explore the freshly dusted surroundings. It was stunningly beautiful, but melting more quickly than I would have liked. While I've spent plenty of time in snow, I haven't seriously photographed in these conditions much. Like a total noob I trampled tracks across several promising compositions before realizing I needed to plan my scouting more deliberately. As sunset approached, I found this baby tree and managed not to make a total mess.

Canadian Rockies, October 2018

The strangest and most unexpected location for hoodoos that I have ever seen was worth taking in on a late return from an exploratory hike in the Canadian Rockies. A full moon lit this long exposure scene.

Canadian Rockies, October 2018