Winter in July

Mt. Eglinton, Mirror Lakes, Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
iPhone 7 pano

I’ve been home from New Zealand for less than 24 hours, and I already miss it. I miss the mountains, the fiords (AKA, fjords, but when in New Zealand…), the lakes, the rivers, the skies, the people, and the winter—right now (when it’s 105 in Sacramento), especially the winter. FYI, picking a favorite season for photography is kind of like having to pick a favorite child—but asking me now would be like asking right after one of my children brought me breakfast in bed, so today I’m going with winter.

But anyway…. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was in New Zealand with Don Smith; we were scouting for our New Zealand workshop, scheduled to debut next June. When I posted my first New Zealand image a few days ago, I’d only been there a couple of days and had seen lots of clouds but not many mountains. That changed on the day we drove the road to Milford Sound, through Fiordland National Park. For the rest of the trip (with a couple of exceptions), the majority of the clouds we saw were the ephemeral, radiation variety that form when the air cools to the dew point. Sometimes the clouds swirled and hovered near the mountain peaks, other times they hugged the lakes and meadows in the still hours around sunrise and sunset. One day we spent a couple of hours driving in a dense fog that had lifted just enough to reveal trees and hillsides glazed with frost.

I’m afraid a scouting trip emphasizes quantity of locations over the quality of the photography—with so much territory to cover, it’s just impossible to time our visits to each spot for the best possible time to photograph it. The priority is to get our eyes on locations, as many as possible—first to see if they’re photo-worthy, and second to determine the lay of the land so we can bring our groups back when they are most photo-worthy. Which is how I happened to be at Mirror Lakes in Fiordland National Park carrying nothing but my iPhone.

We’d left the little town of Te Anau after a glorious sunrise at a remote location, found thanks to a local tip (thanks, Steve at Trips & Tramps), heading for Milford Sound. We were rushing to get in as much scouting as possible before doubling back and driving all the way up to that night’s hotel in Wanaka. So, at the turnout for the short walk down to Mirror Lakes, Don and I just hopped out of the car armed with nothing but iPhones. Fortunately, the scene was perfect for a pano, and the dynamic range was just within the bounds the iPhone could handle.

I’ve never been shy about snapping a quick shot with my iPhone to share on my personal Facebook page or with my wife, but this is the first time I’ve actually put an iPhone image in a blog. Honestly, I’ve never really scrutinized the iPhone images very closely, but I have to say that I’m pretty pleased with the results. Who knows, maybe this is the start of a whole new career….

Contact me to be notified as soon as we have the details of our New Zealand workshop.

A Winter Gallery

(Most of these aren’t New Zealand images, and only one is an iPhone image)

Winter Cascade, Cascade Creek, Yosemite

Alpenglow, Mt. Whitney, California

Yosemite Falls Reflection, Swinging Bridge, Yosemite

Horsetail Fall Reflection, Yosemite

Goodbye Moon, Mt. Whitney and the Alabama Hills, California

Silent Night, Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View

Clearing Storm, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite

Mountain Moonlight, Mt. Whitney and Lone Pine Peak, Alabama Hills, California

Frozen Reflection, Half Dome, Yosemite

Before Sunrise, Mt. Whitney and the Alabama Hills, California

Whitney Arch Moonset, Alabama Hills, California

Moon Dance, Half Dome, Yosemite

First Snow, El Capitan, Yosemite

Half Dome Half Moon, Yosemite

Mt. Eglinton, Mirror Lakes, New Zealand

Wonderland, Yosemite Valley

Moonlight Cathedral, Valley View, Yosemite

Elm in Blizzard, Cook’s Meadow, Yosemite

Snowy November Moonrise, El Capitan and Half Dome, Yosemite

After Twilight, Valley View, Yosemite

White-Out, Cook’s Meadow, Yosemite

Winter Blue Hour Reflection, Half Dome, Yosemite

Fall Into Winter, Valley View, Yosemite

Alpenglow, Mt. Whitney and the Alabama Hills at sunrise, California

Winter Dawn, Mt. Whitney and the Alabama Hills, California

Winter Storm Reflection, El Capitan, Yosemite

Storm’s End, Tunnel View, Yosemite

Snowfall, Tunnel View, Yosemite

Moonlight Magic, El Capitan, Yosemite

Horsetail Fall, El Capitan, Yosemite

Snowcap, El Capitan, Yosemite

Moonlight, Whitney Arch, Alabama Hills, California

Winter Reflection, El Capitan, Yosemite

Heavy Sky, Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand

Fresh Snow, Cook’s Meadow, Yosemite

Sunrise, Lone Pine Peak and Mt. Whitney, Eastern Sierra