Harbor - Rockport, Massachusetts

One of the attractions of New England is exploring the coastlines of five of its six states. Most of the coastline is made up of small towns and villages that began as fishing villages on the Atlantic Ocean. One of my favorite stops in New England is the small town of Rockport, MA, located at the tip of Cape Ann, about 40 miles northeast of Boston. It has a quaint harbor and is home to one of the most recognizable fishing shacks in the world. It got its fame by being one of the most often painted (and probably photographed) fishing stacks in America. Legend has it that the shack got its name by the famous artist and teacher Lester Hornby.  He responded to a student who submitted a drawing of the shack for review with the words, "What-Motif No 1 again?" Motif No 1 was originally built in 1840 and was destroyed in the Blizzard of 1978. It was rebuilt later that year and is still a popular subject for artists and photographers alike.

Most compositions of Motif No 1 are close-ups. For this photo, I decided to shoot the small Rockport Harbor showing the bright red fishing shack in the background. To me, this is an example of a quintessential New England coastal town.

Foliage Splendor - Kent, Connecticut

As I look through some old photos, I occasionally find one that I simply remember like yesterday. The only regret when I see one is how I edited it before posting it on social media. I won’t go as far that it was totally processed incorrectly but rather how my editing skills and style has changed since then. When I looked at this photo I took in 2011, I quickly decided to re-edit it to give it a new life and updated look. Below is the original write-up that I posted back then.

When the leaves change in New England every fall, I always head to Lake Waramaug State Park to shoot the foliage. It is a great place to capture the brilliant colors of the changing seasons, especially if you are looking for great reflections. The lake also has some wonderful amenities such as camping, fishing, swimming and picnicking. The best time to go is in the late afternoon when the sun is shining on the opposite shore. The kids are in school and with the daylight getting shorter, there is a golden glow to everything. The lake is named after an Indian chief of the Wyantenock tribe who had hunting grounds near falls on the Housatonic River.

Black Bear Cub - Yoho National Park, British Columbia

My favorite time to visit the Canadian Rockies is in June. There are many reasons for that. The crowds are significantly smaller than the summer months; the snow is still on the mountain peaks (it has snowed in June more than a few times but melts quickly); and the wildlife emerges from the winter, many with their babies. There are many wildlife sightings everywhere in the Canadian Rockies, even on major highways.

After visiting Yoho National Park’s Emerald Lake for sunset, we headed back toward Lake Louise for a quick snack. On the highway, we noticed a mother bear with her baby cub. We quickly pulled over to the shoulder to capture some photos of this cute guy. who seemed to be oblivious to us.

Dawn Beauty - Monument Valley, Navajo Nation

If I were to pick my top 5 favorite places to shoot in the US, Monument Valley would be in it. Located on the border of Utah and Arizona, it is part of the Navajo Nation and should be on every photographers bucket list. I have been there many times and it still is a destination I would like to revisit. If you haven’t visited there before, you still may recognize this scene. It has been in countless movies, television shows and commercials, advertisements and even rock videos.

This photo from 2016 was of my favorite sunrise, as we had the best conditions and light that I have ever encountered on my many visits there. What made it even more special was that I shared it with two of my very best friends, Jeff Clow and Jaki Good Miller. This was the very first time that I stayed at the View Hotel (which is aptly named). Although it is not the best hotel I have ever stayed in, the ability to roll out of bed, walk down the hall and step onto the back patio to see this view makes it a must-stay spot. We were treated with the best Mother Nature could offer: great clouds, great light from the blue hour to the sunrise and, most importantly, the famed sandstone rock formations known as "The Mittens" and Merrick Butte for obvious reasons.

River Road Glow - Moab, Utah

This image of a butte on the Colorado River Scenic Byway (aka River Road) has special meaning to me. Back in 2005, my son and I headed to Utah for a two-week trip to do some hiking and photography. The first place we stayed in was Sorrel River Ranch, and this was the scene that I saw when I walked out of our room there. This trip was great for two reasons. First and foremost, it was a great time to bond with him, as he had just graduated from college. Secondly, this is the trip that rejuvenated my passion for photography, which has only grown since then.

I wanted to reshoot this butte as the photo was edited poorly by me and the original JPEG has long left my computer's hard drive. I knew when I drove this gorgeous road and saw the golden light that the setting sun was casting, that this butte was my destination.

Painted Ladies - Alamo Square, San Francisco, California

San Francisco has so many attractions and places to visit that it is hard to fit everything in. One such attraction is Alamo Square, where the famous "Painted Ladies" can be seen. The painted ladies refer to a row of Victorian houses painted in colors that make the architectural details stand out. I was surprised to find out that their nickname was only established in 1978 with the publishing of a book.  Alamo Square gives visitors a unique perspective that shows the Victorian houses that were built in the 1890's with the city layered behind them as a backdrop.

Low Lying Clouds - Glacier National Park, Montana

There is a saying that mountains make their own weather. I’ve experienced this many times and there is a scientific reason that it is true. During the summer months, the slopes of the mountains heat up. The air surrounding all sides of the mountains flow upwards and meet around their peaks. Clouds form because, as the air rises, it tends to cool due to the saturation that is created when the warm air meets the cooler air. This phenomenon is best shown when photographing a mountain from a distance from a high elevation. This photo illustrates the clouds forming on Reynolds Mountain at Logans Pass. To get this vantage point, we had hiked the Highline Trail, which is one of my favorite trails.

Licked Clean - Patricia Lake, Jasper National Park, Alberta

My favorite time to visit the Canadian Rockies is in June. There are a few reasons for that. Snow is still fresh on the mountains (it occasionally snows in June), the crowds of tourists are smaller that the summer months and the wildlife is plentiful with mothers tending to their young. On our way to Pyramid Mountain, we pass two lakes. The first one, Patricia Lake is known for its elk. As we approached the lake, we saw this female elk licking her young cow clean. Watching this mothering was a cool behavioral moment.

Vista House Viewpoint - Columbia Gorge, Oregon

I have traveled to Oregon quite a bit since 2005 to photograph the Oregon Coast. Now that my son lives in Oregon’s wine country, the trips will be more frequent. A typical trip is to fly into Portland, stay overnight at an airport hotel and head out the next morning to visit the beautiful waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge before heading to the coast later in the day. As a result, I hadn’t shot the Gorge during the evening hours until last year. On our west coast vacation in September, my son acted as our tour guide to show us some places we hadn’t visited before heading to Seattle. Since our evenings were unplanned, we decided to visit the Gorge so I could finally get some evening photos. This is a photo taken from the Portland Women's Forum State Scenic Viewpoint, which looks eastward through the Gorge. The building on a rock promontory is the Vista House, which lies about 750 feet above the Columbia River that separates the states of Oregon and Washington.

Sunset Sail - Key West, Florida

Any visit to Key West includes watching the sun set every evening. It is almost a prerequisite (at least in the winter months) before exploring Duvall Street for either dinner plans or doing some bar hopping. The best place to watch the sunset is at the popular Mallory Square. When we got there, the square was packed (I can't imagine what it is like during busy season). I wasn't able to get a great spot to capture the sunset but was able to shoot over the tops of people’s heads and the railing using my LCD screen (I’ll have to get there earlier on my next visit). This was one of my favorite images of the night as the sun lit up the sky with a spectacular orange color that silhouetted the sailboat passing by.

Blue - Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

There are two things that I remember vividly from my visit to Crater Lake National Park namely Wizard Island and some of the bluest water found in the world. The water is also some of the purest that you will find anywhere. When researching the reason for why the color was so blue, I found the answer on the National Park Service's website (paraphrased in the next paragraph). 

The water is so blue because there is hardly anything else in it.  The water molecules found in Crater Lake contain no sediments, algae, pesticides or pollution, making it very pure. The water molecules absorb all of the color spectrum of sunlight except for the blues. The key to creating the deep blue color is having enough water to absorb the other colors. Since there are 4.6 trillion gallons of water in the lake, there is no problem.

Getting Ready - Venice, Italy

The city of Venice attracts millions of tourists each year. In 2019, around 36 million visited and typically stay within 3 square miles of the city. For a city that only has 50,000 residents, the pace of the visitors must seem unrelenting. Each day, they get up early to get ready for the surge of tourists. Being an early riser, I headed out of our hotel located at St. Mark’s Square and headed out to shoot the early morning sun. The sidewalks were almost empty, a sharp contrast to the hordes that would be there only a few hours later and would stay to the late evening. The only other people to be found were either getting their booths and carts ready for the day or workers waiting for the Vaporetto (public transportation water buses) to head to their place of business.

Myers Creek - Gold Beach, Oregon

Ask ten people who are familiar with the Oregon Coast to name their top ten locations and you might get fifty different locations. Yes there are tons of possible candidates along the 363-mile long rugged coastline but there are three that may make everyone’s list and this is one of them. Meyers Creek Beach is located south of the town of Gold Beach and is named after the creek that runs into it. Before anyone tells me that I misspelled Meyers and it should be Myers, I have seen signs that spell it both ways. In fact, I went onto Google Maps and discovered that the same creek has both names on it depending on its location.

What makes this location a top one? There are many characteristics that make it so. The dunes on this beach, while not very high, are reminiscent of the dunes found in the desert. The number of sea stacks and rock formations are very much in abundance. When the tide is out, you can walk up to these formations and see terrific tide pools, along with quite the number of starfish clinging to them. When the tide is in the right positions, the reflections of the formations and stacks are just about perfect. Finally, being in the most southern part of the coast, you often have the whole beach to yourselves, as most visitors don’t make it down this far. That certainly works for me along with other photographers.

Volcanic Rock Formation - Agathla Peak, Kayenta, Arizona

Every time I head west, I try to add some days to the trip to visit some new places or revisit some great places. A little over four years ago, I was headed to Monument Valley to spend a few days before a Moab Photo Tour. I met up with Jaki Good Miller in Albuquerque and we headed out on the five-hour drive to Monument Valley. I had never visited Monument Valley from the south, and as we passed the town of Kayenta, we saw this very unique rock formation. We immediately stopped to shoot this scene. Turns out that this 1,500 foot formation is actually a volcanic plug that has blocked a vent of a volcano. As you can see, it really sticks out because of all of the flat land that surrounds it.

Quiet Evening - Edgecomb, Maine

Looking through my archives, I found this great memory from 2011. When booking hotels for my lighthouse scouting trip with my son, I found this relatively cheap hotel within 25 minutes of Pemaquid Point. When we checked in, the hotel was the typical hotel room you would expect. We headed to Pemaquid Point to scout out the location for the next morning's shoot. After the scouting trip, we drove to Wiscasset to grab a quick dinner. Getting back to the hotel at about 8:30 pm, we walked around the hotel property and found this extremely long pier that was lit up. After seeing the pier and the great blue hour light, I ran back to the car and grabbed the tripod and camera. This was one of the images that I shot. It was a beautiful night and we spent a long time just hanging out on the pier. It was one of those totally unexpected moments and images that we sometimes discover and become one of our favorites.

Red Hills Overlook - Kelly, Wyoming

The Red Hills are a great side trip when you are visiting Grand Teton National Park. Located east of the Tetons, it is a beautiful drive where you pass lakes and ranches. I have been here a number of times and have posted a number of photos from there with the Red Hills as the main subject . I wanted to show a different look at the location and focused on the creek that runs beside the Red Hills Ranch. There still is a small section of the Red Hills in the upper left.

The hills on my visits here have never looked that red to me, but rather more of an orange color. I was a bit puzzled by this, so I did a little research. Turns out that the hills were not named for their color. In the early 1900's, there was a bitter feud between two Jackson Hole ranching families. The feud resulted into a bloody showdown between the families, and shortly thereafter they were called the Red Hills.

Picnic Time - Penwood State Park, Connecticut

Fall is here and parts of the country are beginning to show signs of the prettiest season of the year. Trees in New England will soon be changing to a wide spectrum of colors instead of their green color. There will be many scenes like this where the golden leaves create a carpet on the ground. The crisp air is a telling sign that the heat of summer is gone and that winter will be soon upon us. This photo was taken a few years ago and there was no one in the park. Given the idyllic setting, I am sure that some family or group of friends came by with a picnic basket to take in the beauty and serenity around them.

Parker Ridge - Banff National Park, Alberta

Like you, I am itching to hit the road again once this pandemic subsides. It has been over a year since I have been to my favorite subjects, the mountains. The famous naturalist and preservationist John Muir once said “The mountains are calling and I must go.” I have that quote resonating in my head more and more every day. The best I can do is to look at my archive images to minimize my inability to visit them in the near future. I found this photo from my trip to Banff and Jasper National Parks last year.

Driving north from Banff to Jasper on the famous Icefields Parkway, the are so many scenes along the 3-hour trip (assuming you don’t stop) that beg to be photographed. As you approach the border between the two national parks, you come to this scene of Parker Ridge and are almost forced to pull over. Ahead, Hilda Peak seems to rise up from the middle of the road to tower over you. The road from this vantage point looks like it ends at the peak’s base. Mount Athabasca to the left makes Parker Ridge seem like an impenetrable wall challenging you to turn back.

Palouse Evening - Colfax, Washington

The Palouse covers approximately 4,000 square miles in eastern Washington and western Idaho, which is slightly smaller than the state of Connecticut. It is tough to truly set boundaries to it as there are no signs or boundaries. The best way to determine whether you are in the Palouse is to use your eyes. There is a unique look to the landscape.

The rolling green fields of the Palouse are everywhere. The challenge is to find a place high enough to get a good view of the land. I saw this scene in my rear view mirror and knew I was stopping at the first place that I could find. After taking it in, I decided that a panorama was in order to capture the full beauty of what I was seeing. The evening sun illuminated the shape of the landscape with light and shadows. To me, this is the classic Palouse scene. 

Blackberry Falls - East Canaan, Connecticut

Along the Blackberry River in northwestern Connecticut, there is a Connecticut Industrial Monument known as the Beckley Blast Furnace.  Built in 1847, the blast furnace produced pig iron, primarily for the manufacture of railroad car wheels that were known for their excellence and durability. The furnace closed in 1919 and stands today as the best preserved example of a technology that has long since vanished. A dam was built that helped power the furnace, resulting in the falls pictured above.