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Tags:   Philippe Sainte-Laudy autumn fall nature orange trees

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This scene is truly one of the most insane things I've seen. I call it a geologic freak show. Erosion reveals layers that look like ribbons extending out into the desert canyon. I edited this as a panorama to give it more of a amphitheatre feeling. I hope you dig it.

By the way, if you have not tuned into my podcast recently, you're missing out. We are up to 160+ episodes now!

Tags:   Erosion Panorama Ribbons amphitheatre canyon desert geologic layers

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A brilliant sunrise, almost unmatched in my memories, lights up the dawn skies over the partially placid waters of Lake McDonald, in Glacier National Park, Montana.

I haven't posted or done much of anything with photography this summer--and I've been missing it!--but I'm finally getting to go on a long-planned trip to Glacier National Park in a couple of days, and that impending adventure inspired me to take a another quick look through the files from my last visit there a few years ago.

While I've posted images from this sunrise before (perhaps too many, but it really was that magnificent), I noticed this one with its slightly different geometry, wind blown water textures and ethereal rising mists, and I decided that a quick post might be just thing before hitting the road to see this magical place once again.

So, dare I hope for another unforgettable display as the sun nears the horizon one morning or evening on this trip? Is there a touch of superstition in not wanting to hope too much in advance for brilliant sunrises or sunsets, like a sports fan worried about jinxing their team's chances with dreams of victory? Suffice it to say, I look forward to any surprises of light nature may choose to share!

Note that I've done almost no processing here--just enough to bring the RAW file quickly back to the appearance of my reference jpeg image--so give all the credit for this beauty to nature alone.

Thanks for viewing!

Tags:   Lake McDonald Apgar Village Sunrise Glacier National Park Montana Nikon Nikkor Landscape Travel photobenedict Mountains Lake Mist Dawn Morning Beautiful Colorful Brilliant Apgar Dock Alpenglow Water Reflection Boat Anchor

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So there I was, on a whim finding myself trudging uphill with a 50lbs+ pack on. Starting from the distant valley far down below, snowshoeing up past Mirror Lake in the midground, and finally making the push through thigh-deep snow up to this ridge, overlooking it all. I arrived an hour before sunset. Cloudy skies and lightly falling snow allowed me to not worry about shooting sunset that night, so I shifted focus to setting camp before the dark fell.

As always when camping at this spot, I opted to not camp directly upon the ridge, as the wind is everlasting up there. I set camp just below the ridge in a stand of trees... digging into the snow and packing a nice base for the tent. I set the tent, boiled some snow to refill my water supply, and cooked up some Chili Mac for dinner. By this point the hike, camp building, and full belly had me pretty tuckered out. I crawled in to my little solo tent and read by candle light until I fell asleep.

DONT FALL ASLEEP WITHOUT BLOWING OUT A CANDLE. I normally have no issue with blowing out my little REI candle lantern, but had a lapse in judgement and allowed myself to fall asleep with it still burning. I must have knocked it over in my slumber, as I was awoken to the smell of burning tent. I put out the small smoulder fairly quickly, but ended up with a baseball sized hole in my tent... on one of the walls near the floor. I was able to just cover it with snow to seal the hole. By this time, it was only 9pm... a lot of sleeping still to do.

Back to sleep I went, waking to my alarm the next morning. MAN, I felt well rested. I crawled out of my tent in the faint pre-dawn light to discover one of the most odd things I had ever woken up to (and I've woken up in some pretty crazy situations before.) There were Coyote tracks all over my camp. One had come in the middle of the night, probably smelling me and my food, and had... uh... marked it's territory. Yeah, ok fine, I'll say it... IT PISSED ALL OVER MY TENT! I would have been upset about it if I didn't find the idea of Coyotes peeing on me in my sleep oddly hilarious. There were little yellows craters at the foot of my tent where it had peed on the rainfly, then the warm animal-water had dripped down and melted the snow. Brilliant.

It was easily one of the funniest moments I had ever spent in the backcountry. Then I went and shot this.

Tags:   Ryan dyar backpacking snowshoe hiking camping pacific northwest northwest cascades cascade mountains mountain Oregon mount hood mt hood

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I’ve just published a collection of eighteen new images from my winter travels in Wyoming, Utah, and California. Check out the rest here if you're so inclined: www.alexnoriega.com/winter-2019

Most photos I make fall into two categories: ones that I'm initially excited about and sooner or later end up disliking; and ones that I'm at first lukewarm about and which slowly grow on me.

But there's a third category: every once in a while, when I'm making a photograph, I just KNOW. I already know that I love it, and I know that I'm going to love it for years - possibly for the rest of my life. These are the ones that would make it into a retrospective book after a lifetime of work, provided I'm lucky enough to continue photographing and living that long. I'm typically alone when making these photos, as that's when I tend to do my best work. I'm often cursing aloud in excitement as well.

This was one of those images for me. In fact, it may be my favorite I've yet made in nearly a decade of photographing. My time in Yellowstone last month was primarily spent focused not on geothermal features or wildlife, but on the way these mists interacted with the snowy trees. I had a hell of a time coming up with a good title for this one, as those close to me can attest. I saw a lot of possible interpretations of the image--a lot of stories that these trees could tell. What do you see?

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