Last summer I had an opportunity to take a short four day trip to Banff National Park with my daughter who had just finished her senior year of high school. Our trip was scheduled the week before graduation and, at the time, the US still required you to pass a covid test to get back into the country. Not quite sure what I would have done had one of us failed the test but I'm guessing it would have involved a two-day drive without stops in order to get her back in time for the ceremony. Fortunately it didn't come to that, but what a difference a year makes. Anyway, this particular shot was taken during a drive through Kananaskis County. Our forecast for the trip wasn't the best but the clouds and overcast skies allowed for some perfect mid-afternoon shooting conditions. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think and as always, thanks for taking a look.

Tags:   Canada Canadian Rockies Banff Banff National Park Nikon z7 Really Right Stuff RRS Beautiful Clouds Ice JMK/Photography Landscape Landscape Photography Light Mountain Nikon National Park Opt Outside Park Sunset Water Winter Snow Alberta Ice Fields Parkway River Mountains Spring Travel Kananaskis Kananaskis County Green Trees Fir Trees Subalpine Firs

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One more from a short trip to the Utah desert a few weeks ago. We booked this trip hoping to catch a super bloom in southern Utah. The conditions didn't quite pan out but there was no shortage of interesting things at which to point my camera.

If you like this one, please give it a fav or better yet, leave a comment and let me know what you think. As always, thanks for taking some time to give it a look!

Tags:   Utah Desert Badlands Butte Southern Utah Moonscape Overlook Caineville Mesa Mancos Shale Nikon Landscape Caineville Capitol Reef National Park Sunrise Dawn Morning Blue Hills Blue Valley Skyline View Blue Gray Mesa Escarpment Cliff jmk/photography Stark Barren Clouds Canyon Valley Spring Mountains San Rafael Swell Upper Blue Hills Landscape Photography Factory Butte Nikon z7 Beautiful Light Opt Outside Rock Formations Rock Southwest

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Another shot from a recent trip to Southern Utah

Tags:   Utah Desert Badlands Butte Southern Utah Moonscape Overlook Mancos Shale Nikon Landscape Caineville Capitol Reef National Park Sunrise Dawn Morning Blue Hills Blue Valley Skyline View Blue Gray Mesa Escarpment Cliff jmk/photography Stark Barren Clouds Canyon Valley Spring Mountains San Rafael Swell Upper Blue Hills Photography Factory Butte Hanksville Landscape Photography B & W Black and White

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Finally getting around to posting some shots from a much needed vacation to Iceland this May. In my opinion, Vestrahorn is one of the most beautiful mountains that I've ever seen but until this particular evening, I had only been able to admire it in the photographs of others. I truly believe that I could have easily spent three or four days just shooting this mountain and never gotten tired of it or run out of original comps. However, since I was traveling with family, I only had one evening in Hofn and therefore, at most, a few hours at the mountain.

When we first arrived in Hofn, (just before dinner time), we were pretty disappointed to find the mountain range completely obscured by a thick blanket of fog and gray clouds. We looked around a little but the conditions were so drab that I left without taking even taking my camera out of the bag. Sunset was still several hours away and the wind was picking up, so I was hopeful that things might clear up later in the evening. When I returned for sunset the clouds had indeed started to clear. The winds, however, had picked up and were blowing at a sustained 45-50 km/hr (gotta love Icelandic weather). In fact, the winds were so strong that it made getting in and out of the car quite difficult - I'm sure if someone had been watching me, it would have been somewhat comical watching me struggle to open and close the car door and hatchback.

The winds not only made it difficult to simply keep my camera and tripod from blowing away (I've got a fairly sturdy tripod and this was the first time that I felt like I could not let go of of it without fear of it being blown over), it became virtually impossible to keep my eyes open for more than a couple of seconds at a time as the wind had turned the sand into miniature projectiles. Naturally this also made it more difficult to find pleasing compositions and every set of shots was followed by a long, somewhat painful walk back to the car to flush sand from my eyes and to get a short respite from the wind.

Although I was pretty miserable at the time, looking back, I feel fortunate to have found a few comps, such as this one, that I am really happy with despite having to pick sand out of my eyes, clothes and camera for days!

Tags:   Vestrahorn Mountain Wave Clouds Landscape Iceland South East Coast Icelandic Vestrahorn Mountain Game of Thrones Sand Sand Dunes Beach Black Sand Beach Black Sand Sunset Colorful Landscape Photography JMK/Photography Nikon z7 Nikon Travel Sunrise Spring Stokknes Beautiful Nature Hofn Höfn Fjall Fjords East Fjords Stokknes Peninsula Ring Road Stokksnes Stokksnes Peninsula

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Taken during a recent trip to the badlands of Southern Utah.

Tags:   Utah Desert Badlands Butte Southern Utah Moonscape Overlook Caineville Mesa Mancos Shale Nikon Landscape Caineville Capitol Reef National Park Sunrise Dawn Morning Blue Hills Blue Valley Skyline View Blue Gray Mesa Escarpment Cliff jmk/photography Stark Barren Clouds Canyon Valley Spring Mountains San Rafael Swell Upper Blue Hills Landscape Photography Factory Butte

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