Watkins Glen State Park - Printable Wall Art

Watkins Glen State Park has been on my travel list for a long time now. Early this year some friends of mine invited me to their family lake house. When I looked up the location I was surprised to see that it was 25 minutes from Watkins Glen. When I talked to all the travelers about going to the state park they didn’t seem too excited but I knew I needed to go since I was so close.

So on the morning of the 4th of July I headed out at 6:00 hoping to catch some of the morning light in the slot canyon. When I got there the trail was light with traffic but I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be the only one on the hike so I set out.

Luckily the light was amazing and I was able to get the shot I came for. I was glad this trip worked out with the location and I could finally take Watkins Glen off my travel list.

Yosemite - Olmsted Point

Before I went to Yosemite I thought all the photos were over processed and fake looking. After a day in Yosemite Valley I realized that not only were the colors and images real to life but Yosemite is one of the most magical places I’ve ever been. One night we took a trip to Olmsted Point to watch the sunset over Half Dome. From Olmsted Point you can see directly down Yosemite Valley and we watched as the sky turned a magical pink and purple. I’ll never forget my time in Yosemite and I hope to go back soon.

Iceland Travel

Iceland shows it’s magic at every twist and turn. Just to the left of this image is an amazing gold colored valley. We drove almost the entire country on our last trip in a sleeper van for 10 days. I don’t camp much but waking up in front of a fjord with an otter welcoming you is not a bad way to spend your vacation. This shot was from a drone on the main ring road of Iceland. The car in the frame gives you a sense of scale of how large this rock formation was. After seeing my photos my kids have aspirations of going to Iceland with me and showing them around. I still dream of the norther lights and all the sights Iceland has to reveal for it’s visitors.

Vestrahorn Photography | Iceland Coast

There are only a few places that I feel like you have to experience in your lifetime. Cinque Terre Italy and Vestrahorn in Iceland are the two on the list. Iceland will always hold a special place in my heart because of the beautiful vistas and the northern lights I saw there. Vestrahorn is on the Eastern coast of Iceland is is worth the drive. The surroundings are amazing. I wish we could have seen the northern lights from here or gotten the drone in the air but it was way too windy that day. One day I will spend the night there and witness the northern lights again.

Vestrahorn Mountain | Iceland

The Pandemic of 2019 / 2020

Like most the pandemic of 2019 / 2020 / 2021 has been a rough year for my photography business. Not from a monetary perspective but from a creative perspective. I’m used to getting out at least once a year on a photo trip and September 2019 was my last trip to Iceland. I’m not complaining here I’ve just been in a rut creatively because of my lack of travel and inspiration. Since that time I’ve worked on a few things to keep me busy. I went back through my portfolio and either remixed some of my favorite shots or re-processed shots with my update skills. It’s kept me busy and allowed me to day dream of all the places I still want to travel to. I even installed this fun vision board to help me remember the places I’ve been and where I want to go. During this time I’ve also set up an Etsy shop to sell my work. I used to sell limited edition prints but I’ve come to realize that I’d rather sell digital prints so that my work is more accessible and that more people can enjoy my prints. It’s been a lot of work but also a lot of fun and I’ll soon be migrating my store here to the Etsy platform.

I hope you’ve been able to make it through this challenging time with you and your family and we can all see some silver linings at the end. There is finally light at the end of the tunnel and I look forward to bringing you more creative images in the second half of 2021 and into 2022.

Iceland Photography Trip

Every year I aim to take a least one photography trip somewhere special each. My bucket list of locations keeps growing even as I knock off some of these places each year. This year’s trip was a nine day excursion to Iceland with 3 of my amazing friends.

When we arrived the weather looked very Icelandic. Gray skies, rain and cold. Oh yea super windy too. We got off the plane and found our way to our rental van. We got a sleeper van that said it slept 5 but God only knows where the fifth person would sleep.

The first few days on the road were a little challenging. We didn’t see much but rain and fog but we were hopeful that the northern stretch of the island would be much better. We stopped to see a bunch of sites on the southern end of the island but we were just too socked in to really experience it so we drove further than we hand planned the first few days.

On our way around the southern side of the island we hit the famous plane wreck. We got there just before sunset and the sign said 3 hours round trip to the site but we headed out anyway. It was only a 1 mile hike. Turns out the sign was mostly right. As we headed back to the parking lot it was cold, pitch black and rainy. We decided to camp out in the parking lot for the night and the wind howled all night long.

The next day we hit diamond beach and tragedy hit. One of my fellow photographers was setting up for this shot and a wave hit his tripod and knocked the whole camera into the water. We pulled it out after 2-3 seconds but the salt water got to work right away and his camera was toast within a few hours. RIP Nikon D800. How we loved you :(. Good thing I brought my Fuji X-100F as a backup. It wasn’t the camera he wanted but it was better than nothing. Diamond beach was a sight to see as the chunks of ice from the icebergs washed up on the beach. A few hundred meters behind Diamond Beach is Jökulsárlón which is a iceberg lagoon. Unfortunately, we missed sunset here one night but this is also an incredible sight with icebergs from the glaciers bouncing off one another and more seals than I’ve ever seen in one place. The scale of this area and beauty is unlike anything I’ve seen anywhere else.

After Diamond Beach, our persistence started to pay off as we turned the eastern corner of the island and headed north.. By day 4 we were mostly in the clear. Nice puffy clouds and mostly clear nights. This is typical of Iceland. Just wait a day or an hour and the weather will change. It also helped that the national weather service provided online cloud cover maps that were incredibly accurate up to 12 hours ahead.

Our next stop was one of the country’s glaciers. This was quite the site to see. I’ve never witnessed a glacier in person and the size and mass of it blew my mind. I got a few good shots of my buddy walking down which gives you some idea of the scale of this piece of ice. I also was able to get the drone out over the glacier to get a view of all the crevices and the length of the glacier.

After the glacier we finally got some sun on our way to one of Iceland’s many basalt waterfalls. Super cool spot with an easy hike. We were so used to the cold weather that we were actually panting and breaking a sweat. It was great to finally get a break from the foggy weather and we got just enough cover to make this mid-day shot not so harsh. This location also had a campground with an impressive bath house so we were able to enjoy a nice hot shower and clean up after the first leg of the trip.

What’s great about Iceland is that almost everywhere you turn is a crazy vista with water, mountains and a myriad of colors. We were constantly pulling over to the side of the road to send the drones up in the air to take a look around, capture an image or a video. I’m grateful to our non-photography friends for their patience and understanding. We took these two shots from the side of the road on our way to our camping site one night.

The number one attraction I wanted to see was Vestrahorn. I was hoping we could camp near the beach and see the northern lights or the stars while we were there but we were still socked in at this point and it was super windy and just nasty there. Too windy to even get the drones up in the sky. The green burns and the black sand beaches were an amazing juxtaposition with the mountain range in the background. I wish we would have gotten better weather but that’s the blessing and the curse of photography. Sometimes the gods bless you and sometimes they don’t. Either way it was an amazing place to see in person and I love the shots I was able to come away with.

This night we were going to push hard to the north but light was escaping us and the route we planned while the most direct, was along a rough dirt road for 3 hours. So we decided to camp out over night and take the longer (paved) route in the morning. We found camp by this unknown waterfall. Pretty much anywhere you look in Iceland you will see waterfalls. I think we saw close to 2,000 waterfalls during this trip. In the morning we woke up to fog and decided to shoot the fall and fly the drones around. It was a good call as this was one of my favorite waterfalls we saw.

The next night we finally made the turn and made it to the north east corner of the island. The Icelandic weather map said that we should have some clear skies so we had our fingers crossed for some magic. We were debating on whether to stay in a camp ground or find our own spot but we were having some issues finding a suitable place to park the van and night was coming pretty quickly. Plus the area we were in was near a large lake and I wanted to be as close to that as possible in case we saw the northern lights.

We finally got settled into our camp ground and made some dinner when when I noticed something in the sky. It wasn’t extremely bright or colorful but it looked like a massive flashlight or the light from a lighthouse that was way up in the sky and heading toward the horizon. I told the guys to turn off their headlamps and to help me figure out where the light was coming from when one of them shouted “That’s the Northern Lights!”. I’m not sure I would have even realized it at first if they had not told me.

We quickly scrambled to get our gear and find a suitable foreground for the shot as it was our first experience with the northern lights and we weren’t sure how long they would last. We crossed the street in front of our campground and jumped a fence and ended up with this really interesting pile of rocks as our foreground. We also got a cool shot of a farmhouse in the distance.

What surprised me with this first encounter with the northern lights was how early they came out. We had planned on setting our alarms for something like 2 am to check to see if they were out but about 30 minutes to an hour after sunset they were there in full force. This was an amazing first experience with the northern lights but as we regrouped the next day we all thought they would be brighter and greener to the human eye. Little did we know that we were in for a treat later in the trip.

At this point we had pretty much blown up all our original plans so we decided to spend another night in the northeastern part of the island. On our way to our next location we stopped by this random waterfall by the side of the road and decided to get the drones in the air. It was a good excuse to stop the car for a bit and see a really unique waterfall.

We choose this campground as one of my friends wanted to go fishing. We dropped him off earlier in the day and headed out to see some of the waterfalls and attractions in the area. During the day we headed over to Selfoss and some of the other waterfalls in the area. The weather was kind of overcast but the forecast said the clouds would part in the evening. As we headed back to pick up our friend we were excited to see that the clouds were starting to break up and the northern lights forecast was looking very good. We got back to the campground just as the sunset had fizzled out. Luckily or friend caught a nice sized fish for dinner. We got out all the gear to make dinner and started the prep. It was dark out and I kept checking the northern lights forecast which said it should be there but nothing.

I looked above the van and there was the Milky Way clear as day. I was starting to feel a little disappointed and then it started and it came fast. All of a sudden the northern lights started dancing and with more energy and intensity than the first night we saw them. Actually way more intensity and energy. We had a great view with the reflections hitting the lake. And they just kept coming for over an hour each new wave a new mesmerizing green hit the sky.

I got up early the next morning to see what the sunrise looked like in Iceland as much of our trip we stayed up too late and were too jet lagged to witness the sunrise. This morning wasn’t disappointing especially after the northern lights show we got the night before. The color just exploded over the horizon and it was pretty amazing to sit and watch the sun come up over the horizon.

We were now in the last few days of the trip and this day was our longest leg as we had to make it half way across the island to the western peninsula. As we traversed the country we had a few stops to make. Obviously we needed to see a few more waterfalls. The first two shots below looked like they would be a quick hike up the mountain but no this was a seriously long hike to get to the final destination.

The shot with the valley in the background was just another one of those epic waterfalls that we saw from the side of the road and needed to go explore. It’s pretty amazing when this is the scenery you see while just driving the country!

Our final leg on the peninsula was capped by some epic vistas including the famous Kirkjufell witch did not disappoint (except for the 150 people that are standing next to me during this shot). I was able to shoot a few drone shots looking back at the mountains which was amazing to see this other angle and get some perspective of the expansiveness of the landscape.

We ended the trip on an extremely night note as we got the most amazing northern lights show of the trip two nights before the trip. We had received notice from the national weather service that the forecast for the northern lights was extremely high that night so we were giddy with excitement. We arrived at our camp site earlier in the afternoon and were staying in one of Iceland’s National Parks. As the sun started to head down we headed out to scout locations and see what we could find. The sun had just gone down when the lights exploded in the sky. They were everywhere and were so bright they were lighting everything up.

After about an hour of shooting we decided to head over to a waterfall that was nearby. As we walked the northern lights kept erupting and we would stop and take some photos. When we got to the waterfall there were a handful of photographers there with he same idea. We fired off a few shots and then the wave started to roll through and explode. This was incredible to witness as it was so bright it was actually lighting up the waterfall!

Nine days in Iceland was a really incredible experience that I hope I can do justice with my photos. It is a beautiful country with amazing people and culture. Everyone we met was very nice and welcoming and I was truly blown away by the landscapes and scenery of the country. If you are looking for an outdoor adventure I highly recommend it. Enjoy the video I put together with the highlights of the trip! P.S. Stay for the bloopers at the end.

How to Support My Site

I love photography and giving back to the community. If you like this site and want to support it I would greatly appreciate using the links to purchase any of the products in my posts. I also sell a book "The Photographer's Guide to Capturing Chicago". If you want an easier way to replicate the shots in this post please consider purchasing my Lightroom and Snapseed presets using the link below. Thanks for stopping by and supporting my work!

Lightroom Presets

Snapseed Looks

Iceland Snapseed Looks (Presets)

The Photographer's Guide to Capturing Chicago

I'm Going to Iceland!

As the years go on, my travel list seems to grow rather than shrink. I’m 37 and in the last few years I’ve realized that I really need to make it a point to get out and travel the world each year otherwise I won’t come close to seeing all the places I want to see in this life. The last few years I’ve focused on the United States Southwest and West Coast. I was in Yosemite, Zion National park and Moab Utah (Arches National Park & Canyonlands National Park). Below is my current destination map not including all the locations I want to go to that are too small for a full pin.

My 2019 trip is set for Iceland. Myself and three friends are off on a 9 day adventure. We rented an amazing camper van that will sleep all four of us for the trip. In my normal fashion, I’ve over researched this trip and even bought a photography specific map. Below is the route we’ve agreed upon for the trip. I’m always excited to see the world and interact with new cultures. I’ve been around a lot of Western Europe and have loved every minute of it but this trip will definitely be different. We’ve timed the trip with the hopes of getting a glimpse of the northern lights. There is no guarantee that we will get to witness this amazing phenomenon but I sure hope we get lucky. I’m truly blessed that my wife has given me the green light to leave her home with our two boys and set off on this adventure. I’m still a few months away from this trip but I’m so excited to set off on this journey. If you’ve been to Iceland and have any suggestions of places I’ve missed. Please drop me a line and let me know what I should add to this route. Thanks for your support and cheers!

How to Support My Site

I love photography and giving back to the community. If you like this site and want to support it I would greatly appreciate using the links to purchase any of the products in my posts. I also sell a book "The Photographer's Guide to Capturing Chicago". If you want an easier way to replicate the shots in this post please consider purchasing my Lightroom and Snapseed presets using the link below. Don’t need the pre-sets? Consider buying me a cup of coffee using the donate button below. Thanks for stopping by and supporting my work!

Lightroom Presets

Snapseed Looks

The Photographer's Guide to Capturing Chicago

I've Come a Long Way

When I look as my journey as a photographer I occasionally reflect on my work from years ago and sometimes I’m thrilled with it and other times I see how far I’ve come. I think we are all on a journey of some sort in our life. I’m a big proponent of the constant improvement philosophy. I find myself trying new methods to shoot and edit my images. Many times I fail but the constant struggle for improvement is what helps us get better as people and in our craft. I recently listened to a podcast in which a scientist said that the struggle is what produces the most important and nutrient rich portion of the plants we eat. I feel that this is similar for us as humans as well. Although the struggle is not easy, it is important for us to evolve and grow. I think it is this perspective while not easy, that helps us make it through to the other side and grow.

The image below is one of my portfolio shots from Riomaggiore in Cinque Terre Italy. At the time I shot this and edited it I was at a certain stage of my progression as a photographer. But after nearly 5 years of growing and learning I was able to revisit this image and make what I consider to be a drastic improvement. This growth has me appreciating the daily struggle to learn and grow throughout the years.

How to Support My Site

I love photography and giving back to the community. If you like this site and want to support it I would greatly appreciate using the links to purchase any of the products in my posts. I also sell a book "The Photographer's Guide to Capturing Chicago". If you want an easier way to replicate the shots in this post please consider purchasing my Lightroom and Snapseed presets using the link below. Thanks for stopping by and supporting my work!

Lightroom Presets

Snapseed Looks

The Photographer's Guide to Capturing Chicago

Austin Texas - iPad Editing Workflow

The iPad is becoming a more capable editor for photographers. Below is a quick video of my latest edit from Austin Texas. This photo was shot on a DJI Mavic Air and processed completely on my iPad Pro.

Moab Utah

I recently took a trip to Moab Utah with the Out of Chicago crew. They put on their second annual travel workshop and Moab Utah was on my long list of bucket list travel locations. The drive from Salt Lake was long but extremely scenic. Leaving Salt Lake and heading into the mountains of Utah reminds me of how much I miss the mountainous terrain.

When I left Chicago it was 70 degrees and sunny. As I headed to Utah the forecast was for rain all week. Not good. The day I arrived was perfect desert weather. Dry, clear and perfect. I had a night shoot scheduled for my first night in Moab. This was lining up to be a perfect night for star shooting.

View fullsize

For those of you who don’t know Moab is home to Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. Both parks are just minutes from downtown Moab. As I bundled up for my night out the weather looked like it would be perfect. Clear skies, cold and no light pollution. Moab is out in the middle of nowhere, the skies are pitch black but apparently there are darker areas of the country. I really can’t imagine darker skies that what I experienced in Moab.

As we got out of the car our guide told us to look up. “See that?” he asked as we all looked up. “That’s the Milky Way. Give it a few more minutes and your eyes will adjust and you’ll see it as clear as day”. He wasn’t wrong. I don’t remember ever seeing the Milky Way in my life but it was soon as clear as day.

As we walked through the arches I have only seen stars like that in Monument Valley. But in Monument Valley I didn’t get to see the Milky Way. Being out there was like sitting in a planetarium. So vast, and so many stars. It really gives you some perspective of how small we are in this world and how incredible this world is.

I left that night with some incredible shots of the Milky Way and left even more in love with the beauty of the southwest.

How to Support My Site

I love photography and giving back to the community. If you like this site and want to support it I would greatly appreciate using the links to purchase any of the products in my posts. I also sell a book "The Photographer's Guide to Capturing Chicago". If you want an easier way to replicate the shots in this post please consider purchasing my Lightroom presets using the link below. Thanks for stopping by and supporting my work!

Lightroom Presets

The Photographer's Guide to Capturing Chicago