ADK Autumn

Students bring energy and excitement to my world, so there’s no more exciting time of the year than the start of fall. Though the school year has just ended and summer is beginning, I’m already looking forward to the next season. I live in some bizarro-world version of what I remember experiencing as a boy, when I awaited the start of summer and dreaded the return of the school year.

ADK Autumn

Winter Comes to the Adirondacks

On my way back from my conference in Connecticut, I drove through the Adirondacks, where winter is arriving fast. The hills were dusted with snow and all but the most tenacious leaves were carpeting the forest floor. I pulled off the road for this shot in Tupper Lake, where the grasses, placid waters, and stubbly hills matched perfectly with the dense clouds and the random distribution of sunlight. The moment felt chaotic, strange—just a bit primeval. I had a chance to do landscape photography that truly excluded any human intrusion (save the eye of the photographer himself.)

Winter Comes to the Adirondacks

Hills of British Columbia

Outside Vancouver (the city) are the hillsides, dotted with homes and apartment buildings and, farther north, massive rocks. (That’s a pretty rare combination.) The difference between the soft, welcoming pink hues of the sunset and those massive hillsides (with some lovely evergreens in the foreground) is stranger, the more I think about it.

This picture also illustrates the biggest difference I’ve encountered since moving from the west coast to the east: the environments are less staggering and overwhelming, but the skies (and the buildings) are much more so. I’ve had to reorient the way I shoot to account for it.

Hills of British Columbia

Alpine Peak

This one’s another from my trip to Obergurgl this past fall and comes from a short hike just beyond Obergurgl proper. The trail was a bit icy and snowy in bits and the three of us weren’t super well equipped for the terrain but man were some of the vistas spectacular, looking up at peaks like this one, or down toward rivers at the bottom of the valley we were flanking.

Alpine Peak

Alpine Village

On my recent European adventure I went out for a short afternoon walk which took me into the hills at the end of the valley beyond Obergurgl, Austria. From here I was able to grab this shot of Obergurgl and Hochgurgl and several surrounding chairlifts. It was still a little early in the season but many of the lifts were operating and people were starting to trickle in to these villages. Anyway the whole valley is incredibly picturesque and I will definitely have to return one day.

Obergurgl