2018 found me visiting Silver Falls State Park and the Palouse twice. I went to Olympic National Park, as usual, and there were trips to Canada's Northwest Territories and Iceland. I also spent a lot of time at home with a kitchen remodel, but those pictures didn't make this list. They're favorites for other reasons.
Olympic
In Olympic I captured a few images that I was pleased with, but this one, a self portrait at Sol Duc Falls ended up being my favorite. We had good flow of water at the falls and the rainbow that shows up at about 8 a.m. between May and July didn't disappoint. While my group was busy capturing the falls with the rainbow and bridge, I decided to try something different this year.
The Palouse
The Palouse never lets me down. These two images were from the same location, just past sunrise. It's a high point on a road with good views in two directions, represented by these two images.
Yellowknife
This year I co-led my Yellowknife auroras trip with John Barclay. A great guy, wonderful photographer, and outstanding teacher. On our first night out we were treated to an aurora storm overhead, with the lights dancing and swirling. It was a great start to the trip.
We ended up seeing aurora four out of our six nights. But besides the auroras, as the week progressed, the unusually cold weather (for early September) meant that the fall color in the trees came on rapidly. By the end of our week in Yellowknife, the color of the trees rivaled the colors in the sky.
Iceland
I finally made it back to Iceland, this time for fall color and hopefully auroras. Unfortunately, the notorious Iceland weather deprived us of any aurora sightings but the fall color was there.
The popular spots were pretty crowded but our guide led us to a few out of the way locations where we didn't have to fight the crowds and could just take our time, enjoy the location, and get some wonderful pictures.
One place where I had a lot of fun was also one of the more popular spots: the ice beach at Jökulsárlón. You have to be very careful here so that you don't get knocked over by a wave. And when the water swirling around and past your tripod shifts its position, you have to work fast to get your composition back, but it was loads of fun.
Here are a few of my favorites.
Silver Falls State Park
These shots are from the October trip. The water levels were low but the fall color was amazing.
Back to the Palouse
And finally, the Palouse again. Autumn is a fantastic time to visit the Palouse: earth tones, great low light, and sane sunrise and sunset times. It's hard to beat!
So there are a few of my favorite images from 2018. I had some great opportunities and some wonderful surprises. Who knew the Palouse could be so awesome in the fall? (other than the locals who kept telling me about it....)
