From the mountain to sea

Photographs from a trip with my wife to Maui, one of the islands of Hawaii in May of 2021. Our first holiday outside of California since the COVID-19 pandemic had begun, when it seemed to be almost over.  

This is the first post on my own website since December of 2018. Days before my son was born. Now in 2021, I post days before the birth of my daughter. 

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When the mountains meet the ocean

Impressions from a road trip around the United State’s Pacific Northwest area. Images  taken from Redwood National Park, Crater Lake and Lassen Volcanic in the Fall of 2018.

Some of these vistas are legendary, seen in countless advertisements, decorations and movies. 

As an amateur photographer, it’s challenging to go visit these places for a day or sometimes just a few hours and not simply strive for the perfect post card photo like everybody else. 

There is a lot more to be said about these pristine places in nature than my photos do justice but short stays on road trips are perhaps not enough to reveal a deeper truth in my photography.

Into the Valley of Death

Can you think of any place on earth with a more ominous and foreboding name than “Death Valley”? We have all heard of this place, even if we didn’t know where it actually is. Death Valley sparks images of relentless heat and excruciating dryness. At 57°C (157F) in July of 1913, it boosts to date the hottest air temperature ever to be recorded. Sometimes in the summer, the temperatures remain above 36°C even at night.

My wife and I went on a California desert road trip to see it for ourselves in the early spring where it was “only” around 35°C at 5% humidity.  We discovered a landscape much more diverse than we expected, full of mountains, colorful rocks and salt flats, something we had never seen before. Photography in the park can be challenging due to the harsh lightning conditions throughout most of the day.

The climate is hostile but there are still more plants and water than in other deserts around the globe. Death Valley is unlike anything else. It has a unique aura as you drive across seemingly endless roads. Ghost towns and old equipment are reminiscent of the old days where mining workers labored year round in horrible conditions. Now the park is all about conserving its natural beauty.

Ascending the hills of Artist’s drive in Death Valley
Overlooking a wash at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley
Painter’s palette in Death Valley
Zabriskie point in Death Valley, one of the park’s iconic landscapes.
Uhebebe crater in Death Valley. A violent volcanic explosion created this crater and landscape around it only a few thousand years ago.
Beginning of the massive salt flat at Bad Water Basin in Death Valley. At about 80 m below sea level it’s the lowest point in North America and yes it is very hot there.
Overlooking the Mesquite Flat Sand Dune in Death Valley. Dust from all over the park accumulated here into massive sand dunes.
Strolling across the sand dunes of Death Valley on a moonlit night.
Entering Titus Canyon in Death Valley on an early morning hike.

 

An Olympic experience

The photographs below were taken on a long weekend trip in May of 2017, at the Olympic National Park on the far north-west corner of the United States near Seattle.

The landscapes in these images are so vastly different and yet all of this is less than two hours of driving between each other. Alpine mountains, fine sand beaches filled with drift wood and a rain forest bursting with life growing on top of itself. 

Stormy Ridge
Lake Crescent Lodge
Drift wood at La Push beach
Trees growing on top of a giant fallen tree at Ho Rain Forest