There is a sense of peace and quiet in winter that you don’t seem to get in any of the other seasons. Fresh snow dampens sound in a way that has to be experienced before you really understand it. The sense of quiet comes from the high porosity of loosely packed crystals of freshly fallen snow which trap sound waves. It looks like summer has arrived here with temps here in the low 30’s C (90F) for this week. One of the problems with having such dramatic seasons is you can tell how far behind I am with my photo editing! The shot was taken on Hudson Bay Mountain just outside of Smithers in Northern British Columbia, Canada.
Having lived with the constant risk of fires on our rural property in Australia, and recently living though two of British Columbia’s worst fire seasons on record since moving to Canada I am grateful that my family has never had to experience the worst of what nature has to offer. I don’t have any shots from California, but I took this shot this past summer in Northern BC when we were smothered in smoke for weeks on end as fires raged about 50km away from us. It is a single exposure taken with a 400mm lens and 2x teliconverter. The smoke was so thick that I did not need to recover any highlights from bracketed shots even looking directly into the sun at 800mm ! Fires are a natural phenomenon, however with a warming climate resulting in more frequent droughts and extreme heat waves, will need to adapt to their increasing frequency and intensity. Northern British Columbia, Canada
Surreal blue mist forms after a storm has passed through. Taken from our ridgetop property at Laguna looking over the Wollombi valley towards the Watagan mountains. The highest point is Mount Warrawolong at 641 metres (2,103 ft) above sea level. The Watagan Mountains, or Watagans, is a mountain wilderness area that forms part of the Great Dividing Range, located in the Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia.
