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Tag Archives: snow
Sassolungo Sunset
Since seeing the Italian Dolomites on my first trip to Europe in 1979, I have always been captivated by the craggy, rocky peaks of the massifs west of Cortina d’Ampezzo. They are quintessential mountaineering peaks and form landmarks for skiers exploring the 500+ lifts of the Dolomiti Superski.
I had an opportunity to ski the fabled Sella Ronda, a lift-served route encircling the huge Sella Group. Our route took us from Arabba in the morning to Corvara and on to Selva before traversing the snowfields en route to Passo Pordoi and back home. Along much of the route we used the three peaks of the Sassolungo, or Langkofel, as our guide.
After an amazing day skiing some 25-30 lifts, I decided to take one quick detour with the Audi A6 to run the twisty, turny mountain road up to Passo Sello for one final look at the Dolomites. The sky was overcast so photography was unlikely. But as I neared the 2,239 meter pass, the sky began to break. All around me was this stunning landscape suddenly being painted with golden hour light – reflecting off the rocks and the snow. The wind began to howl and it became a very foreboding environment, but the imagery all around me was just too spectacular to leave.
It was virtually impossible to go with a tripod. I threw on my North Face GoreTex gear and stabilized the Nikon D300 as much as I could. This particular image came as the sun was setting over Sassolungo using my Nikkor 10-24 set at 13mm, f10, 1/400th at ISO 200.
This was one of my many favorites out of that truly memorable 30 minutes of photography on Passo Sella.
Rosa Khutor Powder Day
Having an entire 5,000 foot vertical, lift served mountain to ourselves was a dream. Rosa Khutor, site of the 2014 Olympic ski events, stands majestically above the river valley along the Georgian border. With canceled World Cup races, it gave us a chance to ski the new mountain and experience powder in the Caucasus Mountains outside Sochi.
My colleague Doug Haney knew the mountain, I did not. Doug picked a fantastic line coming off the top ridgeline. I was fortunate enough to capture him at just the right moment, with powder spraying behind him and storm clouds settling in the background.
It will be an amazing Olympics in 2014.
Pillow of Snow at Deer Valley Resort
Pillow of Snow at Deer Valley Resort, originally uploaded by tomkellyphoto.
Deer Valley Resort is a magical place for photography. With five separate mountains and micro-climates, there’s great diversity from the top of the Deer Crest gondola to the ridgeline above Empire Bowl.
The days before Christmas saw five to six feet of heavy, wet snow which clung to pines creating pillows of white on the green branches.
This wonderful landscape of white was literally a few steps outside the Deer Crest gondola, looking back through the trees to Bald Mountain in the distance.
The shot was made with my Nikon D-300 using the Nikkor 17-85 and no filter. While I often like to throw on a polarizer for a shot like this, it seemed like the sky was cooperating and the end result was a nice photograph of snow and sky.
Winter Countryside Barn
Winter Countryside Barn, originally uploaded by tomkellyphoto.
This has been a favorite barn of mine for a few years, located near the tiny village of Peoa about 15 minutes east of Park City. But as many times as I’ve driven by on photo tours of the Kamas Valley, this is the first time the light presented such a wonderful opportunity.
Grandaughter Hannah and I were on a photo drive a couple days before Christmas. She was attracted to the menagerie of buffalo, horses and llamas (or alpacas). I was attracted by the wonderful light on the barn and the texture of the new-fallen snow – plus Lewis Peak in the background.
There was reasonably even light, but it still somehow begged for an HDR opportunity. So I produced a five-shot (one stop per shot) HDR that worked well to fill in some of the lighting imbalance and create a fantastic winter scene.
The shot was mid-afternoon, maybe two hours or less to sunset. It was photographed with my Nikon D-300 with the Nikkor 70-300 zoom on a tripod.
Snowmobiling Fun
Abby is all smiles as she takes cousin Naomi on a snowmobile ride on Lac Courte Orreilles near Hayward, WI.
Soaring Hawk
There’s a popular hawk flyway south of our home in Silver Creek near Park City, Utah. So it’s not unusual to see one of the majestic birds of prey soaring silently over the ridgeline. Zach and I were Jeeping down by Midway on a cold January afternoon. On our way out of Soldier Hollow we spotted a beautiful red-tailed hawk in a tree. This is where I really wish I had a longer lens for the Nikon D300. But the 80-300 worked fairly well to capture a focus precisely on the hawk as it soared silently above the snow-covered sagebrush.
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