Its a beautiful thing, truly. No matter what happens today, no matter how bad it gets, tomorrow, without fail, the sun will rise. The brings me comfort.

via 500px http://ift.tt/1TBo1Xq

The Old Jetty, Little Paradise, New Zealand.

Darren J.

via 500px http://ift.tt/1TFMDAG

This night on Java, Indonesia was a very memorable one. After experiencing the mega crowds on Penanjakan earlier that morning, I just decided to stay one more night to hopefully take something home I will remember. At around 18:50 I left Cemoro Lawang at the back of an Ojek ( Motorcycle) knowing that a waning gibbous moon would rise in 40 minutes. Speeding through the dusty, primal volcanic landscape, the lights of the village well behind us, the heavens opened up with a super vivid Milky Way overhead.The adrenaline was really pumping at this point. A potent cocktail of speed, a barren volcanic wasteland, and the feeling that I am about to capture something truly special, was one of the best travel experiences I have ever had! I arrived at Penanjakan about 20 minutes before the moon rose and that gave me some time to play around with some compositions in very cold and windy conditions. I headed down a small hiking path and finally settled at a position I was comfortable with and that had enough protection from the wind for the longer exposures required. In the image above you can see a smouldering Bromo and Semeru being lit up by the moon rising in the east. At this point the moonlight was washing away many of the stars and Milky Way, but I feel a good balance was achieved with the foreground being lit as well. Enjoy!

via 500px http://ift.tt/1WiK2Qp

via 500px http://ift.tt/1UeNHve

via 500px http://ift.tt/1sApC90

via 500px http://ift.tt/1TBuS8K

via 500px http://ift.tt/20EHJpw

via 500px http://ift.tt/1sAoYZ7

I have immense respect for the ocean. I’ve heard too many stories, seen too many accidents and had too many near misses not to salute the water every time I hit the coast. I’ve lost an entire camera bag to the waves earlier this year, complete with 14-24mm lens. Still fighting with insurance on that one. You may notice the lack of sea scenes in my portfolio. So when Marc Adamus had us climbing sea stacks on day 1 of his Northwest tour, yeah I was a little unnerved. ‘You betcha you’ll get wet on my tour!’ He’d exclaim.

But the man lives and breaths nature and he always seemed to know the safe zones, which had me wondering how many near misses he must have had to find them. Sure we got wet, but no adventure is complete without feeling the elements. We got clear skies on that particular night (and most others), but this was taken a few days later from the comfort of the beach at Rialto. I’m sure it’s common knowledge by now that this place is forever changed. This sea stack stands vigil for it’s fallen twin which succumbed to the pounding wind and surf earlier this year.

Overall a really awesome tour and kudos to Marc for a job well done.

Obviously inspired by: Marc Adamus.

http://ift.tt/1QDbEej

via 500px http://ift.tt/1Z1DkMN