***I’d like to announce a special workshop Erin Babnik and I are leading next summer in the Dolomites in Italy. Specific details and pricing are still being ironed out, but if you know you are interested, or want to be the first to know when we release full details, head over to THIS LINK and sign up for my mailing list, or GO HERE and contact me directly. This is my first release from a series of images of mine from the Dolomites, an amazing mountain range in an amazing part of the world I had the pleasure of exploring a couple months ago with Erin Babnik, who knows this area extremely well. This lake is particularly breathtaking to lay your eyes upon, one of the most idyllic I’ve ever seen. It was a pleasure to visit and quite a breath of fresh air having just recovered from a really rough beginning to my trip of three weeks there… and I was leaving only two days later! When I arrived in Italy, the first thing I had to deal with was jet lag. Now, jet lag usually isn’t that bad, but it is when you roll in, can’t get the rental car you had originally reserved, have to drive 4 hours out of your way so that you can borrow a car from a VERY generous person(who then spent 3 weeks riding his bike to work so we could have a car, thanks dude!), then go straight to a 3 hour hike, with a couple thousand feet of elevation gain, only to then blow out and flare up a knee problem that you haven’t had issues with in several years, having your trekking poles decide to not work anymore, limping out the 3 hour hike back DOWN the several thousand feet of elevation gain, and then to contract one of the nastiest colds that I’ve ever had(from Erin’s private workshop client who was sick, she got sick too), no doubt because of all the stress causing my immune system to absolutely tank. Sorry for that sentence… it’s a mess, and I’m not fixing it! I’m too tired from having to recall that entire ordeal! But, by the time we got to this spot, my jet lag was gone, my cold was gone(so was Erin’s, she actually got over hers faster than I did), and my knee was strong as ever. I was finally enjoying myself fully, and able to really concentrate on my photography. Our evening attempt proved to be a bust, so we retired with hopes for a good morning. Waking before sunset we found the area so socked in fog that we just went back to sleep. Oh glorious sleep. Fast forward a bit, and we were all packed up, fueled, and ready to hike out in the rain and on to our next destination. A shot from here just wasn’t meant to be, but signs of breaks started coming and I thought well, maybe something will happen. We went back to the lake, and as the scattered showers passed over, Erin and I hunkered down under those two larch trees you see there in the shot, which did a really great job of shielding us from the rain while giving us a great view of the lake. It’s actually quite nice to sit under a tree with a great friend, in the rain, watching the drops hit the water and enjoying the view. Eventually this magnificent soft glowy late morning light started flooding in, making the teal of the water really punch as the peak of Il Dito di Dio began peaking out. So I got to work, and this is the result. I’m really quite happy with it. Hope you enjoy it! via 500px http://bit.ly/1iQg5WO
