South Island Skyline

This image was from my magical trip to the South Island of New Zealand back in 2009. When I visited the town of Fox Glacier I had the fantastic chance to charter a helicopter for a hour at dusk to zoom over the tallest peaks of the Southern Alps as the last light of a winter day bathed the peaks in warm light. In order to better photograph, the doors were removed from the helicopter so that I would not have to shoot through plexiglass. Once I was strapped in, I got over the fear of falling out of the chopper at 13,000 feet! The real challenge was the -30 degree temperature at that altitude combined with the wind of the rotors-- I was terrified that I would drop my memory card from my near frozen fingers down to the snowfields 13,00 feet below!  Thankfully, both I and the memory cards survived!