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! 

The Fires of Mordor

I took this image near Queenstown, New Zealand looking across Lake Wakatipu  toward the Remarkables mountain range. The sky was not looking favorable for much of a sunset shot and then a break in the clouds allowed me to see the front of the Remarkables bathed in the last light sandwiched between the lower clouds and a fog bank just above the lake surface. I named this shot "The Fires of Mordor" as it had the foreboding feeling straight out of the Lord of the Rings books.

The Fires of Mordor

Queenstown, New Zealand

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