The legend of Haleakalā

There have always been stories about the origin of the land and the life that calls it home. Before there was science, those stories came from imagination and spirituality. In this series, I have created contemporary nature photography to illustrate them. Read more about my Legends of the Land series.

Do you enjoy the long days of summer? Summer days used to be short. There was a time when night was longer than day year round.

Maui was the one who finally got us longer days. But to do that, he first had to catch the sun.

The edge of a storm

Blue skies are fine for travel brochures, but my favorite landscape images have an element of drama. And they're captured at what I call the edge of a storm.

Dramatic sunsets: Two shows daily

If you're out photographing a sunset and you're not happy with what you get, you can try again. In a half hour.

For photography purposes, there are two sunsets every night. The sun actually sets below the horizon just once, but the dramatic golden color on mountains and clouds happens twice.

A sunset without the sunset

The sunset last night was absolutely incredible — one of the most dramatic I've seen in a while. I had a feeling early on that it was going to be good. I noticed thin wispy clouds high in the sky early in the afternoon and made plans to be down by the water at sunset in case the sky lit up.

The story behind "Fiery Sunrise, Mount Rainier, Tipsoo Lake"

I captured this image — one of my most popular — on my first attempt, but I certainly wouldn't call it a lucky shot.

It required getting up hours before sunrise, finding my way to the lake in the dark, and waiting for more than a half-hour on the frozen ground for the sun to finally clear the horizon. But the resulting image was definitely worth it.