Looking out my window at home, watching the snow fall, it’s nice to think back to a couple of days ago when I was visiting Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in Utah with Jennifer King Photography Workshops. The weather there was surprisingly mild for February and it allowed for extended photography opportunities including some pleasant night photography.

The image above was taken at the Grand View Point in Canyonlands at sunrise. It is a spectacular vista overlooking the white-rimmed canyon below.

The shot below, while not particularly dramatic and an image that is iconic for Arches National Park, is a reminder to me of the challenging hike to reach this viewpoint. The view of Turret Arch through the North Window is amazing in person.

We took advantage of the mild nights to photograph the stars while in Arches. The star trails below were taken under the Double Arch formation.

Had a fun workshop in Death Valley National Park. November is such a great time to visit, the temperatures are in the 70’s and the days are shorter so the sunrises are later and the sunsets come earlier. Photographing the Mesquite Flat sand dunes is always a special treat and something I could do everyday. The shapes, colors and textures are ever changing as the sunlight creates dramatic graphic patterns.

Since sunset comes a little earlier, the group had several opportunities to shoot the night sky. Death Valley is one of the darkest places in the U.S. and the number of stars that you can see is startling for someone like me, who lives in an urban east coast area.

One of the places that is not that well-known, at least it is not marked by any park maps, is the salt basin north of Furnace Creek. We were lucky to see water in the basin which provided some nice reflections of color and sky.

Check out the upcoming 2015 Jennifer King Photography Workshops schedule at this link.

I had the good fortune to spend a couple of weeks in Iceland this fall and was thrilled by the spectacular color in the landscape. It was a great JKPW workshop with many opportunities to photograph waterfalls, glacial ice, rainbows and the amazing northern lights. It’s cloudy and rainy quite often in Iceland but we had several clear nights to see the incredible display in the sky.

The image above was taken at sunrise on the southern coast of Iceland, near the mouth of the Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon where chunks of ice float out into the Atlantic and wash up on the black sand beach.

This was my first opportunity to view the northern lights and they far, far exceeded my expectations. It was spell-binding to watch them light up the sky, transform into different shapes and intensities…you could not turn your gaze away from them.

The northern lights weren’t the only light show available as we spotted 14 rainbows during the trip. This rainbow hovers over a small portion of the Vatnajökull glacier, the largest glacier in Europe.

The waterfall below is in the Þingvellir National Park and is called Öxarárfoss. Just one of the hundreds of waterfalls you can see throughout the landscape of Iceland.

More images from the trip are located here. If you are interested in seeing this nature paradise with your own eyes, the next JKPW workshop in Iceland will be Sept. 12-10, 2015.

They say figuring out what week of August the wildflowers will peak depends on the snowpack levels… I think any week in August will give you a great display of color from the incredible flora that carpets the fields and meadows. Whether it’s a view of Edith Creek or a look at the fog drifting through the mountainside, the photographic opportunities are endless here.

The mountain itself is dramatically spectacular (when not hidden by the clouds!) and if you can tear yourself away from gazing at it, you find the beauty of the surrounding landscape is equally impressive.

The Palouse region in eastern Washington offers some of the most beautifully unique farmlands in the U.S. The vast wheat fields stretch as far as the eye can see and the views from the top of Steptoe Butte are spectacular in their rolling patterns and graphic line and color formations.

The Palouse provides a study of barns, windmills, and farm equipment both in old, broken-down condition as well as new and fully functional, in day-to-day use. If you get the opportunity to visit this area, you’ll find vast landscapes and wonderful details to photograph.

Enjoyed a fantastic week in and around Grand Teton National Park. Headed to Schwabacher Landing one morning and had wonderful light on the mountain range and a nice reflection on the water. Also spent some time on the other side of the mountains in Idaho to photograph the landscape and abandoned buildings there.

The wildlife was out in the park. We saw bison, moose, black bear, back-tailed deer, many hawks, coyote and this pair of mature bald eagles keeping a keen eye over the Snake River and the bull elk below with wonderful backlighting on their antlers.

Italy is a favorite place of mine for photography. I recently returned from the Tuscany region and the five towns of Cinque Terre on the west coast of Italy. The early morning sun lights up the sky over this Tuscany grove of cypress trees in the image above.

Below is a photograph looking down over the rolling Tuscany landscape from the town of Montalcino, also an early morning image.

Cinque Terre is a National Park in the Liguria region of Italy which contains five coastal towns. The photograph below is an evening shot of the town of Riomaggiore. This colorful town is built on the rugged hillside of the coast and is a great substitute for a StairMaster machine!

To sees more images from my visit to Italy, click here.