A new Pathway to the Moon

When I first heard of the staircase to the moon, I thought it sounded awesome - a moonlit path to the moon over the sand, how exciting! I had visions of glittering moonlight dancing off the sand with stars speckled behind, a rough, rickety staircase meandering up to the moon, telling a story of adventure and cold beauty.

Boy was I disappointed.

Not that staircase to the moon isn't beautiful - it is - just not what I was expecting. To be honest, when you have your cynical hat on, it's just a line of light...A beautiful line, but a line nonetheless.

So while at Cape Range, we would watch the sunset over the ocean and the moon would be rising behind us (no staircase to the moon there). I got so many sunset photos of the water and the colours (just wait, they are coming...) I decided to run around the sand dunes taking photos of the moon. It's one of my mottos actually. Number one is to not take photos of things that move because its too hard (which I break all the time for obvious reasons) and the other is to ALWAYS look BEHIND yourself at sunset - the colours are completely different, the light is different and you can get some amazing photos.

This day, I must have looked like a crazy sand hill lady. Running, yes running, with my camera and then slamming into the sand dunes on my stomach, twisting and turning trying to get the best composition for the moon with all sorts of things.

I had been reading the Understanding Exposure book on the beach to pass away the time of peace and restfulness, in which they talk a bit about wide angle lenses and how they are built to be able to 'fill up the foreground'. They push the details to the back so you have to consciously fill up the foreground. This is what I have been trying to do. So I present to you a NEW pathway to the moon.

Rugged Patagonia Panorama

On the fourth day of our Torres Del Paine trek, my husband and I got permission from our guide to go ahead. This was so nice to be out on our own in the countryside. It was a very freeing experience. We had a chance to roam free and play in this beautiful part of the world.

Torres Del Paine is in the Patagonia region of Chile. Patagonia is stunning. It really took us by surprise how beautiful it was and inspired us to visit Antarctica one day (something by the way, I have always wanted to do!)

I took this panorama that fourth day. It was just a beautiful morning and we were able to stop whenever we liked and I just fell in love with the light, the mountains and had to stop and take this photo! I was pretty pleased with the outcome - the stitching, the composition, the colour all seem to work nicely. I love how it has the path in the foreground, the mountains in the background and the unique colours of gold and brown are prominent and stunning, albeit a little dark.

Two landscape shots stitched. Canon EOS 50D f/10, 1/400 ISO 200 32mm. 

Path to Paradise

Along the Torres Del Paine hike were some stunning scenes. The track was not the best maintained track in the world but it did have its moments (both good and bad). On the second day we came across this bridge and stopped for a snack. It was the highlight of the second day. I loved taking this photo because I had time to think about it. I love paths and not knowing where they are taking me. Little did I know this particular one would take me through snow, rain, wind, mud, steep hills, flooded gullies, slippery rocks and near death. The second day was not pleasant, let's just leave it at that. This blog is about the photos - I didn't get many more after this point because I needed to concentrate on not slipping off a mountain. This photo reminds me that there beautiful parts to that day as well.

Canon EOS 50D f/3.5 1/160, ISO 200, 18mm