This Week on 500px: 8/13/18 - LotsaSmiles Photography

Two photos on Instagram; five on 500px. Here are this week’s highlights!

This first one is from the beautiful Land of the Rising Sun. We visited many shrines and temples in Japan, most of which in Kyoto. This particular one was just up the hill from our ryokan (traditional Japanese hotel). Everything within the gates was meticulously cultivated and arranged for optimal zen. It was impossible to enter one of these sanctuaries and not feel an utter sense of peace as the hustle and bustle of the city just melts away. You can read all about that day here.

Next, this adorable little guy was just chilling in a park right here in the city. He even let me get quite close! Those eyes are just so beautiful. What a remarkable creature that we almost never see, especially in the city.

Speaking of eyes… What a cutie this little one was! We simply loved our time in Kyoto, and this was one of the many monkeys at the Arishiyama Monkey Park. Here, the primates roam freely, and humans can enter a building with caged windows through which peanuts and other small treats can be offered to hungry little furry hands. It was well worth the short hike up the mountain, and we followed it up with a trip through the beautiful bamboo grove. You can find the full account on that day here.

This photo was from a bit closer to home. This is an image I took from the bush plane that took us out into the Alaskan wilderness to photograph bears last summer. We originally had ambitious plans of doing a day hike up to this lake, but by the time we got down the beach, we were far too tired to consider it. Instead, we spent more time with the bears. That incredible adventure can be found here.

Even closer to home, this is a calming scene from Seaside. I love this picture because it just came together perfectly – the sun poking through the clouds, the reflection, the silhouettes, the gull… Nothing was digitally altered or added (aside from my standard edits). I prefer to document life as I actually see it, and there was a precise moment in time when these exact elements came into alignment.

Getting up into my favorites of the week, this is a moonscape. This is also what 4am in Yosemite National Park looks like. We took a winter trip to this stunning park, and it was here that I fell in love with the idea. Last winter, we followed it with a trip to Bryce and Zion. Where should we go this year?

I’d love to shoot more moonscapes, as they have the eerie appearance of a daytime photo with stars in a rich deep blue sky. But I’m also a huge fan of sleep… This photo also has a whole photostory behind it. You can read the full story here.

Finally, my favorite this week is this early morning photo of Mount Hood. We ventured out to the St. John’s Bridge in the hopes of catching some morning fog, but there wasn’t much there to photograph. We didn’t even really have much of a sunrise, either. But the clouds that day diffused the fiery rays into watercolor pastels. I can’t complain.