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It seems a lot of photographers are obsessed with clouds. I’m not one of them. For me it depends on the story that’s trying to be told. A mountain range can be just as beautiful without clouds as it can with clouds. In some instances, I see imagery, particularly landscape imagery, where in my opinion the clouds detract from the subject, such as a mountain range. If the narrative that's trying to be told by the photographer is "these are awesome clouds over these mountains", then that makes sense. However, if the narrative is the mountains, THE mountains are the subject and focus, then the awesome clouds are a potential distraction taking away from what’s intended to be the primary subject. The subject (the mountains) is sharing the spotlight with the clouds. But if the story is the overall composition of the image and it includes both landscape (mountains) and the clouds, I get it. Personally, I see (depending on the intent of the image) beauty in a simple cloudless blue sky as much as a sky filled with clouds.

That being said, The Gathering Of Clouds – Thor's Hammer is an example of an image (a story if you will) being cloud dependent. Thor’s Hammer, one of the more famous hoodoos in the world is located in Bryce Canyon National Park. Standing approximately 150 feet tall it’s located just a short hike down the Navajo Loop Trail with visibility from a number of other locations such as Sunset Point and the Rim Trail.

My focus of the image obviously, was Thor’s Hammer. I did not care what was going on as far as clouds or the sky in general was concerned. The fact that a storm was brewing at the time only meant that I needed to hurry up and do what I needed to do with regard to capturing the necessary photos needed for creating the image.

It wasn’t until I was back home processing the Ultra-Resolution Image that the legend of Thor’s Hammer dawned on me. I hadn’t really thought about it up until then. As part, if not the main part of the legend, is the Hammer’s function or ability to summon lighting, thunder, clouds, storms. In this sense the incoming clouds, the brewing storm at the time of the image capture, was fantastically appropriate.

Thinking back, I’m wondering if the Hammer was having an issue with me photographing it? I’m glad I didn’t linger long to find out. I returned to my car moments before a fierce lighting storm hit the area!

Did I mention I LOVE clouds in an image!

Title Origin: The Gathering Of Clouds – Thor’s Hammer seemed obvious.

You too can be a part of The Gathering Of Clouds by ordering a VAST print today.

Thanks ... and thanks again,

David David

Life Is An Adventure!

First light spreads softly over the north shore of Kauai, brushing the clouds, waves, and wet sand with a glow that feels almost unreal in its calm. Standing alone on the beach near Hanalei Bay, before the day’s first footprints appear, you’re wrapped in the quiet rhythm of the surf and the sense that this moment is yours and yours alone.

In conditions like this, nothing stays still—winds are gusting, waves are constantly reshaping the shoreline, and the color of the sky shifts with every passing minute. Building a high-resolution multi-row panorama here means anticipating those changes and working quickly, stitching together dozens of frames so the final image feels like a single, effortless breath.

As I worked through the sequence, I noticed a sea turtle tucked into the sand, taking a peaceful morning rest just above the reach of the waves. That small, intimate detail anchors the scene and reminds you that this isn’t just a pretty sunrise, but a living, breathing shoreline where wildlife and water share the same quiet dawn.

For me, the north shore of Kauai is a place where time seems to slow down, where you can simply stand, breathe, and appreciate how extraordinary it is to witness nature on this scale. As a large-format print, this photograph is meant to be that piece of Kauai you can take home—a window back to that empty beach at sunrise, where the light, the ocean, and the stillness of the turtle invite you to pause and feel it all over again.

Morning in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park feels almost otherworldly, as light filters through layers of fog and branches in unexpected ways. One moment the forest is dim and hushed, and the next, a single ray of sun cuts through the canopy to ignite the deep, vibrant reds of one colossal redwood trunk.

In this scene, that beam of light found a giant—roughly twenty feet in diameter and likely 800–1000 years old—briefly turning its bark into a glowing pillar amid the shadows. Standing at its base and looking up, the immense scale makes it easy to forget yourself, leaving you with a humbling awareness of just how small and fleeting we are compared to these ancient trees.

Capturing this high resolution redwoods photo meant working fast; the light that parsed through the forest to spotlight this one area didn’t last long. The image is built to preserve every subtle detail in the bark, ferns, and mist, so that even in large-format prints the texture and depth of the forest feel tangible.

As wall art, this ultra-high resolution redwood photograph becomes a portal into that fleeting moment of illumination—a reminder of old-growth forests that have endured for centuries. It’s a piece meant to bring that sense of awe and quiet humility into your space, inviting you to pause, look up, and feel the presence of these giants every time you walk past.

Warm fall light pours across the southern Oregon coast, turning sea stacks and wet sand into bands of gold just as a flock of pelicans glides through the frame. Standing alone on a bluff above this rugged beach at sunset, you can almost feel the air cool as the sun sinks and the colors deepen from soft pastels into rich, dramatic tones.

After a short hike down to this overlook, the alignment of offshore rocks and the setting sun finally matched the composition I’d been searching for over years of exploring this coastline. In that quiet moment, with only the sound of the surf below, there was a deep sense of peace and the feeling of having arrived exactly where I needed to be.

This scene is built from a multi-row panorama, stitched from many ultra-high resolution frames to capture every ripple of water and streak of cloud as they shifted second by second. Because the waves, clouds, and pelicans were all moving, synchronizing them into a seamless whole was a technical challenge that mirrors the fleeting balance of the actual moment.

As a large-format print, this photograph invites you into that cliffside vantage point, letting you trace the shoreline, study individual birds in flight, and get lost in the subtle gradations of color across the sky. It’s the kind of image that rewards slow looking—an immersive window into one of the most dramatic stretches of the Pacific Northwest coast, captured at its most tranquil and luminous.

It's been 45 years since the volcano's 1980 eruption. Yet 45 years later the lake in the photo has numerous logs from the trees that were snapped like toothpicks when the mountain exploded.

Mount Saint Helens, is a volcanic peak in the Cascade Range, southwestern Washington, U.S. Its eruption on May 18, 1980, was one of the greatest volcanic explosions ever recorded in North America. Mount St. Helens is the most active volcano in the Cascade Range, and it is the most likely of the contiguous U.S. volcanoes to erupt in the future.

I was living in Casper, Wyoming when the mountain exploded, some 812 miles east. The next day at 5pm when I left work there was nearly 1/4 inch of ash accumulated on the hood of my pickup.

Mount Saint Helens was named by English navigator George Vancouver for the British ambassador to Spain, Alleyne Fitzherbert, who held the title of Baron St. Helens.

Scott stood at the edge of the viewpoint, his breath blooming in the crisp, cold air of Jasper National Park. Before him, Athabasca Falls was a cathedral of frozen motion, with turquoise ice pillars clinging to the rock walls like organ pipes. While most tourists snapped a quick selfie and retreated to their heated cars, Scott was beginning his marathon. He carefully leveled his heavy-duty tripod and set up the special equipment that secured his camera, knowing that to capture a true ultra-high-resolution image, he wasn't just taking a picture; he was mapping a masterpiece.

His multi-axis panoramic head moved with surgical precision, guiding the lens through a grid of hundreds of overlapping frames. Each "click" captured a tiny sliver of reality. It was a tedious dance of technology and patience, requiring him to stay perfectly still and vigilant.

By the time the final shutter fired, Scott’s fingers were numb, but his spirit was soaring. Back in his studio, this raw data would be woven into a digital tapestry so detailed that a viewer could zoom in to see immense details. He had successfully bottled the raw, frigid power of the Canadian Rockies. As he packed his gear, Scott looked at the frozen landscape one last time, knowing he had captured a version of this moment that was, quite literally, larger than life.

As the chilly fall breezes succumb to the icy gales of winter in the Colorado high country, time seems to slow to nearly a stop as the land settles into it’s winter slumber. I had heard of the frozen waves that occur in winter at Dream Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park for years and had wanted to hike up there to see and photograph them.

The frozen ice waves are an unbelievable wintertime phenomenon that is caused by freezing temperatures and strong dry winds. It is called sublimation, which is the process where solid ice evaporates directly into water vapor without becoming a liquid first. Dream Lake experiences incredibly strong dry winds during the winter months. Eddy currents of the dry air blowing across the ice surfaces slowly, but surely, create these patterns in ice’s surface that appear as if waves on the water froze in place. In locations near logs or rocks this is exacerbated even more.

This is a focus stacked, stitched image made up of 7090 individual focus bracketed images. This yielded 225 focus stacked sets in a 9 row by 25 column array. The nearest focal point was about 8 ft. from the camera that was mounted about 2-1/2 ft. above the frozen surface of the lake.

Scott stood at the edge of the viewpoint, his breath blooming in the crisp, cold air of Jasper National Park. Before him, Athabasca Falls was a cathedral of frozen motion, with turquoise ice pillars clinging to the rock walls like organ pipes. While most tourists snapped a quick selfie and retreated to their heated cars, Scott was beginning his marathon. He carefully leveled his heavy-duty tripod and set up the special equipment that secured his camera, knowing that to capture a true ultra-high-resolution image, he wasn't just taking a picture; he was mapping a masterpiece.

His multi-axis panoramic head moved with surgical precision, guiding the lens through a grid of hundreds of overlapping frames. Each "click" captured a tiny sliver of reality. It was a tedious dance of technology and patience, requiring him to stay perfectly still and vigilant.

By the time the final shutter fired, Scott’s fingers were numb, but his spirit was soaring. Back in his studio, this raw data would be woven into a digital tapestry so detailed that a viewer could zoom in to see immense details. He had successfully bottled the raw, frigid power of the Canadian Rockies. As he packed his gear, Scott looked at the frozen landscape one last time, knowing he had captured a version of this moment that was, quite literally, larger than life.

Scott stood in the silent, frozen heart of the East Kootenays, where the air was so crisp it felt brittle against his cheeks. Before him, a stand of trees, a mix of pine and larch, bowing under the weight of powder, yet they hadn't lost their structural elegance. He leveled his tripod with practiced precision, mounting a specialized head designed to capture the thousands of individual frames required for a true gigapixel panorama.

The silence of the BC countryside was absolute, broken only by the rhythmic click of the shutter and the soft, occasional "whoosh" of a distant branch finally surrendering its heavy white burden.

Through the long focal length of his lens, the trees revealed a secret world hidden from the naked eye. While the limbs were heavy with blankets of white, the high-resolution sensors captured the "feathery" snow and frost that clung to the tips of individual needles and branches. These delicate structures looked like frozen breath or fine lace, accentuating the skeletal beauty of the wood beneath the mass of the storm.

Once the mechanical whirring ceased, Scott was left with a digital mosaic of immense proportions. Once stitched, the final image would allow a viewer to zoom from a wide vista down to the crystalline ridges of a single snow-covered branch. He packed his gear, satisfied that he had successfully achieved a moment where the force of a Canadian winter met the fragile, intricate artistry of the forest. The gigapixel shot wasn't just a photograph; it was a microscopic map of a frozen masterpiece.

Abraham Lake ice bubbles are a stunning winter natural phenomenon that occur on Abraham Lake, an artificial reservoir on the North Saskatchewan River in western Alberta, Canada.

Beneath the surface of the frozen lake, methane gas bubbles get trapped in the ice during winter. These bubbles are produced when organic matter at the bottom of the lake decomposes without oxygen. As methane rises toward the surface, it becomes frozen in place by the forming ice, creating layers of white, rounded bubbles. The result is a surreal pattern of white, disc-shaped bubbles suspended at different depths — often in concentric rings or columns — against the crystal-clear turquoise ice. From a distance, they resemble floating pearls, jellyfish, or frozen fireworks.

Scott has been visiting Abraham Lake and photographing frozen ice bubbles since 2007, returning year after year as the lake revealed new patterns and moods. Recently, Scott has started creating ultra-high-resolution photographs of the ice bubbles and surrounding mountains. However, due to the specialized equipment and techniques required, the normally high winds in the area make creating such images an immense challenge. This means that such images can only be made during short opportunities with ideal weather, and that the creation of these high-resolution images will be a long-running project.

While light, fluffy hoarfrost is common on the prairies, the thicker, heavier rime ice is less common, typically occurring once a winter, or sometimes not at all. Rime frost forms when supercooled water droplets in freezing fog come into contact with surfaces (like trees, power lines, or fences) and freeze instantly. These events are often associated with high-humidity mornings, low wind, and temperatures between -4 and -7 C (25 and 19 F) or lower. A significant rime ice event occurred around Jan. 3–5, 2026, in parts of Southern Alberta when heavy, persistent fog in the region left a thick layer of rime ice. It was during these days that Scott set out to document this rare meteorological spectacle, with thick layers of rime frost transforming the prairies into a crystalline kingdom.

To achieve ultra-high resolution, Scott employed a technique known as "focus stacking," combined with a panoramic stitch, capturing thousands of individual frames that were later merged. He set up his ultra-high-resolution camera and equipment with meticulous care, knowing that each frame would hold millions of tiny details—details that most people would never notice in the fleeting cold, but which he felt compelled to preserve. Scott moved with practiced precision, knowing that the delicate rime frost was as fragile as spun glass. Every skeletal cottonwood branch or spruce needle had been thickened by inches of icy plumage, creating a monochromatic world that felt both silent and infinite. Every crystalline spike and delicate fracture in the ice was rendered with such staggering clarity that the final composition felt less like a photograph and more like a tactile window into the frozen landscape.

Over 3 days, Scott worked in the cold conditions from dawn to dusk, moving from one breathtaking scene to another. With rime frost everywhere, some locations that might normally be passed over as not being very photogenic had been completely transformed into frozen wonders. Scott was proud to have created these wonderful images during the fleeting moments of a rare winter event.

While light, fluffy hoarfrost is common on the prairies, the thicker, heavier rime ice is less common, typically occurring once a winter, or sometimes not at all. Rime frost forms when supercooled water droplets in freezing fog come into contact with surfaces (like trees, power lines, or fences) and freeze instantly. These events are often associated with high-humidity mornings, low wind, and temperatures between -4 and -7 C (25 and 19 F) or lower. A significant rime ice event occurred around Jan. 3–5, 2026, in parts of Southern Alberta when heavy, persistent fog in the region left a thick layer of rime ice. It was during these days that Scott set out to document this rare meteorological spectacle, with thick layers of rime frost transforming the prairies into a crystalline kingdom.

To achieve ultra-high resolution, Scott employed a technique known as "focus stacking," combined with a panoramic stitch, capturing thousands of individual frames that were later merged. He set up his ultra-high-resolution camera and equipment with meticulous care, knowing that each frame would hold millions of tiny details—details that most people would never notice in the fleeting cold, but which he felt compelled to preserve. Scott moved with practiced precision, knowing that the delicate rime frost was as fragile as spun glass. Every skeletal cottonwood branch or spruce needle had been thickened by inches of icy plumage, creating a monochromatic world that felt both silent and infinite. Every crystalline spike and delicate fracture in the ice was rendered with such staggering clarity that the final composition felt less like a photograph and more like a tactile window into the frozen landscape.

Over 3 days, Scott worked in the cold conditions from dawn to dusk, moving from one breathtaking scene to another. With rime frost everywhere, some locations that might normally be passed over as not being very photogenic had been completely transformed into frozen wonders. Scott was proud to have created these wonderful images during the fleeting moments of a rare winter event.

While light, fluffy hoarfrost is common on the prairies, the thicker, heavier rime ice is less common, typically occurring once a winter, or sometimes not at all. Rime frost forms when supercooled water droplets in freezing fog come into contact with surfaces (like trees, power lines, or fences) and freeze instantly. These events are often associated with high-humidity mornings, low wind, and temperatures between -4 and -7 C (25 and 19 F) or lower. A significant rime ice event occurred around Jan. 3–5, 2026, in parts of Southern Alberta when heavy, persistent fog in the region left a thick layer of rime ice. It was during these days that Scott set out to document this rare meteorological spectacle, with thick layers of rime frost transforming the prairies into a crystalline kingdom.

To achieve ultra-high resolution, Scott employed a technique known as "focus stacking," combined with a panoramic stitch, capturing thousands of individual frames that were later merged. He set up his ultra-high-resolution camera and equipment with meticulous care, knowing that each frame would hold millions of tiny details—details that most people would never notice in the fleeting cold, but which he felt compelled to preserve. Scott moved with practiced precision, knowing that the delicate rime frost was as fragile as spun glass. Every skeletal cottonwood branch or spruce needle had been thickened by inches of icy plumage, creating a monochromatic world that felt both silent and infinite. Every crystalline spike and delicate fracture in the ice was rendered with such staggering clarity that the final composition felt less like a photograph and more like a tactile window into the frozen landscape.

Over 3 days, Scott worked in the cold conditions from dawn to dusk, moving from one breathtaking scene to another. With rime frost everywhere, some locations that might normally be passed over as not being very photogenic had been completely transformed into frozen wonders. Scott was proud to have created these wonderful images during the fleeting moments of a rare winter event.

While light, fluffy hoarfrost is common on the prairies, the thicker, heavier rime ice is less common, typically occurring once a winter, or sometimes not at all. Rime frost forms when supercooled water droplets in freezing fog come into contact with surfaces (like trees, power lines, or fences) and freeze instantly. These events are often associated with high-humidity mornings, low wind, and temperatures between -4 and -7 C (25 and 19 F) or lower. A significant rime ice event occurred around Jan. 3–5, 2026, in parts of Southern Alberta when heavy, persistent fog in the region left a thick layer of rime ice. It was during these days that Scott set out to document this rare meteorological spectacle, with thick layers of rime frost transforming the prairies into a crystalline kingdom.

To achieve ultra-high resolution, Scott employed a technique known as "focus stacking," combined with a panoramic stitch, capturing thousands of individual frames that were later merged. He set up his ultra-high-resolution camera and equipment with meticulous care, knowing that each frame would hold millions of tiny details—details that most people would never notice in the fleeting cold, but which he felt compelled to preserve. Scott moved with practiced precision, knowing that the delicate rime frost was as fragile as spun glass. Every skeletal cottonwood branch or spruce needle had been thickened by inches of icy plumage, creating a monochromatic world that felt both silent and infinite. Every crystalline spike and delicate fracture in the ice was rendered with such staggering clarity that the final composition felt less like a photograph and more like a tactile window into the frozen landscape.

Over 3 days, Scott worked in the cold conditions from dawn to dusk, moving from one breathtaking scene to another. With rime frost everywhere, some locations that might normally be passed over as not being very photogenic had been completely transformed into frozen wonders. Scott was proud to have created these wonderful images during the fleeting moments of a rare winter event.

While light, fluffy hoarfrost is common on the prairies, the thicker, heavier rime ice is less common, typically occurring once a winter, or sometimes not at all. Rime frost forms when supercooled water droplets in freezing fog come into contact with surfaces (like trees, power lines, or fences) and freeze instantly. These events are often associated with high-humidity mornings, low wind, and temperatures between -4 and -7 C (25 and 19 F) or lower. A significant rime ice event occurred around Jan. 3–5, 2026, in parts of Southern Alberta when heavy, persistent fog in the region left a thick layer of rime ice. It was during these days that Scott set out to document this rare meteorological spectacle, with thick layers of rime frost transforming the prairies into a crystalline kingdom.

To achieve ultra-high resolution, Scott employed a technique known as "focus stacking," combined with a panoramic stitch, capturing thousands of individual frames that were later merged. He set up his ultra-high-resolution camera and equipment with meticulous care, knowing that each frame would hold millions of tiny details—details that most people would never notice in the fleeting cold, but which he felt compelled to preserve. Scott moved with practiced precision, knowing that the delicate rime frost was as fragile as spun glass. Every skeletal cottonwood branch or spruce needle had been thickened by inches of icy plumage, creating a monochromatic world that felt both silent and infinite. Every crystalline spike and delicate fracture in the ice was rendered with such staggering clarity that the final composition felt less like a photograph and more like a tactile window into the frozen landscape.

Over 3 days, Scott worked in the cold conditions from dawn to dusk, moving from one breathtaking scene to another. With rime frost everywhere, some locations that might normally be passed over as not being very photogenic had been completely transformed into frozen wonders. Scott was proud to have created these wonderful images during the fleeting moments of a rare winter event.