Riding through New Hampshire on the 2016 Restoring Hope Ministries Bike Tour.

Brian and I spent a week in New Zealand. The highlight for me was Milford Sound. It captured my heart. It make me realise where I am in my life and where I need to be.

This is Lake Marian (a mirror lake fed by glaciers in the mountains). The posted signs state it takes about 3 hours to hike up to the elevated lake. It took us about half that time. We met a few Germans up there who encouraged us to jump in the water — as they had. I placed my ankles in the water and my feet went numb within a couple of minutes. Then I tensed up, took a breath, and jumped in. Invigorating! I love you, New Zealand.

The photograph is made up of 21 images; HDRs combined into a panorama. There was a girl standing in the water in the middle of the shot. A mix of content-aware fill and Clone Stamp removed her rather seamlessly. I'm really happy with how this photo turned out. I used Photoshop CS6 for everything.

When I visited the Grand Canyon it didn’t look real. It looked more like a photograph. In fact, some photographs I’ve seen look more real than what I was seeing with my eyes. It was very surreal. I was in awe because of how fake it appeared. It looked more like a flat painting with no three-dimensional dpeth. Perhaps my mind couldn’t comprehend the vastness. The layers of rock; the sheer depth below. How is this possible?

We just stared at it for a while. We climbed down to a ridge jutting out from the main area. Fear abounding. We stared some more. The next day, we awoke before sunrise and had the opportunity to watch the sun appear above the horizon. What a magical experience.

I hope this photograph does the location justice. I manually HDR’d it in Photoshop. I exaggerated the colours a bit — it’s actually rather muted in person. I think the outcome is rather magical yet flat; how it felt in person.