Kevin Palmer

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  • While driving the backroads through the Custer National Forest I came across some interesting sandstone formations.
    Turned to Stone
  • Every day this peak is the last to see the sun in Southern California, and the first to see it rise. San Gorgonio Mountain stands 11,500' above the deserts and valleys. At this elevation the trees are stunted, and deep winter snows occasionally last through the summer. Growing up underneath it, climbing to the top has long been a goal of mine. But doing the long 19-mile trail as a dayhike would have put me on the summit during the worst time of day for photography. Camping at the top instead let me experience sunset, the stars, and sunrise. But it came at a cost of having to carry a much heavier pack more than a vertical mile upward.<br />
One of the best parts of being on a summit at the edge of day is watching the shadow of the mountain. This shadow is almost always triangular, regardless of the shape of the peak. A perspective effect makes the light rays appear to converge at the antisolar point. The haze and smoke in the lower atmosphere only amplified this effect. The mountain fully in sunlight on the right is San Jacinto Peak, which towers 10,000 feet above Palm Springs. The evening was calm enough. But towards morning the wind picked up to gale force, breaking my tent and robbing me of sleep.
    The Long Shadow
  • Even though 2019 was a very active storm season overall, it started quite late. It was well into June before there were any thunderstorms worth chasing locally. I caught up with this long shelf cloud on the plains outside of Broadus, Montana. When air cooled by rain hits the ground, it spreads out ahead of the storm. This lifts the warmer, moist air ahead of it, which condenses into a shelf cloud. They are usually associated with strong winds and heavy rain, but rarely tornadoes because they do not have the right shape.
    Hammond Shelf Cloud
  • Half-awake at 3AM I wandered the banks of the Tongue River in southern Montana. Fog drifted across the water like it was alive, slowing down, speeding up, and stopping. Every tree and bush shifted to an unfamiliar shape. Each breath I took added to the moisture in the air. All evening long the 75% moon hid the secrets of the night sky. Faint colors and dim stars were all drowned out by the bright, inescapable light source. But when the moon set and the fog appeared, it was a different world. The aurora glowed gently to the north while stars I haven’t seen in half a year rose to the east.
    River of Fog
  • Kirkjufellsfoss is one of the most iconic scenes in Iceland. Just Google "Iceland" and see how many times it shows up. The name translates to "church mountain waterfall" because of the peak's nearly perfect symmetrical shape. There is a trail (if it can be called that) leading to the top of Kirkjufell which is one of the steepest I've ever hiked. In the evening, tour buses stop here and this small spot is filled with hordes of tourists and photographers lined up tripod to tripod to capture the sunset. But I wanted to avoid that so I came back in the morning when it was much quieter. There was a storm moving in and the sunrise didn't look very promising. But the eastern sky took on an orange glow for a short time.
    Kirkjufellsfoss Sunrise
  • Underneath a volcanic field in the Mojave Desert there is a lava tube that is fascinating to explore. The cave is not very big, about the size of a house. The ceiling has 5 skylights which lets in sunlight, illuminating the walls of the cave. Throwing dust into the air made the sunbeam even more visible, and created this shape that resembles an angel.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 1/31/14
    Angelic Beam
  • Half-awake at 3AM I wandered the banks of the Tongue River in southern Montana. Fog drifted across the water like it was alive, slowing down, speeding up, and stopping. Every tree and bush shifted to an unfamiliar shape. Each breath I took added to the moisture in the air. All evening long the 75% moon hid the secrets of the night sky. Faint colors and dim stars were all drowned out by the bright, inescapable light source. But when the moon set and the fog appeared, it was a different world. The aurora glowed gently to the north while stars I haven’t seen in half a year rose to the east. Though Orion is considered a winter constellation, it first rises in the fall. The early morning hours essentially show a preview of the stars for the following season. Water vapor produced halos around the brighter stars Betelgeuse and Rigel, Castor and Pollux, enhancing their colors. At one point I walked too far into a wall of fog and could see nothing at all. When I woke up in my tent hours later, aside from the heavy dew everywhere, it was like the fog was never even there.
    Halos of Orion
  • It was a very hot summer day in Illinois with oppressive humidity and extremely unstable air. At 5PM this storm exploded into existence near Utica and in less than an hour it was dropping 4" hail. After leaving the storm to cross the Illinois River and avoid getting caught in the hail, I met back up with it here. The supercell was showing some of the best structure I've seen with an obvious spiral shape. The clear slot caused by the rear flank downdraft made it easy to pinpoint where a potential tornado would form. A likely funnel cloud can be seen just above the distant group of trees. But even though conditions in the upper atmosphere were more than enough to support a tornado, the winds at the surface were too weak. I followed the supercell for most of it's life cycle but nothing ever touched down.
    Red Barn Supercell
  • In January I went out to capture one of my favorite photogenic trees late at night. It sits by itself in a field near a small abandoned house. Cassiopeia, one of the most recognizable constellations, is like a celestial clock. In 23 hours and 56 minutes it will make one rotation around the North Star. But unlike a clock, it spins counterclockwise. When closest to the horizon the 5 brightest stars make the shape of a W, but when it's highest overhead it looks like an M. From anywhere above 35°N, Cassiopeia is circumpolar. That means the constellation neither rises nor sets, always staying above the horizon. In order to get a sharper picture I shot a 12-minute exposure of the foreground, and the tree branches didn't even move an inch. Windless nights are quite rare during winter in Wyoming.
    Night On the Homestead
  • Rock Creek Vista is the first scenic overlook on the Beartooth Highway, located at 9,200 feet. Looking southwest, the U-shape of the valley carved by glaciers was obvious
    U-Shaped Valley
  • The pyramid shaped shadow of Black Mountain grew larger as the sun set behind me. The views are amazing from this 9500' peak in the northern Bighorn Mountains. Climbing it in June is about 10X easier than the last time I climbed it in January.
    Black Shadow
  • The pyramid shaped Stapafell is reflected in a calm pond in Arnarstapi, Iceland.
    Stapafell Pond
  • After seeing only about 1 hour of clear skies over 5 nights, I was determined to catch a good aurora display on my last night in Iceland. The southern coast was showing the best weather forecast. So that is where I went, camping in the shadow of the glacier-capped Eyjafjallajökull volcano which was lit up by the moonlight. This is the same volcano that erupted 7 years ago with the giant ash cloud causing the biggest disruption to air travel since WWII. As soon as it got dark the northern lights came out and stayed the entire night. Compared to lower latitudes, the aurora up here is brighter and moves and changes so much faster. It will often appear anywhere in the sky, not just limited to the north. The aurora transformed into all kinds of interesting shapes, to me this shot looked like a surfing brontosaurus.
    Surfing Brontosaurus
  • High on the eastern slope of Quandary Peak in the Colorado Rockies, I came across these bizarre shapes in the snow. Drifts several feet high were curved back over themselves, like waves frozen in time. Only recently when reading a book about Antarctica did I learn these formations have a name: 'Sastrugi'. Sastrugi are sharp irregular grooves or ridges formed by wind erosion. They are common in polar regions or other barren, windswept areas. Here at 13,000 feet there were no trees or any other barriers. The winds were relentless, gusting to 60+ mph and producing a wind chill far below zero. Sastrugi are known to make skiing very challenging, and the few skiers I saw on this day looked like they were having a rough time. In Antarctica sastrugi have even been blamed for plane crashes, since they make landings and takeoffs quite difficult. The peak visible in the distance is Red Mountain and down below is Highway 9 just before it crosses the Continental Divide. 2 additional 14’ers, Grays Peak and Torreys Peak, can be seen on the far left.
    Quandary Sastrugi
  • I went back and had another go at processing my solar eclipse pictures. Here I combined several shots and tried to show every feature of the eclipse that I was able to capture. There is such a huge range of light that it's impossible to capture it all in one image. The glow around the sun is called the corona. Shaped by complex magnetic fields, it consists of super-heated plasma up to 450X hotter than the solar surface. The sun's north pole is located at 10 o'clock where the magnetic field lines are shorter. The red fringes on the right are fiery solar prominences, several times the size of Earth. Also shown is the diamond ring effect, when the first bright sliver of sunlight reappears from behind the moon. Details on the lunar surface can be seen because of an effect called earthshine (not to be confused with moonshine). Sunlight is reflected off of the Earth and faintly illuminates the dark side of the moon. Regulus is the star visible on the lower left.
    Eclipse All In One
  • In Medicine Rocks State Park, sandstone bluffs rise out of the prairie, formed into all kinds of interesting shapes by the wind.
    Prairie Monolith