2020 NANPA Award Winner

I’m excited to announce that Icy Cosmos is the NANPA Award Winner for Landscape images in their annual showcase. This was a challenging photo to capture during the dead of winter. Icy Cosmos was selected by a group of judges as the best in show in their scapes (landcape) category. Over the past few years I’ve had numerous images in the top 100, but it was nice to see one of my images win.

I will never forget taking this photo. It was a bitterly cold day when I biked across a frozen lake to access this ice cave. The following morning I was flying out for Bali so this was my only chance to make this image a reality. I had visited this ice cave on a couple of occasions and thought that the moulin would make for a perfect starscape image. The challenge is getting a clear night in Juneau.

I spent over 4 hours in the cave to get all the necessary star shots. Most of that time was spent outside the cave for safety reasons. When I finally got back to the house, I had another memorable experience.

Hives!

I reacted to something in that ice cave and my body was breaking out from head to toe. Or maybe I reacted to something I ate. Either way, it took over 3 weeks on an extended steroid dose pack before I could beat them. Definitely not my favorite experience.

All the pain was worth it to capture a unique image that shows the beauty of an Alaskan glacier. Sadly, this cave collapsed a couple months after I took this image. This spot will never be seen again.

I’m quite happy to be a NANPA Award Winner

They’re an awesome organization and well worth supporting. They also have great equipment insurance to protect my gear since I like to crawl under glaciers. Not the safest of locations, but it allowed me to capture an award winning photograph!