When I posted some winter shots from an ice adventure I had done in Rocky Mountain National Park, my buddy and fellow professional nature photographer Matt Lerer called me out of the blue and told me he was flying out from Florida.  We planned a trip to the back country and on the way up we stopped at Dream Lake.  We were shooting on the ice when we started walking toward some ice waves.  I looked down and saw this shot instantly, snapped it real quick, and kept rolling.  I didn't think much of it until I started editing it and found this was my favorite winter shot I had taken in years.  Not only because it had taken me over 100,000 shots to get this single shot, but also because this connected with me physically, mentally, and metaphysically in so many senses.  This past winter was the hardest and darkest of my life and I felt frozen in the darkness for much of it, without seeing a way out.  I forged myself in ice and snow, pushing myself further and harder than I ever had in my ice adventures until I finally broke through the darkness and turned my entire life around.

Rocky Mountain National Park, CO