Photographs by Paolo Nacpil

Memories of Iceland

Pretty weird to wrap my head around the fact that I turned 31 today! I definitely don't feel like it and the years definitely flew by. Thankful for all the awesome experiences and adventures I've had and I'm looking forward to continuing that tradition. Also happy to have wonderfully supportive family and friends by my side! Thanks to all of you who have crossed paths with me on my journey!

I felt that now would be the appropriate time to share an appreciation video of sorts to the moments I've spent outdoors and in the presence of nature in the last 3 years. These are little snippets which are usually just a few seconds long that I've tried to cohesively put together to hopefully help scratch that itch we all probably have nowadays to get out there. I'm certain everyone will have a renewed appreciation for the outdoors, nature, and traveling once things go back to "normal"; I just hope that we learn to not take those things for granted and to be more conscious and active when it comes to preserving, conserving, and rehabilitating the wonderful planet we live in.

General locations of the sceneries are as follows - Banff, Lofoten Islands, Patagonia, Yosemite, Florida, Norway, and the Faroe Islands.

The wonderful song that I can't get enough of that also inspired this video is FKJ - Ylang Ylang.

An eight minute long exposure of the moonlight shining on Mount Fitz Roy with the stars in the background creating streaks in the sky as our planet revolves in space. What's not pictured is my goofy as grin behind the camera as I was waiting for the exposure to finish.

Mount Fitz Roy, Argentina

Machu Picchu, Peru

Lofoten Islands, Norway

Grayson Highlands, Virginia

Faroe Islands

It wouldn't be surprising if people aren't familiar with this place as I most certainly wasn't until I kept seeing photos of it pop up in photos and stories from landscape photographers. It's a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean situated in between Iceland and Norway.

Some of the most surreal and dreamy landscapes I've ever seen were on these islands. Everything felt like it was scaled to epic proportions from the sheer cliffs to the beautiful jagged rock formations in the sea, to the various sharp edges on different mountainsides. Their quaint villages all grouped together in little nooks of the island with their roofs made of grass; some of these villages were so isolated that they had less than 20 permanent residents. Driving on their roads was basically going through a blur of beautiful scenery with random backdrops of waterfalls scattered about all over the place. It honestly felt like you were living in someones vivid imagination.

Spent a lot of time swimming in the rivers and lakes of Yosemite and just enjoying relaxing while doing so. The water was chilly but growing up on cold showers is good training I guess! Haha. It was a nice change of pace from trying to hit up a bunch of different spots or doing strenuous hikes!

P.S. I probably looked silly setting up the self timer and running and looking away and being all casual! The struggles of self portraiture. Compose in your head and ore focus and hope for the best! Haha

Torres Del Paine National Park

Torres Del Paine National Park

Bathed in Morning Light

Banff National Park

Definitely one of the best camp spots I've been to by far. The huge lake seemingly all to yourself as there were only 3 other campers in the area. The water was really still on this night and the stars reflected beautifully off of it. Forced myself to stay up despite being really tired to at least be able to capture the moment. Funny anecdote: This whole area is grizzly bear country. When I was walking back to the tent to call it a night I sorta got spooked because of a low growling sound that I heard. Stopped in my tracks only to realize it was my friend @kristaysa snoring in the tent... This is 3 horizontal shots stacked vertically btw! Each shot was 30 seconds long at f/2 and ISO 6400.

A loud obnoxious sound blares; after a few seconds you realize it's your alarm. You turn it off and your body desperately wants to crawl into a ball and sleep some more but you fight the urge and you wiggle your way out of your sleeping bag. You zip open your tent and you are greeted by this perfectly still scenery. Not a single ripple on the water's surface can be seen. The sun is still hiding below the mountain ranges behind you but you know in just a few moments the mountains in front of you will be bathed in golden light. You stand there and take it all in. The first mountain top gets kissed by the warm light of the morning sun; you can't help but keep repeating to yourself out loud how fucking beautiful it is. You get hit with that buzz of excitement, you feel absolutely ecstatic, there's absolutely not a single negative thought or emotion that crosses your mind in the moment. That's the sort of high that I like to chase.

Banff National Park.

The past couple of days have been nothing but amazing. I feel fortunate enough to have been able to camp at this very site for 2 nights in a row. It was quite the experience to camp in grizzly country for the first time and to take the precautions seriously. It's all new to me being from a place where you don't have to worry about such things. It was a short 2.5 km hike to get to the site from the trailhead however it involved crossing through a river which made the experience even more memorable! This was taken during sunrise right before we hiked out to go pick up my cousin in Calgary so that we could then take him around Banff to see the sights!  Banff National Park.

Mood.

Sitting by the warmth of the fire, the sleeping bags in the cozy tent waiting for you to snuggle into them, warm food in your belly, mountain ranges surrounding you from all sides, and the expanse of the universe above your head; couldn't have asked for more! It was really cold and windy on the night this was taken and I had to warm up my hands in between shooting to keep them going!