Burrard Inlet and downtown Vancouver, shot from Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver, in March 2014.

Hoya ProND1000 filter.

Samsung NX10.

Photo Settings: 18mm, f/6, 72 seconds, ISO 100.

I pulled into Yosemite Valley expecting a dry Yosemite Falls. I was pleasantly surprised to see this!

Adobe Lightroom CC.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM.

Heceta Head Lighthouse Scenic Viewpoint in Oregon is a photography and scenery goldmine. It has the beach, lighthouse, rock stacks, lots of birds, and caves. It has to be one of the coolest places I've ever visited, and it wasn't very crowded (huge bonus).

Photomatix Pro 5.0, Adobe Photoshop.

Canon EOS 6D, Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 2,8/15 ZE.

Photo Settings: 15mm, f/11, 1 second, ISO 100.

Map: 44.1389, -124.1264

I took this photo near of our hotel at Coron-Corong Beach.

This is Bacuit Bay in El Nido, Palawan, Philippines.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM.

Photo Settings: 50mm, f/5, 1/125 second, ISO 100.

Map: 11.1597, 119.3978

Pittock Mansion is a very popular shooting spot in Portland. Luckily the fog can make the view completely different day after day.

Adobe Lightroom CS5.

Canon EOS 6D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM.

Photo Settings: 55mm, f/22, 1 second, ISO 100.

The form of the coastline around Durdle Door is controlled by its geology--both by the contrasting hardnesses of the rocks, and by the local patterns of faults and folds.The arch has formed on a concordant coastline where bands of rock run parallel to the shoreline. The rock strata are almost vertical, and the bands of rock are quite narrow. Originally a band of resistant Portland limestone ran along the shore, the same band that appears one mile along the coast forming the narrow entrance to Lulworth Cove. Behind this is a 120-metre (390 ft) band of weaker, easily eroded rocks, and behind this is a stronger and much thicker band of chalk, which forms the Purbeck Hills. These steeply dipping rocks are part of the geological structure known as the Lulworth crumple, itself part of a broader monocline (a kinked type of geological fold) produced by the building of the Alps during the mid-Cenozoic.

Nikon D800E, Samyang 14mm F2.8 IF ED MC Aspherical.

Photo Settings: 14mm, f/9, 1/200 second, ISO 125.

Map: 50.6225, -2.2725

My first trip to Yosemite, and there was a wildfire in the national park. The sun set through the smoke, illuminating Half Dome with this fiery orange glow.

Adobe Lightroom CC.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM.

Photo Settings: 185mm, f/2, 1/250 second, ISO 160.

A frozen swamp on in Pudasjärvi, Finland. Boxing Day 2014.

Sirui M-3204X tripod and Sirui K-40X ballhead, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.7.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM.

Photo Settings: 16mm, f/16, 1/13 second, ISO 100.

The graceful, winding arms of the majestic spiral galaxy M51 (NGC 5194) appear like a grand spiral staircase sweeping through space. They are actually long lanes of stars and gas laced with dust.

This sharpest-ever image of the Whirlpool Galaxy, taken in January 2005 with the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, illustrates a spiral galaxy's grand design, from its curving spiral arms, where young stars reside, to its yellowish central core, a home of older stars. The galaxy is nicknamed the Whirlpool because of its swirling structure.

The Whirlpool's most striking feature is its two curving arms, a hallmark of so-called grand-design spiral galaxies. Many spiral galaxies possess numerous, loosely shaped arms which make their spiral structure less pronounced. These arms serve an important purpose in spiral galaxies. They are star-formation factories, compressing hydrogen gas and creating clusters of new stars. In the Whirlpool, the assembly line begins with the dark clouds of gas on the inner edge, then moves to bright pink star-forming regions, and ends with the brilliant blue star clusters along the outer edge.

Some astronomers believe that the Whirlpool's arms are so prominent because of the effects of a close encounter with NGC 5195, the small, yellowish galaxy at the outermost tip of one of the Whirlpool's arms. At first glance, the compact galaxy appears to be tugging on the arm. Hubble's clear view, however, shows that NGC 5195 is passing behind the Whirlpool. The small galaxy has been gliding past the Whirlpool for hundreds of millions of years.

As NGC 5195 drifts by, its gravitational muscle pumps up waves within the Whirlpool's pancake-shaped disk. The waves are like ripples in a pond generated when a rock is thrown in the water. When the waves pass through orbiting gas clouds within the disk, they squeeze the gaseous material along each arm's inner edge. The dark dusty material looks like gathering storm clouds. These dense clouds collapse, creating a wake of star birth, as seen in the bright pink star-forming regions. The largest stars eventually sweep away the dusty cocoons with a torrent of radiation, hurricane-like stellar winds, and shock waves from supernova blasts. Bright blue star clusters emerge from the mayhem, illuminating the Whirlpool's arms like city streetlights.

The Whirlpool is one of astronomy's galactic darlings. Located 31 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici (the Hunting Dogs), the Whirlpool's beautiful face-on view and closeness to Earth allow astronomers to study a classic spiral galaxy's structure and star-forming processes.

Object Names: Whirlpool Galaxy, M51, NGC 5194/5

Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

After a day with somehow cloudy and rainy weather, we'd been really lucky to get a great sunset on top of the Empire State Building. We stayed there for three hours, watching the Big Apple first getting darker and darker and later becoming the city of stars. What a great place to be!

Capture One Pro 9.

Canon EOS 5DS R

, Canon EF 24-70mm f2.8L II USM.

Map: 40.7483, -73.9855