Mountain photography is endlessly fascinating for me. Each season brings its own set of transformations, opportunities, and challenges, and I find them all wonderfully invigorating. Winter is especially transformative, although its charms are more fleeting. The days are shorter, and peak snow conditions can last only a short while between storms. If special light happens to coincide with those periods, then I feel immensely fortunate, and pure joy pushes all other thoughts and emotions out of my head.

This particular day was about as good as they get. The season’s first big snowfall kicked off a phenomenal winter season in the Dolomites, just in time for my winter workshop there. It was a winter that kept on giving, with snow storms blanketing the region as late as early April, and I was thrilled to be there to enjoy both ends of the season’s generous run of white coatings.