The zoom mechanism on my camera has become sticky due to the cold, my viewfinder keeps fogging up, and my fingers grow numb with the biting wind, but I don’t care. There’s a whole bunch of other tourists milling about, posing for selfies and blocking  my shots, but it doesn’t matter. The landscape in front of me is one that triggers my inspiration and drives me to keep taking pictures despite the circumstances. I really hope my photos can do this place justice, but in case they can’t, I have these words: They call them Snow Monsters;  trees covered on all sides by snow and ice, turning them into twisted irregular shapes. Hundreds upon hundreds of frozen pieces of modern art spread out all over the mountain side like a great big field of strange sculptures. The landscape feels almost alien, like I’ve somehow ended up on a distant planet. The only thing that detracts from that impression is the fact that there’s a bunch of other people here. However, that doesn’t stop me from continuing to explore as if they weren’t there.