Hidden Lake
It was a long week out in Glacier National Park, dodging fires, escaping the smoke and hunting for clouds—tough even finding flowing water and flowers. With a...
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It was a long week out in Glacier National Park, dodging fires, escaping the smoke and hunting for clouds—tough even finding flowing water and flowers. With apparently just 15% of snowfall this past winter, drought conditions were in full effect—flowers were long gone for the most part and creek beds were nearly dry. This evening though, we were able to get out from most of the smokey haze and catch some nice, interesting light up at Logan Pass. This is Hidden Lake at the foot of Bearhat Mountain. The search for foreground life led me to this spot where I was able to get a slight sideview angle on the mountain and some greater depth out to the horizon. Blended around 6 shots to get sharpness throughout. With Going to the Sun road closed I was worried we weren’t going to be able to make it up here. Was incredible to finally see it—a photographer’s dream.
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Sep, 2015Views
16879
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Awards
Chatter Award
Runner Up in Our National Parks Photo Contest
Runner Up in Mountain Shapes Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Mountain Shapes Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Our National Parks Photo Contest
Winner in Peaks and Valleys Photo Challenge
FUJIFILM XF 100-400mm Lens
Featured
Contest Finalist in World Expeditions Photo Contest
Runner Up in Alluring Landscapes Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in From Afar: Landscapes Photo Contest
Winner in Mountain Passion Photo Challenge
Contest Finalist in Alluring Landscapes Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Image of the Year Photo Contest by Snapfish
People's Choice in Montana Photo Challenge
Winner in The beauty of National Parks! Photo Challenge
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Outstanding Creativity
Magnificent Capture
All Star
Superior Skill
Love it
Genius
Virtuoso
Emotions
Impressed
Top Ranks
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 10 rank
PRO
laurenkaymyers
September 14, 2015
This is absolutely stunning. Wonderful capture. Welcome to Viewbug!
PRO
nina050
October 01, 2015
Wow....your work is worth a thousand words...except I'm speechless! Would love to watch you as you do your post processing to learn a few tricks!
Every one of your photographs is a masterpiece...your talent is apparent in all of them...
Every one of your photographs is a masterpiece...your talent is apparent in all of them...
PRO
Platinum
PRO
JohnWaldronImages
October 23, 2015
Absolutely stunning composition! It's very difficult to compose such large subjects in an interesting pattern, and you did an amazing job!
PRO
ryanbuchanan
October 23, 2015
Thanks John! This was about 7 shots at different focus points blended together for sharpness throughout-however it doesn't look too sharp on here for some reason.
PRO
ryanbuchanan
November 19, 2015
Thanks! You can find out when I release my processing video by the end of the year!
1Photogal
November 22, 2015
Thank you for entering Montana Photo Challenge. Congratulations on Peoples Choice. Beautiful Photo!
PRO
PRO+
PRO
Platinum
Kathy_Banich
December 28, 2015
Congratulations Ryan - this is a beautiful image - well worth every award it gets :-)
PRO
Ultimate
PRO
PRO
NoelleMirabella
January 25, 2016
This is incredible, as is all of your work. Do you offer any mentoring or classes? I would love to learn from you.
PRO
ryanbuchanan
January 25, 2016
Thanks Noelle, I currently do not do any workshops but am working on my first processing videos to show all my tips and methods, taking you from RAW image to final work. I will let you know when it is complete. Thanks for your interest.
PRO
racheljonesross
March 12, 2016
This is gorgeous! I'm looking forward to the release of your processing videos. Your work is so inspiring!
PRO
PRO
LindieK
May 26, 2016
This is just an amazing shot. Without any doubt has the WOW-factor in abundance ! Congratulations !
gatorbait38
May 26, 2016
Congratulations on the award! Well deserved. That is a classic to be proud of. Absolutely beautiful!!!!!!!
PRO
Carlos_Santero
June 01, 2016
Hey Ryan, I thought to myself this style I know.... yes from your 500px account! Congrats dude!!!!!!
PRO
PRO+
PRO+
NarrowGatePhotography
June 19, 2016
I love the depth of this shot. I feel as though I could take a step and be right there. The sharp foreground and sharpness throughout is just perfect. Love it!
PRO+
adavies
September 02, 2016
Congratulations on being the Grand Winner of my Peaks and Valleys challenge! Awesome image...and it's done you proud again! Congrats! :)
IanGastonPhotography
December 04, 2016
Hey dude! Great to see your wonderful work here as well! Congrats on all the dang awards...well deserved
Platinum
dtcheung
April 18, 2017
Love this sunset shot of Hidden Lake at Glacier National Park. It must be pretty dark by the time you came back down to the parking lot, or you were camping overnight. Need to plan for this next time I am up there provided that the weather will be cooperating....
Platinum
Platinum
nandicmb
May 03, 2017
Congratulations on all your Awards. A "masterpiece" to say to say the least but by cursor jumped :-)!!
PRO
PRO
Normzplace
September 07, 2017
I love this spot, hiked it many times. I recognized it the minute I saw it. Great shot!
Platinum
PRO
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken at Logan Pass in Glacier National Park—the highest point on the Going-to-the-Sun-Road. After a nice hike, you reach Hidden Lake and Bearhat Mountain. I found a viewpoint that gave me more of an angled view of the mountain, to catch more side light and add more depth to the scene. I took this shot laying down, with my camera inches off the ground and my lens nearly touching the small flowers in the foreground.Time
I hiked up to this point in the late afternoon and was shocked by the beauty of this place. Incredibly peaceful—perfect temperature, almost no wind. I found my composition and got everything set in place. For the background mountain scene, this was taken just as the last light was kissing those mountain tops. However, due to the low light conditions, and the depth of field of the entire scene, I had to "focus stack" the foreground images around 20 minutes prior to sunset. This allowed me to use the greater amount of light (along with a smaller f-stop, or larger aperture, used when focus stacking) for a faster shutter speed to freeze the movement of the flowers. See below for more details on this.Lighting
This was a tough week of shooting due to all of the forest fires raging in the area. Most of the locations were choked out by a smokey haze which killed most of the interesting light. Luckily, up at Logan Pass, we were high enough and out of the direction of the wind as to get mostly clear skies. The subtle haze in this image actually helped enhance the colorful glow at this time. Shooting in low lighting conditions can be difficult due to the long exposure needed and the movement of the flowers. It was important for me to capture the foreground elements about 20 minutes prior to sunset when there was a bit more light, allowing for a shorter exposure time. Upping the ISO and opening the aperture allowed me to get the foreground shots at around 1/40 of a second. Then when the lighting was exactly how I wanted it on the mountains, I captured that and blended in post.Equipment
This was shot on a Nikon D800e, with a 14-24mm Nikkor lens with a Wonderpana polarizer, on a Manfrotto CX PRO 4 tripod.Inspiration
Heading to Glacier National Park I knew I wanted to capture a unique mountain scene at peak flower bloom. Having seen many other photographers' masterpieces, I knew what I was striving for. Typically this is the best time of year for this, but this August, after a very low snowpack the previous winter, the rivers were running dry and the flowers were very sparse. So upon reaching this location, I was thrilled to find a healthy patch and the right light hitting those mountains.Editing
For me, the real transformation and sometimes the more labor intensive part begins in post. It is my favorite part though because it is where the artistic process begins. One thing I love about photography is the creative freedom and how differently people can interpret the same scene. Three people shooting at the same location can come up with three completely unique results, not only compositionally, but based on their own artistic vision. Capturing the RAW data is one thing, but the ability in post to "paint with light" and create various moods and emotions resulting in a unique work of art is what I love. I have ever-evolving methods for processing my images, from how I handle the RAW image in Lightroom, to the steps I take in Photoshop to balance the tones, lighting and color—even down to sharpening for web viewing. I use luminosity masks to make specific lighting adjustments (which I highly recommend), Orton lighting effects and even some photoshop plugins. Once I have an image where I like it, I try to set an image aside for a few days and come back to it for fresh take. Many times I find myself asking “what was I thinking here?” Doing this really helps me fine tune the image.In my camera bag
- Camera Body (Nikon D800e) - 14-24mm lens - 24-70mm lens - 70-200mm lens - Remote trigger - Lee Filters / Wonderpana filters - Batteries / Memory cards - Microfiber towel - Kimtech Kimwipes are used in science labs and great for cleaning lenses—especially water spray.Feedback
I love creating depth of field in my images. I try to make the foreground elements fill the frame and appear larger to catch the viewer’s eye and move them into the scene. The challenge with this is capturing everything sharply throughout—especially with moving foreground elements and low-light conditions. With this image my lens was just a couple of inches from those first flowers. There is no way I could focus on those flowers while also having the rest of the scene in focus. I knew I had to do a “focus-stack” because the depth of field was so great. In all, it took around 7 shots to piece this one together. First, I set up my composition and got my settings straight with my lens switched to manual mode and my tripod inches off the ground. I started by focusing on the flowers closest to me and capturing that shot with as fast a shutter speed as I could to freeze any movement. Without moving or changing a thing, I manually turn only the focus ring a small increment at a time to move my focus out just a touch and capture the shot at each point until the focus is at infinity. When practicing this, you will notice the focus changes very quickly with close up foreground elements, so I try to make small increments each the same amount. Since you are capturing each focused section at a time, you don’t need to use an f-stop of 18 or 20 which can lead to some diffraction. And in lower light conditions you want to let more light in with a larger aperture for a shorter exposure—especially when shooting things like flowers which can be constantly moving. You can use something more in the lenses ‘sweet spot’, anywhere from f/7.1 - f/11. If you have more patience than I do, you can also focus stack using your camera’s “Live View” mode and zooming in on different sections in your scene to be sure you are capturing every section in focus. You may also want to bracket or adjust your exposure settings on the final image to adjust for a brighter sky or sun. In post is where the magic happens. From Lightroom I export each of my 7 images with different focal settings to photoshop using the command “Open as layers in Photoshop”. This does just that and stacks my 7 images as 7 layers into one file in Photoshop. Next, I auto-align the layers by selecting them all and then go to Edit > Auto Align Layers. Next, I select all the layers again and go to Edit > Auto-Blend Layers and choose Stack Images in the popup window. This will take all the focused parts of each image and blend them into one image. Photoshop blends these layers, adding masks to various areas of each layer to let the focused part of each image show through. I then check photoshop’s work by zooming in and correcting any errors by adjusting the masks. This happens around certain edges and when wrong focal points selected by photoshop—especially when dealing with slightly moving subjects. This whole process can be quite involved but photoshop usually does a good job. Once I have my fully focused base image, I continue on with my usual processing methods.
