In Avalanche Lake
While in beautiful Glacier National Park, I had the opportunity to hike the ever so popular Avalanche Lake Trail. A really nice hike through some lush, green f...
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While in beautiful Glacier National Park, I had the opportunity to hike the ever so popular Avalanche Lake Trail. A really nice hike through some lush, green forest to an opening where there sits a lake (created by Glacier melt) surrounded on 3 sides by snow covered mountains. Below is a shot taken from within the lake– yes, I hiked in water ankle deep water to take this photo. Once I was positioned, I precariously steadied my tripod on three protruding rocks. The three falls are clearly visible coming down from the glaciers a top the mountains in the background.
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Dec, 2013Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
Avalanche Lake in Glacier National Park. I walked out into the lake to get this shot so I could frame the shot better – since it was only about 10" deep. The lake is fed by runoff from the melting glaciers a top the continental divide - you can see several water falls in the photo that feed the lake. At the time this photo was taken, late June, the Going to the Sun Road was still closed, so this was one of the first hikes we did when we arrived at the park. The park service was still removing 75' of snow and making repairs to the road.Time
The photo was taken around 4pm just after a major late afternoon rain storm rolled in (it was actually snowing atop the continental divide pictured here). The hike to the lake was approximately 30 minutes from the park road.Lighting
Well, the lighting was rather diffuse and the sun mostly obscured by the clouds. However, in this case and it being late afternoon, there is enough character in the clouds and just enough blue sky to provide the right mood.Equipment
Shot with: Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II Canon L series 24-70mm Lens @ 24mm Focal Length: f18 ISO 50 Gitzo Carbon Fiber Travel Tripod Really Right Stuff BH-45 Ball Head Really Right Stuff L-Bracket B+W Circular Polarizing Filter at 50% to reduce reflectionsInspiration
I was awe inspired as we emerged from the thickly wooded trail when I saw this scene. My ultimate goal was to print this as large as possible and cover a wall in my home floor to ceiling to provide the same feeling I had when I first took in the scene. Unfortunately, I never got around to printing it that large.Editing
Yes, I did some initial development of the RAW image file in Photoshop CS Camera RAW and finished the image in Photoshop. I used a number of Camera RAW tools including a neutral density filter to bring out the clouds and sky. Then, I opened the file in Photoshop and had to do a bit of shadow recovery since the photo was a bit underexposed. Otherwise, the photo depicts precisely what I saw.In my camera bag
Nowadays, I carry a Fujifilm X-T10 with a variety of Fujinon lenses depending on what I'll be shooting. However, I always take a couple of spare batteries, a mini MeFoto tripid, One prime, and one Zoom lens. I like to pack light when I'm out on the trail or walking about in a city.Feedback
Just make sure you bracket a shot like this and always check your exposure before leaving the scene. Bracketing would have helped a good deal here since the scene had such a wide dynamic range. It's a good thing the Canon 1Ds Mark II sensor has such a wide dynamic range, otherwise I would never have been able to pull so much detail from the shadows.
