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I took this photo while I was walking back to the Cave and Basin Historic Site in Banff National Park along the Sundance Trail....
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I took this photo while I was walking back to the Cave and Basin Historic Site in Banff National Park along the Sundance Trail.
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Nov, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken while I was walking back along the Sundance Trail to the Cave and Basin Historic site with my brother. The trail goes to Sundance Canyon, so we were returning from there. I was just taking photos along the trail both from and back to the Cave and Basin, and all of the photos were handheld. I don't usually take a tripod or monopod when I'm hiking anywhere, as it gets to be too bulky and too heavy.Time
This was taken at 1:03 PM on August 22, 2015. I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, so Banff National Park isn't that far from me - it's only a 1 and a half hour drive from my home. I will say that the wind was really cool that day, as the day before, while it was cold and rainy in Calgary, in the mountains it actually snowed! So, this was the first day of a gradual warmup in Alberta. That's why you see more snow on the mountains than usual for the time of year.Lighting
It was a bright and sunny day, so the only challenge was trying to compensate for the harsh sunlight. And, the sun was shining bright onto the trail, so having Sulphur Mountain to the right of the trail didn't really help matters. However, I was using a lens hood, so this helped prevent some harsh rays from entering the camera, and also prevented lens flares from showing up in the photo.Equipment
I used a Nikon D3100 and a Tamron 70-300 VC USD lens, as well as the lens hood that I mentioned in the previous answer.Inspiration
As I was walking back to the Cave and Basin from the Sundance Canyon with my brother, I was just looking around the scenery to look for photos that would be nice to take. I wanted unique shots that I didn't get walking to the canyon, when I saw this scene. Because of how nice it looked, I didn't want to miss it because I thought it would be great, so I took the photo. Little did I know that when I got back home to see how it turned out that it would end up this great.Editing
No, there was no post-processing involved. In fact, it looked so good out of the camera that I didn't do anything else with it.In my camera bag
When I took this photo, I had the Nikon D3100, Nikon 55-200mm, Nikon 18-55mm, Nikon 35mm f1.8 DX, Tamron 70-300mm VC USD, Nikon 50mm f1.8, and a Voking flash. I also had a few lens filters that only fit onto 52mm size lenses, lens hoods for the 35mm, 85mm, and 50mm lenses, a camera strap that screws into the tripod mount, an extra battery, and an SD card wallet. Now, I take with me the Tamron 70-300mm, Nikon 35mm f1.8 DX, Nikon 50mm f1.8, Nikon 85mm f1.8, Sigma 17-50mm f2.8, Nikon D7200, and the external flash that I mentioned. I also still have the strap, battery, SD card wallet, filters, and lens hoods.Feedback
Really, all I can say is pay attention to the scenery if you're on a hike in the mountains, regardless of where you live. Sometimes, you'll just see something, and you'll need to catch it. Also, it's important to have a lens hood on, as that helps protect against stray light, and can also help prevent the sun from getting into the camera and causing all those lens flares and "rainbow flares" that you sometimes see. Also, it helps that you have the correct lens on, and if not, to make sure that you have the correct lenses with you at all times in case you need to change them (i.e. you're too close to the scene or object that you're looking to capture). I got lucky here that these mountains were still pretty far enough away that I didn't need to change the lens, but if I was too close, I still had other lenses with me that I could simply change to in order to get this image.
