Moraine lake
The landscape of Moraine Lake muted by the smoke from hundreds of forest fires in British Columbia
The landscape of Moraine Lake muted by the smoke from hundreds of forest fires in British Columbia
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Aug, 2018Views
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Beautiful-Breeze
June 11, 2019
Absolutely beautiful. I love the composition and all the wonderful colors.
danielsuarez
July 23, 2019
Pretty impressive. I was there a couple of months ago. It was frozen unfortunately.
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Behind The Lens
Location
This is shot in the iconic Moraine Lake in the Banff National Park. "In" is not a typo, I was actually standing in the lake. Glacial water is very clear and very, very cold.Time
We had camped in the Lake Louise town site the night before and headed out the spot around 4am to take photos of the lake in the blue hour. Moraine lake is a bit of a popular spot (understatement) so I had stuck with my spot until the end of the golden hour and the lake was starting to fill up with tourists. Just after the end of what I thought was the last of the good light for the morning, we headed off for a walk along the shoreline taking handheld shots and checking out compositions. This was one of those last second images, no tripod, standing knee deep in the lake.Lighting
The unusual lighting stems entirely from the fact the we were in the middle of the worst wildfire season on record. 2000 fires destroyed more than 13,000 square kms of forest in British Columbia alone in 2018. The smoke from all those fires gave the whole scene a very eerier, unsettling feelingEquipment
Shot with a Nikon D750 and a 16-35mm Nikkor with a 1 stop, soft graduated filter. Hand held and hastily taken.Inspiration
Moraine lake is featured in 1000's of pictures every day, and while I did want to get the famous scene that featured on the Canadian $20 bill, I also wanted an image that was different to all the other photographers lined up there every morning during the summer. I had been looking at the small floating dock, considering the composition from my perch over looking the lake, but a constant stream of selfies being take there made me think it wasn't going to happen for me. Luckily, I managed to grab a moment where no one was on the dock, jumped in the lake and got my image.Editing
Not much processing. I think a little contrast to the clouds, bringing up some shadows in the distant trees and lens correction would about cover theIn my camera bag
I drag my Nikon 16-35 f4 everywhere with me, love the effect super wide angle lens can give you. I have recently found out how much I like telephoto landscape photography so I also use a Tamron 70-200, I love the ability to pick out a small pattern in the landscape, or the way a telephoto lens can compress a scene. I use these on my D750, mounted on a Manfrotto tripod. I use a variety of other lens and a couple differnt bodies, but those two lenses and the D750 are always with me.Feedback
Landscape photography is rewarding but difficult. Heading out event when the weather isn't cooperating, even if you don't get out of the car or take the camera out of the bag, there is still more chance of getting the shot than there is tucked up in bed. You never know what you might find. And keep going back, don't settle for the photo you got when you had aimed for something different, keep going back until you finally get that magical moment. If it was easy, everyone would be able to do it.
