Lazy Mountain, Alaska
I traveled last year to southeast Alaska for a wedding. On the way from Anchorage to McCarthy, we stopped in Palmer, Alaska, near the municipal airport. Lazy Mo...
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I traveled last year to southeast Alaska for a wedding. On the way from Anchorage to McCarthy, we stopped in Palmer, Alaska, near the municipal airport. Lazy Mountain looms over the airport and town. The overcast skies and low-hanging clouds made the scene almost surreal.
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Jan, 2019Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I hitched a ride with a friend from the Anchorage airport to my cousin's wedding in McCarthy, Alaska. My friend needed to stop off in Palmer, Alaska on business, and while he was inside, I walked around the nearby airport runway and photographed the surrounding mountains.Time
The overcast skies hide the sun, so it's really hard to tell from the photo the time of day it was taken, but it was late morning on a brisk, late August day. We left Anchorage about 9 a.m., had an 8-hour drive ahead of us to get to McCarthy, and we wanted to get there before dark. We pulled into Palmer a little before 10 a.m., and I spent about a half hour enjoying and photographing the scenery.Lighting
Everything looked gray that day: the clouds, the fog on the mountain and even the mountain itself with its barren and rocky terrain. It was a challenge, but I wanted to capture highlights and textures of the canopy and low-hanging clouds, and the darker tones and terrain of the mountain. While I normally do not like to shoot on overcast days, I must say the diffused light and lack of strong shadows make this a more compelling image.Equipment
This was shot with a hand-held Pentax K-1 with a HD Pentax D FA* 70-200mm f/2.8 ED DC AW lens with a circular polarizer.Inspiration
I have lived in Florida for the past 31 years, but have always loved the mountains. This was my first-ever trip to Alaska, and the beauty of the scenery brought tears to my eyes. I had forgotten the power and beauty of terrain that's not flat. This was our first stop after leaving Anchorage, and I could not wait to get out of the car and photograph some memories. The first thing that caught my eye were the bush pilots practicing landings and take-offs on the nearby airstrip. Then I saw Lazy Mountain, with its snowy crown rising up above the low-hanging clouds. I stood and admired the view for a few minutes — I really missed this kind of view. Then I composed and shot the scene so I could share it with my wife and children, who weren't able to make the trip with me.Editing
The first thing I did was crop the image some. There were some smaller peaks in the frame to the right, but I didn't want them to distract from Lazy Mountain's peak. I adjusted tones to make sure the textures of the clouds and landscape were all visible, and desaturated the green it a little bit to minimize the appearance of the trees and fields at the mountain's base.In my camera bag
This trip wasn't normal for me. Normally I carry a small bag with my K-1 and Pentax 24-70mm f/2.8 lens attached, my 50mm f/1.4 lens, and a speedlight with a transmitter and receiver. For this trip, I also had my 70-200mm lens on my belt, and a vintage Pentax MX with black & white film for the fun of it.Feedback
I would echo Robert Capa's famous (and often misunderstood) advice, “If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough.” I believe "close" has nothing to do with physical proximity and everything to do with emotional proximity. As I said earlier, I love and miss mountains, and I hope that my love for this kind of terrain comes through in this photo. Allow yourself to fall in love with (or be in awe of) the landscape you see in front of you, identify what it is that makes that landscape special, then photograph that. Allow the photograph to communicate your emotions to its viewers.
