Lake Moraine Sunrise... however, if you look at the photo closely, there is a skull visible in the reflection! See if you can find it... it took me a while to s...
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Lake Moraine Sunrise... however, if you look at the photo closely, there is a skull visible in the reflection! See if you can find it... it took me a while to see it :)
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Awards
Action Award
Legendary Award
Contest Finalist in Earth Day 2020 Photo Contest
People's Choice in Beauty of lakes from around the world Photo Challenge
Contest Finalist in Spectacular Lakes Photo Contest
Featured
Winner in Sunrise Photo Challenge
Contest Finalist in Full Focus Photo Contest
Winner in Mountain Sunrise Photo Challenge
Contest Finalist in Light On Water Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Monthly Pro Vol 13 Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Enchanting Waterscapes Photo Contest
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Peer Award
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Magnificent Capture
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zquentin
August 25, 2015
Thank you very much TamWilliams! I love that place and certainly hope to go back there in the future :)
zquentin
September 14, 2015
Thank you so much! So glad you liked it and thanks for voting as well :)
joycealicesmith
May 10, 2016
Perfection! Love the light hitting those mountains just so! Not to mention, this is a wonderful area for photography! Congratulations on winning the Challenge!
zquentin
May 10, 2016
Thank you very much joycealicesmith!! I love that area! I was very lucky with the weather that day. Will go back again :)
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
I went on a trip to some national parks last June. One of them was Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. I knew that Lake Moraine in that area is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. So I decided to spend a couple of days there and I got really lucky with the weather one day. I spent 3 days in the area and two days were rainy but I had one morning when I could go out to shoot.Time
My trip was at the end of June when the days are the longest. This is a sunrise shot so I had to get up really early to get the best light. The best shots were taken between 5:30 and 6:00 am.Lighting
The lighting was amazing at sunrise that morning. The top of the peaks were painted in gold. That lighting lasted about 45 minutes. I got lucky and there was no wind that morning so the reflections came out beautifully. The other interesting thing about this shot is that there is a pretty obvious skull in the reflections. I didn't notice for quite a while... I certainly didn't see it on the scene.Equipment
I used my full frame camera - a Canon 5D MarkIII with a Canon 24-70 mm 2.8L II. I actually rented that lens back then and I was very happy with it. I took some beautiful, sharp pictures with that. I loved it so much that I own that lens now. I was using a Manfrotto tripod. I didn't use a remote shutter release but I worked with a 2 second delay to take the shots. Actually, this is an HDR shot. I normally don't like the HDR look but I found that the 5D MarkIII did an amazing job with the in-camera HDR feature. This shot was not processed in an HDR software at all. I used manual focus to try to get the entire scene look sharp.Inspiration
I have seen pictures of Lake Moraine before and I thought it was a place I had to visit. I loved the aqua color of the lake which is visible when the sun hits the water at a different time of the day. I got some other shots at sunset when the sun was lighting up the lake and I captured that color.Editing
I did very minimal post-processing in Lightroom: cropping a little and lifted some shadows to brighten up the trees. Then, I added some dynamic contrast in Perfect Photo Suites 9.In my camera bag
When I take landscape pictures I prefer my Canon 5D MarkIII with a Canon 24-70 mm 2.8L II. I also have a Canon 7D MarkII camera body and I can use that with my 10-22 mm lens. I like that combination as well and it gives me a range equivalent to 16-35 mm (on a full frame).Feedback
The best light is at sunrise and sunset so it is necessary to get up very early in the summer especially for a sunrise shot. And that comes from somebody who is not a morning person... A sturdy tripod is a must for the landscape shots. Move around at the location and try different angles. Lake Moraine is a great example that one can take very different shots from different spots. I went out during the day to look at the location and see where I wanted to shoot from the next day. Normally the best light lasts about an hour so it's better to do the scouting ahead of time. Try different things: bracketing the shots might work but try alternatives such as HDR. Different HDR settings could create interesting shots.