TWENTY-FIVE

Glacier National Park

Work has been great, but busy so I haven't had a lot of time for to get out and take pictures. I could have taken some time when in Minnesota, but I was more interested in relaxing, visiting with friends and family, and laying around. I've definitely had the bug lately so on Saturday afternoon I threw a half packed bag of stuff in the trunk of the car and drove up to Glacier for about 36 hours. The weather was terrible (terrific for most people -blue skies, breezy, hot) for photographers. I slept in my car, hiding from the rangers so I wouldn't get a ticket. Even though Glacier is huge, it is hard to hide in a car since there is basically one road that goes through the park and the fuzz is pretty adamant about keeping freeloaders from staying overnight without paying a camping fee. 

Anyone who goes on photography trips will tell you ---they are not relaxing.  Up a couple hours before dawn and in bed after midnight. I probably hiked about 15 miles total, a lot of it bushwhacking, scouting for locations to shoot. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the bright sunshine made for very dull pictures so I concentrated on looking for opportunities for the next time I go. I also tried to think outside the box for what I could shoot. I know I could do macro or flowers, but I'm in GLACIER. I'm here for grandiose. I did get a couple shots to share. I didn't think they had a chance of being interesting and was really practicing composition and technique. If you notice, there is very little sky in these images. The sky was ugly. That beautiful bright sunshiny blue sky shows up as boring flat grey in pictures. I also am trying to find if my Tamron 10-24mm lens has a sweet spot. I think it does and that is on the shelf in the store. I have always had a rule - do not compromise on lenses. I did and I regret it. I can not for the life of me achieve any sharpness. The canon 18-55 kit lens is sharper than the Tamron and I can get that for 30 bucks. I didn't want to spend double on Canon's 10-22mm lens since I hope to upgrade to full frame someday and that lens would be useless, but should have. I could have sold it for $100-150 less than I paid in a year. The Tamron will depreciate more than that so I end up paying more for a lower quality piece of equipment. Lesson learned! For those of you who wonder about such things, the huckleberries are not ripe yet, but the thimbleberries were awesome. Since I spent so much time away from trials, they hadn't been picked over so I ate a least a pound of them. Laying on that black rock on the beach with the cool spray from the waves and wind and the warm sun relaxing my trial sore body with a belly full of wild berries -- happy place.

Bonsai Sunrise. Taken at sunrise over Lake Mary. There was just no color anywhere in the sky. It just gradually went from grey to blue-grey to light blue-grey as the sun came up. Blah. I GPS'd this spot and shall return for a mind blowing image when I get a clearing storm at sunrise from this spot. I will do about the same composition, but will include less rock and more sky.  Canon Rebel T1 with a Tamron 10-24mm lens at 10mm. 1 sec. exposure at f7.1. Tripod and circular polarizer. In Lightroom, I removed a blue color cast, increased contrast, and sharpened for screen.

I Dream in Lund. I know this isn't the most original picture, but it was what I had to work with. I really tried to give it a different look and played with the composition. I liked the way the angles of the boat played out but I didn't want to have a perfectly symmetrical feel to the picture, so I shot from an off center location with the lens not quite parallel to the front boat, then cropped the photo so the boats are centered. This make the front boat loom towards the viewer. I liked a slightly tighter crop with a lower angle, but then the transparency of the water was diminished and the rocks on the bottom of the lake were no longer visible. This was my compromise and I think it turned out ok. A funny story, I had been playing around trying different spots, looking through my view finder for about 10-15 minutes waiting for the sun to set and getting just the right angle. After I was all set up with my tripod and camera, obviously pointing at this scene, a couple walked onto the dock 3 feet in front of my camera and stood there talking about how pretty it was. I finally had to ask them if I could shoot my picture for a second and then they could resume there conversation. Yikes. Canon Rebel with Tamron10-24m lens at 16mm. 1/2 second exposure at f11. Tripod mounted. Cropped and sharpened  with a midtone lightening in Lightroom.

Milky Way over Logan Pass. Proof I need a 5D Mark II and the Canon 14mm EF L. Canon Rebel T1 with Tamron 10-24mm at 10mm. 30 second exposure at f3.5. Handheld. Ha Ha, yes I used a tripod.

God Rays on Wild Goose Island. My favorite of the weekend. This spot was the result of 2 1/2 hours of heavy cross country off trail hiking through thick tangled undergrowth and ample bear scat. Later, I found it was about 15 minutes from the road, but still off trail, so not likely so see a lot of pictures from here. Obviously the contrast here was beyond normal photography, so I had to choose whether to blow out the end of the valley, underexpose the rocks, or try to do HDR. Conventional wisdom in landscape photography is preserve the highlights and let the shadows go black,  but I think in this picture, the hazy light coming from the end of the lake and the sunstar work better. I did bracket my exposure +/- 2 stops but the sun was behind the mountain and I really like this as is. Yes that is the color of the lake at this time of day and from this angle. I actually warmed up the photo to remove a blue cast as well as sharpening for screen and bumping the contrast. I tried bringing out the shadows in the large crack in the lower right corner, but felt that it was distracting. I like that void. Canon Rebel T1 with Tamron 10-24 mm at 10mm. 1/4 second at f/14 with 2 stop ND filter (not graduated). Tripod.