calicotraveler wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2020 2:39 pm
Oh so beautiful! I really wish we didn’t have to cxl our trip to Montana this year. But when you post photos I enjoy Glacier long distance. Thanks!
Thanks Michele. It's really a shame to have to cancel but perfectly understandable.
I'll do my best to get some good pics for everyone here!
tibber wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2020 4:54 pm
Thx Pete, last two sets of photos are so nice. Like the others here that won't get there this year; once again, we have to vicariously enjoy the Park through your eyes and lens.
Thanks Angela. I sat for an hour in the same place as the clouds came and went. At times visibility went to <100yards! LOL
Crazy weather, but the composition was really nice so I stuck with it.
al_in_al wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2020 9:12 am
The glacier lily shot is very nice - I've never visited at the right time to see them there. And I've definitely never seen such a clear view from the overlook.
Thanks for helping us all get our Glacier fix.
Thank you too "J"
It was funny making that shot. I was down on my knees on the pavement near the trailhead getting my tripod as low as I could.
People were looking at me strangely until I showed them the result. I love those low angle shots.
paul wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2020 9:32 am
I really like the first two images from your last post, Pete. They are definitely print worthy and probably poster worthy. I rarely see the air in Glacier that clear when I visit nowadays. Actually, the last time I saw a day that clear in Glacier was probably before 2010.
Thanks Paul. I nay get some prints made when I have a chance.
Wasn't that air clarity something? I just wanted to click that shutter all day long. Occasionally you get that really clear air in the winter, but it's really unusual in mid July. Seems smoke or dust is always around in July.
Same with the frosting of snow. All that came together for a great day for photography.
I seriously doubt the snow will be there this weekend. Most has already melted.
Thank you ALL for the compliments.
Just y'all know...
That first group of pics were just snapshots intended to show you generally what the day was like.
The one looking down the valley between Bearhat and Cannon was a pretty good snap.
I didn't do much to it in processing. I was trying to show just how clear the air was--like Paul mentioned.
While it was generally a pretty day, it was still a challenging one for photography.
It was quite windy most of the time and chilly when the foggy clouds would blow in---which was frequently.
The rapidly changing cloud cover made setting an exposure difficult, especially for panoramas which take some time set up and shoot.
You can see that in the two images of the Garden Wall. The cloud change over there was continually changing--rapidly so at times.
And then there were tripod setup issues with my new little tripod. It's a great tripod but hard to get perfectly level.
No level on it. So I had to rely on using the bubble level on the camera. And that was very cumbersome.
I won't have that particular issue again. I now have my tripod leveling device mounted on the tripod under the ball head.
Now I can level the tripod in 15-20 seconds after getting it stable. Then it will only take a minute or so to level the camera itself.
And then there is the parallax issue when shooting multi frame panos.
The short explanation is that experiment where you hold up your finger, look at a distant object closing one eye at a time.
You'll notice that your finger "jumps" when you close one of your eyes.
Similar issue with the camera doing panographic pics.
Panographic stitching software works MUCH better when the lens/camera combination rotate directly above the center of rotation
of the tripod. In fact, some sets of frames cannot be stitched at all if the parallax issue is too great.
So determining the exact point INSIDE the lens that needs to be above the tripod's axis of rotation has to be
located as close as possible to get the best result.
I bought a simple rail system, similar to rails used for macro photography.
The rail mounts on the ball head after leveling. Then the camera is moved along the rail until the point of no parallax is directly above the center of the tripods rotation. This is done in a trial and error manner.
Yeah sounds complicated and it is. But I've solved it for one lens and will solve the position for a second lens before the weekend.
Then we'll see how much improvement there will be in my panos.
I'm not sure where I'm going just yet. Right now I'm leaning toward going to Piegan Pass.
There's some good compositions up there. And then depending on how I feel, the weather, time left, etc.
I may head up towards the pass between Pollack and Piegan. Good compositions from there too.
And that will mean getting up at an absurd hour once
more.
Not so much for finding a parking space but to get the best morning light I can.
So that's the plan at the moment.
pete