2020 "Snaps" Around Glacier National Park

[PeteE]

Pete, I meant no offense when I said you seemed pleased and hope you didn’t take any. I knew you were looking forward to a dusting of snow and think it turned out just great. You have every right to be pleased and proud. You put a lot of work and time into your photos and I believe everyone enjoys them and hearing of your adventures to get them. Thank you for sharing with those of us that can’t be in the park.

Hey Barb!!
And I didn't take offense, not at all.
You just stimulated me to explain explain to folks out there just how hard it is getting some of these images.
I thoroughly enjoy doing it, but it's still tough at my age getting up at 0330, all the driving in the dark, hiking carrying my camera and gear, etc.

I'll be up again at 0330 tomorrow morning. I have another spot in mind for a sunrise that is similar to the one from Sun Point.
The perspective using Google Earth Pro looks promising, but we'll see.

Another prospect looks promising as well.
However, it will be very difficult/sketchy getting to the spot in time for sunrise in ideal conditions--impossible since the recent snowfall.
Looking at Google Earth, the view from the base of Reynolds around to the GTTS mountain might look really good at sunrise as viewed from the "spur" ridge that runs SE from Reynolds. I would need to get another 1/4 mile or so farther out on the spur ridge fromwhere I was standing for the shot below. That will mean about a 3 hours hike from the Logan Pass parking lot. The majority of the hike will be in the dark and pale light before dawn.
There can't be any ice/snow on that narrow trail on the south side of Reynolds. So this effort will NOT be easy.

The sun should rise above red Eagle Mt. which you can see on the far right of the image below (three peaks).
That will be close to a right angle from where I shoot the pano. What I don't know is exactly how the light will fall on Heavy Runner in the foreground, the GTTS Mt, Matahpi, Siyeh, Piegan, Pollack, and on down the Garden Wall. It could be epic!
But I won't know till I get there. No hurry other than the GTTS road closing on October 19th as the sun will rise farther to the south as the days progress--making for a better shot imo. More snow would suck though. They may close the road, never mind making the trail impossible to hike.

I also would like to spend 2-3 nights at Gunsight Lake so I can get up to Jackson Glacier for some pics.
GUN is current closed, probably due to wet conditions from the recent rain and snow.

So I'm just keepin' on keepin' on.


pete

[Chip]

Pete
I like the snow on Bearhat and was wowed by the detail of the trail to dragons tail but for some reason I was most thrilled by the Clements pano.
I know the season is fast coming to a close but keep posting as long as you can, or I should say safely can. Looking forward to seeing you in August.
Remember when its gets too cold come down to Tucson this winter and warm up.
Ken

[PeteE]

Pete
I like the snow on Bearhat and was wowed by the detail of the trail to dragons tail but for some reason I was most thrilled by the Clements pano.
I know the season is fast coming to a close but keep posting as long as you can, or I should say safely can. Looking forward to seeing you in August.
Remember when its gets too cold come down to Tucson this winter and warm up.
Ken

Thanks Ken.
I had the Bearhat printed today. It's a bit dark(ish) in the shadow areas, like in the evergreens.
So, before I have it printed again, I'll have to fix that.
Yeah, I like the Clements shot too. The camera was about 4 inches off the ground sitting on my little tripod.
The distortion created by tilting the camera way back made Clements look more dramatic? The couple providing some scale?
Whatever I like it too.

If anyone out there is a big fan of Fakebook(oh sorry, it's FACEBOOK)...
And wants to post the picture of the couple in an effort to find them, go for it.
I'd be happy to send them a copy of the Clements photo.

Still too sketchy to go out behind Reynolds. ICY!

Yeah, the Good Lord willing, I'm going to keep posting all winter.
I'll have to look into air fare to Phoenix. You be able to come get me if I fly down there?

I have some photos coming in a few minutes from this morning.
The weather guessers got it way wrong--they called for "mostly sunny" for the St. Mary Valley.

This was my first picture of the morning taken around 8:15AM--almost an hour after sunrise.
Anybody see anything "mostly sunny" about this image? LOLOLOL!!!

10 image pano
ISO 50 .3 seconds at f11 Sony f2.8 16-50mm lens--26mm (39mm in 35mm)


I'll have a few more posted in a few minutes.

pete

[PeteE]

I kinda knew I was in trouble on that score when I stopped at Logan Pass at 5:55AM to use the pit toilet--NO stars in sight.
Oh well, I drove on down to Sunrift Gorge. I hiked down to the beach in the dark to catch the sun rise I knew wasn't coming.
And there was no beautiful sun rise as you saw in the image above.
Rather than waste the day, I decided to hike along the lake looking for compositions that didn't include much sky--pretty difficult.
But better than sitting at home pickin' my nose, right?

The images below that have some sky in them kinda suck.
They would have been pretty nice with a blue sky, puffy white clouds, and lit by strong early morning sunshine.
Blah blah blah...They are what they are. I do think the compositions are nice. Good practice for a nice day in the future.

Five image pano
ISO 50 .5 seconds at f11 16mm(24 in 35mm)


Most of the good photographers I follow on YouTube are English. They think a scene like this is really good fall color.
Sorry guys but I couldn't help myself after watching so many of your "autumn" videos.
They need to go see my old stomping grounds in western Virginia in mid October. The "color" there would knock their socks off.
I liked the "curly" stuff in the foreground and framed it between the burned trees to get the GTTS mountain in the background.
Of course the crappy grey sky ruined things.

ISO 50 1/4second at f13 18mm (27mm in 35mm)


Another good composition but ruined by the crappy sky.
Four image pano
ISO 50 1/8 second at f11 26mm (39mm in 35mm)


More "good" color for the English viewers
And of course...the crappy sky.
I did like this composition. Nice depth created by multiple "layers" beginning with the straw in the foreground, followed by the colorful shrubs, then the burned trees, followed by the lake, and last the mountains in the background.
Dunno 'bout y'all but that composition works for me. Just too bad about that ugly sky.
Four image pano
ISO 50 1/20 second at f9.5 18mm (27mm in 35mm)


Enough of the pics with a lousy sky!!!
Baring Creek under the bridge.
ISO 50 0.3 seconds at f16 22mm( 33mm in 35mm)


ISO 50 0.5 seconds at f11 18mm (27mm in 35mm)


And finally a little color
ISO 50 0.5 seconds at f11 28mm (42mm in 35mm)
I used a polarizer on this one to eliminate the reflection on the quiet water over the rocks.
The polarizer made a HUGE difference since the glare was really bad.


I'll have some "B roll" video from this trip a little later

pete

[tibber]

Pete
come down to Tucson this winter and warm up.
Ken

me too, me too - it's only hour and 1/2 drive for me.

Great pics Pete; really lovely. While I like them all, I did like the Avalanche ones the best lately.

[calicotraveler]

And finally a little color
ISO 50 0.5 seconds at f11 28mm (42mm in 35mm)
I used a polarizer on this one to eliminate the reflection on the quiet water over the rocks.
The polarizer made a HUGE difference since the glare was really bad.
Image

I'm always amazed by the difference a polarizer makes on the reflections on water! And the rocks in Glacier are such a nice red and green.

[PeteE]

Pete
come down to Tucson this winter and warm up.
Ken

me too, me too - it's only hour and 1/2 drive for me.

Great pics Pete; really lovely. While I like them all, I did like the Avalanche ones the best lately.

Thanks Angela!
I working on going down to Tucson in January or maybe February.
I'll be 73 February 8th, so maybe that week.
Gotta see when I can get a reasonable air fare.

I'm always amazed by the difference a polarizer makes on the reflections on water! And the rocks in Glacier are such a nice red and green.

Yeah, a polarizer works really well as do neutral density filters, but only if I remember to bring them with me!! LOL
All year I've been forgetting them.

al_in_al's trip report reminded me about McDonald Creek.
I'm thinking of doing that hike one day this weekend.
The creek is way down so there should be lots of places for some good images.
Maybe I'll get lucky and get a close look at that bear and moose she got pics of.
Not sure what to do on the other day. The weather looks good for the next 3-4 days--Low 40's to mid 50's and clear.

I got the 12x36 pano print of Bearhat back. It looks really good!
Casino managers want me to hang my prints in the casinos.

later
pete

[al_in_al]

al_in_al's trip report reminded me about McDonald Creek.
I'm thinking of doing that hike one day this weekend.
The creek is way down so there should be lots of places for some good images.
Maybe I'll get lucky and get a close look at that bear and moose she got pics of.
Not sure what to do on the other day. The weather looks good for the next 3-4 days--Low 40's to mid 50's and clear.

Looking forward to seeing what you capture! I assume there will be more yellow along the creek by now. I'm really happy I fit this hike in during my trip - it's a pretty nice trail.

[PeteE]

Looking forward to seeing what you capture! I assume there will be more yellow along the creek by now. I'm really happy I fit this hike in during my trip - it's a pretty nice trail.

I'll see what I can do.
I'm going out tomorrow AM. Taking waders, if I can find them so I can get some different compositions.
Fall colors are looking decent down low, pretty much gone up high.
So maybe I can get something worth putting up.

Today's trip to Lunch Creek was a bust photographically
SMOKE haze is back.
Apparently the weather guessers didn't look out their window. They are still forecasting "clear" skies for this area.

Fun day though.
I started up Lunch creek in the DARK with a headlamp about 6:30 AM--an hour before sunrise.
More on how that went later on. The whole Lunch Creek area is really gnarly.
I spent a lot of time early on up high in the steep scree and talus under the big cliffs on the left side as you go up.
NOT an easy place to hike, especially in the dark/near dark.
I split open the heel of my left palm when I slipped and fell trying to get a waterfall shot.
Put my hand down to break my fall and the impact just split it open about 2 inches along a natural crease.
Sh** happens.
That's when I said to hell with it and called it a day.

later
pete

[Chip]

And I missed patching you up

[PeteE]

And I missed patching you up

Yeah I could have used you LOL!
I didn't have any steri-strips.
Weird cut too. Looked like it was done with a scalpel, very thin sharp line.
Bled like a merfer for a couple minutes until I could get those big band-aids on it.
Here's a couple short video clips for ya.

Phone video is sideways, sorry.
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-hb3 ... G-1920.mp4
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-sZx ... B-1920.mp4

Good thing I didn't fall when I was traversing this steep scree and talus.
The camera is perfectly horizontal in this pic.
I finally found a faint goat trail. All these rocks are loose and move to some degree when you put a foot on them.
Falling here would have messed up my whole day.


Later
Gotta get out to McDonald Creek and see if I can get some pics. Yesterday sucked for pictures.

pete

[PeteE]

Took this snapshot from the window of my truck on the way to McDonald Creek.
You can see the smoke haze that has moved into the area over the last week or so.
The cloud bank over the lake extended well up into the valley.


This is just short way up the creek from the head of the lake around 8:30AM. The fog/clouds didn't seem too thick.


However, by the time I reached the bridge the fog/clouds were settling in thicker and thicker by the minute.


I met two women at the bridge returning from their hike well up the creek.
They told me visibility was pretty bad and they hadn't seen anything.
So I thought I'd head to Avalanche.

I got a couple shots there and then the sun popped out. Since I had some errands to run and a couple issues at work to look at, I went home.

Too bad about the rock in the lower right corner foreground screwing up this image


At first glance, I liked this one, but not so much now.


Fall "color", if you want to call varying shades of yellow to brown leaves "color", is pretty good for around here.
The color here pales to insignificance compared to the fall colors of the Virginia mountains I was used to.
I didn't take any pics of it yesterday.

Sorry it was not much of a day for me.
Just have to wait for another day.

pete

[Jay w]

Hey, after getting out of the big house, I'm back on the block.

Pete, you don't like the sky eh? How about:



I prefer the brooding, dark moody B&W, so how about:



The later is using the plugin I sent (Grad ND-2) and just a few minutes of time. Did you get that to work?

BTW, I love that you getting your hiney out of bed and to a spot an hour away for sunrise. We didn't have to use AC for our trip, but we ended up really dehydrated due to the heat. I'll get out a report in 6 months.

Jay W

[PeteE]

Pics are back.
pete

[crh24]

Pete, I look daily at the Photography "topic" and enjoy looking at your photos. You deleted photos that had "fall color" and were very pretty. You made a comment that you thought, perhaps, the GTTSR may be closed for good.

I enjoy looking at your pictures and appreciate the time and effort you take to post them here to share with all of us. With being new to the GNP Chat page, and my general tendency to be a quiet person, a lack of response doesn't mean your photos aren't looked at and enjoyed. Thank you for posting and sharing. It's is sincerely appreciated. -Craig