St Mary Twilight

Gallery: LandscapePosted September 16, 2012446 views12 comments

Twilight falls over Glacier NP's St Mary Lake. View it larger on a dark background at the Purchase Print link above.

Yeah, we've seen this tree before - but I made a real effort to scout all along the shore, and still found this leading crack and windswept tree to be the most interesting foreground at the location.

I'd have liked to get the whole tree in, as well as more of the leading crack line, but my 18mm-full-frame-equivalent wasn't wide enough to do it without backing up and sacrificing overall placement/balance of elements. I still tried to get the shape of the tree beginning to sweep downward on the left edge of the frame.

I also wanted that lower-right-most dead tree to be either completely in or completely out of the frame, but I was limited by the width of the lens yet again, and also by my laziness about cloning - so on the edge of the frame it stays.

Nikon D7000 @ ISO 100
Nikkor 12-24mm @ 12mm, f/11
Single 30-sec exposure

Comments

12 comments

Comment posted by Dietrich Gloger on September 16, 2012 at 3:47 PM

Great mood in this one Alex!

Registered on January 26, 2007, 360 Posts, 9876 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on September 16, 2012 at 4:45 PM

I like the light here better, though I miss the moving clouds from the last image. The warm light near the center makes for a very strong focus.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Coskun on September 16, 2012 at 8:12 PM

Stop posting this stuff man, it's killing me knowing I have to wait all the way til next summer to get here. The comp is great, I don't mind the cut off tree, but one solution might have been a vertical pano using horizontal frames? A little more effort but it works quite well for those super wide angle shots. The light and mood here is very nice.

Registered on October 31, 2011, 170 Posts, 1240 Comments

Comment posted by Robert Dayton on September 16, 2012 at 8:13 PM

Well done, Alex. I viewed the larger version with the black BG. It's much better that way.
A good composition of a beautiful scenic. The lower right-most tree is not an
annoyance to me.

Registered on November 11, 2008, 281 Posts, 3958 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Schrayer on September 16, 2012 at 9:04 PM

Beautiful image, Alex. I like the mood of this one with the sweet twilight color. I did notice that the tree was cut off even before reading your comment but your processing leads my eye more toward the center of the frame so I don't see it as being a significant issue.

Registered on May 28, 2004, 114 Posts, 2890 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on September 17, 2012 at 2:39 AM

Alex,

I much prefer this comp over the previous image. this is wonderful! The comp has great balance. And while I understand all your thoughts and machinations about not having a wide enough lens/perspective, or including too much or not enough, etc. etc. In the end, you chose wisely and none of those things you mentioned are of any consequence to me, the viewer. ;-)

Not a nit by any stretch, but I might be inclined to crop about 1/4-1/3 off the sky. Not much, but once you get above the main layers of clouds, the very top isn't adding anything to the image. Or, maybe I'm just used to a shorter format.

Beautiful image from Glacier.

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Comment posted by Jeff Bushnell on September 17, 2012 at 6:28 PM

I love the color and mood of this shot Alex. I can just feel what it is like to be there! Wish I was!

Registered on April 3, 2011, 20 Posts, 122 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on September 17, 2012 at 7:25 PM

Wow, This is a wonderful image, and what a mood it has! I think your composition has worked out great, Alex. I really enjoy looking at this scene. Beautiful work.

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Registered on February 1, 2004, 752 Posts, 14140 Comments

Comment posted by Doug Koepsel on September 18, 2012 at 11:40 AM

Nice composiiton with the crack and off-centered tree. The blues and gray/blacks give a nice mood, with just a hint of green in the tree and pink in the sky. The dead tree on the right edge is not a concern to me.

Registered on April 1, 2010, 196 Posts, 1592 Comments

Comment posted by Stan Rose on September 18, 2012 at 11:15 PM

Awesome! Great comp, great mood...

One minor suggestion, which probably most would disagree with

; I would go darker with the distant peaks, ordinarily people want more shadow detail but it's unccessary here--the mood is gothic, hence dark, it's all about the contrasts here.

Registered on September 15, 2005, 836 Posts, 17099 Comments

Comment posted by David Edwards on September 19, 2012 at 3:38 AM

Really nice comp Alex. I like the big cracked rock in the fg leading to the tree. I don't mind the little dead one on the right. There is a lot of dark in the image, but the twilight mood is well captured and I like the overall magenta cast.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 142 Posts, 2623 Comments

Comment posted by Tom Hilton on September 19, 2012 at 4:59 PM

I believe this may be my favorite image ever of St. Mary Lake.
All my shots from there were failures :)
I really like what the long exposure did to the water and the late night sky is excellent.
Good work.

Registered on September 19, 2011, 68 Posts, 668 Comments