Dawning Of Evolution

Beautiful image Zach! I like a crop from the top. Sorry to hear about the fine, so your not allowed to sleep in your car? What's their definition of camping?

I like this much better than your last similar image Zak. Much cleaner accentuating that great sky. Better light is an understatement.

Jeremy, I was out hiking and came back around 8am to find a ranger writing us a citation for overnight camping, my girlfriend wasn't even sleeping! Their definition of camping is if you're caught "preparing a sleeping bag for the purpose of overnight camping", which we were not doing since we drove up early that morning so I could be on the trails early. The ranger would not believe my girlfriend when she explained to her that I was a photographer and was out shooting sunrise. When I confronted the ranger she did not want to listen to me either and threatened to call in additional law enforcement if I did not stop asking questions. It was pretty unbelievable. It seems the list of things you cannot do in a national park is growing, soon it will be easier to list the things you can do. I did spend over an hour talking with the head of law enforcement in Glacier when I got back home, explaining the situation and how displeased I was with the rangers behavior and our overall experience in Glacier this year. Guess everyone up there is sick of dealing with the tourists all summer, but that's not our fault.

Yes to a crop from the top.
You put a lot of thought to this and I think it has a nice artistic feel to it, but the comp needs some work.
It lacks FG interest and too much sky.
Nice processing and image quality.

Hmm, that's to bad. I've ran into some similar quality rangers in the past..I'd be interested in seeing the actual wording of that rule. I've tried searching a couple times but have never found anything. Does that mean you could use a blanket and it wouldn't be considered camping? Quilt? I may or may not have plans for some stealth camping in the future..

The vertical comp looks great, and even if it were cropped to a square I think it would be terrific. I like that all of the trees are visible - I think the right tree was cut off on your earlier one? The light is pretty special and the cloud is stacked! Great job assembling the image in such a short time. Lighting and clouds can change quickly, and you managed to keep all together in your head. Great space for a cover somewhere

Thanks guys, here's a crop for comparison, I didn't want to take to much off the sky because I liked how the S curve shape in the lenticular cloud mimics the S curve in the river below, plus I was thinking magazine cover:)

Jeremy, that's their actual definition, or at least part of it, the whole definition is much longer and I cannot remember it all. The supervising ranger at Two Medicine (which by the way is a great guy) looked it up and showed it to me. According to him what we were doing was not illegal and he said I'd have a good chance of beating the ticket if I wanted to go to court over the matter, but that would just cost me more in gas $ than it was worth. For what it's worth the head of law enforcement said that if you're driving and you're to tired to keep your eyes open it's best to pull over and lay your head back against the seat and rest and that would be OK, don't lie down though or use a sleeping bag.

Beautiful image Zack with wonderful light and well put together composition. Great job onthe processing also. I like both versions. Really well done.

Really exquisite work, Zack. I like this rendition much more than the last, since the processing is more subtle and the shape in the sky adds a whole lot. That would make a fantastic mural size print. Nice work

Zack,

This is very nice in every respect. I think you should fight the fine based on principle.

Brad

Really nice work, I like this comp better than the last.

Yeah, I greatly prefer this composition over your last one! Simply gorgeous sky and scenery.
Not sure why someone commented that the 'comp needed work', because this sure works for me!
That sky is integral to the success of this image and I hope you keep every last pixel.

Really impressive, Zack. The kind of work (including processing) I aspire to. Won't be surprised when I see this as a magazine cover.

Oh this makes me so jealous! I wish the light exploded like this when I was in this general area (it did earlier for me but not when I went to shoot a scene similar to this). I do like this a bit more than the horizontal. I feel like I can just gaze up and down the photo. Definitely worth the extra work, and sorry about the rangers. I would definitely try to fight that stupid fine.

I first shot it in '06, having never seen any take of it before. Seen more than a few since... This is the best of them all. The cloud mirrors the landscape perfectly, and the Park Service will ticket anyone for anything, including, thankfully, the five dozen photo-tour operators here doing business without a permit. 2 million visitors per year will do that type of thing. Fortunately, there are other places out here. Sooner or later photographers will realize that.

Zack,

Excellent! A lot going on here, or I should say there is a lot to enjoy here. I was going to swear you had captured a Sierra Wave, but apparently this is a few miles east of there. ;-) Beautiful color, excellent processing. No nits here!

Lon

the comp is fantastic and I like your initial vertical post best with as much of the cloud in the frame as possible... similar shapes in heaven and on earth so to say

I really like this Zack. I think the vert comp worked great and the light and colors are just wonderful. Very nice work on this!
Edit: I too like the first vert post best here.

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

This looks amazing! I like the uncropped version just fine, but both work. I first viewd this on my phone, and it was much more saturated. I think you could push it a little more if you wanted to.

Chris

I love the glowing warmth of the light and excellent lines in river and clouds. Beautiful job

Spectacular image, Zack. Amazing how the S curve of the cloud mimics that of the river, and talk about incredible color and those old trees. Stunning. One of those images that leaves one speechless. Sorry to hear about your experience with the rangers. Has to be frustrating.