St. Mary's Glacier

Over the holiday weekend I headed up to St. Mary's Glacier one morning. The wife wanted to go to so that meant getting up in time for sunrise was out. That was okay since it was my first time there I wanted to treat it more as a scouting trip anyway. I did convince here that the earlier we got there the better to avoid the crowds. I've never been up there so I have no idea how the size of the glacier compares now to 20-30 years ago, but I'm sure its much smaller now.

I really liked this tree on the shore of the lake as it had some nice character to it, but I think I may have made it too prominent by centering it. It seems to dominate the composition too much. Would love to hear your thoughts. I cloned out 2 or 3 people that were standing on the glacier. Thanks for looking.

D200, 12-24mm, circular polarizer

The tree is doesn't seem too centered or prominent IMO. You are right about it being characteristic, and I think your placement of the criss-crossing ridge lines in the bg helps to balance this image. Nice clouds too. My only nit is the polarizer seems to have darkened the upper left corner a little too much relative to the rest of the sky. We've all done that though.

I agree with Joshua that the tree works where you have it placed, and it works well against the clouds!. Nice colours in this image, a little over polarized, but for just a scouting trip it's a nice shot!.

Works for me, too!

X2. Very nice for a scouting trip.

I think the clouds balance the tree placement and tame the dominance. Strong comp!

Worls for me, three!
Didn't even give any thought to the centered placement of the tree.
The angle you took this from is just about perfect for branch placement.
You even got the greenery of the lower branch to rest in the crotch of the mountains.
Nice!

Works 'four' me also. I saw the title and had to look, I haven't been to St. Mary's glacier since I was 8 yrs old in 1976. I remember people skiing here in July way back then.