Kyle Jones
Moderator
I had been in Montana for the last few weeks, with some "interesting" weather for summer - lots of rain and thunderstorms. I managed to get a reservation for Friday night at the St Mary Campground, figuring it would be a good way to spend my last night in the area before heading back to California. Friday night's weather included plenty of rain, but the forecast showed clearing through the day on Saturday. My hope was to get some interesting light at sunrise and since the campground is just 10 minutes from the Wild Goose Island viewpoint, that would be my target. I woke up at 5:00am and drove to the lake. It was still windy with plenty of clouds, so I decided to hike down to the lakeshore so I could use the rocks as a foreground and maybe show some of the moving water.
The light was dull as I waited for sunrise and I spent the time trying different compositions. A little before sunrise I started to see a faint red glow on some of the peaks and a hint of color in the clouds. I shouted "come on, let's do it!" only to see the color fade. I figured I'd wait and see what happened, since I only needed the clouds in front of the sun to clear a little bit in order to get some light. Then a bald eagle flew over my head and across the lake to my left. As I was watching it fly, I realized that the light was hitting the mountain (I think it is Red Eagle Peak) and the clouds above it had gotten colorful. I moved my tripod and swung my camera to the left to capture the scene - which is the first image below. I then took a look around and saw that in those few second the light had exploded on the mountains around the lake and the clouds were picking up the color as well. I felt like the foreground I'd chosen led into the scene pretty well and I chose a shutter speed that showed the motion of the water without blurring all of the details.
Any thoughts are welcome.
1) Where the eagle led my eye
2) Stormy St Mary Lake and Mountains
The light was dull as I waited for sunrise and I spent the time trying different compositions. A little before sunrise I started to see a faint red glow on some of the peaks and a hint of color in the clouds. I shouted "come on, let's do it!" only to see the color fade. I figured I'd wait and see what happened, since I only needed the clouds in front of the sun to clear a little bit in order to get some light. Then a bald eagle flew over my head and across the lake to my left. As I was watching it fly, I realized that the light was hitting the mountain (I think it is Red Eagle Peak) and the clouds above it had gotten colorful. I moved my tripod and swung my camera to the left to capture the scene - which is the first image below. I then took a look around and saw that in those few second the light had exploded on the mountains around the lake and the clouds were picking up the color as well. I felt like the foreground I'd chosen led into the scene pretty well and I chose a shutter speed that showed the motion of the water without blurring all of the details.
Any thoughts are welcome.
1) Where the eagle led my eye
2) Stormy St Mary Lake and Mountains
