Mt McKinley (Denali) in the pastel morning light reflected in Wonder Lake, Denali National Park, Alaska. Canon 1Ds Mark III, 70-200mm f/4L IS, 1/4 sec @ f/14, ISO 200, IS turned off, Gitzo tripod.
The wet autumn season in Alaska has coughed up only a few clear sky days. My nine day stint in Denali Park during Aug/Sept saw many dark gray clouds and rain. However, there were a few moments of brilliance, with an emphasis on the “few”. The fall colors in the park were magnificent, vibrant and almost painful to look at. They don’t last long however, in Alaska’s short autumn season. I’ll be sharing some images from that journey in the upcoming days. I’ll start with this shot, my only morning session with the big mountain known as Mt McKinley or Denali, (the Great One).
I know its been shot a million times, and I myself have many in my collection. It still is a lure however, and has a face that changes continually. I particularly like the low-lying fog over the lake, which is a common phenomenon when the air temp is cooler than the water temp. The trumpeter swan and ducks in the foreground offer a interesting wildlife element to the scene, but they also destroy the flat calm water and mess up a reflection. I waited until they wandered further away from me and the ripples dissipated for a more clear reflection. When I first arrived, it was flat calm and the swan was resting on the shore, but the morning light had not yet tipped the mountain. And, as the story goes, when the light came, the birds went swimming.
I used the 70-200mm f/4L IS, and made sure to turn off the Image Stabilization for an exposure as slow as 1/4 second. Failure to do so can introduce IS blur. The low contrast, pastel colors are a pleasing combination.
Beautiful! I wish was there with you.
This is such a beautiful location, and can you not photograph it! Very nice Patrick.
The weather has been so nice down here on the coast for most of the last two weeks that I just assumed it was nice up in Denali as well. Sorry to hear about the rain and low clouds, that can get frustrating.
I look forward to see more images from your trip!
MAGNIFICENT IMAGE!!! WOW!!!
A lifelong Alaskan, I’ve seen many renditions of this view. This one will move onto a short list of all-time favorites! I can easily say this single image, on its own, was well worth your trip (seeing how it was not I who had to endure all the rain, darkness, and sleepless mornings to get it). 🙂
Again, thanks for the technical details and big views! (Curious about the copyright-shrink noted in your RSS feed.)
Tim,
I have not forgot about the pano blog–will be coming in the future. As far as the reduced image size in the feed, I shifted to an auto copyright mechanism through my blog, but it only applies a watermark overlay to the images when they are on the blog. So, when images go out in an RSS feed, they did not have watermarks. I was trying to save a step, and may go back to watermarking them locally so it will travel with the image. I like the big images, but of course, am concerned if they get out without a watermark. I did get a number of good photos on the trip, but there were huge gaps between shooting, which makes the experience on the other end of the camera a bit different than looking at a few select picks.
What an amazing image. I certainly hope that this one will make it into the 2012 calendar!! I am just hoping for a glimpse of Denali when I am there next summer… Didn’t have any luck a few years ago.
Amy,
Denali can be an elusive rock. And I think this shot might make it into a new calendar that I’m producing for 2012.
Beautiful Picture – Found your link through a fellow SPBC Alumni. My three year old daughter looked at this picture and said “Is that where Jesus lives?”
Couldn’t say it better myself! Beautiful Pics!
Janis,
Leave it to children. . .
Patrick,
Beautiful image! Wish it were mine. And I know what you and others said about photographing the mountain. Back in the ’80s and ’90s when I was in the park a lot, others would see me set up and waiting for light changes on the mountain and ask “Why do you waste your time photographing the mountain? Since Ansel (Adams) did it you’re just wasting your time.” Well, not only do I love being there and feeling the moment and creating beautiful images, but I’ve made a pile of sales from those images of Denali over the decades. Every serious photographer should work hard at capturing such images for one’s self, first, and other’s afterward. It’s easy to begin chasing photo opps all over the park and forget to stop and to sit and to watch and to listen and to think while sitting on a rock, maybe eating an apple or as I would sometimes do, drink my one and only beer and make a toast to the mountain and all that is great in life.
Mentioning running (sometimes helter skelter) up and down the park road reminds me of the late Michio Hoshino. He was a hoot. But that’s another story.
Thanks for sharing this image with us.
Jim
Jim,
I find it so amazing that the views from that lake can change so dramatically. I’ve got a lot of stuff from there on film, but have sought to refresh some of that with good digital files. I was pretty lucky to shoot the mountain all three times I was in Denali this summer, in spite of all the rain we have had.
Beautiful shot! Sorry to here about the rain. That was a great morning with the clouds angled to compliment the mountain and give additional interest in the sky. The fog adds to the pleasing nature of the shot. Maybe I should have gone down the road a bit further that morning. Oh Well. Just got home from Denali tonight and Monday was the only day with out rain and wind. Looking forward to see what else you came home with.
Cheers.
Rob,
I wondered about how your second venture would turn out. As you know, the Friday you left it got pretty wet and that continued for a long time. So, you did not miss a lot. However, I did get some good shots it just seemed that the amount of shooting time was pretty slim. I’d like to see some of the stuff you were happy with.