![22039353 Clouds over the Alaska Range, Denali National Park,](https://www.alaskaphotographics.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/220393531.jpg)
Clouds over the Alaska Range, Denali National Park, Alaska. Canon 1Ds Mark III, 100-400mm f/5.6L IS (180mm), 1/400 sec @ f/6.3, ISO 100
Why do I like the mountains so much? Because they deliver such quickly changing weather. The Alaska range arcs across the south central region of the state and tends to serve as a moisture block forcing the dump of precipitation on its southern side, leaving the interior of the state a more dry climate. This summer in Denali Park, I saw so many fascinating clouds that I think I could do a book just on that subject. This river drainage near the Toklat in Denali park reveals a mixture of low lying clouds, dust clouds from wind, and a dense layering of dark clouds over the mountains. A few cracks in the cloud barrier let in some late morning light to generate some drama. I exposed the scene heavy to the right to capture as much detail in the shadows as possible, then pulled the brightness down on the sky with a split graduated filter in LR3 to reveal the detail in the clouds.
![clouds-2](https://www.alaskaphotographics.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/clouds-2.jpg)
RAW capture exposed to the right to retain detail in the shadows. Sky balanced using the split graduated ND filter in Lightroom