Mile Marker 43

One of our other stops was to Denali National Park. In 2021, a landslide shut down the only road through the park, cutting the road from 92.5 to 43 miles. However, from what we could see, the park is absolutely stunning. Like most days on the trip, the skies during our time near Denali were overcast with a few afternoon sprinkles. For this image, the sun broke through the clouds enough that the right side of these mountains shined while the left side was still in the shadow. Additionally, the light haze adds to the softness of the mountain peaks.

 

Crow Pass Trail

Welcome to Alaska! Over two weeks in August, I traveled throughout central and eastern Alaska hiking, camping, and, most importantly, photographing. This first image comes from Crow Pass Trail just to the south and east of Anchorage. It is a six-mile trail with two thousand feet of elevation gain. At the top of the trail is this cabin, which serves as a shelter for hikers overnight. Our group did not spend the night, but we were fortunate enough to see the cabin and lake behind it. 

 

Overlook

As I continued walking around one morning, I looked back at the hotel to find the different levels empty, except for these people. I immediately knew I wanted to put the image into black and white to highlight the differences between the floors and accentuate the figures. To further help achieve this, I increased the contrast and clarity and added a vignette to draw the viewer's eye to the middle. 

 

Vast

Since October, I have not had a strong desire to pick up the camera. Maybe it was because I became busy with schoolwork, or maybe I was embarrassed to walk around with a big camera or post images that people might not care about. Whatever the reason is, I would like to capture more moments and increase the number of times I post. For example, with this image, it was soothing to stroll on the beach and look for anything that caught my eye. Using my telephoto lens, I zoomed in on this sailboat while still highlighting the vast ocean. I want to continue living in the moment and capturing images like this.

 

Adrift

Hello again! It has been a while since I last posted. After October, I became busy with school and everything that comes with it, but now that it is summer, I have some free time to post images I have been holding onto for a while. This first five-image series comes from the beach. After that, I have a few images from Colorado. And following that, I am taking a trip to Alaska, where I will certainly take and post many pictures. The plan for the foreseeable future is to post images from those trips and continue that into the school year, posting on Mondays and Fridays. In the meantime, enjoy this image from the drone of a boat floating in the open ocean.

 

Lake Louise

This is my final image for our Canada adventure. I took it on the first day we were there but posted it last since it is my favorite. We had been at the lake for about thirty minutes when a light mist rolled through. I was shooting the mountains in the distance when this group of kayakers decided to head back towards the dock. I quickly changed the lens and settings, which resulted in this image.

 

Lakeside Sunset

As my long day of hiking turned into night, I spent sunset on the shore of Lake Louise. As you can see, there was pretty significant cloud cover, which diluted the typical sunset colors, but for about ten minutes, there was a yellowish hue. To capture this, I used a slow shutter speed to slow the water's movement and create a more dramatic image.

 

Tree Lines

On this hike, I also took out my telephoto lens. I started looking for bears and other animals in the backcountry, but after not seeing anything for a few minutes, I turned toward the trees. I'm not sure what it is, but I really like the simplicity of silhouetted trees. When editing, I applied a black and white filter to increase the contrast between the trees and sky, resulting in 

 

Backcountry

One day, I decided to do it all. I woke up at 4 am to watch the sunrise at Moraine Lake, went back a few hours later to go on a hike, then took a nine-mile hike behind Lake Louise. This image comes from that nine-mile hike. About two miles in, I joined a random couple who was also going to the top. About six miles in, I saw these two people standing on the horse trail, which is when I took this image. The people are a little small, but I didn't want to crop in and ruin the proportion of the size of the mountains.

 

Views

I typically don't post images of people, but I felt this one was too good to not share. We had just turned around from close to the top (some people didn't want to finish the uphill) and were heading back towards the lake. Using an aperture of f2.8 and shooting from the hip, I blindly took many images hoping one would turn out well. 

 

Peyto Lake

During one of our days in Canada, we took a day-long drive along the Ice Roads Parkway. Besides the snow on some peaks, there was no ice, but this stretch of road from Banff to Jasper was incredibly, incredibly beautiful. This particular image is of Peyto Lake, somewhere between the two cities. There was an easily accessible overlook with a fantastic view, but me being me, wanted to take something more unique. We started hiking towards the top of the mountain, went off trail to a pile of snow, when I turned back to the lake. I set up my tripod and took eleven images, each of a slightly different portion of the lake, which together made this piece.

 

Mist

I took this image during my afternoon hike at Moraine Lake. A brief rainstorm had just passed, and some low-hanging clouds were still around. I walked down to the lake's shore and took this image. There are many reasons I like it: the subtle, soft colors, layers of mountains upon mountains that draw your eye to the back of the image, and the clouds add softness to the hard rock.

 

Moraine Lake

This is Moraine Lake, as the title suggests. After a short but slow eight-mile drive up a winding road, you enter a land of no cell coverage and beautiful views. I visited the lake three times, once at sunset, another on the following sunrise, and a final time during the afternoon. While it may seem crazy that I woke up at 4am for this shot, yes, it is so worth it.

 

Mood

One of the many things I love about Canada is the weather. The entire time, the weather was incredible. There was sun, clouds, and the occasional rain. What I loved most about it was the fact that the weather was different every day. For example, on this day, it was partly cloudy but when the sky wasn't as moody as this, there was a significant amount of harsh light. 

 

Seasons

One of my favorite things about the mountains is how quickly the weather can change. One second it is clear skies, and the next is cloudy and rainy. For this image, an afternoon storm rolled in from nowhere, and everyone at Moraine Lake, including me, went to the Cafe to stay dry. But right after the rain passed, I went to the lake's edge and captured this. The trees are crisp with an f2.8 aperture with the mountain is slightly out of focus.

 

Mount Rundle

As the sun continued to set, I took out my tripod and neutral density filter again and took a panorama. I believe this piece is six images stitched together, but I forget the exact number. The process of stitching images together is straightforward. I add the photos to Adobe Lightroom, click the panorama merge, and the piece magically comes together. 

 

Distant

If you know me well, you know that I love adventure. Canada was no different. Each night I would search on Google Maps and find a spot I thought would be interesting for sunset. The problem was that I had no method of transportation, meaning bike or car, but I did have two legs. For this and the next image, I walked two miles to the Vermillion Lakes to capture the sunset. Should I have stayed out that late? Probably not, but thank you, mom, for picking me up and driving me home after it got dark!

Peaks

Another reason I enjoyed our trip to Canada so much was the weather. The highest high was eighty degrees, and the temperature dropped to around fifty at night. Additionally, during most of the days, there was significant cloud cover, which allowed me to take images like this. While editing, I made sure to increase the contrast and sharpness to make the sky even moodier and show off the mountains' details.

 

Mountain Roads

During one of our daily adventures, we took the gondola to the top of Sulphur Mountain. The views from the boardwalk were incredible, but me being me, I had to explore on some random hiking path. I followed the trail for about half a mile to this spot, where I could see the Trans-Canada Highway turning to the northwest. I used my telephoto lens once again and captured this image. I added a few blue and green filters on top of the piece to produce this final version.

 

Time

Another piece of equipment I am glad I brought on this trip was a variable neutral density filter and a tripod. These two items allowed me to control the shutter speed and create images like these. I adjusted the filter to its darkest setting, set the camera on a tripod, and let it run for twenty-five seconds. I captured the waves crashing in the lower part of the image, clouds cast with sunset colors moving in the upper half, and a cool breeze from the water telling me I should have worn pants.