Enlightenment, a photo from Montana, West

Photographer's Note

Glacier National Park was an incredible success for us. We were able to capture some of the most impressive light shows I've ever seen. This is one of them. A few minutes earlier, the rays of the sun began to stream through this little gap in the clouds. At first, the rays were contained to a small area far away on the mountainside. The valley was veiled in mist and lacked the contrast that would make a truly beautiful image. But as the sun dropped towards the horizon, more beams of light escaped from behind the clouds - and the mist filtered and reflected the light to create this ethereal scene.

I used a GND filter to bring down the sky in this image. Shooting into the sun can be disastrous, but with careful processing I was able to recreate the scene in all it's glory.

I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I enjoyed shooting it. All comments and critiques are more than welcome. Thank you for taking the time to tell me what you think.

Varina Patel

sothy81, ribeiroantonio, gracious, rcrick, Ulishna has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Miks (1717) 2007-09-13 17:35

You are right that this is quite a bit of a firework. Gorgeous place! (Got it?) You do great job of controlling the difficult light here. Only a very small part is burned out and there is lots of detail in the darker parts (e.g., the pines). But my favorite feature is the silver stream in the bottom of the valley. It provides a great sense of scale.

Congrats.
Mikkel

amiolito (247) 2007-09-13 17:54

Hey, you make me wish so much I was somewhere else or someone else, a park ranger perhaps. In a different time, riding horseback in this beautiful nature..

This would make one of the most beautiful posters I have ever seen. Love it! You really successed with capturing the light play in the trees and valley.

sothy81 (9646) 2007-09-13 18:00

Varina, I love your photography. I went on to your cool website, and learned that you have a lot of wonderful iamges from the US to France. This is such a great picture with wonderful light and colors. Perfect capture.

Sothy

ribeiroantonio (22730) 2007-09-13 18:08

I love sunsets and your work is fabulous. Well done. Congratulations.
Antonio

MeAT (1174) 2007-09-13 18:31

Very cool shot. I really like how you placed the lines with the sunset.

MeAT :)

KellEy (1237) 2007-09-13 18:48

Beautiful composition and colours!
What a place!

gracious (20025) 2007-09-13 18:58

Hello Varina,
this is awesome photo!
excellent exposure and focus
perfect clarity, vivid colour and details
well composed and well seen
greeting
Tony

rcrick (346) 2007-09-13 22:59

Hi Varina, you𠆫e right what an amazing light show, the colours are truly stunning and with an excellent dof, the hint of water in the centre just sets the mood, wonderful to look at and thankyou for sharing, Cheers Rick :)

marjan (7) 2007-09-13 23:21

hi Varina, wonderful shot with very nice composition and POV. Nice tender and darc coloures make this photo wery effective.
Marjan

kinarin (41) 2007-09-14 0:21

Hi Varina,

Amasing light! I especially love the contrast between the cooler blue tones of the sky and the background mountains versus the warm sunlight...

Best Regards
Cristina

Ulishna (2268) 2007-09-14 0:35

Hello Varina,
one of the best landscapes, really! So great effect from light. Amazing!
Julia

GREGG (7888) 2007-09-14 1:02

Hi!
Good picture with fantastic colors and a great point of view.The excellent colors of the sky.
Greeting from Poland
GRZEGORZ

bmw76 (80) 2007-09-14 6:25

Hi Varina

That is an amazing shot. I hope one day I can do the same. Good scene and the sunray is magical.

Well done

Bryan

gneufeld (15890) 2007-09-14 20:28

Hi Varina,
This image presents quite an amazing use of light and color - it's eye catching and the sort of image one has to look at for a while to get the full effect. Great shot and TFS. Gerald

cdmonson (5304) 2007-09-27 9:19

Nice one Varina. You got a lovely assortment of colors in this sunburst. In my opinion, your composition couldn't have been better. Great job.

Clark

ARGI (3456) 2007-10-30 2:17

Fantastic colors and atmosphere!!
It gives me the desire to be there.
Very very good shot.
Greetings
Argyris

andywo (4725) 2007-11-27 7:19

Hi Varina
Very wonderful wiev, perfect composition and very special light. Well done!
Thanks for sharing!
Best regards
Andrzej

jpphoto (465) 2008-02-05 2:17

Encore du jamais vue , superbe prise de vue compo excellent A= jpphoto

DavidBYKOWSKI (149) 2008-02-05 2:23

Image fantastique avec des couleurs intenses. Et grace a ces couleurs nait une extraordinaire ambiance. vraiment une tr鋊 belle photo.
David

blu (1429) 2009-05-12 5:21