Landscape Photography at its Best Epic Light in Glacier National Park on Opening Day

Hey everyone. Welcome back to the woods. Today we are in Glacier and this was not my original plan. In fact, it's actually very far from my original plan. My original plan was to go shoot some really nice mountain scenery, but where I was planning to go was completely socked in and when this area gets socked in, it's usually there for the day. So, instead we had another special opportunity come up. It's the opening day to going to the Sun Road here in Glacier Park. So, I couldn't resist. Normally, I wait way too long and by the time I'm here, the waterfalls have kind of petered out and they're nowhere near their best. So, instead, today's mission is to try to shoot waterfalls in Glacier while they're still at some of their best. Now, I really didn't want to shoot another video in the park so soon, but there were a couple reasons I decided to anyway. One, opening day. So, hopefully the crowds were going to be less. I did temper my expectations, which is good because it is extremely busy. And two, we just got back from a big trip to Idaho for our family and friends and I don't have Willow. She's with my parents. So, I can run into the park guilt-free without my dog this time. So, I just took a really cool shot before I could get anything framed up for video because I was playing with some dynamic light. I came for waterfalls, but of course, I'm going to shoot mountains. But as a start, here's that first shot. My goodness, we are having all the luck right now. This storm light's been awesome. It just lit up Heaven's Peak right here. And so, I've checked the playback. Exposure looks great. This image is definitely going to be my best image of Heaven's Peak, so I'm super excited about that. Here's that shot now. All right, that shot turned out great. The next step is going to be zooming in and pulling out some more of those vignettes. This 100 to 400 lens has been absolutely perfect today. This is exactly why I got this lens for times like this when I want to shoot across a drainage and get in on some of these mountains. So, if those zoomed-in shots turned out any good, here they are. Once again, light's great. It's popping off behind me now, right on Birdwoman Falls. This was the right choice. I'm glad I came here. My wife would be terrified though if she saw the kind of cliff that I'm standing next to right now. Let me show you. And it goes all the way down, just like that. Good few hundred feet to the bottom. So, being very mindful of my footing and of my tripod. Can't have problems with either of those, but this is just absolutely beautiful. These are the kind of shots I've been trying to get here for years, and I just never seem to make it in because I'm too averse to the crowds or too afraid to leave my dog at home. Well, you can see in the wide angles of the shot here that the mountains have blue sky above them, but if you zoom in, this bank of cloud behind them gives it a ton of mood. Well, I had no intention of filming almost an entire video worth of images here. I'm gonna hop back into my truck and see what else we can find targeting the waterfalls I said we were going to. All right, behind me with all the traffic included is Haystack Creek. This is one of the waterfalls I had in mind before I even came out today. It looks awesome right now. There's a lot of water flowing on there, and I've had to use both a circular polarizer and a 6-stop ND filter to get the right exposure. Let me show you what I've got set up. I've just picked out my favorite vignette, and it's probably the primary series of cascades that you see when you make this drive, and they're just beautiful. I've zoomed in right on them. I've tried to exclude all the surrounding vegetation the best I could and really just focus on the waterfall. It's beautiful, and that's what I'm here to celebrate. So if that shot turned out any good, here it is. Before I leave this pullout, I have one more image that I turned around and really liked. There's some great light on this mountain right in the center of the frame, and some of these young cottonwood that surround the road here have really nicely framed it and add some really cool out-of-focus elements to the shot. So if it turned out any good, and I like it still, here it is. Well, hopefully you can hear me over the sound of this waterfall. It took me a minute and working around the crowds to finally figure out a composition that I think works. I don't think I'm going to have any luck showing you more than what I just did with the b-roll, so here's the final shot if I liked it. Well, I was trying to work something out with these really awesome plants in the foreground. I think it's some sort of Solomon's seal plant. I'm not good with my native plants, but I was getting too much of the road in. I don't want roads in my images, especially with all this obnoxious traffic. So I'm going to see if I can go down below and jump into some of that Solomon's seal and use it as a foreground for this incredible mountain vista here. Well, the Solomon's seal was really cool, but there were actually some really cool flowers down here instead. So obviously I'm going to switch my ideas up and work with the best stuff on site. Let me show you what I'm talking about. So the top of the frame is going to have these mountains, and then the foreground is going to have these flowers. I believe this might be elderberry. Makes awesome wine, and apparently it makes a good foreground too. So I'm going to have to focus stack this scene. I'm not sure exactly how many shots that's going to take, what that's going to look like. There's a bit of a breeze here, and that always gets me. Hopefully I can get this in just two frames at f-16. If that shot turned out any good, which I pray to god it did, here it is. I am absolutely panicking right now because there are some of the best light I have ever seen with low hanging clouds and mist among the peaks here, and the person in front of me is going so slow. And I'm just like, oh come on, let's get going. This light doesn't stick around for long, and I know it, and I can just feel it slipping away. If I can get to the next pullout here soon and get it before it's totally gone, I will be so happy. Either way, this has been the best day of photography I have had in so long. I can't even explain it. Just 10 out of 10. Perfect day. Let's just hope we can get there before it's too late. We got it. We finally got it. I've been trying to get a shot like this for years, and it finally came together. That light behind me on the peak there, it's just, the clouds are holding to it, the mist is holding to it, and the afternoon evening light here is just super warm, glowing it right up. I can't believe we got it. This is the best day of photography I've had in so long. I can't even explain it. I'm just over the moon all day here. I'm gonna keep shooting it, working the scene, maybe refine it. I'm struggling with focal length a little bit. I have to get my mid-range lens out, which is okay. I'll try it, but I've got something that I know I'm really happy with, so absolutely stunning conditions here in Glacier opening day. We're going to the sun road. Couldn't be happier. Got the shot. Whatever I got that I like and turned out, here it is. Well, I made it to the top of the pass, and the scenery up at the top, it's not disappointing either. There's a bank of clouds that's just rolling off the back side of all the peaks here, and like you see, that's the peak. Nope, that's the peak that I was shooting earlier, and they're all just holding all of that cool mist up there. It's just, it's so Tolkien-esque. It's like it's right out of the books, you know, but I've got a shot framed up here, and I'll show you what it looks like. It's a little difficult to see on the back of the screen, but I've got a lot of these young subalpine fir in the foreground here, and the focus is on the cloud bank moving over the peaks in the back. I'm going to keep them dark, I think. We'll see, but I think I'm going to keep them as a dark element, as a nice contrast to the clouds moving up above. So if that turned out any good, here's the shot. All of these peaks up here are just incredible. It's just surreal. It really is like it's right out of a fantasy book. It's, it's like I'm watching Lord of the Rings with my own eyes. It's wonderful. So I'm gonna spend some time with the long lens, of course, picking out things and pulling them in and see what we come away with. Here's those shots. The energy up here tonight is just incredible. It's impossible to beat. I just got done talking to a really nice young couple, B&B, if you're watching. Hello, and happy birthday. But everybody up here has just been so friendly, so happy, and it's impossible to not be. I mean, look at that. Look at that. Man, I obviously don't spend enough time up here. I need to come up here more, even, even with the crowds. I mean, everybody's friendly. What am I worried about? I guess it's just the guilt from leaving Willow behind, because I know she'd just be, she'd be rolling in the snow having a good time. So I miss my dog, but the shots are worth it. So I'm gonna go paddle on down to one other turnout that I know of down the road where I think sunset's going to just be incredible. And I guess we'll find out if it is, but if it's not, I mean, how, how can't it be? How can't it be? This is amazing. Just amazing. Without further ado, let's get on down. Well, I couldn't seem to get too far. A really nice couple informed me that there were some bighorn sheep up on the mountain there. I don't know if any of these shots are gonna turn out, but if they do, here they are. Well, that was an incredible day of shooting I won't forget soon. The place I was trying to go down to, it just didn't work. There was a mountain goat standing in front of the way, and there were enough people harassing it, I didn't want to get into it. So the light's pretty well done at this point. It's getting dark, probably getting home later than I expected or wanted to, but days like this don't come by often, and I'm really glad I was able to make the most of it. So hopefully you enjoyed those images, and if these are the kind of adventures you like to see, please consider subscribing to the channel to see more. Alright, take care everyone.