Glacier National Park Chat

Great colors in the clouds!
Please stick with the chat….your posts and photos are really enjoyed.

paul wrote: ↑Fri Sep 24, 2021 7:43 am It looks like it's getting chilly there. Snow in the mountains and all.

Yup. You'll see in the video(s). Mt Jackson and the others in that are have quite a bit of snow, especially on the north facing slopes.
Should make for some nice photos if I can get out there.
I have some medical issues. see below.
Great hiking weather though. Air is clear now.
I think I got some good shots along McDonald Creek.
I'll try to get them upasap.
Thx Paul

calicotraveler wrote: ↑Fri Sep 24, 2021 8:06 am Great colors in the clouds!
Please stick with the chat….your posts and photos are really enjoyed.

I'm not going anywhere. I'm just venting because a lot of negative sh1t has happened to me recently.
Including... I may have an ulcer or worse Passing black blood ain't a good sign. Lost 15lbs in a month.
I'll know more after they do an endoscopy and colonoscopy next Wednesday.
This weekend I will try to get out to the park again for pics.
I have to limit what I do physically because I don't have the energy and can't eat a lot, especially some of my fave foods.
So there you go...
Thanks Michele

Looks like perfection to me.

Sorry to hear about your health issues, Pete. I hope it turns out better than it sounds.

Here are a few images from my little sort of spontaneous road trip to Logan Pass and beyond September 23rd.
The video is going to take a little more work. I made the video in part for some YouTube folks in Europe whose channel(s) I follow. That's why you hear me giving advice about bears and eating in your tent, etc. They don't have bear problems in the UK or most of western Europe.

This time of year when the creeks are at their lowest flow rate and depth is a great time for photographs...in my opinion.
I really liked how the water flowed through the funnel in the rocks.
Polarizer reduces the glare on the surface allowing the rocks under water to be seen.




Single image looking up McDonald Creek at The Haystack which doesn't look much like a Haystack from this angle. Mt Gould can be seen just left and behind The Haystack. I liked the colored rocks in the foreground and how the creek leads one's eye to The Haystack. I wasn't real happy about how the fast moving clouds moved in to block out the nice blue sky in the panorama below.


This is a three image panorama. I thought this allowed for a better composition. This image also shows how the slow water flow and shallow depth allows for the colored rocks to been seen.


Two image panarama of Haystack Falls. It took a bit of doing to compose this one. Taken from a point over the guard rail where the footing was a bit sketchy on the steep slope. Also had to wait for a lull in traffic, as well as push some shrubbery out of the way.


This is the sunset from Wild Goose Island you already saw


pete

As always beautiful Pics. I particularly like the Wild Goose evening shot.

Chip wrote: ↑Sat Sep 25, 2021 5:36 am As always beautiful Pics. I particularly like the Wild Goose evening shot.

Thanks Ken!
I got to the parking area at WGI a bit later than I wanted because I was watching the bear just up the road.
The light was changing rapidly and so I didn't really have time to look for a better composition.
I wanted to get up on that observation area they built a few years ago--less clutter in the foreground.

Changing gears for the photographers...

I just finished watchin Adam Gibbs' new video.


I really like his work. He inspires me to try and be more patient.
Adam goes to great lengths to get his compositions "just right".
He works hard to get the various elements in the frame arranged so that there is good separation.
That combined with waiting for just the right light gives his photos great depth and mood...imo.
Maybe that's why he was voted "Landscape Photographer of the Year" a few years ago.

I'm getting domestic chores done now so I can get to bed early.
Sunrise will be at 0728 tomorrow. So I'll leave home around 0500. That will put me at Logan Pass around 0630.
I'll decide where to go then. I'm thinking of somewhere on the East side like Sun Point or maybe down by the boat docks at Rising Sun.
As Adam Gibbs says, "It's all about the light"...and in this case where the light will be best.

After sunrise, I'm thinking of going to Sunrift Gorge. Baring Creek, like most of the creeks will be down low.
Might be some good colored rock shots right by the bridge.
Then I may hike up the creek a ways for pics along the creek in some new places(for me).
That and/or hike up into the ledges on the other side of the trail on Goat Mt.
I'm thinking with all the bear sightings recently, maybe I'll see a griz.
Plus, that area will have fewer people around--probably none up in the ledges on Goat Mt.

later

pete

The trip to GNP was pretty much a bust for photos. Windy at sunrise and it picked up more after.
I spent a couple hours watching a BIG black bear(~350lbs we thought) with a Grand Teton ranger on the ridge across from the pit toilets east of Jackson Overlook. Very interesting guy.

Six image panographic looking west. The pics looking east looked good, but not sure yet if they are any good.
The "white dot" is a gal in her wedding dress. She and her husband being photographed by a wedding photographer.
Looks ok here on a monitor, but trees, etc. somewhat blurred on the pixel level

Pete, always interesting stuff. The clouds in the Goose Island one are great. Wedding pics at sunrise, eh?

Let’s just say that I found out a tool for colon surgery has a 40mm diameter. Imagine that. General anesthesia is a good thing. For the next procedure, I’ve attached a seatbelt to the loo. I had a hard time with lift off last time.

Ok, enough toilet jokes.

Jay

Jay w wrote: ↑Mon Sep 27, 2021 11:02 am Pete, always interesting stuff. The clouds in the Goose Island one are great. Wedding pics at sunrise, eh?

I arrived at Sun point at 0645 and it was still almost dark. The photographer was still in her car snoozing. She was supposed to meet the couple at 0630.
She wanted to get set up well before sunrise. The couple had to change clothes after arriving. Hard to ride in a car wearing a big wedding gown
They were married a few days ago.
There was good color to the east, I'm not sure I captured it. I took a lot of shots, bracketed--5 images -1.3ev, -.7ev, 0, +.7ev, +1.3ev
So it will take a while to look at all of them--there's a LOT of images to sort through. I'm not very good at sunrises just yet.
Getting the exposure right is lot harder than people think, especially when the light and clouds are changing rapidly ..imo anyway.
The chilly 20+ knot wind didn't help matters either.

Let’s just say that I found out a tool for colon surgery has a 40mm diameter.
When I was a Biomedical guy, we called it "riding the silver stallion"
Imagine that. General anesthesia is a good thing.
I think they said I'd be getting IV propofol and a MD anesthesia doc will be doing it. I've never had any sort of general anesthesia in my life.
I went to school for both Drager and Ohio Medical and worked on anesthesia machines for years
For the next procedure, I’ve attached a seatbelt to the loo. I had a hard time with lift off last time.
LOLOLOL

Ok, enough toilet jokes.

Jay

Thanks Jay as always.
pete

Here is the composition I chose for the eastern look. I really wanted to shoot from over where the wedding party was, the place last year where I got a nice pano looking west. But being the unselfish guy that I am, I let them have it.
12 minutes before official sunrise. 4 images. ISO 200 24mm(36mm) 1/10sec f8(bracketed around this exposure) I tried to bring out more detail in the bright part using a dodging tool, but it was too blown out. It looks "ok" I guess. That deep blue sky is pretty close to what it actually looked like. All I ended up doing on this one aside cropping slightly was lighten shadows and darken highlights a little bit. I could have brought out more detail on the left. However, I left it that way because I wanted to emphasize the sky and the lake. Some people might like it. Focus is good. Trees on left are pretty sharp at the pixel level. ISO 200 help keep noise down.
The -1.3EV frame had a little more but all four frames have to have same settings for it to stitch correctly.

Not that the bright part is too bad, but I've found that the dodge tool just can't save blown out areas well. If you're clever with the cloning tool I suggest dragging some of the exiting clouds and sky nearby into the blown out area. I've had some luck doing it on a few of my images.

Hoping things go for the best with you on Wednesday.

ND wrote: ↑Mon Sep 27, 2021 3:29 pm Not that the bright part is too bad, but I've found that the dodge tool just can't save blown out areas well. If you're clever with the cloning tool I suggest dragging some of the exiting clouds and sky nearby into the blown out area. I've had some luck doing it on a few of my images.

Hoping things go for the best with you on Wednesday.

Hi Ken:
Rather than do cloning or some other fix, I have decided to go another way.
Since I really enjoy doing panographic photos, I decided to go another way entirely.
I upgraded my PTgui to the pro version.
It will do HDR panos. For the above image, I loaded all 20 RAW files(5 images for each of the 4 frames).
10 seconds later it spit out a HDR pano in .tiff format. Or I could have chosen Adobe PSD.
PTgui Pro is an very powerful program and HDR panos can be done in different ways.

The down side is that I will now have to bring back Adobe PS in some form as PS Elements cannot open HDR files of this type.
The good news is that if one uses a tripod, and is careful about getting focus right, etc. the resulting HDR will be VERY good.
And won't look weird like "standard HDRs" that are produced from less capable programs. HDR panos, good ones, are difficult5 to make.
The pro version will also do some other things with "normal" panos and do them better than PS Elements or even Photoshop.
Elements won't even process some panos I did in the past, but PTgui had no problem stitching them etc.
So I'm committed to trying to get the very best results.
As for the cost, I just don't care anymore. It's only a couple hundred bucks.
I probably won't get anything done till this damn procedure is over on Wed.

And frankly, the procedure isn't a big deal in and of itself.
It's what they find that will matter.
I'm just glad you taxpayers are on the hook for it, and not me!

later
pete

Great photos Pete!!

As always Pete, I enjoy the pics and appreciate the effort you put in for those of us far away.

Thanks Matt and David
Nothing obvious found during my upper and lower GI procedure.
Biopsy results in a week. Thanks all for concern and support!!
pete