Kyle Jones
Moderator
1) Rocky Mountain Way
Lake McDonald – Glacier National Park, Montana
This is probably my favorite image from the year. This view of Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park looks toward the northeast, which isn’t great for aligning with the Milky Way. My best chance would be early in the season, so I picked a night in early March when the sky would be dark and headed into the park at 3:30 am. I was excited to see that the lake was calm enough to give me some reflections (rarely the case) and the stars lined up where expected. I saw a faint glow over the mountains which made the scene brighter than usual for a moonless night. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized I had captured an aurora. There isn’t much else I could have hoped for!
2) Lake McDonald Sunset
Lake McDonald – Glacier National Park, Montana
Two weeks after the previous image, I went back to the same spot at sunset. I was treated to calm waters and colorful skies for this iconic Glacier scene. I was surprised not to find more people there on such a beautiful night, but I was happy to take advantage. I tried various compositions as the light and colors kept getting nicer, but I settled on this view of the primary mountains with the sky at peak color as my favorite. During a sunset, you never know when the color will be at its best, so I keep shooting until it is clearly done.
3) Nesting Eagle
National Bison Range – Montana
I am not a good bird photographer. I don’t have the patience to find good places and wait and I’m not particularly stealthy which makes it hard for me to get close. I also really like large raptors and enjoy seeing the bald eagles in Montana. I spotted this eagle on a power pole while driving through the National Bison Range near Missoula. I stopped my car, grabbed my camera and took a few shots. In a rare occurrence (for me), when the eagle took off I was actually ready and I managed to get some photos of the bird in flight with some nesting materials in tow. I’ll never claim this is my best photo, but I was really happy to get it.
4) Two Medicine Sunset
Glacier National Park, Montana
This was taken in early June and the weather forecast looked promising for a nice sunset. The Going-to-the-Sun road through the park wasn’t yet open, so I took the long way around to get to Two Medicine Lake. This is a beautiful area of the park and I always enjoy pointy Mount Sinopah looming over the scene. There was still some snow in the nearby campground and enough on the mountains to to make them look really nice. The lake wasn’t calm enough for reflections, so I found a stream from the snowmelt to use as a foreground. The sunset itself was beautiful and I was glad I’d made the trip.
5) Avalanche Lake
Glacier National Park, Montana
There was a lot of smoke in Northwest Montana during the summer, but a nice rainstorm finally cleared the air in late August. Sandee and I hiked up to Avalanche Lake and the scene was beautiful with the clearing storm clouds. I found this fallen tree to use as a foreground and took several images with different focus points to keep everything sharp. From the details in the tree, to the spot of light on the left bank, to the waterfalls and clouds in the background this image has a lot that I like.
6) Bird Woman Stars
Glacier National Park – Montana
The forecast for this evening in late August was for clear, dark skies so I drove out to a spot I had scouted on a previous trip to capture the Milky Way rising over Mount Oberlin and Bird Woman Falls. You can see the lower portion of the Going-to-the-Sun road at the bottom, with lights from the passing cars during the long exposure. I combined multiple images of the foreground to help reduce noise in the image but the sky is from a single frame.
7) Bowman Lake Glowing Trees
Glacier National Park – Montana
Bowman Lake is in the northern part of Glacier and until this fall I hadn’t made it out there. The drive starts from Columbia Falls on roads that are sometimes paved out to Polebridge, home of some famous huckleberry bear claws that are worth a stop. From there the dirt road is much worse getting out to the lake. The reward is a classic Glacier scene with mountains reflecting in the water. Western Larches are common on the hills on both sides of the lake and they were showing their peak autumn colors when I was there. I took some symmetrical reflection shots but then the sun ducked behind a cloud, leaving this larch covered hillside glowing in the light. I recomposed to take advantage and ended up with something special.
8) Tunnel View Autumn Sunrise
Yosemite National Park – California
I made an overnight trip to Yosemite at the end of October to check out the fall colors in the valley. I made my way above Tunnel View for sunrise and was treated to some nice pre-dawn color in the sky. Bridalveil Falls had an unusual amount of water flowing due to some recent storms and I thought that the colorful tree on the right provided a nice anchor – even if it is closer to the edge of the frame than I’d prefer. As beautiful as the view is from this spot, I’ve never been particularly satisfied with the images I’ve captured here. This is my new favorite.
9) Vernal Autumn
Yosemite National Park – California
After I shot sunrise and had breakfast on this fall morning, I decided to hike up to Vernal Falls. Vernal is probably my favorite waterfall in Yosemite due both to its width and to its scenic location. Unfortunately, it generally slows to a trickle in the fall but with the recent storms I was hoping it would be back to its glorious self. I had no idea that it would also be framed by trees in peak fall color.
10) Southside Drive
Yosemite National Park – California
Unless I am photographing a city skyline, I usually work pretty hard to avoid roads and other manmade objects in my landscapes. In this case, the autumn colors in Yosemite Valley were really beautiful and this s-curve in the road provided a great lead-in to the scene. I set up along the road (no, I wasn’t in it) and just had to wait for a gap between cars to snap the shutter. I composed the image to frame the road and colors between some of the darker trees and worked to keep the image relatively light in the background.
So those are my favorites from this year. I hope you all have a great 2022.
Lake McDonald – Glacier National Park, Montana
This is probably my favorite image from the year. This view of Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park looks toward the northeast, which isn’t great for aligning with the Milky Way. My best chance would be early in the season, so I picked a night in early March when the sky would be dark and headed into the park at 3:30 am. I was excited to see that the lake was calm enough to give me some reflections (rarely the case) and the stars lined up where expected. I saw a faint glow over the mountains which made the scene brighter than usual for a moonless night. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized I had captured an aurora. There isn’t much else I could have hoped for!
2) Lake McDonald Sunset
Lake McDonald – Glacier National Park, Montana
Two weeks after the previous image, I went back to the same spot at sunset. I was treated to calm waters and colorful skies for this iconic Glacier scene. I was surprised not to find more people there on such a beautiful night, but I was happy to take advantage. I tried various compositions as the light and colors kept getting nicer, but I settled on this view of the primary mountains with the sky at peak color as my favorite. During a sunset, you never know when the color will be at its best, so I keep shooting until it is clearly done.
3) Nesting Eagle
National Bison Range – Montana
I am not a good bird photographer. I don’t have the patience to find good places and wait and I’m not particularly stealthy which makes it hard for me to get close. I also really like large raptors and enjoy seeing the bald eagles in Montana. I spotted this eagle on a power pole while driving through the National Bison Range near Missoula. I stopped my car, grabbed my camera and took a few shots. In a rare occurrence (for me), when the eagle took off I was actually ready and I managed to get some photos of the bird in flight with some nesting materials in tow. I’ll never claim this is my best photo, but I was really happy to get it.
4) Two Medicine Sunset
Glacier National Park, Montana
This was taken in early June and the weather forecast looked promising for a nice sunset. The Going-to-the-Sun road through the park wasn’t yet open, so I took the long way around to get to Two Medicine Lake. This is a beautiful area of the park and I always enjoy pointy Mount Sinopah looming over the scene. There was still some snow in the nearby campground and enough on the mountains to to make them look really nice. The lake wasn’t calm enough for reflections, so I found a stream from the snowmelt to use as a foreground. The sunset itself was beautiful and I was glad I’d made the trip.
5) Avalanche Lake
Glacier National Park, Montana
There was a lot of smoke in Northwest Montana during the summer, but a nice rainstorm finally cleared the air in late August. Sandee and I hiked up to Avalanche Lake and the scene was beautiful with the clearing storm clouds. I found this fallen tree to use as a foreground and took several images with different focus points to keep everything sharp. From the details in the tree, to the spot of light on the left bank, to the waterfalls and clouds in the background this image has a lot that I like.
6) Bird Woman Stars
Glacier National Park – Montana
The forecast for this evening in late August was for clear, dark skies so I drove out to a spot I had scouted on a previous trip to capture the Milky Way rising over Mount Oberlin and Bird Woman Falls. You can see the lower portion of the Going-to-the-Sun road at the bottom, with lights from the passing cars during the long exposure. I combined multiple images of the foreground to help reduce noise in the image but the sky is from a single frame.
7) Bowman Lake Glowing Trees
Glacier National Park – Montana
Bowman Lake is in the northern part of Glacier and until this fall I hadn’t made it out there. The drive starts from Columbia Falls on roads that are sometimes paved out to Polebridge, home of some famous huckleberry bear claws that are worth a stop. From there the dirt road is much worse getting out to the lake. The reward is a classic Glacier scene with mountains reflecting in the water. Western Larches are common on the hills on both sides of the lake and they were showing their peak autumn colors when I was there. I took some symmetrical reflection shots but then the sun ducked behind a cloud, leaving this larch covered hillside glowing in the light. I recomposed to take advantage and ended up with something special.
8) Tunnel View Autumn Sunrise
Yosemite National Park – California
I made an overnight trip to Yosemite at the end of October to check out the fall colors in the valley. I made my way above Tunnel View for sunrise and was treated to some nice pre-dawn color in the sky. Bridalveil Falls had an unusual amount of water flowing due to some recent storms and I thought that the colorful tree on the right provided a nice anchor – even if it is closer to the edge of the frame than I’d prefer. As beautiful as the view is from this spot, I’ve never been particularly satisfied with the images I’ve captured here. This is my new favorite.
9) Vernal Autumn
Yosemite National Park – California
After I shot sunrise and had breakfast on this fall morning, I decided to hike up to Vernal Falls. Vernal is probably my favorite waterfall in Yosemite due both to its width and to its scenic location. Unfortunately, it generally slows to a trickle in the fall but with the recent storms I was hoping it would be back to its glorious self. I had no idea that it would also be framed by trees in peak fall color.
10) Southside Drive
Yosemite National Park – California
Unless I am photographing a city skyline, I usually work pretty hard to avoid roads and other manmade objects in my landscapes. In this case, the autumn colors in Yosemite Valley were really beautiful and this s-curve in the road provided a great lead-in to the scene. I set up along the road (no, I wasn’t in it) and just had to wait for a gap between cars to snap the shutter. I composed the image to frame the road and colors between some of the darker trees and worked to keep the image relatively light in the background.
So those are my favorites from this year. I hope you all have a great 2022.
