Iceberg's Bouquet

[Zack Clothier]

The alpine wildflowers were spectacular this year in Glacier Park. I made several trips to the park earlier this year, and logged some serious trail mileage, chasing the blooms and the light. Here is one from the Iceberg Cirque. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate on this particular day, and overcast skies prevented me from getting any decent light both in the morning and the evening. Yes, I spent the entire day at the lake hoping for the weather to break! Hopefully the explosion of wildflowers make up for the somewhat lackluster sky here. What do you think?

 

[AlanLichty]

Beautiful scene. Is this off the trail to Iceberg Lake?

I honestly prefer shooting with overcast days so to my eyes this is a delightful wildflower display. Overcast brings out more color and allows for more uniform light than direct light during daylight hours.

 

[Zack Clothier]

Beautiful scene. Is this off the trail to Iceberg Lake?

I honestly prefer shooting with overcast days so to my eyes this is a delightful wildflower display. Overcast brings out more color and allows for more uniform light than direct light during daylight hours.

Thanks Alan, yes it is. And I do agree with you that overcast light is good for some subjects, I was just hoping for some early morning light on the peaks, or some nice color in the clouds for sunset. At least there was a little definition in the clouds, rather than just flat overcast!

 

[Ben Egbert]

This is gorgeous. I was there third week of oct and saw lots of individual flower clumps but no maased displays like this. But I did not do any long hikes.

Like Alan I prefer an overcast sky for this sort of shot. I think your day was well spent

 

[Kyle Jones]

I agree with the others - the sky looks great for this shot. You have nice soft light for the flowers and good texture in the clouds.

 

[MonikaC]

Another one for overcast skies -- sunny skies wash out the colors. We can always hope for dramatic skies, but "you can't always get what you want".

 

[JimFox]

Yeah!!!! Thanks Zack for posting this one! I hope you will share some more.

This one made my heart ache a bit! I really like the Iceberg Lake area. The lake itself is so cool, and being surrounded with the wildflowers is awesome. I had to make a trade off to spend all of the time I did in SW Colorado, but I figured I would be missing some really great Oportunities up there too.

You did a great job with the overcast sky, this sure looks sweet. But I am with you, I prefer broken skies with the sun poking through either to light up the peaks as you said, or to backlight the flowers. It can really make a scene pop.

 

[JimFox]

Congrats on the Daily Featured Post Zack!

@Zack Clothier

 

[Kurt Harrigan]

Great shot, Zack! Do you happen to know what kind of flowers are blooming here?

 

[dan swiger]

What Alan said. The subdued light really makes the colors pop. Kudos to sticking around for this

 

[Jeffrey]

Not sure what kind of light you were hoping for, but THIS IS the best light. Nice image!

 

[Mike Lewis]

If this is what is considered bad light - well yikes, hard to imagine much better colors than this. Comp is killer too - slam dunk Daily Featured post for certain!

ML

 

[Jim Dockery]

I agree with everyone else, this is wonderful. Did you do a focus stack?

 

[lionking]

What a beautiful scene!
Love this.

 

[Dean]

Stunning Shot !

 

[Bob Denton]

This is great

 

[Beth]

i like the sky, but honestly it wasn't the first thing i looked at. those flowers are bright and big and really grabbed my attention. gorgeous scene!

 

[Zack Clothier]

Great shot, Zack! Do you happen to know what kind of flowers are blooming here?

Thanks Kurt, this particular meadow was an assortment of arnica (yellow), monkey flower (magenta), and mountain aster (purple).

I agree with everyone else, this is wonderful. Did you do a focus stack?

Jim, this is indeed a focus stack. Can't remember exactly how many, but I want to say around 20 images. I also panned upwards horizontally and shot several more exposures, which I stitched together for a wider field of view than was possible with a 14mm lens.