Glacier National Park Landscape Photography Heaven

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If you know me at all you’ve likely already fainted at the title of this post…yes, I photographed landscapes and not only did I do it on purpose, but I LIKED it! It isn’t as crazy as it sounds. You see, I was in Glacier National Park and while there is a plenty of wildlife it is not easily found. The mountains and wildflowers however are magnificent and even I had to take some time and make a few images.

Just to make sure everyone can rest easy….here is a Mt. Goat in front of a umm, well mountain!

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It is easy to understand why Wild Goose Island is the most photographed spot in the park. It is beautiful and frankly drop dead easy to shoot. Plenty of space to park and it has not moved in millions of years! And as you can see in this picture we’ve been photographing it for a hundred years too! The real story is this man did bring a turn of the century camera to photograph the sunrise and he was kind enough to pose for a shot and then I did a B&W conversion with a Topaz Labs plugin to give it this old time look.

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I had to leave the hotel at 2:30am yes AM to get to the lake for sunrise. Fair warning, if you are going to try for this shot, it is fleeting as the color only lasts for about 15 minutes. Get there with plenty of time to setup and think about your composition and be ready for the color. Another fair warning, it doesn’t happen every morning. OK, yes the sun comes up, but it can often be cloudy and otherwise icky and colorless!

I chose to do a variety of shots and I also took shots with HDR (High Dynamic Range) processing in mind. I really mostly dislike HDR shots. As my friend and mentor, David Middleton, likes to say, “Just because you can, does not mean you should!” Truer words were never spoken with regards to HDR and photoshop tricks in general. HOWEVER, when done well and with care you can make stunning images.

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My trip was in late June and it was great time for wildflowers in the park. I’ll write about that later, but there were a lot of colorful opportunities.

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I teach a baby wildlife photography workshop in Kalispell, MT every spring. If you come to my workshop next spring, I’ll also come hang out with you in Glacier and we can shoot some landscapes too.

Enjoy this gallery of more images that I took on the trip.