August 26, 2011
Alpine Stream in Glacier National Park, Montana

We've returned to Glacier National Park, and boy are conditions odd due to the heavy snow cover this past winter. Down low, some of the foliage is starting to turn color as usual at the beginning of fall. However up high, it's more like July because glacier lilies are in full bloom because the snow is almost done melting! Last night, we explored the area known as Hanging Gardens near Logan Pass. It was our first time in that particular area, and we fell in love with it. There are many, many small streams and waterfalls in the circular valley surrounded by high peaks, and oddly there are lots of early-season wildflowers right now. Because it was our first time there, we didn't realize that gum boots would be appropriate, so I kept my feet dry and tried to look for interesting compositions on the near side of the main drainage. Jan decided to cross the drainage and got soaking wet boots, and she was able to get much better compositions than I was. We will definitely return with appropriate footwear. I did get one nice composition early in the evening (above) with some puffy clouds, and I was able to use my DIY SW150 filter holder on the TS-E 17 for my first real image. To capture detail throughout the image, I made three exposures and combined them by hand in Photoshop.