Moraine Lake

[mikemueller2112]

Went camping at Lake Louise over the past week. Finally got some nice scenery to take a stab at some landscape photos (I live in the prairies, so it's a real treat going to the mountains). Gave my Tokina 11-16mm some lovin' this week.

Took this picture along Moraine Lake. That washed up log in the image looked pretty interesting to me so I tried a couple shots using it in the foreground.

500px / Photo "Moraine Lake" by Mike Mueller

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

That is a really scenic place. It seems like it's really hard to take a BAD picture there! You have a really nice one, I like the inclusion of the foreground log as an element.

It looks like you've lost detail in the sky above the mountains (it's blown). If you could bring that down with GND in RAW processing that might help. Otherwise, you may not have captured the full DR of the scene.

 

[mikemueller2112]

It was snowing in the mountains when I took that, basically just fog up there. That was a 15 second exposure so they were smeared out. I could have lowered the exposure a bit to make those shadows a bit more distinct but I didn't feel like it made any improvements that way. I think my best bet would have been to take the ND filter off and comp an image with the clouds properly exposed at a shorter exposure.

I do agree it's pretty hard to take a bad picture there.

 

[Big Mike]

I love Moraine Lake, it's a beautiful place and does make for some amazing photos. The only problem are the tourists. On a busy weekend in the summer, the parking lot fills up quick and parked cars pile up along the road coming in. If you show up at the wrong time, it's quick a hike just to get to the parking lot.

Well done using the log for your foreground. The one thing missing from most shots of Moraine lake is a foreground. You have to hike/climb around quite a bit to get to a good vantage point.

My one critique, is that the log is too centred. You could probably lose some space off the left side, putting the log in a better place (compositionally) and making the mountain peaks more prominent.

 

[mikemueller2112]

Definitely agree on the tourists, tough to get around. I was somewhat indecisive for cropping that, I originally thought about cutting off some of the left side but I liked the rocks on that side. Looking at it again, it might be better to have cut it out like that. I was on the fence about that, obviously I opted to leave it centered. Thank you for the critique.