The Lustre of Long Exposure

The last dollops of light from an incredible sunrise stretch out across the skies over the placid waters of Lake McDonald, near Apgar, Glacier National Park, Montana.

 

This is actually the third image I've posted from an unbelievably beautiful and long-lasting ( this was taken about 30 minutes after the first image I posted from this same morning) sunrise show I enjoyed about three years ago in Glacier. I guess you could say I'm completing sort of a trilogy here.

 

The sunrise tones had evolved into amazingly rich orange hues by this time in the morning (having previously been yellow and then pink-red), and the color touches on the bottoms of the clouds had gotten a bit patchier than had been the case minutes before, so I decided to do a couple of long exposures with these last bursts of light. About two and half minutes seemed to do the trick, extending and smoothing the vibrant color bands a little while still revealing the basic structure of the cloud formations.

 

I also really liked the pebbled lake bottom which provides just a hint of visible texture in the semi-transparent portions of the foreground water.

 

Thanks for viewing!

Done