Rocky Moutain Falls
Glacier National Park, MT
Moment in the Middle:
I talk about preparation a lot. The flip side to that is occasionally getting lucky. That’s the story of this image. On this trip, Emily and I met up with our kids at Glacier National Park during a road trip. The park is incredible, but there can be a fair amount of driving when trying to see all it has to offer. As a result, we passed this waterfall several times. On the last day there, I couldn’t pass it one more time without stopping.
It was morning and the sun was just getting to some of the trees. I spent time moving around and staring, just trying to work out the best composition. I kept coming back to this spot. With the bright trees on the edges there was a natural frame. It also made it feel like we were getting to look in on something special, tucked away, almost a secret. The position I was at gave the feeling of looking right at the middle of the falls. Often one is above or below falls just by the nature of what they are. This view is rare and gives great perspective!
But it’s never this easy… The day was exceptionally windy. All the bright trees were getting blown around. For the waterfall, I wanted a longer exposure. This was going to remove all the detail around the edge of the picture. The movement on the trees would give them almost an impressionistic painting effect. At some point in time, it occurred to me, this potential negative was actually just what this image needed! The motion blur helps focus the eye into the center at the waterfall.