Fire Watch by RyanBuchanan

+View on black+ Walking back from Hidden Lake in the dark, we were greeted with a huge full moon rising from behind the mountains. To the naked eye, you could see the faint smoke plume over St. Mary’s from the forest fires we had been dealing with all week. After setting up a couple quick test shots, I realized that a full 30-second exposure revealed this incredible red glow from fires illuminating the smoke. Not exactly an ideal composition, but also not your everyday kind of scene, so I set up to where I could use the nice moonlight reflections that accentuated the flowing stream as my foreground. The smokey haze created a warmer moonlight than usual. This is one, 30-second exposure that I was able to pull a ton of detail out of the darkness and another exposure for the moon detail. This was a fitting conclusion to our fire-filled week and left me with a unique memory of our adventures here. Follow me: Website: ExposureScape.com Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1xFjc4v Twitter: @BuchananPhoto via 500px http://bit.ly/1L3Bt62

Battle Born by RyanBuchanan

+better view on black+ Logan Pass has always been a battleground. Over thousands of years, glaciers have carved out some of the most magnificent mountain peaks in North America. With relentless winters that allow for only a small window for life, survival here is tough. And this year even more so—drought conditions, forest fires, a nearly non-existent water flow, even the flowers were, for the most part, long gone all due to the lack of snowfall this past winter. Even in such harsh conditions, it's amazing how life still perseveres. This evening, on our second trip up to Logan Pass, we were rewarded with interesting cloud cover mixed with a smokey haze from the fires—resulting in some interesting light. I’ve always wanted to capture Clements Mountain with it’s unique, castle-like appearance and this was my chance! My daunting search to find a foreground began… I finally came across this lonely patch of flowers that was somehow still in full bloom. My goal was to create depth in the scene by getting extremely close to the flowers, making them appear as large as possible. I positioned the angle of the camera to where the flowers would lead the eye up through the mid-ground to the mountain. So, with a few passers-by wondering what the hell I was doing with my face and camera buried in this cluster, I took a few series of shots of the foreground at 7 different focal points which I was able to blend in photoshop for sharpness throughout. The light was more intense at this point, allowing me to keep the shutter fast enough to freeze any flower movement. Then I waited a little longer for the right sky light to set in. The clouds made for some great patterns coming out from behind the mountain as the hazy glow intensified. The lens distortion at the top of the frame helped lengthen the mountain and cloud lines. Thanks for looking and I appreciate your comments. Follow me: Website: ExposureScape.com Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1xFjc4v Twitter: @BuchananPhoto via 500px http://bit.ly/1LW38ai

Hidden Lake by RyanBuchanan

It was a long week out in Glacier National Park, dodging fires, escaping the smoke and hunting for clouds—tough even finding flowing water and flowers. With apparently just 15% of snowfall this past winter, drought conditions were in full effect—flowers were long gone for the most part and creek beds were nearly dry. This evening though, we were able to get out from most of the smokey haze and catch some nice, interesting light up at Logan Pass. This is Hidden Lake at the foot of Bearhat Mountain. The search for foreground life led me to this spot where I was able to get a slight sideview angle on the mountain and some greater depth out to the horizon. Blended around 6 shots to get sharpness throughout. With Going to the Sun road closed I was worried we weren’t going to be able to make it up here. Was incredible to finally see it—a photographer’s dream. But the real treat was finally getting out to shoot with Ryan Dyar and Miles Morgan. We had a blast and it was obviously great to get to know and learn from these two pros. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend checking out Dyar’s instructional processing videos for some expert tips. Good stuff. Thanks for checking out my work! Follow me: Website: ExposureScape.com Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1xFjc4v Twitter: @BuchananPhoto via 500px http://bit.ly/1PS2A3U

Brúará by RyanBuchanan

+Should really view this on black+ Let me be the first to say it—I may have gone a little overboard on this one—but who knows. I’ve been lost in my dark processing world for weeks with this one…I surrender. Every time I look at it, I end up tweaking the color balance, tones, contrast, on and on… I can’t escape it… I fear I’ve stared this one down to the point of no return. Too dark—probably. Over-baked—most-likely. color balance off—sure. But what I was trying to capture here—and what initially started me off down this endless path—was my personal experience here at this incredibly unique and beautiful waterfall. Perched alone on this edge, in the dark afterglow, standing in the water, with it flowing all around me was a surreal experience I will never forget and a personal highlight for me on my trip. I guess that’s why I went with the more surreal look. I felt like this composition in combination with the sky light captured some of the magic of amazing place. And I feel the longer you stare at it the more details come out and the tones balance out more. Aside from trying not to fall in, the main difficulties here were getting the right shutter speed, focal length and dealing with no light really hitting the falls at all. In post, balancing out the warm tones with the cool tones and the ferociously blue water and intensely warm sky was rough. This was taken on Saturday, June 21—summer solstice—when the sun bounces off the horizon, never setting. Was taken after midnight and the glow in the sky was just gorgeous—like I had never seen before. Had been raining all day and I came back at night for some long exposure action. All the moisture and mist in the air allowed for the most interesting, even, saturated glow across the sky right when the sun ducked below the cloud layer for a short time. Check out my drone video from Iceland here: http://bit.ly/1yTLq1b Website: ExposureScape.com Follow Me: Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1xFjc4v Twitter: @BuchananPhoto via 500px http://bit.ly/1yTLq1e