The rocks in the lakes, waterfalls and along trails at Glacier National Park are gorgeous and colorful. These rocks are primarily made up of clay, a sedimentary rock referred to as Argillite. The colors vary depending on it's sedimentary stage and oxygen level. I'm not a geologist, that's basically what I learned from rangers, but one things I do they make an amazing photograph. I had dreams of this shot for a long time before I finally got conditions that were perfect for it. I lived in Montana and was in the park several weeks every year. The water level needed to be much lower than usual so I could get very close and out a ways from the beach to get this composition. The water also needed to be very still. I thought late Fall maybe Winter would be the best time. In fact, I photographed this scene in February 2012 on a very still, warm and beautiful day. Contrary to what we think about Glacier, it does get some gorgeous weather in Winter. All the conditions came together. The water level was very low and perfectly still. I've been back to this location every year since and I've never seen the water as perfectly staged and the beach I photographed this from was drastically changed by big storms through each season since them. There used to be a gradual depth change out into the lake and now the rocks have shifted creating ledges and deeper water. I actually made another composition of Mountain Jewels that has been published for a while now, but the other day I went back through my archives and pulled out all the images I'd made from that day. I made a lot. In this shot, I captured just Mt. Vaught. In my previous image, I captured part of Mt. Vaught, part of Mt. Cannon and part of Mt. Brown. As my eye became more experienced over the past few years, it bothered me that I cut off part of Mt. Vaught and Mt Brown. I like them both, but I really like this comp a lot. Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park, MT via 500px http://ift.tt/1qJ9n5i
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