The Story Behind a Photo

I often like to explain to those interested what led me to make a certain photo, and maybe add a few details. It’s the “journalist” in me I guess. Anyway, here’s the photo. One of my favorites of 2017. And as it often happens “luck” was a main ingredient. Also, being in the right place at the right time.

Last August I was in Alaska, traveling about for a week with our daughter and son.  It was an amazing trip for many reasons, but “perfect weather” had a lot to do with it. Frequent visitors to Alaska will tell you it’s a rare day when the entire Alaska Range (Denali, etc) can be seen from the vicinity of Anchorage, since it’s over 200 miles away, and is usually covered with fog or clouds. Well, we hit the jackpot in that regard as you can see above. We were located at Summit Lake Recreation Site near 4000 feet elevation, about an hour away north of Anchorage. Using my 200mm telephoto lens from where I was standing, I was able to bring the far horizon in close. What turned out to be even better was when I spotted two hikers moving across the ridge line in front of us. I wondered to myself if they might climb a boulder I saw on the ridge line, so I waited until I determined that’s just what they were going to do. That’s when the composition went from being nice to great in my opinion. A tip. Try not to put the main subject of your photo in the center of the composition. Makes for a more interesting image. I also want to say its impossible not to be able to make nice photos in places like Alaska. All you have to do is go there!