I first explored the lakes in Montana’s Bridger Mountains in late June of 2007, well over a year before I moved to the area. It was late afternoon when I pulled off Montana Highway 86 and followed Fairy Lake Road westward toward Sacagawea and Hardscrabble Peaks.
I was amazed to see the variety of wildflowers along the route, and was so engrossed in capturing images of them that it was early evening before I neared the end of Fairy Lake Road. At that point, the road curved around a pond named Elf Lake. Though it was still long before sunset outside the canyon, the sun was about to disappear behind the saddle next to Hardscrabble Peak, and I realized I had little time left to capture decent images.
I photographed the setting sun using a variety of exposure settings and camera angles. In one of those images, the sun appeared to be shooting rays downward toward Elf Lake, probably an effect caused by the iris diaphragm in my Nikon “kit” zoom lens, but at that point I wasn’t thinking of technicalities; I was excited because I knew I’d captured a “keeper”. The size of the sun is exaggerated in the image due to overexposure; I was not using a telephoto lens.
Moving on to the end of the road, I found Fairy Lake at the end of a short trail. The lake itself was now in the shadow of the mountains, but the Gallatin National Forest behind it was still in full sunlight, and the rising moon could be seen in the sky and reflected in the lake.
Walking around Fairy Lake, I met a young couple who were camping in a tent near the lakeshore. I commented on the great scenery there, and the guy enthused: “It’s ethereal!” It seemed unlike ordinary guy-talk to me, but I couldn’t have described it better myself.
After I returned home with my raw digital images, I had my Photoshop work cut out for me. At the time, I was not familiar with HDR image capture techniques, so a lot of digital massaging was required to get one good, printable image of each lake. I think it was worth the time, though. After viewing the images, I hope you agree.
— Gerald Blank
You can view the Elf Lake image in a larger size at:
http://geraldblank.smugmug.com/Landscapes/Montana-Scenics/20499061_vR9rbP#!i=1728947841&k=qH39F3G
and the Fairy Lake image at:
http://geraldblank.smugmug.com/Landscapes/Montana-Scenics/20499061_vR9rbP#!i=1708430764&k=hjtcZZr
