Photos from Glacier National Park and a New Workshop Announcement
Recently I spent a week in Glacier National Park teaching a photography workshop. I'll share photos and a brief story from the trip.
I also want to announce a brand new workshop for 2023. It's the Late Winter In Northern Minnesota Photography Workshop. It's now open for registration. Up until now my winter workshops have stayed mainly near Lake Superior and trekked up river canyons. This one is different. While we will still do Lake Superior for a sunrise and sunset, we'll spend an entire day along the Gunflint Trail. In late February, it's still deep winter along the trail. I love photographing the winter along the trail in late February. It's magical. I'll share one of my favorite images from winter that I happened to take on the Gunflint.
Before I was a professional photographer, I backpacked in, camped in, and explored Glacier. I always loved the park and after becoming a workshop instructor, I always thought it would be a good place for a workshop. Before I decided I may want to run a workshop there, I spent three years heading to Glacier immediately after teaching workshops in the Tetons. After scouting, my plan was to teach a couple of workshops in Glacier in 2020, but with covid the entire east side of the park closed. I had to cancel my workshops.
I finally got back with many of the participants who were on those cancelled workshops. It felt good to be back in Glacier. My first day there, I thought to myself that I can't believe how beautiful it is.
The cool thing about Glacier is that it has three of my favorite things to photograph in a compact area. It has waterfalls, lakes and mountains. It even has wildlife. I'm not a wildlife photographer, but I love to see and watch wildlife.
As an example of wildlife, it was really cool to watch mamma moose eating. She later met up with a calf and then disappeared into the woods. Shortly afterwards, two more moose came down to the lake.
Meanwhile, this was going on.
You never know what kind of conditions you are going to get when you're teaching a photography workshop. This workshop was no different. We had smoky skies from the wildfires, which I think is just going to be something that happens in early fall now.
While the smoke wasn't ideal, it made for interesting sunrises and sunsets and was perfect for photographing waterfalls. Below is a smoky morning on Lake McDonald. Luckily, the coffee shop was just a few steps from this early morning location! The ice cream shop is also nearby but it didn't open until mid-morning. We got ice cream after getting back from a short hike to another spot.
While the smoke wasn't ideal for sunrises and sunsets, the overcast diffused light made for beautiful conditions for waterfalls. Aster Falls is one of the most beautiful waterfalls that I've had the good fortune to photograph. It's everything you'd want in a waterfall.
This workshop was filled with repeat customers and knowing most of their levels of shooting (all excellent photographers), I knew that despite the conditions that this group would make the best of it and come home with good photos. But I was relieved when we had a few sunrises/sunsets where the smoke wasn't as big an issue.
We even saw a massive grizzly bear from a very comfortable distance away. You can see how small it looks even with my longest lens. I was scanning the mountainsides hoping to see a bear, mountain goats, bighorn sheep or moose (we saw all of those animals in the park). I picked out the bear right away. Shortly after it traversed the mountain, two moose came out of the bushes.
When you have what you think are rotten photography conditions waiting often makes a difference. We waited about 40 minutes at this location as streaks of light beamed through the forest fire smoke. It made for a delightful interplay of mountains and light.
To wrap up my Glacier recap, here's one last photo. It's a panoramic shot of Many Glacier hotel. While I haven't stayed at Many Glacier, I've always enjoyed their breakfasts! It's a great place to eat after photographing sunrise.
Until next time
I hope you enjoyed this brief recap of my trip to Glacier. I really enjoyed being there and being able to lead a workshop there. I have one scheduled for next year that is full already. You can get on the waiting list if you like. I don't know when I'll run a workshop out there again, but if there's enough interest I may offer one in the future.
As promised here is one of my favorite winter photos of all time taken on the Gunflint Trail.
I'll see you again in two weeks.
