Schwabacher's Landing- Grand Teton National Park

 

   Schwabacher Landing is a popular sunrise location in Grand Teton National Park.  I arrived there about 90 minutes before sunrise this fall morning, and there were probably over a dozen cars already in the parking area.  Since I knew that there were a limited number of spaces for tripods at the pool behind the beaver dam, I decided to take the road less traveled on this morning and photograph from downstream, very near the parking area.  It was cold waiting in the dark, but the time passed quickly as I was excited, hoping for some good light on the high wispy clouds hanging overhead.  To my delight, the first rays of morning light turned the clouds a nice pink color long before the light reached the top of the peaks.

Tech info:  Canon 40D, 12-24 Tokina @ 16 mm.  Photomatix HDR blend was used in post-processing to add light to the foreground and far shoreline and reduce the contrast between the sky and the mountains.

The second image shown above was taken from the same spot, but at a longer focal length (24 mm) a few minutes later, when the warm morning light reached the peaks of the Tetons.  In a few of the earlier frames, a Momma duck and her ducklings decided to go for a swim , making waves that destroyed the reflection in the water.  Luckily, they swam away in time for me to capture this image.  Perhaps this illustrates my oft-held theory that sometimes it's better to be lucky than smart :)

Tech info:  Photomatix HDR blend was used to lighten the foreground and mid-range, while darkening the sky.

This third image is taken from the spot at the beaver pond that is the more iconic spot to photograph.  It's located a few hundred yards upstream from the first two shots above.  This was taken later in the morning, after most of the sunrise crowd had dispersed.