Glacier National Park in northern Montana is a world carved by ice. Known to Native Americans as the “Shining Mountains”, canyons flow down from this alpine environment along the Continental Divide that were formed a millennia ago when mastodons roamed the earth.
Moving just inches a year, the glaciers fill the rivers and streams below with silt giving them their unique turquoise hue. And set against the red and green sedimentary rock (the oldest in the entire Rocky Mountain chain), the colors provide a visual feast while the chill in the air is a constant reminder that the ice is not far above.
Glacier is recognised as an International Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site, and preserves more than a million acres of forests, alpine meadows, lakes, rugged peaks and glacial-carved valleys. Though evidence shows that within thirty years all of the ice may be gone, rangers are quick to point out that the park was named as much for the forces that formed it as the glaciers themselves.
A trip to this magnificent park should be on anyone’s bucket list to North America, but it’s frozen remains are just one facet of the many awe-inspiring sights waiting to explored.
Yucca and dune patterns at dusk, White Sands National Park, New Mexico
White Sands National Park in southern New Mexico is probably the least iconic spot within the National Park system. It has no sheer cliffs, no grand waterfalls, no red-rock strata, and no great clefts in the earth – in fact, it doesn’t even have a forest to call its own. And that’s just fine.
What it lacks in the notable landforms shared by other parks, it more than makes up for with an endless sea of the most glorious pure white gypsum sand and a special quality of light found nowhere else. Visiting White Sands is not so much a trip to see natural wonders as it is pilgrimage to experience an unparalleled expanse of light and form.
Our newest park is so vast and featureless in fact that once you leave the road in the main dune area it’s quite easy to get lost. The park service has placed pickets along major trails, but these often are blown down or buried in the shifting sands so carrying a GPS and noting distance land forms on longer hikes is a must.
The best times to visit are spring and fall when the temperatures are moderate, and as with any desert environment it’s essential to carry sun protection and water. Dusk and dawn provide the sweet light this park is known for and the rangers are very accommodating with gate closures. So the next time you’re heading to the southwest, make time to visit White Sands. It might be a little out-of-the-way, but it’s an experience you won’t soon forget.
Fresh snow on fall aspens, Inyo National Forest, Sierra Nevada Mountains, California
The Latent Image. Seventeen years ago I made the switch from film to digital and never looked back. The year was 2005 and it wasn’t without a great deal of hesitation, but I knew I wasn’t alone and that the time was right. Not long before National Geographic had finally started accepting digital files from the Nikon D100, and if the quality was worthy of their hallowed pages then it was good enough for me.
The biggest concern for most outdoor photographers at the time was preserving that classic “look” of film that the world had embraced from the early days of Kodachrome and later Fuji Velvia. We were told that if you shot RAW files, profiles and presets could be applied that would mimic any type of film. At the time it was all Greek, but in the years since it’s become standard practice in post production. The lightbox and loupe were traded for hi-resolution monitors and software, but the holy grail of image making was still dynamic range.
Cameras have advanced at lightning speed since then delivering better resolution, wider dynamic range, higher megapixels and price tags to match! But one thing hasn’t changed – the powerful RAW image file. This digital negative can never actually be touched or manipulated, but utilizing RAW processing programs like Lightroom can produce files that match any conceivable style or vision by applying those magical profiles and presets all while retaining the highest image quality.
One of the best features of shooting RAW is the fact that software manufacturers are constantly improving the programs to better utilize all of the image data captured by the sensor. I recently revisited a selection of images from my archive that were made just shortly after I switched to digital. They were made on one of those early bodies, but because I had used a high-quality lens and created RAW files I was now able to create much finer images from those files than the original software would allow.
In a side-by-side comparison I was amazed at the clarity and definition that had been hiding in those images just waiting for a future application to release them. So if you’re still shooting JPEGs you might want to consider switching to RAW. Though each camera manufacturer makes their own proprietary file, Adobe, the creators of TIFF and PDF, developed the DNG (or Digital Negative) – a great format that preserves your RAW file and a JPEG preview eliminating the concern of proprietary files and software going the way of the 8-Track stereo and Betamax.
One thing is certain, change is inevitable and technology will continue to evolve. It’s a wonderful time to be a photographer and reassuring to know that the images we make today can not only be enjoyed long into the future, but like a fine wine will likely improve with age.
