Great Blue Wonders

While backpacking in some glaciated regions of Oregon's Three Sisters

wilderness we came across this moraine lake just beginning to melt out

for the summer. After a study of the ice and snow on the lake, I

walked out to this crack filled with the blue glacial water, carefully

watching where I stepped as to not sink through. After taking the long

way around to this viewpoint we decided it was worth the wait to camp

here all day and wait for the night sky, as clear conditions were

prevailing all week. Knowing the position of the milky way ahead of

time helped my process, as I was able to visualize the result you see

here. I photographed the landscape itself at 10pm using an exposure of

30 seconds at f/14, ISO 640 and then the Milky Way and night sky later

at 1:30am when it was in position to reflect in the pool (ISO 3200,

f/2.8, 30 seconds for sky and ISO 6400, f/2.8, 30 seconds for reflection).

Wow! This is fantastic! love it all, the composition, the color tone, the dark atmosphere making the milky way stand out even more. It's great to read about the preparation and technical details that lead to this outstanding image. Thank You. Congratulation! Best regards, Jan

What a fubulous night photo!  Well composed.  Strong and sharp foreground leads our eyes to the far away subject.  Great capture.  learning.  Best Regards,

Marc, perfect execution of a fairly complex photo. So perfect, that the reflection aligns with the star source down to a pixel! Congratulations, it is really a Great Blue Wonderful.

Best regards Marc!

PDE

magical...

perfecta

Outstanding landscape picture, as always. Thank you also for sharing your knowledge. I am always curious about theoretical background of such a complexed photos and I am sure I'm not the only one here! ;)

Regards,
Iztok 

Marc: As always, phenomenal and inspirational. Randy

Big wow here Marc! A wonderful image and very interesting story to go with it. I'm glad you stayed safe out on the ice. Your composition is great with the Milky Way rising behind the mountain. Thanks for sharing the image and the technique with us! Best Regards ~ Gary

Fantastic shot Marc, the chosen composition is very good. The stream and its reflection guide you through the image and visual journey like that you have continued into the sky through the Milky Way ....

A clear picture magic.

Regards

Hello Marc,

Thank you very much for this wonderful shot, but also for the explanation how you made it.  It surely helps me to learn from the best.

Ben

Hats off to you! Thanks for sharing your expertise.

A superb composition Marc! Fabulous night sky, and gorgeous blue tones.

All the best,
Neil

Just perfect!

Thanks for the image and the lesson! I am not surprised to see how much time, effort and expertise went into getting a result like this.