Roadtrip Images

We had been scouting locations in Grand Teton National Park for awhile and were on a riverbank when it started to rain. It had been sprinkling on and off most of the day but this one seemed like it was going to last for awhile.

Capturing the Moment

So we packed up the gear and were driving back up to the main road thinking we may be done for the day. As we rounded a corner we saw these wonderful rays of sunshine coming through the clouds and back lighting the rain showers. It was quite a sight. I hurried to find a place to pull over and grab my camera and tripod. These are the times where setting up fast is important. Light like this doesn’t last long. Photographers tell stories about how they just got their equipment set up and then the light was gone before they made any exposures. Fortunately that didn’t happen here. The light danced back and forth as the clouds moved across the sky. Different bands of rain were getting illuminated as the light changed as well. And for this to unfold right in front of the Teton Range was extra special. It was a magical moment.

The Jackson Hole valley along the Teton Range is pretty big and the rain showers would come and go as they advanced across the wide open spaces. It could be raining in one area of the valley while you could see sunshine a few miles away. This kept happening all day. I bracketed my exposures in case I needed to blend some images together to adequately capture the dynamic range of the scene. I wanted to make sure the highlights weren’t blown out so I shot a number of series of 2 stops under exposed, one normal, and 2 stops over exposed. This would ensure I would have properly exposed sky values in one exposure and properly exposed foreground values in another exposure. These can then be blended together in Photoshop if necessary.

Post Processing

In this instance, the normal exposure image captured the dynamic range quite well. The image sensor in the Nikon D810 is an amazing device so post processing was fairly straightforward. I first do the lens corrections in Lightroom which corrects the distortion caused by wide angle lenses. I then pulled down the highlights in the sky and opened up the shadows in the foreground to balance the lighting in the scene. Then off to Photoshop. From there I did a little adjustment with the blue values to bring out the patch of blue sky in the upper right. Then using Color Efex Pro I added some dynamic contrast to the image to separate the beams of light from the background. This also added some needed contrast to the mountains in the background. A final noise reduction step and it was done.

Final Thoughts

The Grand Teton National Park has so many photo opportunities I could stay here for months. The changing seasons brings even more possibilities. With fall approaching the trees are starting to turn which is what brought us here in the first place. Fall in the Tetons can be spectacular. We were a little worried at first with all the western wildfires spreading smoke across many states. We’ve been fortunate as the smoke cleared from the Jackson Hole valley shortly after we got here. Thankfully Montana is getting some much needed rain and the fires may be on their way out.

Serendipity is a good word to go along with the featured image above. We happened to be out shooting and came upon a memorable scene. We thought we were getting rained out and then around the next corner the sky opened up and poured out this magical light. Once again it shows, you just have to be out there.

Nikon D810 with Nikkor 24-70mm @ 48mm. f/8 at 1/200 sec. ISO 31