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Brianne Manuel
@briemanuel
Best of the week 49 at #nomadict 2021
This past fall my husband and I rented a campervan and spent a few weeks driving across Canada from Toronto to the Rocky Mountains. We have traveled a lot internationally, but we haven’t explored our own country together at all. I had visited Alberta once before with my family when I was nine years old, and decided I was long overdue for another visit.
I wanted to focus on photography on the trip and my husband loves the outdoors, so although I’m sure he thinks we woke up for a few too many sunrises, it was the kind of trip he enjoyed as well. He’s patient while I stay in a spot for ages taking photos, and he keeps me moving and exploring more than I might otherwise if I was alone. We spent most of our time on the Alberta side, but Yoho National Park is just over the border in British Columbia.
"I had been wanting to visit Emerald Lake because it looked like an incredibly beautiful spot, so the decision to cross the border between the provinces was rather easy."
"On the day I took the winning shot we woke up well before sunrise and drove from our campground in Lake Louise, Alberta to Emerald Lake, British Columbia."
We wanted to get there early so that we could be sure to get a parking spot and have time to set up before first light. When we arrived at the parking lot, we were pleasantly surprised to see there was only one other vehicle there. We decided to take some time to make coffee in the van to keep ourselves warm; the temperature dips below zero during fall in the Rockies. It was still blue hour when we made our way to the edge of the lake to wait for sunrise. We couldn’t see much in the dark, but it looked very overcast and I was worried we wouldn’t get the colorful sunrise I was desperately hoping for.
"However, if I’ve learned anything from landscape photography, it’s that you have to be patient and never dismiss the weather conditions at first glance because you just might be surprised."
We were extremely happy to find that we were the only people at the lakeside. If the people who belonged to the other vehicle in the parking lot were there, we never saw them. It was so refreshing after some of our other sunrise missions to popular lakes in the area where we dealt with extra early wakeup times just to grab one of the last spots in the parking lot, and then dealt with horrendous crowds while trying to take photos. I find it detracts from the experience when there are huge crowds at these beautiful locations.
"To me, enjoying nature is a solitary experience, a time to ground myself and empty my mind of worries, especially during the stillness of sunrise."
I was fortunate enough to enjoy all of that on the morning I took this photograph. As it began to get brighter, the full beauty of the morning revealed itself to us. A layer of fog blanketed the lake and low clouds obscured parts of the mountains. The water was utterly still and it was completely silent. All thoughts of hoping for a colorful sunrise left my head as I gazed upon this surreal scene. I don’t think I’ve experienced a more perfect morning. The conditions were just unbelievable, and I knew I had to capture it. My husband agrees that it was the best morning of the trip. He wandered off to enjoy the morning on his own while I took photo after photo at the lakeside. Everywhere I looked there was a new beautiful scene to capture as the clouds rapidly changed, revealing and hiding the mountains, and the fog thickened on the lake. Eventually I even got some of the color I was hoping for! This morning made me feel at peace for the first time in a while, and in between photos I soaked in that calmness and stillness and just marveled at the view.
"We ended up spending almost five hours there that morning, eventually walking around the entire lake once the fog had lifted."
When taking photos that morning, I wanted to capture the peaceful ambience of the lakeside, the moody atmosphere, and try to convey how surreal it felt to be standing there, like something out of a dream. There is a hotel on the lake, and the main building is a beautiful lodge. The orange glow of its lights contrasted beautifully with the blue tones of the early morning. The effect was best earlier in the morning, during blue hour, which is when this shot was taken, so I chose the lodge as the focal point for the photo. The slope of the mountain behind it and the log in the lake act as leading lines to draw the eye of the viewer toward the cabin.
Taking this shot came with one major obstacle – my broken tripod. I had discovered it was broken early on in the trip on our first sunrise mission at Moraine Lake and had avoided using it since, but it was essential this morning as it was still so dark. I needed the stabilization so I could use a long enough shutter speed to properly expose the image without needing to bump up the ISO. It was the head of the tripod that was cracked, so it was unable to sit level and instead tilted to one side. I had to compensate by shortening the leg on the opposite side so that the camera would be level. It needed to be constantly readjusted as I moved around. I also used a remote shutter to take the shot to eliminate camera shake for a sharper image.
When editing this photo I wanted to stay true to the scene as it was that morning; it was perfect as it was. I wanted to emphasize the mood and atmosphere that I experienced there, and highlight the features that captivated me when I was taking the photo. Using Lightroom, I upped the exposure first, as I had slightly underexposed the shot to preserve the detail in the highlights. I also lowered the highlights and raised the shadows, and then added contrast to the image with the tone curve panel. I usually always raise the vibrancy in my photos to make the colors pop more. There weren’t many colors in this picture, but it helped bring out the turquoise in the water. This lake has such a stunning color in daylight, but you can see a hint of it even in the darkness of this photo.
"To add emphasis to certain areas, I used linear gradients to lower the exposure of the top and bottom of the image to draw attention to the middle of the photo, and also added a radial gradient in the middle to brighten it up."
I also used radial gradients on fog and low clouds where I lowered dehaze and raised the whites to make them pop more. I didn’t do much color grading to this image, other than to bring out the blues a bit, and just slightly warm up the highlights. For a bit more contrast, I used a linear gradient to brighten up the entire left side of the image, and lowered the dehaze as well to increase the dreamy quality of the scene. Finally, I brought the image into Photoshop to apply the Orton Effect to add some glow and enhance the dreaminess even further. I really wanted to bring out the ethereal feel of the morning.
"To be honest, I edited this photo many times as I kept coming back to it. I like to let my photos sit for a while after I first edit them and come back later with fresh eyes."
I created quite a few versions of this photograph with slightly different edits because I just couldn’t decide what I liked best. I’m extremely indecisive when it comes to my art, and I often like different looks equally. I’m still very new to editing, having learned to use Lightroom and Photoshop for the first time about 10 months ago. I’m also still very much in the process of finding my style. I still have so much to learn and I’m sure it will be a while before I settle on a way of doing things, if I ever do. I like to leave myself open creatively and I approach each photo differently. So I’m doing lots of experimenting at the moment as I learn new techniques. The many attempts at editing this photo didn’t come from any particular difficulty I was having with editing, but more from me continuing to think of different things to try with it. One of my edits has a bit more intense glow to it, making it extremely dream-like, in other attempts I played around more with color grading and adding much more warmth to the image, and some had more of a contrast between warm and cool. In the end, I decided to post the version I did because it was the one that stayed true to what I saw that morning and best captured my vision for the finished product.
This morning helped me to realize that you really need to throw out your expectations when it comes to what conditions you’re hoping to get in landscape and travel photography. When you only have a limited time in a place or just one chance to photograph a location you need to adapt to the situation and work with what you have. And sometimes, even though you didn’t get the conditions you set out to photograph, you’ll end up with something unexpected and even more beautiful!
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