Clouds over the Alaska Range, Denali National Park, Alaska. Canon 1Ds Mark III, 100-400mm f/5.6L IS (180mm), 1/400 sec @ f/6.3, ISO 100
Why do I like the mountains so much? Because they deliver such quickly changing weather. The Alaska range arcs across the south central region of the state and tends to serve as a moisture block forcing the dump of precipitation on its southern side, leaving the interior of the state a more dry climate. This summer in Denali Park, I saw so many fascinating clouds that I think I could do a book just on that subject. This river drainage near the Toklat in Denali park reveals a mixture of low lying clouds, dust clouds from wind, and a dense layering of dark clouds over the mountains. A few cracks in the cloud barrier let in some late morning light to generate some drama. I exposed the scene heavy to the right to capture as much detail in the shadows as possible, then pulled the brightness down on the sky with a split graduated filter in LR3 to reveal the detail in the clouds.
RAW capture exposed to the right to retain detail in the shadows. Sky balanced using the split graduated ND filter in Lightroom
