"Mercury Basin"

Photographer's Hometown
Mount Horeb, Wisconsin

Status
Amateur

Photo Subject and/or Photo Location
A beautiful mountainous lake

Technical Specs
Photographed on the Canon EOS R w/ the 24-105mm f4 lens


A little about this image...
In the beautiful northwestern region of Montana, I decided one morning I would go hike up to a stunning alpine lake. I would start at 3:00 am and finish by 6:00 in time for sunrise... that didn't happen. Well, some of it did. I did camp out at the trailhead in my car and wake up at 3:00 am (which by the way was very uncomfortable) but I never started the hike to that alpine lake I had wanted to do...
According to a large sign stretching the width of the trail, bears were near... and so I decided not to go. But as I said early, sleeping in my car was very uncomfortable so I wasn't going to go back to bed, instead, I decided to take another trail that goes to a different lake, that's trailhead was right next to the one I was going to do previously. So about 45 minutes later I had reached the lake, stood at its shore for about 2 minutes, got bored, and laid down by a series of trees along the shore.
Man, that experience may have been one of the best, I was at the lakeshore for about 2 1/2 hours in the dark just lying in the dirt, enjoying the beautiful moonlit night and the hundreds of stars. The sounds of the birds calling, and the rodents rustling around me gave me a sense of belonging... I felt accepted there.
Anyways, after about 2 1/2 hours I had gotten up, got my camera out, and started messing with a few different compositions. Still a little bit before sunrise, I set up my tripod and started taking a series of panoramas. Unfortunately, as the morning grew brighter, I realized there was a thick layer of cloud covering the east. Frustrated, I took a couple more photos, packed up, sat there for a bit longer, and left.
It wasn't until about a month later when I decided to look and eventually edit the photos from that morning... I had just figured that they'd have been failures due to the lack of inspiring light that I was hoping for. But as I started messing around, stitching some of the photos in Adobe Lightroom, I realized how beautiful they were. In particular this one above, with its glassy and pure reflection, creates these incredible shapes and layers in the photograph. I just love the curvy foothills in the midground, that with the reflection looks almost like an hourglass. And then contrasted with the massive jagged peaks in the background creates a spectacular image that I'm very proud of.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy it!
- Korey