Avalanche Creek

One of my favorite places in one of my favorite places! Avalanche Creek in Glacier National Park, on the west side of the continental divide in Montana. I've never been able to photograph it quite like i wanted or with the perfect film. This was shot with my Yashicamat 124 on Kodak Portra 160 NC, which is an indoor portrait film not really meant for this sort of thing. I used a polarizer and several neutral density filters in order to get a very slow shutter speed (I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was probably 10-20 seconds). This provides the smoky-smooth effect to the water which leaves it looking more like fog than liquid.

The boulder which is caught in the gorge is the size of a small car. To get this angle one has to climb down into a rather dangerous spot inches away from a deep, violent waterfall, which probably would have gained me a stern talking-to had a park ranger (or my wife!) spotted me.

Some day I'll retake this shot to my satisfaction. It needs more saturation to better portray the beauty of the scene; the film this was shot on simply isn't made for that.