Hopping into an airplane for landscape photography is always a bit of a mixed bag. There’re a lot of things which can make a big difference to the outcome. Are your settings right and ready? Did you pick the right lens? How’s the vibration impacting sharpness? Did you time the flight right for the best light? Is there even any light at all? Have you been here before and do you know what to expect? Was the pilot willing to lift a wing so you can get a better shot? Does the window open or are you going to need a polarizer to get rid of window glare?
With all that said, when things go right, they can go really really right. This was an excellent morning where a lot of lucky breaks worked in my favour. I had no experience with the area, had nothing but bluebird mornings for a week, had never flown with this pilot before, and wasn’t sure about what gear I’d need. Thankfully, none of that really mattered because we timed the best possible light of the morning with being in the most interesting area.
We flew over this spot maybe twice before sunrise and it was immediately apparent that there would potentially be an opportunity here when the sun rose fully. When the light started hitting these walls under a pink sky, I was without question in my happy place. I couldn’t get over how this bowl almost seemed to cradle or shelter this alpine lake under a massive wall. I tried to capture that feeling in naming this one “Fortress”. What a special experience to fly over this scene in Valhalla Provincial Park, British Columbia.