I'm calling this one "Gold Rush". We had completed a 7 mile hike to Lake O'Hara before sunrise in search of golden larch trees. We knew they were in the area, but it was a first visit for all of us. In our headlamps and the early gloom of Nautical Twilight we couldn't see a single larch. Chip weighed in, "I think I read that the larch are actually a couple miles further up past Lake O'Hara." Not wanting to waste our pre-dawn efforts we kept going up the steep, switch-back trail in a painful and desperate shuffle-dash. We arrived at a basin filled with larch and ringed by peaks minutes before sunrise. We scattered, trying to get the lay of the land. If it hadn't been a nine mile hike we certainly would have scouted it first. As it was I was just dumb lucky to be in a good place to take this photo when sunrise color began to brush the clouds. 5D MK III, 16mm focal length, polarizer. f/16, ISO 100. Three exposures for dynamic range: 4, 1.6 and .6 seconds. Exposure blending in PS with luminosity selections and other masking methods. Additional image adjustments for tonal balance, contrast, color balance and luminosity painting.
