Teton Gold Grand Teton National Park

by Dave Diegelman

Title

Teton Gold Grand Teton National Park

Artist

Dave Diegelman

Medium

Photograph - Archival Photographs

Description

Teton Gold was created in September of 2018. My wife Cristina and I decided to take a spur-of-the-moment trip from our home in Southern Utah to Yellowstone to capture the fall colors. Because of my career in Real Estate I don't often get breaks for enough time to go on such wanderlusts so as we were relaxing in our bed and breakfast in Jackson Hole after checking in the later afternoon. I suggested that we take a drive through Grand Teton National Park to scout out a morning photo spot. The afternoon thunderstorms had way too much wind for my photographic preference but it looked like we might get a nice calm the following morning. I knew that I didn't want an image from the iconic Jenny Lake just because it was way too stock in my book. I was hoping to find something upstream on the Snake River that looked diagonally down the range and had reflections of the Fall colors. When I finally found my location(s) I calculated that there wouldn't be much time to capture the magical first light that hits the mountains so I wanted two locations that I could run between. The Teton wilderness is so exquisite and the fall colors were at their peak so all I needed now was calmness to envelope the area the following morning. Driving home I explained to Cristina that there couldn't be any variables on departure the following morning and if she desired to accompany me she would have to bend to my schedule, which isn't our normal jam in the mornings!

We awoke pre-dawn and my girl was up and at it totally ready for what lay ahead. Driving to our location there were literally hundreds of photographers in their parked cars awaiting a wildlife image in the vast meadows flanking the majestic range. It was really cold out but that's what I expected and was prepared for. Cristina asked if there were bears here and of course I told her that there were so she opted to just stay in the car. From my parking area to my scouted location was less than 1/2 mile and then my 2nd location was about 1/3 of a mile from that but I could see that the light was already coming on fast so I literally sprinted to the first location. As with most of my landscape images I use multiple images and stack them in post production to maximize the image detail. This one called for two rows and because the dynamic range was so vast I needed 3 bracketed images for each of the 16 images that would be stitched together for the final image so all in all there were 48 images needed to create this image. So I hurriedly set up and by the time that I had an idea of the exact composition I wanted a family of beavers were entering the water-space which would ruin the reflection that I wanted but I had a good minute before that would happen so I just prayed that I could go fast enough to get 'er done, which I did with seconds to spare. I wasn't able to get another set but figured that I could run to my 2nd location and still get some of the magical light emanating off the peaks. Out of breath I arrived panting with my camera already attached to my tripod slung over my shoulder. The sun was just filling out the whole face of the mountain and the golden dawn was quickly vanishing to daylight. I leveled my tripod and pondered a composition when out of the corner of my eye I spotted a duck family coming right for my tranquil little pond and I was desperate to get the glass-like reflection that was before me so once again I made haste and wasn't afforded a second chance before they arrived with their wake stirring up the pond. Oftentimes as a photographer it takes me several minutes to get fully dialed in for the scene to circumspectly compose and get the settings right, especially when capturing a stack of two rows manually because one must remember the starting and stopping points in order for the images to be stitched in post production, I was using my manual focus Nikkor 80-200 zoom at 80mm to capture the images because at the time it produced the sharpest stacks. I used the same formula of 48 images as the prior photo for this one. The downside of using a telephoto was that I had to take a lot more images to cover the wider-angle scene that I wanted. I was hoping for enough time to be able to do a re-take just in case but my duck friends weren't having it. Teton Gold was made and although I toyed around with a few more images of the ducks and such but by that time the magical golden glow of dawn had vanished.

Nine out of ten times that I go out to capture a specific landscape image I don't capture anything useful but this time I was blessed that God gave me the ability to capture two amazing images with this one being the second one of the day.

If you're interested in acquiring a mural-sized wall covering of this piece, feel free to inquire via email. It's a part of my Limited Edition series, with only 100 prints available. Please note that the price increases as it sells. Just like all my editions, you can obtain certificates of authenticity by providing proof of purchase and your mailing address. Please send the necessary information to ddiegelman@gmail.com.

Photo & Text All Rights Reserved © Dave Diegelman

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Uploaded

June 27th, 2023

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