Today I want to tell and show you the story of my photo shoot of Mount Fitz Roy. Evening, night and morning. Hope you enjoy it! :)
So, we came to the small town of El Chalten, Argentina, in order to walk around the Los Glaciares National Park: go on 1-2 easy treks, look at the famous Mount Fitz Roy, and all that. In general, El Chalten is not called Argentina's Trekking Capital for nothing: the places and landscapes around there are simply mind-blowing, many trails of various levels of difficulty, but always very beautiful — accordingly, there are always a lot of tourists there.
But, actually, this is not the point. The fact that, among other things, we really wanted to see the famous Mount Fitz Roy. In particular, I really wanted to take some nice photos of this mountain. The snag was the weather: the weather in Argentine Patagonia is very, very unpredictable and changeable.
We stayed there for two and a half days. Of course, we walked around the surrounding area (I would have gladly spent at least a month there). The weather was different, but overall pretty decent: partly cloudy, sometimes almost clear skies, sometimes a little rain — nothing to worry about, we didn't have to sit in the hotel. But Mount Fitz Roy was as if enchanted: no matter what was in other places in the sky, it was hidden in a thick curtain of clouds all day, even if there was not a single cloud around. So in the light of day (or morning and evening) we never saw the mountain, well, maybe a small edge would peek out through a small hole in the clouds, which would quickly close up again.
On our last evening in El Chalten, I kept checking the weather and looking at the mountains. As night approached, it seemed to me that the clouds were dispersing. Since Fitz Roy is not very visible from the town itself, I had to urgently drive our car to the road away from the town to get a photogenic view. Of course, there was a viewpoint in the mountains nearby with a view of the Mount Fitz Roy, but I would not go trekking alone at night.
And yes, my expectations were met! While I was getting ready and heading out, while I found the point with the view I liked the most, the last remnants of clouds just crawled away from the peak and Fitz Roy appeared in all its glory.
And now the actual shots of my photo chronicle of Mount Fitz Roy that night.
The time is about 10:45 pm, the sky is clear from above, the last translucent cloud on the left peak is dissolving, a denser band of clouds remains on the mountains to the left and further behind Fitz Roy. But the photo so far is quite grayish, not very expressive.
After 20-25 minutes, the full blue hour begins, when the sky is completely dark blue, and the pictures are already more expressive, with bright, pure colors.
Here, in a wider panorama, it is clear that these clouds on the mountains to the left are not thinking of leaving completely. They lie and wait, as if in ambush. And in the meantime, thin, timid stripes of clouds begin to appear in the sky.
Another 20 minutes passed. The cloud stripes gradually grew and widened a little. In fact, this only added to the picturesqueness of the shot.
Here's a nice little cloud line that's formed a nice arc right above Mount Fitz Roy. Beautiful!
By the way, the orange glow on the hills ahead is the light from El Chalten. It's hidden behind the terrain, but the light comes through and is clearly visible when shooting at a long exposure.
Meanwhile, it's getting completely dark - the blue hour doesn't last very long. I'm trying to take pictures of the starry sky above the mountains, but it's not working out so well that I won't even show it. Finally, at about 2 am, I leave to get some sleep. Not for long, just two and a half to three hours. I want to come back before dawn, take some more pictures of the blue sky, and then wait for dawn on the spot, hoping for a wonderful, bright spectacle: all sorts of pink clouds, mountains shining in the first rays of the sun, and all that.
I come back in a couple of hours and see a catch: the sky is no longer filled with timid, thin stripes of clouds, but with large, voluminous clouds. And most importantly, a thick cloud cover is approaching the mountains.
It already seems like the edges of the clouds above me are starting to turn slightly pink in anticipation of the rising sun... but Fitz Roy is becoming a little blurry. Will I get the combination of still open mountains and bright clouds in the sky at the same time?
Here, it seems, on the other side, that very part of the dawn is already beginning, so beloved by landscape photographers and simply by sunrise lovers.
This means that the sun is rising and bright colors are coming: the sky is blue, some of the clouds are soft pink.
And what about that side where Mount Fitz Roy is? Alas! A thick wall of clouds covers, wraps up the mountains from my eyes. And yet the moment was so close, pink colors had already appeared in that direction too... But no.
A bright, even very colorful illumination of clouds over half the sky appeared literally a few minutes later, and a cloud that was just covering Fitzroy acquired a delicate pink color.
Another 20 minutes pass, the sun rises completely, gilding everything around with its rays, including the nearest hills and mountains, but Fitz Roy is not visible on the horizon, it is so tightly closed, as if it had never been here.
So I did not see this mountain in the sunlight. Well, at least I managed to see it in the moonlight, and that's good. I liked it, it was beautiful :)
Oh, by the way. You can take a picture of this view not far from the entrance to El Chalten, approximately in the area of this point on Google maps. Of course, the road here is picturesque in many places, so if you drive by, you will definitely see it and stop more than once to take pictures, I'm sure :)
This post is also an entry to the PhotoFeed Contest - Landscape Photography Round 79. Check out @photofeed for more information :)
It's better to watch photos in high resolution.
Camera: OLYMPUS E-M1 Mark II
You can also see my photos in my blog LJ and in my profile on RTraveler. You also can read a short interview with me here.
