What’s funny is that I went all the way to Alaska just to take photos and I took so many that I’ve been putting off the editing because it’s such a daunting task.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a shot of Mount McKinley because of the cloud cover. You probably have less than a one in three chance of actually getting photos of Mount McKinley because of the weather. Kind of a bummer but the odds are against you.
Essential Gear…
For nature photographers, it’s important to stay light on your feet while traveling, but expansive landscapes and skittish wildlife also require fluctuating focal lengths to achieve the best captures. A telephoto zoom like the Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD is great for working with fast-moving critters while still allowing enough compositional freedom to incorporate natural settings as a backdrop or primary subject. Dedicated zooms will gain you faster apertures, but a single telephoto zoom is much lighter than multiple lenses.
Photo Experience
Ironically, it’s said that visitors to the park only have a 30% chance of seeing the mountain, so getting good photos of McKinley can be a challenge. Hoping to get the right combination of light and weather, I’ve slept in my truck several nights waiting for weather to clear and to get a chance at sunrise photos. Denali is so large and the environment so diverse that in order to work from different angles and for wildlife, a telephoto zoom provides compositional and tracking flexibility while a wide-angle zoom is best for incorporating foreground elements.
Read the rest of the article over at Outdoor Photography Magazine
Source: Outdoor Photography Magazine
Image Source: Denali National Park and Preserve
