My Chief Mountain Adventure Begins
Woke up crazy early like 4am – packed my ancient DSLR and tripod that barely stands upright anymore. Drove two bumpy hours through Glacier National Park darkness, chugging cold coffee from a leaky thermos. The goal? Catch sunrise hitting Chief Mountain without faceplanting on the trail.
Almost wiped out three times hiking up in pitch black. Tripped on a root, dropped my lens cap in the dirt, even scared some poor deer away with my headlamp. Felt like a total clown struggling with my backpack straps while scrambling over rocks.
The Simple Tricks That Saved Me
Finally reached the overlook point. Sky started turning pink and I realized I forgot everything about settings. Panic mode! Then remembered my own dumb advice:
- Level horizon hack: Smashed three pebbles together to make flat surface for my tripod leg
- Cloud movement magic: Fumbled with manual mode to get slow shutter speed (around 1/10th sec)
- Foreground cheat: Literally grabbed some pinecones off the ground to throw in front of the lens
My hands were shaking so bad when changing lenses I nearly dropped my 50mm into a puddle. Set aperture around f/8 like people say online – didn’t really get why but went with it. Almost cried when the mountain lit up golden and my camera battery died. Thank God for spares!
What Actually Worked
Later at my sticky motel table reviewing shots, the pinecone foreground pics looked legit professional. The messy slow-shutter cloud shots? Total abstract art mess. Best shot came from pure accident – some hiker walked into my frame during sunrise and created perfect silhouette against the peak. Moral of story? Sometimes screw the rules.
The RAW files needed crazy editing back home. Brightened shadows until it looked fake then dialed it back. Next time? Packing duct tape for that wobbly tripod and maybe actually charging batteries first. Still got three bangers for Instagram though. Worth the muddy shoes!
