19 Apr
2011

Posted in: Patagonia
By Ian Plant    5 Comments

Cloudburst, Laguna de Los Tres, Patagonia

I love to photograph bad weather when it is breaking up. Great things happen when storms start to dissipate, especially at sunrise or sunset. This image was taken in Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina, part of the Patagonia region. My workshop group and I hiked into the backcountry, and several hours before dawn rose from our tents to ascend over 1200 feet to Laguna de Los Tres, perched high atop a steep hill. There, we waited for the storm clouds to lift from the mountains, and for the first light of dawn.

"Cloudburst" - Los Glaciares, Patagonia

The light and weather almost didn’t cooperate, but we got lucky: the sun finally made an appearance, lighting up mountains emerging from the clouds, creating the dramatic conditions we had been hoping to capture. I had climbed high up my favorite hill above Laguna de Los Tres, which had a great view of turquoise Laguna Sucia over a thousand feet below. Anchoring my foreground with a few boulders, I went wide to include as much of the scenery and breaking clouds as possible. It was a magical moment in a beautiful place.

Technical details: Canon 5D Mark II camera, 14-24mm lens (@14mm), ISO 100, f11, 1/10 second.

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About Ian Plant  (275 Posts)

Ian Plant's photographs and instructional articles have appeared in a number of books, calendars, and magazines, including Outdoor Photographer and Popular Photography. Ian writes a regular blog column for Outdoor Photographer online, and he is the author of numerous instructional eBooks and digital processing tutorials. Ian leads several photo tours each year.