17/12/2025
Alpenglow on Mount Rundle
October sunrise at Two Jack Lake. There’s about a 10-minute window where the light transforms from cold blue to this warm glow washing over the peaks—blink and you miss it.
Getting here means leaving Calgary while it’s still dark, making the hour-long drive on quiet highways, and setting up by the lakeshore before you can even see the mountains. You wait, watch the sky shift, and hope the clouds do something interesting. This morning, everything came together—the colour, the stillness on the water, that little spruce island perfectly placed in the frame.
I shot three exposures to capture the full dynamic range from the bright sky to the dark treeline, then blended them in Lightroom. The D850’s low ISO capability really shines in these conditions—clean files with room to push the shadows without things falling apart.
Four years later, this is still one of my favorite captures from the Rockies. Sometimes you just get lucky.
What’s your go-to sunrise spot around here?
📍 Two Jack Lake, Banff National Park
📷 Nikon D850 | Nikon 16-35mm f/4 | f/8 | 1/30s | ISO 31
