I’m so glad William Neill reposted his amazing story behind his most iconic photo! It’s his favorite, and has inspired me!

It was so dark that William couldn’t see the vivid colors (the human eye using rods instead of the cones), so he didn’t know what he had captured until after the film was developed, before the digital age had begun!

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From:

My First Essay for Outdoor Photographer in 1997

August 16th, 2012

Today, I had a request from my long-time friend and master photographer Michael Frye to post the essay in which I tell the story of making my favorite image, Dawn, Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Canada 1995. Here it is as sent to Outdoor Photographer for first my On Landscape column in 1997.  For more of my essays, see the OP site here.

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Rising very early on a summer morning, I hoped for a dramatic and brilliant sunrise on Lake Louise and the glaciers above.  Perhaps it was the two weeks of photographing in rainy conditions that biased my hopes!  I waited patiently for sunrise, but my preconceived vision failed to appear as persistent clouds shrouded the mountains. It was a silent and mysterious dawn.  I simply sat and soaked in the scene.  Finally, I made two exposures, but expected little. I completely forgot about this session during the rest of my trip.  When I saw the film after returning, I was amazed. I had to think hard about when and where I had made this photograph. Unconsciously, but facilitated by my experience and instinct, the power and magic of that landscape, at that moment, had come through on film.

The Lake Louise photograph was made with my 4×5 view camera and a 150mm lens. Due to the use of slow film, small aperture and low light, the exposure was about two minutes long. Of the two exposures I made, one was horizontal, the other vertical. …

See the photo with the rest of the article HERE

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This post was updated on 2/20/24.

The article was previously here and here

Which is archived here and here