lake everson (2023) (Patreon)

and here's the shot that took a seven-mile hike to capture. this lake is on a 3.4-mile out-and-back nestled deep in the Salmon National Forest. we didn't stay too long at the lake because the weather started shifting pretty quickly, but we were there long enough to have lunch on a rock and for me to grab a few shots, of which this was my favorite. 

This shot was unusual for me to compose—I took it with a 20mm Nikkor lens, my widest lens, which I almost never use in daylight—and it led to a much higher-than-normal failure rate in the shots I took. I still am not great at wide-angle landscapes, simply because I'm used to the vast reaches of the desert where a longer lens and a more compressed view is virtually required for a dramatic shot. (Most of my more popular daytime landscape photos were taken at 50mm or greater lengths.) 

This one works because of the tree trunk in the bottom corner and the full extent of the shoreline in view, but a lot of other angles I tried simply did not; my ability to balance a composition with both near and far suffers with such a dramatically wide lens. It's something I clearly need to practice more. At least I got one good one after hiking seven miles with all that gear!