Hit the Deck by Peter Coskun Nature Photography

Hit the Deck by Peter Coskun Nature Photography

I recently returned from a week long trip up to my favorite place, Glacier National Park in Montana. This was a different trip for me, as my focus wasn’t so much photography, but to just enjoy myself and relax. I did manage to take plenty of images, but it was enjoyable to take a step back and not completely focus on creating images. On this particular day we had driven up to Waterton Lakes on the Canadian side to wander around town and see what that was all about. It was my first trip across the northern border, so I was a bit excited. It was probably the second most touristy thing I’ve done this year and even got to meet a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and have a photo taken with him. The little things like this that helped keep me entertained throughout the week. On our return back into Glacier, I had one goal in mind and that was to find a moose and photograph it. With the clouds getting thicker and darker I knew what was coming, and that wandering into the mountains was probably not a good idea. Hanging out in the Many Glacier area of the park, my girlfriend and I decided to venture into the hotel and check it out. Having been here a few times before, this was the first time I’ve actually gone into the hotel. Moments after stepping onto the deck overlooking this view a thunderous roar could be heard echoing through the mountains. We both quickly scrambled back to the car to get our gear and wandered back out on the deck to set up and hope to get some lightning. As I was setting up my rig, I glanced over at the mountain and saw a spider web of lightning bolts stretched completely across the sky over this scene. I was dismayed and rather disappointed at myself for waiting so long. It was by far the best strike of the show, but I managed to get a few other really intense bolts (they were much more intense in person). This happened to be my favorite of the bunch. It was also made me extremely thankful that we took a hike to the glacier just below and left of where the bolt is striking the previous day and not waited for today to do so. I couldn’t imagine if people were up there what they had to be thinking while this storm was going off. Alas, we were safe (relatively speaking) and got to enjoy this storm pass over the peaks. Right at sunset the clouds parted just enough to allow some beautiful sunset light to filter through the peaks. This same storm also caused a few wildfires to spark up in the park due to the lightning.

Peter Coskun Nature Photography: Photos