Denali (Mt. McKinley), Wonder Lake, Denali National Park, Alaska – Image 2655

I ran much of this same caption with Image #2637 on 9-30-2010 which ended up as the cover of my Alaska book. This photo was shot just 15 minutes before the eventual cover image. I am showing this image to illustrate just how tough the editing decisions can be between two or three really successful images. Both would have been great covers, but I picked the one with the morning sunrise colors bathing the mountain range instead of the colored punctuate point of a cloud just above Denali. I often wonder if I picked the right one? The following is the old caption from image #2637…When I decided to do my book on Alaska, I knew I wanted Denali on the cover because it is the iconic image of the state. I set out to get this image, and I booked a cabin at Camp Denali that has a 24-7 view of the mountain for the last week in August. The first four days that I was in camp, it just rained, poured and then snowed. I did not even bring my cameras out of the cabin. On the fifth day, I woke up at 5am to a crystal clear morning. I hopped on a bike with my camera equipment and pedaled to the head of the lake about six miles from my cabin. I shot this image around 6am and by 7:30am the clouds had moved back in totally obscuring the mountain. In my first five days, I saw the mountain once for two hours. Enjoy the photo and thanks for visiting. Camera body: Nikon F5, Lens: Nikkor 20-35mm f/2.8 polarized, Fuji Velvia 35mm film© Mark Kelley