Home Sweet Home

See this little building? This is my home. It is 603 square feet of pure bliss. This is the living space for two adults, 6 children, 3 chocolate labs, and one small kitty cat. I tell people we are a close family but they dont always realize that I mean that in a very literal sense. We are constantly learning new ways to maximize how we use space. We are getting pretty good at it! Someday we would love to live in a real house but for now, we are content. After all, we own this overgrown tool shed. Free and clear. We pay $275 a month to rent the lot that it sets on. Not bad, eh? The black wash/paint and the lawn are new and make a world of difference. It has been 4 years since we have had a yard to be able to play in. We'll save dicussing the reasons why we are still living in this tiny house for some other day. Do you like it, though?

Gem Glacier is really cool!

Gem Glacier perched high on the Garden Wall

     I find it interesting as I monitor what images folks end up loving compared to the ones that I love. Sometimes I snap a shot on the fly that I put hardly any thought or creativity into and folks just eat it up. "Likes" all over the place. Contrasted with some of the shots that I take the time and pour myself into making it something really special and it doesn't seem like anyone really thinks much of it. Maybe that has to do with this issue of me having spent my life hiking in Glacier National Park and I am familiar with some of its features to the point that I have forgotten what it is like to see it for the first time. 

     This image of Gem Glacier was the first time I had seen it from this perspective. We were on our way up to North Swiftcurrent Glacier via the Swiftcurrent Lookout spur trail and turned around to see this scene. For those of you photographers out there that care, I used my Sony G series 70-200mm 2.8 for this shot. This shot is one that I love. I mean, just look at the rugged country that my little family of mountain goats gets to explore as a part of this project! One year, I want to have someone take this picture while the Eagleton's are on that ridge in the foreground. We'll have to use radios to make it work. Any takers can leave me a comment. 

     Anyway, here's something to think about. Gem Glacier is really just an overgrown cornice. The snow blows through that notch which is just below Grinnell Mountain and stacks up all winter long creating enough of a pile-up to last through the summer months. Now picture my twin brother and I crawling around along the bottom edge of the glacier on the thin rim of rock between the terminus and the cliff below. We explored all over the terminus and even found a couple of ice caves that aren't really visible from this distance. Trust me. They are there. 

Ice cave at the terminus of Gem Glacier. You can see Salamander Glacier and above the notch which is the Grinnell Glacier Overlook (some of you will recognize that) is the pyramid of Swiftcurrent Mountain with the lookout not quite visible in this image. 

Logan Pass. By a local.

Big Boy

 I love getting to hang out at Logan Pass. I got to do that a little bit ago with the only purpose of taking some pics. Here's what I got that evening. 

Going-to-the-Sun Mountain

Sunset on the Garden Wall

Poor Lil' Thing

Sunset on Heavy Runner Mountain

The Teenagers

Bucky

Stoney Indian Peaks and Mt Cleveland

Sunset on The Garden Wall

"Hi" Get it? It looks like a hand waving hi to me. Clements Mountain

Going-to-the-Sun Mountain

Alpineglow over Mt Oberlin

Hiking in the Alpineglow. It's like swimming in pink fluffy magic . . . or something. 

That saddle between Mt Oberlin and Clements Mountain that looks like there is a hiker? Remember to zoom in. 

At the gym

Night Sky over Mt Reynolds

Moonrise

Moonrise over Going-to-the-Sun Mountain

Formal Letter of Introduction

Nathan and I at Sperry Glacier. Summer of 2014

My name is Seth Eagleton, husband, dad, photographer, truth-seeker, mountain goat-in-training. I was raised in Northwest Montana and although living here isn't always easy I can't seem to find a reason to leave greater than my reasons for staying.

A few more years ago than I care to admit I fell in love with a small slice of Montana called Glacier National Park. About that time I was experimenting with photography and as you can imagine those two things compliment each other well. I've been all over Glacier and I claim it as my home. Not long after I fell in love with the Park a seed was planted on a backpacking trip that has grown into what is now the Glacier Preservation Project. My mission is to photograph the remaining 25 glaciers inside of Glacier National Park before we lose them forever. I realized the necessity of this project while working for Glacier Park, Inc. as their social media coordinator about a year ago. There are many times that the elements of our lives don't make much sense at the time that they are playing out. In the last few years I have seen quite a bit of what I'm talking about in my own life. I was making a nice living as a wedding photographer when the economy did its little thing a few years back and it became increasingly difficult to support my family of 8. I took an unwanted part time job as this social media coordinator which as it turned out helped me formulate this undertaking. Who knew, right? I had a boss who was merciless on my grammar and as a result my writing skills progressed to where they needed to be for this type of thing. Well, almost.  

My plan is to use my social media platforms to allow all my friends (that would be you and anyone else interested in the preservation of these unique features of our nation's crown jewel) to join in my family's journey. The experts at the USGS tell us that by 2020 we will not have any more viable glaciers inside of Glacier National Park so their is a sense of urgency for all of us. Most of the glaciers are not accessible by trail and the National Park Service will not allow helicopter drops or low level aerial photography, so my own two legs are the only method of transportation. Once we have captured these sleeping giants through photography, we will publish a coffee table book full of images by winter of 2016 which will have 25 chapters dedicated to the remaining 25 glaciers. 

If you would like to follow along and/or support our efforts, "Welcome to the family!"

Kickstarter

glacierpreservationproject.com

istagram.com/glacierpreservationproject

facebook.com/glacierpreservationproject

blogspot.com/glacierpreservationproject

What Does Your Playground Look Like?

"Freedom"

     When all was said and done and the snow started to fall last October I had over 2,500 images safely on my hard drive. There are many that I can't wait to share with you all as the dreary winter continues to deprive us of our Vitamin D but this one is my favorite. This one means more to me than any other that I took this summer. It's not a bad view but it is not the most artistic or fantastic shot that I took this year. It does say a lot though, doesn't it? Here is what it means to me. 

     When the kiddos were little they would bug Jill and I to take them to the park to play. What they meant was one of the city parks with a playground that we used to visit a lot when we lived in Kansas City for a time. Swings and a lot of wood chips, right? Not that we wouldn't ever take them there but when Jill and I were talking about taking a trip to Glacier National Park and the kids only heard "park" they 

Swiftcurrent Glacier

were always super disappointed when we explained this park didn't have any swing sets. That was several years ago. You see them now, though? We had hiked close to 7 miles to get to this point. Around mile 6 we had left the trail and almost all other people and found our own way. In The picture to the right I circled where we are. Don't worry, I warned them to not go close to the edge of the cliff. We had taken a few minutes to eat our ham and cheese sandwiches and had already got into a sketchy spot on that icy section of the glacier but I was really chomping at the bit to make it down onto that shelf.  We had been above Swiftcurrent the week before as we climbed up to Swiftcurrent Lookout, partly to get to North Swiftcurrent Glacier and partly to scout out our route to Swiftcurrent. Compared to some of the other glaciers that we had already visited this one must have receded more recently. There was very little vegetation which has grown. Just the bedrock and shale chunks. There were all kinds of little treasures of uniqueness that we wanted to check out. I really wanted to peak over the edge on top of one of those falls, too. Who wouldn't?

     What this picture means to me is quite a few things at once. After the recession (economic, that is) my thriving wedding photography business is down to a trickle. We lost the 6,400 sq ft home that Jill and I and my father-in-law built and we live in a 603 sq ft cabin that we built instead. Yes, all 8 of us. I've taken a couple of odd jobs to make it through. I am praying that we are "making it through" though because it sure seems like there isn't a light at the end of the tunnel a lot of the time these past 3 years. I'm not trying to complain but I'm compelled to share the truth and not pretend that life is all fluffy white clouds and puppy dogs. There are times like this day when life is awesome and then there are times . . .  
 let's just say that I get somewhat jealous of all the folks we pass on the trail who have all the most expensive top of the line equipment so that they can spend all day without ever leaving the trail. I mentioned Kansas? Well, when we left, we turned down a really great management position to get back to Montana. I just couldn't face living in the flat lands with only a couple of weeks a year that we would get to visit Glacier. Trust me, I have kicked myself many times since, too. 

     In this image, I see my kiddos enjoying what very, very few people will ever get to experience in person. I see them getting to be a part of this project where people will recognize them as "those kiddos with the crazy dad that dragged them all over one of our Nation's greatest treasures to preserve it's namesake through his art form." Our shoes were bought used and not new. The only bit of equipment we purchased new was my wife's Osprey Backpack that she let the kids borrow all summer. 

     Don't get me wrong, I'm going to be searching out sponsors and partners all winter so that we can explore in a lot more comfort next summer. I'm confident our we will sell many copies of our coffee table book, too. The point I'm making is that we got out there any way. We didn't need all the greatest equipment to enjoy ourselves. My kids are not addicted to video games and they are tough as mountain goats. They are learning that it is more important to enjoy what you have and not to be disappointed with what you don't have. I want them to have a lot more than we do right now eventually. I am grateful that they are learning these life lessons early on, though. I'm sure we won't stay in the financial slump that we have lived in for the past few years and I hope that they never forget how much we enjoyed this last summer without all the bells and whistles. 

This is what that great big crack in the shelf from the perspective shot above looks like up close. 

Okay, this is just really neat, right?

This is Swiftcurrent Glacier. You notice the trough of annual snow at the bottom tip? The reason that it is there and has melted everywhere else is because of the massive amount of cold air that jets out from under the glacier and flows down over top of that patch. The wind we felt standing below the glacier felt like opening the door to a walk in freezer.

This is the top of one of the waterfalls I was talking about. Made it!

You can see Swiftcurrent Lookout in the upper right corner of this image. That's the vantage point from which I took the over-head picture.

At the bottom of Swiftcurrent Glacier we found all kinds of "glacier silt." It's hard to believe that this mucky clay-like mud caused by the many years of embedded glacial rocks grinding up the bedrock as this glacier slowly moves will eventually cause all the lakes below to have that un-real turquoise color. 

You can see the color of the lakes as the run-off from Swiftcurrent Glacier begins its journey to the Atlantic. You can also spot a couple of goofballs to the left of the image. The Many Glacier Hotel is just out of site down this drainage.

Mt. Wilbur

Zoom in

      The next time you head into Glacier National Park with your DSLR, intent on capturing a few epic shots, don’t forget your zoom lens. Typically, when trying to capture scenic shots, most people will be kicking themselves for not bringing or renting a wider angle lens. Everything is so huge in Glacier that you just can’t have a wide enough lens to frame it all in. There is definitely a use for your wide angle, but there are other options. 

          It’s always smart to bring your telephoto along in hopes of capturing some up-close and personal shots of the incredible wildlife Glacier has to offer, but don’t put it away after the mountain goat moves out of view. Keep it out and zoom in on some shots of the scenery. There is nothing like the elation of experiencing Glacier’s majesty first hand and up close, either driving or hiking. Have you noticed that once you’re back home and showing off where you went on vacation, you end up saying, “The pictures don’t do it justice. You just have to be there.” With your wide angle lens all those huge mountains will shrink down and lose their awe. Your telephoto will make those mountains feel as big as they are, in person. It’s not always easy to find the room to accommodate those longer lenses (200mm, and up) but once you start looking for those shots, you’ll be amazed at how many opportunities are available. Try it. Just zoom in all the way and put the viewfinder up to your eye. Your first impulse is to zoom back to fit more scenery into your frame, but hold your camera up a bit longer and look around through the view finder. Try framing a single peak instead of several. It will open up a whole new world of imaging.

          Portrait tip – This works for portraits too. Try this: Instead of zooming out (wide-angle) to make sure you get as much background in as you can, try zooming in (telephoto) and backing up (actually walking backwards) until your bff and the background fit in your frame. Don’t try to fit it all in. If your background is too blurry, try a smaller aperture. Can’t control the aperture manually? Adjust the ISO to a faster speed (higher number like 1,600) and that should help. This will give your images that larger-than-life perspective that you were trying for in the first place. Okay, so it’s the digital age, and you have thousands of pictures worth of room left on your card, so take both the wide angle shot and the telephoto. See if you don’t like the feel of the telephoto.

Exposure and Composure

Quick tip for sunrise/sunset pictures.

Some of the most dramatic scenes that we all love to capture are sunrise and sunset photos. Have you ever been disappointed in how the results differed from what it actually looked like? Especially for point and shoot cameras, the rich hues of oranges and reds can really lose their punch from reality to view screen. Before you toss your camera and figure that it’s time for an upgrade, try this quick tip.

 What happens is that your camera meter is taking in a drastic contrast between the dark part of your scene and the bright clouds/sun behind it. The difference in the amount of light on Mt Wilber in this image compared to what is lighting up the lower, darker part of the image is staggering. The bright part of the peak has around 6-8 times the amount of light that the foreground has and your camera sensor can’t handle that large of a difference. Your camera meter wants to pick out the middle ground and it usually produces blah results.  It’s kind of like when you’re driving on a Montana dirt road in the morning and the sun comes up. All of a sudden you can’t see the road anymore! All that dust on the windshield is lighting up with the direct sun and the road is still in the shade. Your eyes are in sensory overload with your pupils trying their best to close down and protect you from the brightness, but your brain is telling you that it is still important to be able to see what is quickly approaching your vehicle. Whatever you do, don’t use the windshield washer fluid to try and clear off the dust! 

What we want to do is to trick your camera into correctly metering the light part of your scene. 

Try these solutions:

 Solution 1) Re-frame and keep only a small amount of the darker, foreground in your picture, allowing your camera to correctly meter only the bright background. Lots of sky and only a sliver of horizon at the bottom. 

Solution 2) Use the AEL (Auto Exposure Lock) feature of your camera if it has one. Most point and shoots have this feature and you activate it by pressing the shutter release button halfway down. Your camera will focus and meter light. Frame your picture like you would for solution one with mostly sky and press the shutter release half way down. Now, don’t let up on that button while you reframe. Go ahead and push the shutter release all the way down after you have your image framed the way you want it. 

Solution 3) White balance is one of the least understood yet critical functions of a digital camera. That being said, almost all modern cameras allow you to control your white balance. The icon for this feature will be “WB” and it allows you to tell your camera what type of light source you have. Usually you can specify Tungsten (a regular old light bulb) fluorescent, sunlight, flash, shade, cloudy and auto. If you let your camera choose, it will set it at daylight for this type of scene, but you may want to try selecting the “shade” setting. It will throw a lot more orange into your sunset.