I’ve wanted to photograph this spot for a long time, and I finally got my opportunity with a couple friends earlier this year. We paid really close attention to the weather to try and land this on a day where we’d get light on the peak, nice clouds, and snow on the trees. Luck happened to be on our side! However, tragedy nearly struck in the making of this image.
I’d set up my composition pretty close to where Scott did, though my decision nearly had me buying both Scott and I new cameras. I was set up in a snowbank, and must have taken a step too close to the water – my right foot punched a hole in the snowbank, right into the river and I started to fall, bringing my camera along for the ride. In my panic I threw my camera, tripod and all, away from the river and into a snowbank. As I fell toward Scott’s camera, I was terrified that I’d take it for a dip with me, or destabilize the snowbank enough to knock his camera in on its own! I managed to roll to my left as I went down, barely keeping my momentum away from the water.
Thankfully, the luck we had with the conditions extended to me not accidentally ruining two cameras and getting soaked in a freezing mountain river! Life is all about the little wins, isn’t it?
Alt: river leading to mount chephren in winter