Hiking to Park Butte in the Mt Baker National Recreation Area in Washington is one of my all-time favorite hikes.

Over the years, I have had the pleasure of doing it many times. After hiking the three and a half miles while climbing a couple thousand feet, we went in search of our shot spot. Once at the back of this tarn, we turned to see the view... of nothing. What! Fire smoke had moved in and completely shrouded the view of Mt Baker. Well, Shoot! But I set up the camera on the tripod anyway and waited.

My buddy and I were just in the middle of complaining that we had hiked all the way up there for no view! Suddenly, I said, "I think I see pink." We made it back behind the cameras, and within a few moments, the mountain literally "came out" right in the middle of sunset. Right before our eyes, it was incredible. Oh my! "Shoot it! Shoot it," I yelled.

My first shots were not that good, but as the smoke blew away and the sunset got better and better, so did my image. I was shooting at f/22 for maximum depth of field, at ISO 100, and had my white balance set at 5600K. I lowered a three-stop graduated split neutral density filter into place, and Pow! Nailed That! Put that in the Bank!

The reflection was absolutely glass and made balancing light so much easier. I was stunned by the view; it blew me away! In a matter of five minutes, we went from the worst photo day ever to the best shot ever. This image hangs in both of my galleries, and customers often think it is a painting and ask me how I did it.

When I explained that it was indeed a photograph and explained the fire smoke and how it blew off right at sunset, they started to understand. If you look in the shadows, you can see the left-over haze in the image. This created a serial lighting effect I could never duplicate again, making this image extremely special to me. It just goes to prove that you should never give up on a sunset, no matter how bad it looks at the time, because magic can happen out of nothing!