Glacier National Park Storm Cell Photographs

Glacier National Park Storm Cell Photographs 

Storm cell over Glacier National Park, Montana. ©tonybynum.com 

Two nights ago I was on my way to find something to photograph. As I contemplated which direction to go I noticed the light was flat and not really worth spending a lot of time on. I decided to drive out onto the prairie, a shot distance from my home and see if I could find anything interesting. 

Well, as luck, or fate would have it, from out of nowhere it seamed, this storm developed over the southern end of Glacier National Park. These are a few photographs of the storm cell that developed over Summit and Little Dog Mountains and progressed north along the front range of Glacier National Park, Montana.

The Glacier National Park storm cell building and dumping rain on the Park. ©tonybynum.com 

The Photographs

The first photos is of the storm cell developing and letting go of it’s moisture. The following images are the cell developing, beginning to collapse and then moving though the area dropping heavy rain and creating high winds. I’d say the winds locally were 50 miles per hour as the storm moved though. I eventually had to quit shooting because the wind and rain became unbearable.  What’s interesting about these photographs of the Glacier National Park storm cell, is how uncommon and rare it is to see this kind of cell develop, almost out of know where, over the mountains, and this late in the season.  We see them more often on the prairie.

The storm cell breaking apart and elongating as it moves north along the front of Glacier National Park, Montana. ©tonybynum

The middle of the cell opening up and dispersing. ©tonybynum.com 

The storm cell over Glacier National Park, passing though northward with clearing sky's behind it. ©tonybynym.com 

How the photographs were made and the photography equipment I used

All of the Glacier National Park storm cell photographs were taken with a Nikon D810, Nikon 17-35 f2.8 lens (Because I left my 14-24 in another Pelican case back home), mounted atop of a Really Right Stuff tripod / ball head combination with a bag of rocks hanging from the center support. The shooting data indicates that I was all over the place with my settings and for good reason, because I was. I created these images at various ISO’s from 31 (yes iso 31, the D810 goes that low) to 400 with shutter speeds ranging from a fraction of a second to up to 10 seconds and apertures from 3.2 to f22. What you cant really see in these Glacier National Park storm cell photographs is the lighting. There was lighting in the clouds, which is why there are lighter spots in the clouds.  But what I did not capture were any of the lighting bolts. . .  Unfortunately, my lighting trigger failed to pick up on the strikes (on the bright side, I got home and fiddled with it and got it working again, so now I’m ready for the next storm – which means the lightning storms are over for the year. . .  Ha, Ha, Ha.

Please leave a comment and share to your Glacier National Park Friends! Happy Shooting!  Tony Bynum