Crossing Lac des Vaches

Another shot from my Vanoise Hiking Trip series. We're not sure why this lake is called Lac des Vaches as it's up above alpine pastures but it's a wonderful location. We crossed it this way in cloudy, damp conditions then, the next day, after 8 inches of snow fell, we crossed it the other way and it was frozen solid! In July!

The print was very challenging as I wanted to create layers of tone. In the end I had to cut out masks to mask the foregound then the mid-ground and burn in each area separately. The path across the lake was dodged slightly as were my figures of my wife and daughter. I then burnt in a curve beneath the reflections of snow, all of the edges and a small amount of burning to bring out the lines of silt in the water.