Serendipity and the luck of the photographer: the chance of being at the right place at the right time!

I recently received  a request for a photograph that I do not currently have in my files so I planned a quick trip to try and capture it. I pre-visualized the image: sunrise light on a specific snow covered mountain with some nice clouds in the sky, and on the morning I was there to make the image conditions were almost perfect with the exception of the clouds.  I made the shot and granted it is a nice image, but not exactly what I was hoping for and I will most likely return to try again. I have learned over the years that patience and  perseverance reward the photographer.  That said, later in the day as I was traveling the weather started to change  and  as I was driving through the northern San Luis Valley  an amazing lenticular cloud developed over the Northern Sangre de Cristo Range.  It was mid-day light, but the combination of the snow covered mountains with the incredible sky and clouds was too good to pass up and envisioning it in black and white, I knew it would be an excellent image.  So the moral of this story is that as photographers as much as  we may plan and have  hopes to capture certain images, it is often the random serendipitous chance moments that we encounter that produce the most satisfying images. I am not saying you should not plan and pre-visualize, but just getting out there and seeing what images come your way can be rewarding. In other words just get out and do it and see what nature provides!

A Lenticular Cloud over the Sangre de Cristo Range, CO

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Autumn in the Colorado High Country

Autumn View into the Upper Slate River Valley near Crested Butte, CO

It has been a busy September with lots going at CC, but I did manage  to get out this weekend to do a little aspen photography around Crested Butte. The color in the aspens is progressing but needs at least another week to peak. Even without peak  aspens I did find a number of fine images including this fabulous view with foreground grass looking down into the upper Slate River Valley with wonderful cloud laden morning light.

The compositional  elements that attracted me to this image were the strong layers and diagonals anchored by the wonderful golden colored grass with the beautiful clouds lit up by the early morning light. This image shows that not all that is gold in the Colorado high country are aspen! When you are out always keep your eyes open for the little gems like this scene. Enjoy!

Wind River Range Trip

I returned last night from a trip into the Wind River Range in Wyoming where I backpacked into the Deep Lake area from the Big Sandy Opening trail-head.  As much I like to photograph the prairie, there are times I need to return to the mountains and the alpine environment; places that are close to my heart and I came to love when I first ventured west as an undergraduate geology student at Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania. Although I have visited and traveled in many  of the mountain ranges in the West over the last 35 years, I have  not really been back to the “Winds” since I was a serious technical mountain climber back in my 20’s and 30’s. It was an immense pleasure to travel once again into what I consider to be some of  the finest  mountains in  the West and I was blessed with interesting weather and some stunning light.  The two images below were made early  in the morning on August 14 in  Deep Lake  cirque with the rugged and magnificent peaks of East Temple and Temple Peak rising over the lake. I was very fortunate to have  fabulous  early morning golden light, along with  perfectly calm conditions that allowed me to make an almost perfect reflection image of Temple Peak in the lake. It was the start of a  wonderful day in the magical environment of the alpine zone of the Wind Rivers.

Temple Peak Reflects in Deep Lake ©Stephen Weaver

Temple and East Temple Peaks, Wind River Range ©Stephen Weaver