First Major Shoot

Rocky Mountain National Park

I wrote most of this post last week before going to this shoot. And then I got busy. I had intended to post up some of the pictures taken during the trip I write about, but I think I’m just going to let the past be. The pictures I’m taking these days are what I want this blog to be about.

In 2016, I took a vacation to Colorado. Growing up as a Midwest flatlander, going to the mountains was always one of the coolest things you could do. I love the prairies and plains but there is just something about the grandeur of the mountains that nothing else quite matches. This trip was shaping up to be one of the best I had taken in a long time. We were going to see a Boston concert in Denver, and then a couple days in Estes Park and visiting Rocky Mountain National Park.

I was seriously pumped to see that park again. Sometime in the late ‘60s my family visited Rocky Mountain National Park for several days. We took the drive on Old Fall River Road and Trail Ridge Road. I do not even have the words to describe what a flatlander feels standing on the high ridges and looking over the canyons and basins. Awe inspiring. I had never seen anything more beautiful in my life. I have seen a lot of things since, but that still rates as one of the most amazing things I have seen.

At the time I was planning my vacation, I did not have a very good camera. For about ten years I had been using a couple of point and shoot cameras that could take nice pictures but not like a DSLR. I bought Nikon’s cheapest kit with two lenses, and I was ready for the park.  I think I got the camera on Wednesday and left for Colorado on Friday with having only taken just a few pictures before I headed out.

The friend we went to see in Estes Park had worked as a driver for a jeep tours company and knew the park very well. It was just ride along and look and shoot lots of pictures. Fact of the matter is I had no idea what to do with that camera. A DSLR has lots of settings, and I knew nothing about what they did. Whatever I had the camera set on initially I am not sure, but when we got to about the third stop where we were going to take some pictures, a review of what I had taken showed none were viewable. They were just dark. After a moment of panic, I quickly turned the dial to “Auto” so all I had to do is point and click. I could do that.

The day was absolutely amazing. The weather was gorgeous, animals were out in large numbers, and the view from Trail Ridge Road is incomparable. I took over 1200 pictures that day, and some of them are pretty good. The experience of getting to be up on that ridge again was a true Rocky Mountain High.

The next morning, our host rousted us out of bed so we could get to a certain spot before the breezes began to blow. I didn’t really know what she was worked up about until we got on scene. Sprague Lake was the destination and is worth a visit at any time. But if you can get there really early, you get a nice reflection of mountains in the lake. You do not get to see the mountain reflections right away, but the moment you get on the path around the lake you are seeing beauty in every direction.

Our host had to keep herding us along the path because we kept stopping to take pictures. Finally, she got us around to the side of the lake where you see the reflections and my jaw just dropped. This was a truly magnificent scene. One of the pictures I took that morning is the first picture I ever had printed as anything other than just an 8x10 on my home printer. I have reworked that picture and had it printed again and it is now gorgeous. I will be adding that to my store in the very near future.

I got lucky with taking some really nice pictures right off the bat after getting my camera. If you go to a place that is gorgeous, you can just point and get a great composition. I got a lot over those two days in the park. It was about three years before I started to actually learn what all the camera settings are and what they do. After some time practicing various techniques you begin to do things more automatically and can once again start concentrating on the subject I am shooting rather than the buttons and dials on the camera.

I have learned a lot in the last couple years, moving beyond the technical aspect of photography to being able to think about the actual composition of the picture. Now it is time to revisit Rocky Mountain National Park and view it with a photographer’s eye instead of a gawking flatlander’s eye. This time of year, much of the park is inaccessible due to winter. There are also parts still closed because of the major fires last year. I am going to go spend three days and see what there is to see and capture some winter beauty.

This is from my recent visit in March 2021. This is the Alluvial Fan, the bridge is on a trail.