Fall Revival

I don’t know about you, but I always feel like my photography gets a little stale over the summer.  The clear blue skies that most people love, we photographers hate.  It makes for such bland landscape photos.  The light can be pretty harsh throughout the day.  And, the last few summers have seen the days engulfed in wildfire smoke.

You can usually find me counting down the days until the arrival of fall.  Nice clouds return to the skies making for beautiful sunrise and sunset photography.  The golden hour light is better.  The fall foliage and colors.  The elk rut.  I could go on and on.  Pumpkin flavored everything.  Ok, not photography related, but still.

The one caveat I have with fall is that I can’t seem to compose a good picture when the leaves are at their peak.  I don’t know, they usually end up looking like a yellow hot mess.  So, I like to wait until we are on the downside of the peak.  After the wind and weather has thinned out the leaves a little.

The weather system that moved through the mountains earlier this week had my hopes up that the thinning has started.  I knew just the place I wanted to go as there is a photo I’ve been trying to capture the past few falls.  And, this is looking like the day I might finally get it.

I arrived before the sun came up just to make sure I got a parking spot.  The spot I’ve been trying to get a photo at is early into the hike, so I had plenty of time to get there.  So, I took some sunrise photos along the way.  There wasn’t even a breeze blowing which is rare this time of year, but very welcome when you’re trying to capture the fall colors.

As I was hiking along gaping at the aspens, the color red caught my eye.  I’ve walked past this cabin hundreds of times.  And, often think about the history of this area.  It deserves it’s own post, that I’ll write in the near future.  This little cabin tucked in the aspen trees with it’s red roof was begging to have it’s photo taken.  So, I obliged.  I couldn’t help but wish I lived there.

Soon after the cabin, I made it to my spot, the sun moved behind the clouds and it looked like it was going to be there for a while.  So, I made the best of it.  I still didn’t get the shot, but I’m getting closer.  Good thing I’m stubborn.

Once I took this photo, I had no idea where I was going next.  There are plenty of options in this area.  So, I just started walking.  I followed the creek for a while doing some long exposures.  Then, I decided to do a loop, but instead of taking a turn, I kept going to a lake that was disappointingly drained low.  If you look at my Strava track, it looks like I was walking in the water.  The hike back out brought big views down the valley with aspen groves dotting the hill sides contrasting with all of the evergreen trees.

I felt myself getting more and more excited about photography as the day went on.

Instead of boring you with the play by play of my hike, I’ll just post a few photos.  That’s probably what you’re here for, after all.