Took a short trip to Rocky Mountain National Park this last week …….. first outing of the summer. Managed a couple of short day hikes during our 2 night stay. First night there I took a quick drive up to Bear Lake where the mosquito population is quite healthy. I forgot to apply any repellent that evening so a few shots of the lake and Longs Peak and I headed back to camp before the mosquitos could do more damage. I liked the still section of water where the reflection of the clouds seem to float isolated from the rest of the reflected scene. It creates an unusual but pleasant tension to the scene.
Next day took a morning hike to Cub Lake. Couldn’t drag my butt out early enough for the best light but still managed a few shots including this one at the destination. Again, the mosquitos were out in force. It’s been many years since I last visited this location. The landscape has changed dramatically as a result of a 2012 fire. Still it’s a beautiful setting with the lily pad covered Cub Lake sitting below the snow covered Stone’s Peak in the background.
Our last morning I woke up to drizzling rain and overcast skies. Not great conditions for sweeping scenics but the subdued light would be okay for some waterfall and stream shots so I headed for Alberta Falls which was flowing full and hard thanks to the year’s higher than normal moisture accumulation. Unfortunately, I had some difficulty trying to shoot the falls due to limited access resulting from the high water level and also the spray from the falls quickly covering the lens before a clear shot could be taken. Found one frame that worked out okay. As you can see, there wasn’t any means of positioning below the falls. The water was rolling and tumbling down Glacier Creek with enough velocity and force to move small boulders (maybe a slight exageration since I didn’t see any moving). Anyhow, an old and fragile photographer would not fair well in that fast moving current. There was better access downstream from the falls allowing me greater compositional options. The high volume of water was moving fast and furiously downstream and I wasn’t sure that a slow shutter would capture the excitement of this dangerous stream that I was experiencing. Consequently I bracketed shutter speeds on many frames to try and show the turbulence more effectively, though none of the speeds were really motion freezing fast (not my intent). Still I think some of resulting images do capture that sense of excitement that such a fast moving and high volume stream created.
