Thursday, July 22, 2010

A Tale of Light Chasing

On a recent family trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, I ventured out one evening by myself. The clouds and light looked perfectly set for a stunning, colorful sunset.


The spectacular light show took place while I was still driving. The clouds and peaks lit up with warm light. The colors changed from golden tones to pinkish tones. It was beautiful.


When I finally got to where I wanted to take pictures, the light had peaked and the colors were fading fast.




click for larger image


I hung out in that grassy meadow (in Moraine Park) along the river for a long while. I sat on a boulder and watched the darkening sky and heavy clouds. It was so quiet and peaceful.


About 30 minutes after sunset, I got up and slowly walked back to the car. I was fascinated by some interesting clouds and couldn't figure out if they were lenticular or part of a thunderstorm or both.


A spot of white water in the river caught my eye and then the rhythm with the clouds stood out.




click for larger image


I think I would have been pretty angry with myself just a couple of years ago for missing a sunset like that. Actually, I probably would have bailed out of dinner with my family just to be sure I was on location with camera in hand well before sunset.


Well, I stayed for dinner and even later with the family. We took our sons to ride go-carts after dinner, and we all had a blast. Those moments were far more important to me than that sunset.


I didn't capture the spectacular golden light on the mountain peaks. But I got 30 minutes of solitude in cool, clean air in a grassy meadow with a river flowing close by. My world slowed down. I only wished the rest of my family could have experienced that as well, but they were all tired from a full day of activity and back at the hotel getting ready for bed (I did indeed invite them along on my sunset photo-outing).


The point to this is that I was quite happy to be out there regardless of time and light. I was also happy with the photos, especially the one with the white water and interesting clouds.

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