Blue Lake/ Mt. Toll -- Indian Peaks

With the moon being nearly full, I decided the best thing to do was head up to Indian Peaks early Friday morning and take advantage of the good hiking conditions. I left the trailhead just after 3 am and after picking my way up the trail I made it up to Blue Lake with plenty of time before sunrise. The trail was very muddy in spots and there are quite a few snowbanks remaining on the trail, and frankly a lot of snow left everywhere. I had never been here before so I wandered around looking for a good spot to shoot until the sky really started to light up behind me. There were some low level clouds out east that really looked amazing from up there and the reflected light gave the whole area I was in a nice warm glow. Anyway, here is one shot from the morning, I just started to work on these -- so there may be more.

Ok, one more for now....

Nice images. I like the comp in the second image. Looks just a little cleaner to me.

I also like the second one because of the reflection, the greater array of rocks and the layered look that the ice sheet offers.
Is this tilted CCW, or just an optical illusion?

I think its an optical illusion, the lake cuts back in the center and I think it makes it look tilted. I know I checked my bubble a couple of times because it looked odd and I even have a grid screen as well. Another possibility is distortion, I was shooting at 17mm, so there could be some curvature. I'm just starting on the images from here and I know I shot some with better reflections -- thanks for the input guys!

I'll vote for #2 composition too, I like the foreground rocks in that one!. Interesting light and glow on the landscape!. Was the oulet waterfall flowing pretty good, looks like still snow and ffrozen water up there!. Any signs of flowers popping out on the trail yet?.

Nick, the water was moving very nicely. As far as flowers, the marsh marigold were very dense in some places, but up high there were still a lot of plants yet to bloom. There were some really nice flowers about a mile in, just past Mitchell Lake, around the first stream crossing (actually in the stream). Here is one shot from just below Blue Lake, a small cascade up the hill from the trail...

#2 and #3 get my votes. Nice series!

#2 for me, too, but the other two are really nice, too. There is definitely an optical illusion to #2 though that makes it look a little tilted.

Looks like you had some nice light up there. I'm not bothered by the curved shoreline issue. The only thing I don't like in the first two shots is the distortion of the moon. The creek shot is awesome.

Cheers,