Yesterday in RMNP

Erik was not kidding about yesterday's sunrise in his "One Year & Six Days" post. I also took a chance, got up at 3:15 am to drive to the park and hike up to Dream Lake, hoping that a quick break in the storm would light up the sky and peaks by sunrise. Wow, did it ever. I had a film camera on a tripod pointed west toward the lake since I wanted a very wide view with my widest lens (and my digital slr with a crop sensor couldn't quite get wide enough for the comp I wanted). I handheld the digital and frantically took the above snapshots toward the eastern horizon which might have been even more colorful than the view toward the mountains. There was no need to add saturation to these, I can assure you it really was this intense in person. I don't have the film developed yet of the lake but I can share these snapshots with you now.

Additionally, some photogenic fog was hanging around through much of the morning. I took this from above Nymph Lake looking down into the valley. It has been darkened a little bit from how it appeared to my eyes, nonetheless it was a dramatic scene to witness.

Thatchtop (and Arrowhead in the distance) surrounded by more fog. Viewed from near the Bear Lake Road above Moraine Park.

Aspen on the Bierstadt Moraine with a little bit of fog rolling over.

I'll finish the post with some impressive golden banner wildflowers from the Moraine Park area. These are some of the best I've ever seen up there.

Josh, those colors are fantastic! Unreal...WOW....love the fog shot. Just like the mood of it. Also like the wildflower shot in Moraine park. I am going to have to get up to RMP soon. Thanks for the post.

Well done Josh! That's some incredible color.

Josh, that fog shot does it for me. I'm sure the others from Dream will be incredible, but like that one the most out of this bunch here. Way to gamble and WIN!!!

They are all very nice, but that last shot is beautiful!

Somewhere beneath the clouds in that second one there's gotta be a lake or pond of some sort. So if you reverse the order of the first two shots, you get, "Smoooooke on the waaaaater, fire in the sky!"

Great stuff, Josh. I knew Rocky would be epic, I only wish I'd been up there to see it firsthand.

These are all very cool Joshua, that colour is out of this world!. I was up in the park a week ago and the flowers were no way near to this, so thanks for the update, a weekend sunrise may be in order!.

Josh, those sunrise colors brought out the thought of a firestorm. The dream lake shots will hopefully be just as spectacular in color.

Thanks for sharing some of your "snap shots". Quite the sunrise you saw up at dream lake. Look forward to seeing what you have on film.

Care to share your settings on #2?

Hey Steve. Here are the settings for #2: Nikon D300, Nikon 70-300mm lens at 112mm, f/11, 1/50s, ISO 200, Tiffen circular polarizer and .9 soft GND. The top 1/4 was probably darkened by about an additional equivalent of a stop to two stops in PS to increase the vibrancy of the yellow colors and to bring down the highlights. Except for adjusting levels, color balance and adding some contrast, the bottom 3/4 wasn't changed much in post processing.

Thanks for the info Josh. Wasn't sure if you used a GND, or blended images after the fact. Judging from the light on the top of the fog this shot must have been taken some time after sunrise. It is interesting how the golden early light persisted in these conditions.

Yea, #2 was taken around 1.5 hours after sunrise. The yellowish light in the sky looked unusual to me too. The sun was behind the line of clouds on the top of the image (not in the frame.) I think the polarizer brought some of it out as well. I didn't use any filters on the actual sunrise images though.

Great shots. I'm liking the first and second posts.

the last one is really sweeeet.

These all are great. Well done!

Wow, that is some impressive color. Out of this group though, my favorite is that fog shot. Great drama in that one.

Puff,....puff,.....puff,.....had to run to get the fire extinguisher from the garage! I thought my monitor was on fire!!!!!! Wow, what oranges, reds, and yellows!

Amaing images! Love the low clouds and the color in the second image a lot.

Pretty cool Joshua! I can't wait to see your Dream Lake stuff. It has to be absolutely amazing with what the clouds were doing around Hallett!!! I'm really glad there was someone else out there to verify just how spectacular that morning was.

It those first ones are just grab shots, I can't wait to see the film scans! Unbelievable sunrise and you caught great stuff besides those.

Wow, the colors on the first ones are unreal . . . . . . in a good way!

What can anyone say that hasn't already been said?
Timing is everything...right place, right time and you were there to capture the absolute beauty.
Incredible color!

great stuff, Josh--keep it coming!

Wow wonderful - nice wildflowers.

Way to pack a punch there, Josh - those first images hit me hard. Great stuff!

That color is just explosive, and the fog image is just as awesome. Can't wait to see the Dream Lake images.

Great wildflower shot, I really like the composition.