Fall is coming... Indian Peaks Wilderness

At 12,500-ft the tundra is migrating from the Summer yellow and greens to the reds, oranges and browns of Fall.

I did a early morning hike this past weekend to shoot a sunrise on Apache Peak. Sunrise was nice... for about 15 minutes, but I spent most of my time admiring and shooting the tundra. I had overcast conditions from about 7:00am -9:00am up on the Pawnee Pass area which resulted in a pretty saturated environment. I prefer the color bomb, however I'm not sure what you think. Comments? Too red? saturated?

Raw, and processed with Curves.

http://www.kaephotography.com/gallery/tundra/

Spectacular! Really, really nice work!

#5 and the first #6 are my picks of the litter. Of course you could do a group showing with the set too.

Niiiiice! I love the gnarly Apache Peak shots (esp. the second) and the "Lone Eagle Cirque" shot. All those tundra details are cool, too.

Not too red or saturated in the least! Fine (and unique) tundra compositions.
I especially like Tundra #6, Rugged Apache Peak and Lone Eagle Cirque.

How about you? Which do you prefer?

LOVE the tundra details. They look perfect to me. And the subtlety of the light/color in "Cirque" is awesome.

John, I like 5, 6 and 7. All of them look very nice blown up. My mountain shots are nice considering I missed the true sunrise by 15 minutes. I should have started my day at 3:00am, but I slept-in to 3:15 and missed the show. This perspective of Apache is very beautiful and I'll certainly be going back this year. The view is almost all mountain, and sky and clouds are secondary subjects. So even a crisp, clear morning would look nice with this comp. I'll be watching the weather in a few weeks. The first snow in the IPW, I'll be up there the next morning to capture a sunrise. Looking for a reason to whip out the microspikes!

Nice work, Kane. I love The Rugged Apache Peak shot. Thats's the type of image that makes me want to get out of bed really early.

Creative work. I'm surprised at how the Tundra has put its fall coat on so early.

The Apache Peak portrait is awesome!!!

man - that rugged apache peak shot is awesome! Love all the detail in that plus those clouds. The tundra shots are excellent as well!

Excellent stuff! Love the colors in the tundra, and the light in the cirques.

Thanks everyone for all the positive feedback. I wasn't sure going into this that tundra was worth while composition. BTW, this tundra was at an elevation of about 12,700-ft, above Pawnee Pass. Below that elevation level, it wasn't nearly as advanced. I'm guessing in about a week the actual Pawnee Pass will be in pretty good shape for shooting.

I added one more shot of Apache Peak. I personally like this one alot. The rock in the foreground is has such complex color.

I much prefer the "original" Apache Peak shot. The light is much better. Also, with the latest one, while the foreground is nice, it is really hard to separate it visually from the peak, which kind of then gets lost in there. In the first one, it's definitely separated boldly with that light, and I like the way it drops off into oblivion on the right side. And there's enough good foreground anyhow there. My 3¢.

Jack, great critique.

I wish you were up here this weekend. On Sat, I'm headed up to Kneeknocker Basin in the Gores. Gonna shoot sunset from Cataract Sentinal. Then for sunrise, shoot that Killer perspective of Peak C from east slopes of Powell.

http://www.summitpost.org/image/328059/Peak-C.html

The reds look great to me, nicely done.