Dream Lake

So I moved to Boulder, CO last August. I've lived in Colorado my entire life. There is one unsettling fact that must be acknowledged, I had never been to Rocky Mountain National Park before this morning! Criminal huh?

I've followed the posts on here sporadically since joining last November, and I've heard quite a bit of talk about Dream Lake in RMNP. A friend and I decided to make the journey up this morning and it was well worth it. I left my house in Boulder at 3am and I'm currently suffering for that decision. Meeting up with my friend in Loveland, we headed toward RMNP. There was a really big cloud bank to the east and prevented the sun from rising when it normally would have, thus buying us some extra minutes while we waited for the automated stoplight on the Bear Lake Road.

We got on the trail somewhere around 5am and after a slow walk up to the lake (including my asthma kicking my butt), we arrived and immediately went to shooting. The question I was asking myself all day was "why have I never come here before?"

I know Dream Lake is very often photographed but I still wanted to get up there and see it for myself. Thanks to all who post valuable information and links to we can make the most of our time when we visit that place!

Wow! First time there and you were rewarded with light like this?! You must be livin' right!
Very, very nice image. I wouldn't mind seeing a bit darker shadows, and you could probably crop a good inch from the bottom as that area is OOF. Thanks for posting a large version!

What's up Ryan! Welcome to the Dream Lake fan club. I gotta say this image has a little bit different comp than the norm and I like it. The color looks good too. I agree with John's idea about cropping out the out of focus extreme foreground. Have a look at the Hallet Peak and it's reflection. I think you will notice two very differently exposed Hallet Peaks. In return the image conveys a graduated ND look. Both the reflection and the peak should mirror exposures. Lastly, Dream Lake is one of those places that loves to bring out nasty distortion with most wide angle lenses. It's the u shaped, tree laden valley, combined with a really extensive and beautiful foreground opportunity that makes us think the wide angle is the way to go. Just remember if you go wide at Dream you're gonna get the "leaning trees." Photoshop has Distortion Correction that might help.

Thanks for sharing the image, it's always nice seeing The Dream.

Thanks for the feedback guys. Kane, you're spot on with the Hallet reflection looking different than the Hallet Peak. I was using a reverse grad. ND and it did throw it off a little. Been reworking it. Dodging and burning is helping. As for the distortion, yeah Lightroom and Photoshop do have distortion settings and I applied the lens profile for the 17-40mm f/4L in LR but it's 17mm...there is going to be distortion. And I'm ok with it. The vertical composition ones are much more distorted than the landscape composition ones though.

I'm a big fan of Dream Lake now, that's for sure!

I think John and Kane gave some good suggestions. Must be nice to have the Rockies so close.

With a few tweaks, as suggested, this will be a fine image.

I must say, a native never having visited RMNP is certainly unusual ! After moving to Colorado in the late '70s, I avoided RMNP for several decades, until I renewed my interest in photography. I just couldn't see puting up with the crowds with so many other interesting areas in Colorado. However, when you are on the trail to catch a sunrise, crowds are not a problem.

Just remember that the reflection of an object should never be brighter than the object being reflected. That, and the color of the light on the mountain is much redder than the reflection, most likely from an other-than-neutral graduated filter. Beautiful shot, though. What a calm morning you were rewarded with!

I hiked there the second weekend I was in Colorado. I second the suggestions of cropping the bottom and dialing the exposure in the reflection, but otherwise a highly enjoyable shot with nice light. Great reflection.

Very nice image, Ryan! That's some great light you had.

Remember, though, you haven't _really_ experienced Dream Lake until you've been blasted by blowing snow coming off the lake at 50mph or more

Nice shot and welcome to the Rockies! I think all feedback has been covered and addressed fairly. Now you will have to branch out. I would highly recommend Sky Pond and Chasm Lake. Make sure to get up early then you will only have to worry about the hordes on the way back!

Thanks for the comments everyone! Two things. Yeah, I know that the reflection shouldn't be brighter. What this I was using my Singh-Ray reverse grad ND because just above the other side of the lake was incredibly bright. I've never had a problem with color cast from Singh-Rays before so I'm wondering if I forgot to check my settings properly. My landscape orientated photo I feel is much better (the one that is below). I definitely do appreciate the feedback though, that is what I love about these forums so much.

Ryan, the sky/reflection exposure looks a lot better with the above image. I personally like the vertical comp better. I think it works a lot better on a cloudless day. The vertical comp allows my eye to stay focused on the beautiful Hallet Peak and Dream Lake and minimizes the featureless sky. The landscape image does the opposite. I immediately notice the featureless sky and Lake because its about half the image. Obviously if you had some nice puffy clouds to fill in all that negative space then you would have a winner IMO. Lastly, the grad isnt doing any favors for that tree on the far right.

You're right Kane, obviously the grad didn't help the tree on the right. I really wanted the composition that I got, and felt chopped off the tree hurt the overall photo. I have one version where I went in and tried to brighten it up and it only marginally helped (without making it look funky). Featureless sky notwithstanding, I think this is a winner. My luck with alpine lakes over the last several years is really poor, every time I go at sunrise I end with featureless skies. I have spent two weeks in GTNP over the last two years and have never seen a single cloud.

Thanks for posting these, Ryan! I'm late to the party on this one and I don't have much to add, I just wanted to say "hi!" and I hope to see you in the park this year!
And they are right about sky pond (I haven't yet been to Chasm, so I can't say). It's well worth the effort!

Super shot Ryan. I belong to the Dream Lake fan club as well. When all else fails, go up there.