Lake Isabelle

I had never been up to Lake Isabelle before a family hike up to it last weekend. This is an amazing and unique spot, different from the dozens of lakes I've photographed in RMNP. I went back for sunrise Monday morning thinking I had a good chance of getting some clouds along with a reflection. Here's one of my scans. The sky actually has good detail and isn't really blown out - see the better scan below. There are almost too many elements and colors in the photo, but I kind of like it.

Details:
Ebony 45 / Nikon 75mm / Velvia 100 / f22 / 4 sec / 2-stop soft grad

Very nice photo Tony. On my monitor the photo has a bit too magenta. I think I would have preffered a vertical shot, because I'd like to see more of the flowers, and don't care for the left side. Thanks for posting.

I love it. It does appear to be somewhat magenta cast to the mountains, which appears to be more than the cast of the sky would account for. Regardless, it's a winner.

Excellent shot, the patches of snow and the reflection are wonderful................J

I also love Isabelle and the Indian Peaks area. It was one of the first places that we "discovered" when first moving to Denver 30 years ago. You were fortunate in finding calm water for a reflection. The wind really likes to blow up there!

Looks like a 3 stop grad would have been better.

Tony, great reflection. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to get one here, but it's always blowing.

Craig

I think you guys are right. Here's a different scan & crop of the same thing.

Craig - I look for days with 30% or more predicted cloud cover on the edge of systems, combined with 4 mph or less predicted wind on weather.com & weather underground. I cross reference this with how the weather 'feels' in at my home in Fort Collins the night before and the morning I'm leaving. My hit rate for reflections with this system is better than 50%.

Super image, Tony. Nice portfolio on your site also. You may have swung too far on the cyan on the second one. Somewhere in between the two versions perhaps?

I look for days with 30% or more predicted cloud cover on the edge of systems, combined with 4 mph or less predicted wind on weather.com & weather underground. I cross reference this with how the weather 'feels' in at my home in Fort Collins the night before and the morning I'm leaving. My hit rate for reflections with this system is better than 50%.

Tony, can I call you the next time I think I might be heading up? I've never been able to trust the forecasts and since I live south of Denver, the weather is just to unpredictable/different in the Indian Peaks. I guess I'll start using the weather sites you mention to improve my hit rate.

Again, great image.

Craig

I predicted Saturday would be a good day and it was - I got a perfect reflection, also in Indian Peaks. This morning might have been good but I didn't go shooting. Unfortunately I don't see anything that looks reliable the rest of this week.