Tuesday, April 7, 2009

embracing winter's rearguard action


This is an odd ‘in-between’ season of the year when it’s not really winter any longer, but it’s not yet spring either. Here in Colorado, that means it can be 70 degrees & sunny one day, then 25 degrees & a blizzard the next.

It’s all a bit frustrating, photographically-speaking. There are beginning to be tantalizing glimpses of spring, and yet in the last ten days or so we’ve had three snowstorms. I’m wishing spring would go ahead and really start building some momentum, since I’d like to get started on my 2009 photo wish list (the twenty places in Colorado that I want to get to this year during spring, summer, & fall). I’ll admit that a good snow makes for a lovely landscape… but I’ll also admit that I’m no fan of winter. In fact, I can’t wait for it to be over.

Okay, sorry... I think I just needed to vent a bit. To be honest, winter actually does present some great opportunities for photography. You just have to be willing to get Out There in the snow & cold. And even when it’s warm and everything is brown & blah down here near Denver in early spring, you can still head up into the mountains and find beautiful, wintry scenes. Shoot, there were places I went hiking last July that still had quite a bit of snow on the ground. And in August we had a snow storm up in the mountains that resulted in one of my favorite photos ever (the shot of me in front of Longs Peak that is in the upper right corner of my blog).

This past weekend, I decided to embrace the most recent round of wintry weather that was making a determined attempt to roll back the tentative advancements of spring, and so my wife & I headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park and did some snowshoeing. We rented snowshoes at The Warming House (great folks there) and we hiked up to Dream Lake. The landscape was gorgeous. The pine trees looked especially elegant wearing their coating of snow. We had a great time and… don’t tell anyone, but… for a few hours there in the achingly beautiful, snow-covered mountains of the Colorado High Country, I forgot how much I’ve been wishing for spring.


Thanks for reading about stuff I’ve photographed. ~Rich

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