Lake Helene and Notchtop

I blogged a little about this trip before here, here, and here. This early morning hike was one of the most impressive I ever did. It was windy and miserably cold, but the experience was unforgettable. I try to do many trips like this but seldom all conditions arrange for a great sunrise where geography, clouds, and sun cooperate. When everything comes together it is truly magical. The images of this trip were for me so ingrained in my mind that it has taken me a while to show them on my blog. One of the ways I check out geography and sun is by using Stephen Trainor's outstanding The Photographer's ephemeris app (for iPad/iPhone here, for Macs/PCs here). I also use Google Earth. I had decided that Lake Helene would be nice with a view of Notchtop illuminated by the rising sun.


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This was also my first outing with my new F-stop Tilopa BC pack which I highly recommend. On to the photos! The following two I showed before but only as a quick comparison.

This is a few minutes before sunrise. Imagine the clouds flying by at very high speed because of the high wind and a blisteringly cold wind flowing over the frozen lake. I really like the composition of this with the rocks and structures in the ice which mirror in the mountain and in the clouds.


Blueness. Buy a print.
Technical data: high resolution image assembled from 9 images from Nikon D300, 18-55mm at 24 mm, f/16, 2.0s, ISO 200.
Here is a slightly different viewpoint done as a single image instead of a high resolution composite that you might find interesting.

These assembled images I create will easily print 8 feet high with impeccable detail. If you're interested in such prints contact me as they take some special care to do right. The standard sizes that my site offers will print gorgeous as is straight from my website.

Just a few minutes later the sun had come up revealing this:


The moment. Buy a print.
Technical data: high resolution image assembled from 9 images from Nikon D300, 18-55mm at 24 mm, f/16, 1/8s, ISO 200.

As you can see from the much 4 stops faster shutter, the intensity of this light is quite a difference bathing the entire scene in warm light.

I stayed around for a little longer finding different viewpoints such as this:

Head in the clouds. Buy a print.
Technical data: high resolution image assembled from 9 images from Nikon D300, 18-55mm at 24 mm, f/16, 1/13s, ISO 200.

and this:

I wonder. Buy a print.
Technical data: high resolution image assembled from 9 images from Nikon D300, 18-55mm at 24 mm, f/16, 1/13s, ISO 200.

At this point, I could hardly move my fingers anymore and I really had to get out of the wind. I haven't found a really good solution yet for gloves that allow me to control the camera but still keep my fingers warm.


This was truly an extraordinary morning. Hope you enjoy the images.

Fiery vision

This is Notchtop in Rocky Mountain National Park in the clouds about an hour after sunrise.


Contrasts. Buy a print.
Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm at 16mm, f/8.0, 1/250s
Same image on flickr. Google+ post.

As people who have been on this trail in winter know, the wind can get very strong here. This was indeed one of those moments. From the image you would hardly know I took this image in gale-force winds and I was quite cold and actually shivering, but couldn't let this scene pass by without taking it to the plate.

It turns out I took this image in the exact same spot I shot another image at sunset a few weeks earlier. I posted it before, but I'll repeat it here so you can compare.


Fire over Notchtop. Buy a print.
Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm at 13mm, f/8.0, 1/20s

What a difference a few weeks makes!

Fifteen minutes

I haven't had time to do much with my images from Sunday morning yet (let alone the gigantic backlog of images that I think need to be shown off), but I wanted to share the below juxtaposition. The two images are both composites of 9 images each. The two sets were taken 15 minutes apart. The left one about 13 minutes before sunrise, and the right one about a minute or two after that. The difference in mood and color is very large as I am sure I don't have to tell you. I always love the light just before sunrise. A minute later after the second image the sunrise light got even more intense as I already showed yesterday. the Click the image to see the comparison larger. The mountain is Notchtop mountain and the frozen lake is called Lake Helene. The lake is reached after a 3.2 miles hike from Bear Lake trailhead. Normally that is an easy hike (moderate in the guide books) but at night in the blowing snow and with a disappearing trail because of that, that is a little more challenging. More about that later.

Because of the format of this blog, I can only include a small image inline here, so you should really click to scale it up to a nicer size.

Click for bigger. Not posted online for sale yet, but will be soon - I promise.

A Notchtop Morning

I was out at Lake Helene yesterday morning and it was just absolutely spectacular if not very cold and quite deep in the snow (I had not expected to need snowshoes so I was sinking deep at every step). I am still going through the images but I quickly wanted to already share this image with you. It shows Notchtop mountain at the moment of sunrise but covered with a blanket of clouds. The wind was so fierce that these clouds were puffing around really quickly almost as if I was looking at a timelapse video but happening in real life. Quite neat.


A Notchtop morning. Buy a print.
Tech info. Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-55mmf/3.5-5..6 at 24mm. f/16, 1/13s. Raw image developed in Lightroom.
Same image on Flickr. Relevant Google+ post.