Blue January

Sunrise illuminates the frozen tips of the aspen trees of Beaver Meadows on a snowy morning last week in Rocky Mountain National Park. Photographing winter scenes this year in Rocky has been difficult but hopefully that changes soon enough and more landscapes like this one present themselves. Technical Details: Nikon Z8, Nikkor 100-400mm F4-5.6 S VR Lens

Winter finally made an appearance this past week in Rocky. We finally had some colder temperatures and even some snow to cover the ground. Winds have continued to remain a nuisance though, and lucking out on a ‘calm’ morning sunrise has been tricky.

Frankly, there has not been much in the way of opportunities to photograph the past few months. I’m always itching to get out in the field and shoot and a bad day in Rocky Mountain National Park is better than a good day pretty much anywhere on the planet so it never hurts to visit the park to see what opportunities may present themselves.

I love the warm and cool hues the blue winter light presents on the landscape of Rocky Mountain National Park in January. Combine that with the warm red branches of winter willows and you get some nice contrasting color in a landscape where that can be a challenge mid winter. Technical Details” Nikon Z8, Nikkor 100-400mm F4-5.6 S VR Lens

With about 2 inches of light snow and some frost and glaze on some of the trees, the willows, aspens and pines caught my eye just inside the park boundary in Beaver Meadows. Frosted barre aspen trees with snow covered Ponderosa Pines as a backdrop caught my eye just as the sun we lighting the crystalline aspen trees in the foreground. Finding color this time of year can be difficult but the combination of warm and cool hues made for some interesting compositions.

The winter willows mixed in with the aspen trees of Beaver Meadow add some nice contrast and color the otherwise cool blue scenes of mid winter. As we start to make our way into mid winter here in RMNP, lets hope we have lots of upcoming opportunities for snow and winter landscapes as its been a sparse season so far.