East Meadow And Mount Craig

Being a morning person and all I just could not accept the fact that photographing East Meadow and Mount Craig is an afternoon only image. I had envisioned photographing this location in conditions such as these for sometime. I finally managed to get all the conditions working in my favor and came away with this sunrise image. Technical Details: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 24mm TS-E F3.5 L II
Being a morning person and all I just could not accept the fact that photographing East Meadow and Mount Craig is an afternoon only image. I had envisioned photographing this location in conditions such as these for sometime. I finally managed to get all the conditions working in my favor and came away with this sunrise image. Technical Details: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 24mm TS-E F3.5 L II
I’m a morning person. Most of the time, I’ll wake up before my alarm goes off, even if it’s set for 2:00 AM. I’m energized, refreshed and ready to go when I wake up. People who like to sleep in become easily annoyed by my morning routine, just ask my wife.

The opposite holds true for me in the afternoon’s and evenings. By early evening the battery’s are running low and need a recharge. Getting up early means I have no qualms about going to bed early.

My morning routine suits my photography just fine here on the Front Range of Colorado. I’ve conditioned myself to be ready to go early and often. That works great for photographing sunrises on the eastern facing peaks that catch the first brilliant light of the day. The problem is, my ‘routine’ is not as favorable for those images that require one to be in a location at sunset or late in the day.

Case in point, the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park. I’ll admit, much of my portfolio of Rocky Mountain National Park is focused on the east side of the park. There are many reasons for this. It’s closer to home, the lighting is often more favorable, access is better, the density of photographic locations is much closer and the weather tends to work in your favor more in the morning.

This of course is nearly the opposite of what is required to photograph the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park. Access is more limited on the west side of the park and the distances required to get to many of the alpine locations which are often more accessible on the east side are much greater.

I’m trying to make it a point to get out and photograph the west side of Rocky as much as I can. I love the west side of the park. It has a vibe and a feel of wildness and isolation that many of the locations on the east side of Rocky Mountain National Park do not.

So in taking to my promise to spend more time photographing the west side of Rocky, I spent the last few days on the other side of the divide. There has been a particular image and location I’ve wanted to shoot for sometime. East Inlet flowing through East Meadow with Mount Craig (or Baldy) rising above the valley.

Of course I photographed this location not in the afternoon when the sun sets of the peaks on the west side of Rocky, but in the morning. Hey, I’m not complaining.