As I keep this blog lively and updated regarding the current conditions in Rocky Mountain National Park, I try to get out in the field as often as possible to photograph Rocky in all conditions in seasons. Scrolling through the past handful of updates on this blog, one could skim through the images posted and think many of these images where all shot on the same morning or during the same sunrise. As a matter of fact, I had this same thought earlier this week while scrolling through my recent image catalog.
The fact of the matter is, since about November we have had very mild, dry and windy conditions many mornings in RMNP. Very little snow, no real discernible snow storms that produced magical conditions for landscape photography the following morning and colorful sunrises with lenticular clouds, caused by our high winds creating all the action in the sky facing eastward towards the high plains as opposed to directly over the high peaks of the Continental Divide.
My motto with regards to photographing Rocky is to photograph in favor of the conditions, not against. So while I may head up to the park hoping to capture a beautiful sunrise over the Hallett or Longs Peak, Mother Nature may have other ideas in store such as a brilliant sunrise over the eastern portion of the park with rolling foothills in foreground. This season there has been a lot of adjusting to the conditions and going with Mother Nature doles out as opposed to fighting it.
As a result of Mother Natures decree, many of the landscape images in Rocky this season have been of beautifully colorful sunrises to the east with a snowless landscape as the foreground. It is what it is and its best to go with the flow but I’m really looking forward to a little change and hopefully some late season snowstorms that present some dynamic landscape and lighting conditions moving forward. While the longterm forecast for Rocky Mountain National Park shows more warm, windy and dry conditions ahead, I have to believe there will be opportunities ahead for things to stop looking all the same this year.