Welcome to the world of light-chasing, where you’ll be able to escape to the high country a few times each week with a short photo essay, usually with a natural history or environmental twist. At its core, photography is all about balance, whether it’s balancing the light and the dark, or balancing elements in the photo for composition. Along with stimulating a sense of place or triggering an emotional response, a well-balanced photograph can also evoke Zen, just like a carefully tended sand garden. The process of making those images is part of my path to inner peace.
For light-chasers, the ultimate moment comes when you can actually see the light as perceptible rays bending through layers of the atmosphere. This sunrise was photographed April 2012 from Lake Hill, near Frisco, Colorado, looking east toward the Continental Divide. The prominent peaks are Grays and Torreys, both 14ers, and Grizzly, close to Arapahoe Basin Ski Area.
Good light can turn a mundane landscape along the shore of Dillon Reservoir into a mystical scene. April 2012. Normally, Dillon Reservoir is still frozen solid on this date, but the record heatwave of March 2012 thawed the reservoir on a record-early date.
Many of my photo shoots are combined with the obligatory morning dog-walk. Sometimes one of our pups gets into the frame I’m carefully composing. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Aug. 1, 2014, Tenderfoot Trail, Dillon, Colorado.
