San Juan Mountains, 2016
Tuesday, September 27
We drove from home to Ouray, CO, where we checked into our photo workshop's motel. We connected with the rest of the group before dinner and an early evening.
Wednesday, September 28
I was up bright and early to meet the group for a pre-dawn shoot at Crystal Lake, south of town a little ways. Carl slept in and did his own thing during the day.
We arrived at Crystal Lake before dawn and set up in the twilight that precedes sunrise. We'd wind up spending a good portion of the morning here.
These three photos were taken in the pre-dawn light. The photo on the left shows Red Mountain #1 (with snow) and some of the aspens on the hills surrounding Crystal Lake. The center photo shows a grove of aspens near where we were shooting. The photo on the right is another stand of aspen across the road from us.
These three were also taken before the sun made an appearance. The photo on the left shows some aspens with a trail leading off to parts unknown. The center photo is another grove of aspens emphasizing the vertical lines of the trunks. The photo on the right shows aspens (and a couple of photographers) reflected in Crystal Lake.
The sun finally made its appearance. The center photo shows the sun just starting to highlight Red Mountain #1 with aspen and reflected aspen below it. The photo on the left shows Red Mountain #1 and Red Mountain #3 and a hillside of glowing aspen reflected in the calm waters of Crystal Lake. The photo on the right shows some aspen along the edge of the lake and their reflections.
Then it was back to town for breakfast.
After lunch, we met in the meeting room for a quick lecture.
Later in the afternoon, we drove over to the Dallas Divide, north of town, to shoot the aspens against the Sneffels Range and, hopefully, a decent sunset.
These three photos show some of the moods of this overlook, as the clouds moved around and the light changed on the various stands of aspens.
These three photos are taken from the same overlook. The one on the left is looking more towards Dallas Divide itself and emphasizes the storm clouds high above us. The other two feature the Sneffels Range.
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This is another photo of the aspens and the Sneffels Range from the Dallas Divide overlook. The clouds looked very nice, but this is the closest thing we were to get to a sunset shot this evening.
So, we packed everything back up and returned to town for a very late dinner. Then it was off to bed as tomorrow begins very early again.
Thursday, September 29
Up before dawn again and out, heading north of town again. Our original destination was County Road 7, but the leaders spotted some interesting activity in the clouds overhead, so we wound up at Dallas Divide again, this time for the sunrise.
And the view was worth the detour. These three shots show what a gorgeous sunrise we had.
And a lot of other people thought the sky would be pretty. This photo shows about half the crowd that lined the fence at the edge of the parking lot...
Our car loaded up before the others and headed back for breakfast. We managed to get seated before everyone else - the place was almost empty when we arrived. It didn't take long for some of this large crowd to converge on the same breakfast place - one of only two in the nearest small town.
For some reason, the management decided the rest of our group wanted to all eat together, despite being told that they would like to be seated in smaller segments as tables opened up. They were still waiting for tables when our carload finished eating.
After breakfast, we headed for County Road 7. Since our carload had finished breakfast really early, we took off for the site that had been described to us and wound up on County Road 7A because the directions were confusing... We didn't stay long. The rainclouds had pulled in and it sprinkled on us.
After lunch and another quick lecture, we headed south of town again. We were headed for Ironton Township, but got waylaid by an interesting waterfall near the turn-off for Engineer Pass.
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These four photos show some portions of this waterfall on the Uncompahgre River.
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Finally made it to Ironton and shot there for a while before it started raining on us. Because of the inclement weather and really white skies, this was about the only photo I liked from this stop. It's a composite shot from inside one of the abandoned buildings that had a window looking out at the aspen forest.
So much for an evening shoot. We wound up calling it an early evening.
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Friday, September 30
We started a little later this morning, heading for County Road 5. We spend some time at a couple of different locations there before heading back for lunch.
One of our stops along County Road 5 was near this split rail fence. The road continued on around the corner and the combination was also a good shot.
I got a kick today out of shooting photos of various aspen boles with the yellow colors behind them. These are some of the ones I took.
These photos are also from County Road 5. The photo on the left shows the view across the valley towards the cloud shrouded Sheffels Range. The center photo shows the towering storm clouds over a stand of aspen. The photo on the right shows another section of County Road 5 with a different section of split rail fence.
Still on County Road 5. The photo on the left shows another stand of aspen with a split rail fence. The second photo shows some aspen with Mt. Sneffels peeking through the clouds. The third photo shows the view across the valley with aspens and other autumn foliage and the Sneffels Range trying to poke through the clouds. The photo on the right is an abstract shot of some aspen trees using a panning technique to smear the colors.
One final shot from County Road 5. This photo shows a typical stand of aspen in all its glory.
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We finally wrapped up our shooting here for today and headed back to town for lunch and a short rest.
Late in the afternoon, we headed for Owl Creek Pass. There we stopped at two different locations, staying for sunset at the second one.
It was raining when we first stopped at Owl Creek Pass. This finally slowed and the clouds skidded across the sky. The photo on the left shows the rocky crags high above this photo stop and the valley of aspens below it. The center photo is of the same area with lower clouds - the rocky ridge wasn't even visible here. The photo on the right zooms in on some of the stands of aspen that cloaked the side of this valley.
These three photos were also taken at our first stop on this road. The photo on the left shows the clearing clouds over the rocky ridge and valley of aspens. The center photo shows the road we approached on with storm clouds in the background and a ray of light lighting up the aspens. The photo on the right shows more of the patterns of aspen stands that cloaked the hillside.
As we started to tire of this site, one of the guys brought out his drone and flew it around. Other than the annoying buzzing sound (like a really large mosquito), it was all right. That is, until he brought it down directly in the way of the people who were still finding things to pick out of the landscape. A couple of my photos have this orange insect in them.....
We finally packed up and headed on over the crest of the pass to our second location. We were told that this meadow was used in the final John Wayne scene of Rooster Cogburn, where he rides across the meadow with the reins in his mouth and guns blazing. Beats me...
We were here for quite a while and were finally rewarded with some sunset color and breaking clouds. The photo on the left is one of the few I liked from that location...
Then we made our way back down the pass to town for our final dinner. It was a very late night...
Saturday, October 1
We got another early start this morning, heading back to County Road 5, stopping at a couple of different locations - different ones from yesterday morning.
These three photos were taken in the predawn twilight. The photo on the left and the center photo show aspen with the Sneffels Range. The photo on the right has some of the aspen in the valley.
The photo on the left shows the first light of dawn touching the top of Mt. Sneffels with some aspen below it.
By the time we had gotten to the second location, the light was getting drab and I had reached my limit of taking aspen photos for this year. I was ready to go.
Then it was back to town for a quick breakfast, goodbyes, and checking out of the motel.
We drove on home.