Disappearing Mountains

An infected bug bite has kept me from doing what I like doing for a couple of weeks, but it's healing now, and I look forward to many photo hikes.

This photo was shot on my way to work this morning.  Overnight rain and high humidity (for us) is making fog and low clouds that are great for landscape photography.

That's Chair Mountain shrouded in clouds, as seen from Highway 133.

Mt. Sopris, Carbondale, Colorado

Mt. Sopris is just a few dozen feet shy of 13,000 feet.  It can be seen from much of the Roaring Fork valley, and is admired for it's beautiful shape and the way it stands alone, almost like a sentinel guarding the Crystal River valley.

Depending on the season, weather, and time of day, Sopris can have many moods.  It's almost always very photogenic.  On this particular afternoon, the humidity of monsoon season was creating some very dramatic clouds.  With just enough sunlight hitting the northwest slope of the mountain, I had to pull over and take a few shots.

Rain

It's been very rainy here for the last week.  We've had showers and thundershowers every afternoon or evening.  While this makes landscape photography a challenge (if not an impossibility), it does create some great opportunities for other nature photography.

The flat light is great for close-ups of plants, most of which have rain drops, which always has an interesting visual appeal.

When shooting this close, you're going to have very limited depth of field.  I recommend taking many shots of each leaf and flower, and looking over the on the computer to see which ones you like best.  I also believe you should crop much of the scene away, leaving the colors, textures, and contrast of the items that drew your attention in the first place.

As always, avoid centering.  Try to place the most interesting part of your image off-center.