Snow-covered Mt. Sopris on a winter evening

Mt. Sopris, a few miles south of Carbondale, Colorado, dominates the landscape of the Roaring Fork valley.  Its orientation makes it especially photogenic in the evening, often glowing in the setting sun.  This winter evening, I pulled over on my way home to capture it.  The light was starting to get warm, but I was getting cold, and thus didn't stick around for the pink colors.

Snow-covered mountain landscape in both color and black & white

Colorado snow-covered landscape in both color and black & white

These two shots capture almost everything I like in a winter landscape.  They're vertical (something I prefer, but haven't been doing as much on my snowshoe outings, as the scenery just lent itself to horizontal), have the deep blue sky (no polarizer was used for this shot), and have some interesting elements in the foreground, middle ground, and background.

Colorado Winter Landscape With Mountains in Black & White

I'm so pleased with how my winter landscapes look in black and white.  While the color photos are nice, the black and white rendering seems to add more drama or impact.

The above view is one of my favorites.  I normally hike out to this point in early summer, when other trails are still muddy or snow-covered.  This is my second time snowshoeing to this overlook so far this winter.  Each time the skies are different, so the photos look different.

I'll meter for the bright clouds or mountain peaks, then compose the photo such that the tops of the mountains are about one-third below the top of the frame.  My neighborhood can be seen in this photo, and seems to be a focal point, so I place that below and to the right of the photo's center.

Snowscape in both color and black & white

Always attracted to the sensuous shapes formed by snow on the landscape, I was lucky today in that I could incorporate them into a photo of scenery, instead of shooting them alone.  To emphasize the curves, I stayed at a short distance and zoomed in more than I usually do for landscape photographs. 

Like many winter scenes, this I rendered this one in both color and black and white.  I'm unsure which I like better, so I included both of them here.