Fall Colors at Bear Lake, RMNP

[MonikaC]

We just finished 2 days of rain (I must have brought it with me from my trip....) and the forecast today for the Park was for clear skies. Really? No residual clouds after all that rain? I went ahead & went up there today as I was guessing that the trees would be right about peak. Yep, bluebird skies. I went ahead & shot anyway and when I got back out to the parking lot, there were these fantastic low, swirling clouds east of the parking lot. Not a wisp at Bear Lake. About half of the Park (as I drove out) had these great clouds.

 

[AlanLichty]

That's a really nice range of colors in this scene. Too bad the clouds didn't cooperate but the leaves carry the scene even without them.

 

[Ben Egbert]

This is really nice Monica. You could crop the sky off and still have a very nice image.

 

[JimFox]

The thing is Monika, there isn’t anything wrong with blue skies, especially with fall colors I think it might even be better then when there are clouds. You can get great backighting of the leaves to make them pop, and the blue/gold or yellow colors are prime color contrasts. So really... you couldn’t ask for better conditions...

I really like this shot, it looks super sweet.

 

[MonikaC]

That's a really nice range of colors in this scene. Too bad the clouds didn't cooperate but the leaves carry the scene even without them.

Making lemonade....

This is really nice Monica. You could crop the sky off and still have a very nice image.

I looked at framing it with no sky but it just looked truncated. Cropping out trees mid-height is tricky -- how much looks like a mistake vs taking away distractions vs.....

The thing is Monika, there isn’t anything wrong with blue skies, especially with fall colors I think it might even be better then when there are clouds. You can get great backighting of the leaves to make them pop, and the blue/gold or yellow colors are prime color contrasts. So really... you couldn’t ask for better conditions...

I really like this shot, it looks super sweet.

Yeah, I was wishing for the clouds I got last year..... I won't be back this weekend as Crested Butte looks good and a week later would see some pretty bare trees (maybe)

 

[Timmeh]

Hey Monika,

That's quite a show, and the blue of the sky contrasts really well with the fall colors. Something to take a look at is the darkness of the tree tops when compared to the ground level. I'm not sure if it was a physical grad ND or something in post-processing, but bringing up the tree tops would help it a bit.

Tim

 

[MonikaC]

Hey Monika,

That's quite a show, and the blue of the sky contrasts really well with the fall colors. Something to take a look at is the darkness of the tree tops when compared to the ground level. I'm not sure if it was a physical grad ND or something in post-processing, but bringing up the tree tops would help it a bit.

Tim

I used a GND. I'll brighten them up a bit, thanks!

 

[lionking]

What a beauty!

 

[Beth]

all of the cool tones in the sky and rocks make the trees that much more brilliant. i think it's cool how the trees go from green at the bottom and gradually change to bright yellow and then orange.

 

[JohnC]

Very nice Monika. I have found that sometimes a blue sky can be better than a cloudy sky. IMO, this is one of those times because the sky complements the other colors so well. Clouds would make the sky to busy IMO. (My avatar shot is another example where I was very happy not to have any clouds in the sky.)

 

[Douglas Sherman]

We just finished 2 days of rain (I must have brought it with me from my trip....) and the forecast today for the Park was for clear skies. Really? No residual clouds after all that rain? I went ahead & went up there today as I was guessing that the trees would be right about peak. Yep, bluebird skies. I went ahead & shot anyway and when I got back out to the parking lot, there were these fantastic low, swirling clouds east of the parking lot. Not a wisp at Bear Lake. About half of the Park (as I drove out) had these great clouds.
View attachment 22053

Looks pretty good to me, Monika.