Last Saturday on January 22nd I was able to take a trip up to Rocky Mountain National Park for an afternoon. It was a long 2 ½ hour drive, but it was definitely worth it. My goal was to hike to Sky Pond, Glass Lake, and Dream Lake. Little did I know how much hiking and time it was going to take to get to all of those places in just a few hours. I ended up just hiking to Dream Lake, which was my main point of interest for the day. It was a relatively easy 1 mile hike from the parking lot, but was very slippery from all of the snow that had just come down the night before. The whole hike was an amazing experience, from getting out into the mountains (which is always my favorite place to go for photos or to clear my head), to crossing a frozen lake, to the final destination. Ever since my older brother came back from the Navy we have shared the love of the mountains. I never really knew how nice and peaceful it was to be away from everyday life until he came back and showed me what it was like. Being able to go on this hike by myself, in a new part of the mountains that I had never been before, was a really nice change of pace when it came to exploring the mountains and the way I shoot my photography. When I came over the top of the hill I saw the mountain peaks that I’ve been waiting to see and photograph. I got more and more excited as I heard the people already there talking about their beauty. Once I got to the top I gasped. I had never seen a landscape quite as beautiful as this one. The fresh snow, frozen lake, snow covered trees and peaks was just a sight to see. I immediately started taking photos.
After staring in awe for a good 5 minutes, I started to look for better compositions, places where people weren’t in the photo, or just photos that seemed interesting. I stayed at the lake for a good hour, surprisingly only capturing photos for about 15-20 minutes. The rest of the time I just sat and stared at the beauty that was before me. It was hard to leave that scene, not even being there for nearly as long as I had wanted. However, I told myself that I would take a trip up there again soon to visit all of the destinations I had anticipated for that day. I got 3 amazing photos out of that experience (all of which are available in the shop). Finally, I was able to visit one of the places that I had been wanting to go to for a good 6 months. Though that afternoon was short, it was very, very sweet. It made me realize just how much of the world I had seen, and it made me want to go back for more and made me want to travel more. This is only the beginning of what I’d like to share with my audience. Scenery from my perspective, captured in ways I can do best. This blog is for myself and my audience to follow along as I travel to new destinations and improve my craft.
