Drama on Hallett Peak
I’m always torn when I start pondering where to go when I have a free day and can pursue my photography. I’m never sure if I want to visit someplace new or re-visit one of the places I’ve already been (sometimes dozens and dozens of times). I think the prevailing wisdom is to seek out new places. There’s a supreme value to re-visiting older places that I feel often gets overlooked, though. Sometimes, weather, light or other conditions have changed enough that the places you thought you knew can seem like someplace you’ve never been.
Such was the case on my birthday, 2009. While I’ve been to Rocky Mountain National Park more times than I can count, I always find new personalities, for lack of a better word, to the park. On this particular day, some fresh snow and some very strong winds combined with some dramatic backlighting to give Hallett Peak a dramatic look that I’d never seen before. This was one of those cases where one need only point the camera, press the button and Mother Nature did the rest. I didn’t record my exposure here but it seems like the unofficial photographic edict, f8 and be there, applies to this shot.
In the end, I think that striking a balance between the new and the known is probably the best course of action for landscape photographers. Of course, deciding which path to pursue on any given day may still be a challenge for an indecisive soul like myself but at least I know that I can’t really go wrong with either option.