A dry summer has let to a dry fall here in the Colorado high country. I hadn’t really thought about how much I appreciate a cloud or two in the sky until this week. For the past 10 days or so we haven’t seen a single cloud, making for some pretty boring landscape photographs. A week ago last Thursday we actually awoke to a little snow on the surrounding peaks and a clearing storm leaving us some lingering clouds and interesting light on the landscape. (click on the photo for a larger view)

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Bright stand of fall Aspens on Avery Mountain.

I spent the entire morning photographing snow-covered mountains with bright fall colors without being too excited about anything I saw. After living here for 20 plus years expectations can get pretty high! There was this patch of Aspen trees at the height of their autumn colors at the base of Avery Mountian near Gothic, Colorado though. The surrounding hillside had a mixture of conifers and Aspens in various degrees of adornment. An interesting scene that was going to need a little help from the clouds above to provide highlighting to the part of the scene that was really wonderful. I set up the camera and tripod and proceeded to wait. And wait. And wait through brief showers, some wind, some snow and jeeps splashing through the potholes in the road next to me. I watched the sky. I waited for blue patches from the southwest to find the sun and light up my grove of Aspens. While the exposure was only 1/125 th of a second, the photograph took about 45 minutes to create. There are lots of near-misses but only a couple of hits.

I really love how the clouds provided the shade on the foreground and background forest but lights up the yellow trees. As of yet this image is untitled. Finding names for images is a task I, and lots of other photographers struggle with. With this one, you can help. I would love to hear suggestions for a title for this photograph. If I choose your title you will receive the first print of this image.

Please let me know your thoughts and chime in on the discussion whether you’re offering a title or not. Our fall colors have at least another week in them on the high mountain passes so I have to go to work now. Tough job…I know! I’ll be praying for a few more clouds as the week progresses but the forecast doesn’t look too promising.

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