Historic Beckiwth Ranch Panorama

Historic Beckwith Ranch PanoramaThe historic Beckwith Ranch in morning light with snow-covered Sangre de Christo Mountains in the distance bathed in morning light.

A few days ago I passed by the Historic Beckwith Ranch near Westcliffe, Colorado. I drive by this site a couple of times every year on my way to Oklahoma to visit family. For my past 20 or 30 visits, there has always been a problem with creating a photograph. Either there was a construction vehicle in the drive, the sky was overcast, there was road construction, etc. There was always something to quell the excitement of getting photos of this iconic landmark.

But Tuesday was different. There were no vehicles. There was fresh snow on the Sangre de Christos. There was a perfectly Colorado Blue sky. There was no horrible traffic. The grass was green and not brown.

So, I pulled off the highway to capture a few photos. 

The first thing one notices about the site is the huge contrast between the white buildings and the landscape. White buildings are a bonus since our eyes are naturally drawn to the brighter, more contrasty parts of a scene. The second thing one notices is that the subjects on the site create a long, skinny, horizontal line across the foreground. The scene seems to demand a panoramic approach. Once you start thinking about the majestic Sangre de Christo Range in the distance with a topping of fresh snow, the decision seems to be made before you even set up a tripod. 

I set up my bomber Really Right Stuff tripod because I use it for every landscape photo, and it was also extremely windy last Tuesday. I also used an RRS panorama rig to keep the camera level as I made several photographs that I would eventually stitch together to form the panorama. Finding a place to physically set up the tripod was a challenge since the roadway has no shoulders and the land slopes down toward the ranch fairly steeply. Also, avoiding the fence and the power lines between me and my subject was pretty challenging. But I did find a spot that included a bonus tree on the left side of the frame. The exposure was simple. ISO 100, 1/100 second at f16 using the "sunny 16 rule" I learned in college shooting film. I made 4 panoramas using different focal lengths to give me some options when I put the images together and this is my favorite of the 4. The fence does not encroach the image. There's just enough sky to give the mountains a little breathing room. And, the power lines do not show. My camera was my trusty Nikon D850, and the lens was the 24-120mm f4 by Nikon. 

It only took 20 years to get the photo from my mind into the camera but I think it was worth the effort. I hope you do too!