Colorado Captures

I did an early return trip to Crested Butte this year to take advantage of the flowers in the lower valleys. I’m not sure anything says Colorado quite like wildflowers and mountain peaks and I found spots that looked just outstanding!

Crested Butte In Bloom

As this area was one of the reasons for my return to the Butte, it sure was great to see everything come together. Cloudless western skies with a few clouds floating over Mount Crested Butte was just perfect. It sure made up for the dud of a sunset the night before anyway… And with Lupines looking gorgeous (and relatively light winds), the scene was incredible!

This image was taken with the last light of the day hitting Mount Crested Butte from Washington Gulch near the town of Crested Butte, Colorado.

Having been to Crested Butte for a wildflower festival before, I learned that the flowers look their best for a relatively short period of time. In general though, they peak in the lower valleys first and then work their way up to the alpine tundra above timberline – making the season feel a little longer. So in early July, I headed back to see if the lower valleys were really filled with wildflowers… besides, Crested Butte is the wildflower capital, isn’t it?

In some areas, it was still clearly early. But in others, I could tell my timing was perfect. Columbine and Lupine looked perfectly healthy with more of them than I’d ever seen. And with knowledge of a few key locations and some patience, I scored some great conditions in Washington Gulch. The combination of purple Lupines and warm alpenglow on Mount Crested Butte with glowing clouds above felt like ideal components for a painting, a picture, or even a mental image. Either way, it was sure a wonderful scene!

And to make it even better, I was on a quest to make the most of my gradient neutral density filters. And let me tell you, they rocked!! I never would have been able to get results like this (with flowers in the foreground that sharp) with HDR processing. And to me, the color looks really natural straight-out-of-the-camera. So far, I’m really liking this filtered approach. I hope you like the results as well.

Wildflower Watercolor
I picked up a cool post-processing tool called Topaz Simplify a while back. I hadn’t used it yet because I was waiting for just the right image to come along. Well, with the incredible conditions and wonderful colors that came out of a recent sunset in Crested Butte, I thought this might be a good chance to give it a whirl…

Sure enough, I was very impressed!

By the way, no HDR here. I was able to balance out the exposure by using both of my gradient neutral density filters. This image was taken with the last light of the day hitting Mount Crested Butte from Washington Gulch near the town of Crested Butte, Colorado.