9:00 p.m. isn’t the time most people think of heading out to get photos. Let alone, standing on top of a mountain in pitch darkness, excess wind speeds of 40mph, and blowing snow. Despite the adverse weather, some of my friends from Collegian.com and I decided to venture out to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) to get a few photos.
We set off from Fort Collins around 9:00 p.m. and arrived at the Bear Lake area within RMNP around 10:30. We knew that the weather was not ideal as a cold front just passed through the area, delivered fresh snow, freezing temperatures, and the weather forecast suggested an excess of 50mph winds around 12,000 ft. As we entered the RMNP and made our way to Bear Lake, we could see the conditions worsening as we climbed from 7,500 ft. to 10,500 ft. When we arrived to the lake, we sat in the empty parking lot and organized all of our gear as gusts of wind pounded the car.
Even though Bear Lake is only about 50 yards from the parking lot, treading the through deep snowdrifts is not an easy task without the proper equipment. When we got to the lake, snow and ice pelted us as we tried to set up our tripods. As we fought the driving wind, we managed to get a couple of shots.
The group getting some photos near Beaver Meadows after we left Bear Lake
As an aside, this area is relatively easy to photograph at night. If you have a wide enough lens (less than 20mm on a full frame camera), can crank your ISO up to 3200 or 6400, and take a 30 second exposure, you will get a nicely exposed sky. What makes this area easy is that the light pollution from nearby Estes Park, illuminates the foreground so you are able to capture the peaks of the mountains in a single exposure. (By the way, a full tutorial on this will come later)
After we about 20 minutes on the lake, we decided to head down, because we could only take so much of the weather conditions. We decided to head to lower elevations and get some more shots. After we made it back to Fort Collins, it was pretty cool to view some of the images. It wasn’t until I was in my apartment that I realized what conditions we where in. We in the cold with blustery winds, and nobody else was there. It seemed sort of crazy at first, but since nobody else was there, we were able to get shots that nobody else would get.
A few of my other night photos from the Northern Colorado Area.
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