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Colorado

Colorado is a state located in the western region of the United States, known for its stunning natural beauty and diverse landscapes. From the towering peaks of the Rocky Mountains to the vast plains and deserts, Colorado offers a wealth of photography opportunities for both amateur and professional photographers. Some of the most popular photography locations in Colorado include Rocky Mountain National Park, Maroon Bells, Garden of the Gods, Great Sand Dunes National Park, and Mesa Verde National Park.

Photography of Colorado

The pine stays green in winter, wisdom in hardship
Maroon Bells
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Norman Douglas.

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After our stint at Ridgway, CO we moved onto our next stop which was in Aspen. And on our first day we went to the beautiful Maroon Bells view. We definitely were late for the season and only had a sliver of yellow let in the aspens but we got to see one of the most beautiful sunrises and got crystal clear reflection in the alpine lake.

In my brief time travelling I have found certain places that just stay with you and keep on beckoning you back to get that perfect shot which could very well happen if all the condition align. The moment I was here I knew that this was one of those places and I could see myself coming back again and again searching for that perfect shot. As for now I am pretty happy with my first attempt.

It is written on the arched sky; it looks out from every star. It is the poetry of Nature; it is that which uplifts the spirit within us…
Maroon Bells
by Sandeep Thomas
  • John Ruskin.

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Another shot I took at the stunning maroon bells view point at Aspen, CO. This shot was made from a short hike to the left from the main viewpoint. There are some fallen trees here along with a very muddy coastline. So not many people ventured here, plus we had almost perfectly still water and gorgeous color that morning so I think most photogs were really content with what they got.

So I decided to ignore my wife’s cold weather protests and decided to see if I could get a better angle from here. The sun had risen up a bit so the light was strong but I was still getting some colors in the mountain tips.

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing…
Crystal Mill
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Salvador Dali.

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Today's photo is one of the most iconic scenes of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. This is the famous Crystal Mill which also goes by the name Old Mill and is an abandoned wooden power mill built in 1892. The mill is located on an outcrop over a waterfall on the Crystal River. As fall peaks, this mill provides visiting photographers with one of the most iconic scenes of America’s western mountains.

While this is a famous location and we visited during the popular fall season, due to the remoteness of the location we were actually the only people here for about 2 hours and on our way back we met another couple who were hiking to the mill. So, its safe to say that it's not a tourist haunt like the Maroon Bells. By the time we reached the mills, the sun was out in full force but thanks to the location being in a Canyon and this being Colorado, there was no shortage of clouds that came in to block out the sun so that I could make my long exposure shot of the waterfall.

Technically this was a challenging location to shoot as being an iconic location finding unique compositions I almost an impossible task. Another difficulty is caused by the fact that the owner of the property has installed fences to discourage people from taking shots by the edge of the cliffs making limiting many compositions. Then comes the need to prioritize the various aspects in the scene regarding lighting, generally fall colors look better under diffused lighting while waterfall look better in the shade and dark wooden structures don’t look good in shade. So, I had to wait for the correct lighting and manage the rest with my filters. As you can see even after my best efforts, the mill is still in its own shadows which were something that I could not avoid due to the time of the day. But I paid special attention not to overblow the waterfall and still get good light on the fall colors.

I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them…
The world is always in movement...
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Diane Arbus.

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There have been countless occasions while we were on trips, we will drive /hike up to a spectacular location known for its fantastic vistas and find the absolute worst conditions. When I started in photography, these events were a significant cause of frustration for me. Frustration often led m to leave the site without taking any images. Later I learned to adjust my expectations based on the conditions available. But I believe another equally valuable lesson that will help to manage miserable conditions. No matter the conditions, you should stick it out until all possibilities of creating an image are gone. Now, if the conditions pose a danger to your physical safety, then leave. But otherwise, stick it out and try to enjoy your time. Countless times I have seen fellow photogs pack up and go only for the conditions to improve minutes later.

Our trip to the Buck Mesa outlook point in Colorado was one such occasion. The drive to get here was one of the muddiest roads I have had to navigate in the US. So I was disappointed when the valley seemed to be filled with clouds as sunset neared. My initial instinct was to leave, but my wife convinced me to stick around. As we approached evening, intense side light started to peek through the cloud cover and illuminate the mountainside. The contrast between the grey clouds and the beautiful warm light at a location like this created many image opportunities.

I believe that if one always looked at the skies, one would end up with wings…
Trout Lake
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Gustave Flaubert.

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This was one of our first photo opportunity on our trip to Colorado, it’s also my favorite. We had initially thought that we will miss sunset on the second day as we will only reach Telluride around dinner time and by then the Sun would have gone behind the horizon. But just as sunset colors were lighting up the sky we rounded a corner and came across this view of the beautiful Trout Lake and these massive mountains standing guard.

This shot is pure luck as I was not aware of anything like this existing before I actually saw this scene happening right in front of me. The mountains have some red tinged rocks and when the warm sunlight fell on them it was like pure magic. I am glad Colorado decided to welcome us with such a spectacular sight on our first day.

Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley…
Maroon Bells from distance
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Theodore Roethke

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I took this shot a couple of years ago during our road trip to Colorado. The purpose of the trip was to properly enjoy colors of proper fall foliage. One of the spots we decided as a must have for the trip was to see the sunrise at the iconic location of Maroon Bells. These 14k ft mountain peaks provide a perfect reflection on the Maroon Lake and provide photographers with a perfect sunrise photo opportunity.

While I love a classic spot like the Maroon Bells, but a better challenge, at least for me, is to find an interesting composition that’s different from the iconic photo. I found this spot near the Maroon bells location and what attracted me to the composition was the interesting diagonal lines present naturally in the frame. Fall was pretty much over at this location by the time we reached but there were still some colors left on the aspens near the ridge. While we are all waiting for the new year and an exciting 2019 I hope everyone finds the path to conquer their mountains.

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed...
Courthouse and Chimney rock
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Francis Bacon.

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Another shot from county road 8near Ridgway, Colorado. This was one of the most spectacular vistas I have ever seen with almost a 270 degree views of mountain and ridges and valleys. Plus we were there just past the fall peak on chilly autumn sunset lighting up Chimney rock formation.

This is a panorama stitch made of about 8 images just before sunset with Colorado’s spectacular yellow fall foliage in the foreground.

It's easier to resist at the beginning than at the end…
Maroon Bells from distance
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Leonardo da Vinci.

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I took his shot while we were heading back to town from the spectacular maroon bells view point. I had eyed this small snowmelt puddle for its reflection potential earlier, but due to the darkness couldn’t really figure out the complete view. On our way back I could see the maroon bells reflected on the car’s side view mirror and decided to stop and head to the small pond for a reflection shot since we had almost now wind.

The scene at the pond was one of the most challenging dynamic range shot. I had to use a 3 stop ND grad filter and combine a 5 image hdr to get some detail in the sky and foreground. I would have liked a bit more detail to the left side of the image but this was the best I could do and get a natural balanced look.

The soul that is within me no man can degrade…
Last Dollar road
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Frederick Douglass.

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Somewhere along the Last Dollar road, we chanced upon this Aspen Groves that still had a bit of color in them. We had planned to get to New England as our fall trip for 2017 but a wedding and some work commitments through our plans out the window. So I am reliving our last year’s fall trip will be posting some of the images I initially didn’t post here.

Hopefully this winter we will get to venture to some northern Cali coastlines and maybe explore Yosemite with some snow on the ground.

We gain the strength of the temptation we resist…
CO-62
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson.

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From a travel or photography perspective, I don’t have much luck with the fall season. Every year my wife and I plan trips for the fall and almost every year without fail something or other will happen that will render our plans useless. One exception to this string of badluck happened in 2016, I was about to start a new job and I managed to negotiate a delayed start to my new job enabling us to free up a week and tour some of the fantastic fall hotspots of Colorado.

While we didn’t time our trip perfectly, we managed to have a fantastic trip and see some of the best mountain scenery in North America along with some amazing fall colors. This shot is a panorama shot taken aong a highway that croses the spectacular San Juan Mountains near Ridgway, CO.

There are no lines in nature, only areas of colour, one against another…
Last Dollar Road
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Edouard Manet.

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Last dollar road near Telluride, Colorado has to be one of the most strikingly scenic roads in the western United States. Certain parts of the road were dicey even though it hadn’t rained in a while and there were a couple of locations where I seriously questioned the sanity of my decision but with roadside vistas like this one I seriously wouldn’t complain.

We started from highway 62 so the initial part of our drive was pretty tame but as the road started climbing and started to twist around superlative views awaited us as if to tempt us away from abandoning the trip. Hope you all enjoy this shot as much as we had enjoyed taking it.

I am prepared for the worst, but hope for the best...
Last Dollar Road
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Benjamin Disraeli.

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Another classic shot of fall foliage from Colorado. This location is basically on the last dollar road close to Telluride. It's pretty easy to reach if you start from telluride as it's at the beginning of the road and is located adjacent to the paved section of the road. So obviously we started at the other end and drove through the magnificent Last Dollar road to reach here. We were at least a week past the peak foliage season but the views were still spectacular.

The world is always in movement…
Waterfall
by Sandeep Thomas

V. S. Naipaul.

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Saw this cool little waterfall as we were driving back from Ouray, CO. The water flowing had a brilliant yellow color to it and there didn’t seem to be any signs of a flood. Moreover, we noticed that the water was discoloring the rocks that came in contact. We were really curious about what was giving the water the yellow color and later while stopping to take a shot of another mountain came across some local kids who explained why the water was so yellow. Basically, the water comes from snow melt of the nearby mountains which are highly rich in various minerals, these minerals then dissolve in water and gives it the brilliant yellow color.

It was beautiful to watch and we got so mesmerized by the color that we forgot all about our destination the bear creek falls. All in all, it turned out great that we got to see a beautiful and unique waterfall.

The head never rules the heart, but just becomes its partner in crime...
Mount Sopris
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Mignon McLaughlin.

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Mount Sopris was one of the most impressive sights I have seen in Colorado and that’s saying something when you consider how many impressive mountains are there in the state. We were staying at Snowmass so the drive was pretty long to get to this location by sunrise. The view from the parking lot was pretty stunning especially after the recent rains which had left some decent sized puddles. During the early morning time we had perfectly still water and great reflections.

People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy...
CO-62
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Anton Chekhov.

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This one is a favorite shot of mine from Ridgway, Colorado. before we did this road trip, I didn't even know the existence of this little town but when I started mapping out the places I want to cover before our trip about half the locations were around Ridgway. and when we were looking for a hotel we were surprised how few choices we had considering its central location. However, I did manage to convince my very skeptical wife that this was indeed a good location and so off we went to a small town in Colorado which we have never even heard of before.

We took a gamble and boy did it pay off, Ridgway is a surrounded by spectacular scenery of the San Juan mountains and autumn just provides a sprinkle of colors to make it that much more spectacular. I made this shot by stopping just by the roadside. No major detour or hiking was involved just the standard point and shoot. Nothing technically complex either just used a polarizing filter and picked an early morning to take this shot. That's all of my efforts, but the location just is spectacular, there is no need for much more.

Life elevated
Welcome to Utah
by David ruiz luna

A picture on route visiting different parks of West of United States

We began in Montana with Yellowstone National Park and we visited 17 national parks, crossed 7 states and drove more than 7500 km until to arrive at San Francisco. It was a great experience and a fabulous trip.

Utah, Interstate 70, USA September, 2016

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Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me…
Last Dollar Road
by Sandeep Thomas

– Sigmund Freud.

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I took this shot during a trip to Colorado couple of years ago. Our plan for this trip was to hit the fall color hot spots of western Colorado. It took us two days of driving to get to Colorado from southern California and we didn’t see much fall color on our drive up to Ridgway, our first basecamp. But we decided to stick with the plan and woke up super early to explore one of the country roads that criss-cross rolling hills around the San Juan mountains. We were pleasantly surprised to see a lot of aspens and birches with some brilliant yellow color to the backdrop of mighty snow-capped mountains.

At Ridgway, we heard a lot about the Last Dollar Road which connects the San Juan Skyway to Highway 145. I have learned that in California, if you ask the locals about your chances with a stock Subaru Outback on a local 4x4 road they will err on the side of caution with their recommendation but the locals we met at Ridgway was all encouraging about our chances of successfully completing the trip. I was a bit skeptical as our car still had road tires and it rained the day before. But we decided to try our luck and headed out well before the golden hour so we could call for help if we get stuck. The scenery alongside this road is quite otherworldly and is a nature photographers dream. The terrain was wet and muddy but our car was able to handle the rough terrain and we were back at Ridgway in no time.

You must do the things you think you cannot do...
Ragged edge
by Sandeep Thomas

As a child who grew up in the lush Sahyadri Mountains of India, I believed that deserts looked like the sand dunes that I saw on tv. So, it was a bit jarring to learn that sand dunes exist in relatively green states like Colorado and Michigan. While I haven't yet visited Michigan's famous sand dunes, I took the chance to visit the great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve of Colorado. Unfortunately, it had to be a quick visit as we were rapidly falling behind schedule.

Still, we got to visit an absolute stunning piece of landscape with perfect golden light from the setting sun. While I have been to the mesquite dunes of the Death Valley National Park before, GSDNP was something else. The Size of the dunes was truly staggering, wind an ever-present element at most dunes was also making its presence felt. I was trying to create images that captured these three elements that was on display that day, the play of golden light on the folds of the dunes, the effect of the wind on the dunes, and the size of the mighty dunes making the few climbers by the horizon looks like ants. It was difficult to get all these into a frame and I am not sure if I did a convincing enough job creating picture but this view was one of my favorites from our visit to this wonderful part of the world.

Nothing endures but change…
Great Sand Dunes
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Heraclitus.

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When we planned our trip to Colorado, one of the places I absolutely wanted to see was the great Sand Dunes national park. The existence of sand dunes in the middle of such a mountainous state really piques my curiosity. So we sacrificed a couple of nice fall photo ops and decided to do a detour to include the great Sand Dunes and Black canyon of the Gunnison National Parks. It still left us with about 8 hours of back and forth driving away from our original plan to get to this stunning location.

This was one of the first shots I took as we were nearing the park from the access road. I saw this amazing cloud formation above the dunes and the massive Sangre de Cristo Range that rises right behind the stunning dunes. Even though this little side excursion kind of wiped us out, I am so glad we did it and can’t wait to come back.

Follow your own star!
Mount Sopris
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Dante Alighieri.

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Mt Sopris, a gentle sloping twin peak mountain, barely misses out being a Thirteener and in a state full of Fourteeners, that sounds pretty underwhelming on paper. But this mountain redeems some of the specs it lost on paper when fall comes around and becomes the star attraction of the Elk Mountains. There is a classic viewpoint of the mountain atop a hill nearby and while we were coming back we noticed this beautiful scene just by the roadside. From here we had a better view of the morning sun illuminating the sides of the mountain.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts...
Crystal Mill
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Winston Churchill.

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The last day on our stay at Ridgway we decided to visit the cool little town of Marble and take a jeep tour to one of the most famous landmarks of Colorado, the Crystal Mill. The trip is about 4 miles drive through a bone jarring mountain road. It takes almost 1 hour to cover the four miles and get to the mill but it's totally worth it.

This shot is a 4 shot panorama with an 18mm lens and a Singh-Ray warming polarizer. It was quite challenging to maintain the horizon on level while perched on a ledge. Hopefully I can return here when fall is in full swing again.

You are remembered for the rules you break…
Courthouse and Chimney rock
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Douglas MacArthur.

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In this modern age of cellphones and advanced GPS handhelds that can fit into the form factor of a watch, it's extremely rare to go genuinely explore. Our real chance to explore happened during a trip to Colorado, some years ago. After extensive research, we identified a small town called Ridgway as our home base for exploring the San Juan Mountains. We planned to explore the various county roads that lead into the mountains. One of the roads that we marked for exploration was the County Road 8, while it didn’t go into the San Juan Mountains, this road has some amazing view of Cimarron Ridge South, Turret Ridge, Courthouse Mountain & Chimney Rock.

While following the google map direction, we soon realized that the map was plain wrong, the road identified by the map turned out to be a long driveway. A check on the field guides didn’t help much, but when I switched to the satellite view on the map, I saw something that looked like a road. So reversed all the way and started trying out the other options at the intersections. After a couple of false starts finally, we got on the actual county Road 8 and managed to get to the point where we were going. The subject of this image is the stunning Cimarron Ridge South; we spend a fantastic evening photographing it in the best possible light, the fall foliage didn’t hurt either.

I am a part of everything that I have read…
The world is always in movement...
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Theodore Roosevelt.

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One of my favorite quotes from Teddy Roosevelt and an apt scenery to go with it. This is another shot of the stunning vistas close to McClure pass. We had an interesting sunset here that day when we first reached, the entire mountains were covered by storm clouds. Since it was our first time we didn’t even know there were mountains on the horizon. Autumn was definitely past its peak so lots of the aspens looked bare without many leaves on them. We had given up and was about to call it a day when the skies opened up and the wind started to pick up. Soon we had layers in the sky instead of just uniform gray and clouds started to part exposing some majestic snowcapped peaks.

I had posted the money shot of the valley during sunset much earlier but these shot from when the wind started to pick up and started to reveal the mountains are still among some of my favorite shots of the trip. Hope you all like it as much as I did.

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist…
San Juan Mountains from Country Road 9
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Oscar Wilde.

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This was a shot I took on our first day in Colorado while we were exploring the picturesque county roads that dart between the San Juan Mountains. This part of Colorado is stunning from every angle and it is pretty tempting to just snap away at the majestic vistas all around you. I have been trying to step away from that aspect of landscape photography and bring some visual interests to my shots other than just the grandeur of nature.

Our first day in Colorado was overcast so we decided to explore county road 9 on our first day as visible foliage is lesser on this road compared to CO-7 and CO-8. But this road has one of the best views of the mountain peaks compared to other roads and the views are more expansive. I noted this little cabin while we were on the drive and on our way back stopped for the shot I had been visualizing. Hope you all like it.

Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher...
Ames viewpoint
by Sandeep Thomas
  • William Wordsworth.

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On our trip to see fall in Colorado this was our first proper sighting of the beautiful golden aspens which makes the state famous for fall foliage. While planning the trip we assumed that this being an unusually hot summer, fall would be delayed in most of America and hence timed our trip for the second week of October. I was watching the Flickr pages for fall status and to my horror realized that fall actually came in early in Colorado. By then there was not much we could do and we decided to make the trip anyway. I was a bit scared that all the color will be gone by the time we reached there but to our relief we got a lot of color in the San Juan's and this view point of Ames during sunset was a true treat.

It is great wealth to a soul to live frugally with a contented mind…
McClure Pass
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Lucretius.

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It rarely rains in southern California, but we do get those days occasionally during the winter season. It was raining for the past two days and finally the sun is back out. I was going over the old photographs and realized that I missed processing one of the panorama stitch images from our trip to Colorado during the fall of 2016. If my memory is correct this shot was made at McClure Pass at an overlook that faces east towards the town of Marble and a range of mountains that includes Mt Daly, Capitol Pean, and Sheep Mountain.

This shot was taken using the 24-70mm lens in vertical orientation at 56 mm and is a stitched together from about 9 images. I used a 2 stop ND grad filter which I realigned for each shot. I am lucky enough to have a ballhead that has the panning mechanism close to the clamp making easier to pan at the right degrees. The shot was taken at sunset with some amazing light on the mountainside.

Paint the essential character of things…
Last Dollar road
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Camille Pissarro.

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Both my wife and I spend our initial years in New England when we moved to the US. We both attended college there and every time autumn came around all the streets of Boston would have spectacular foliage for us to enjoy. Every year we would plant a trip for next year as fall is an expensive season in New England and we couldn't afford much as grad students on a tight budget. Finally, we both got busy with our careers and that fall trip kept on getting postponed.

It was always on the back of my head that we never did Fall road trip as we always promised ourselves that we would do. The opportunity presented itself in 2016, I was about to change jobs and I managed to sneak in a 2-week break between jobs. My wife had to struggle a bit to get the vacation approved but we finally managed to get on with our road trip to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. We missed peak colors by a couple of days but still saw some of the most spectacular autumn scenes combined with mighty peaks of the Rocky Mountain range.

This shot was taken at the Last Dollar road which is a 4-wheel drive country road that crosses the foothills of the San Juan Mountains. This road is challenging when it's muddy but provides some spectacular scenery. There is a spot on the road when the colorful forest gives way to a grand vista of the San Juan Mountains. I noticed a line of aspens by a ridge and used them to contrast with the more expansive view of the valley and the mountains in the distance. The yellows in the scene was a little overwhelming so I made sure the white balance was on point.

The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent…
San Juan Mountains
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Carl Sagan.

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Another shot of the mighty San Juan mountains from one of the many county roads leading out to Ridgway. I encountered this viewpoint as we came round a corner and suddenly it looked like the snowcapped peaks were just jutting out of nowhere with the dirt road leading straight up to it. If you have followed my stream, you will recognize this theme often when I am around mountains, something about mountains and roads just seems irresistible to me. Often these are such fantastic and easy shots that result in brilliant scenery.

The heart is forever inexperienced…
Independence pass
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Henry David Thoreau.

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Took this shot while we were on our road trip in Colorado. This stunning location is the Independence pass and the elevation at this specific location is above 12000 ft and no I didn’t make a mistake. Basically, at this location, you are getting a glimpse of alpine tundra environment above treeline, from the comfort of the car.

This pass is located on the route from Aspen to twin lakes and usually closes during winter due to heavy snowfall. I had not expected this pass at all in my planning and when the elevation kept on going up we were a bit confused. Then the road evened out suddenly and we saw tons of people enjoying outside, so we parked and got out and it was freezing. After spending close to 10 minutes frantically putting all our layers on we were ready to explore.

I think this place take a close second behind Mt Washington in NH for the coldest winds in my experience. I was fascinated by this cabin close to the parking lot and decided to include the rustic structure into my shot. The effect of wind can be seen from the fact that this mall cabin is anchored to the rocks. I would have loved to spend some more time here but we had a schedule to keep and places to be.

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page…
Nathrop
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Saint Augustine.

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One of the things about Colorado that will stick with you if you happened to visit the state in autumn, is the brilliant yellow or gold color which is present everywhere. From the beautiful gold of the aspen to the greenish yellow of the grass, its as if the whole state is covered in gold.

So when I came across this field on our way to the great sand dunes national park, I knew I had to ake a shot. I wanted to convey the predominant fall color of autumn in Colorado without massive mountain overshadowing the entire scene. Editingvise this scene was so colorful that I had to move the saturation slider to the left a bit. That’s how vivid this scene was, one of those occasions when real life was more colorful than imagination.

Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains...
Double RL ranch
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Marilyn French.

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This one is one of my favorite shots from our fall road trip to Colorado. This shot was taken a short distance away from Ridgway just off the highway and the subject is the beautiful Double RL ranch. This particular highway is just too stunning for words, every stretch and turn comes with amazing views of the San Juan mountains.

This was just after sunrise and the sun was beautifully lighting the mountains and the amazing fall colors on the trees and shrubs in front. Other than using a polarizing filter all I did was just point and shoot. Hope Y'all like it and have a great and flourishing 2017.

The supernatural is the natural not yet understood…
Last Dollar Road
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Elbert Hubbard.

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Last Dollar Road from Ridgway, Colorado to Telluride is one of the best off-road trips we have taken in our short overlanding life. Fortunately, the road was not too muddy, and we managed to complete the entire drive in our outback with road tires. This shot was taken early in the ride as the mountains suddenly arose on either side. This place is unbelievably picturesque with amazing rustic fences and beautiful fall foliage by the foothills.

Art will never be able to exist without nature…
Ragged edge
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Pierre Bonnard.

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Our trip to the beautiful Great Sand Dunes National Park was not pre-planned; instead a stopover during our fall road trip through Colorado’s beautiful mountain landscapes. It was quite a change in scenery as we drove from Salida to the National Park as grasslands gave way to the desert. We reached the Park barely before the golden hour started and learned a lesson that an hour is not enough to find good shooting spots at a National park which is essentially a punishing dune.

It took us a solid hour to climb the first dune in our path, and the high dune was still very far away. In all the panic and urgency to find a decent spot, I noticed that the sunset was painting the mountains to the southeast in fabulous colors. I did not want to return empty-handed from such a fantastic location and decided to make lemonade with the situation that I was in. The light was glorious and naturally beautiful, but my contribution mainly being at the wrong place at the right time.

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness…
Crystal Mill
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Dalai Lama.

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One more shot of my favorite location in Colorado, the crystal mill. For this particular shot, it was a constant battle with the sunlight streaking out from behind the clouds. As the shot was made during mid-day, the sun was pretty harsh and was giving me a lot of casting due to the fact that I was using a 10 stop ND filter and polarizing filter. So I had to actually wait for moving clouds to hide the sun so I get a decent cast and flare free image with decent long shutter speed.

Eventually, after a couple of misfires, a large cloud moved in between mountains and completely blocked the sun for me to get my shot ready. Thankfully I was able to get everything correct and was able to get back to our vehicle for the hour long trip back to civilization.

We live in the world when we love it...
San Juan Mountains from Country Road 9
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Rabindranath Tagore.

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Another Colorado shot, this one is of the San Juan Mountains of the American Rocky Mountain Range. While on our stay at Ridgway we took time off to explore the many county roads leaving the main highways around the town. These narrow winding unpaved roads provided us with so many stunning vistas at every turn, it was unbelievable.

This shot was taken on County road 9, that a guide book suggested we do last since it had the least amount of views. So we did that drive on our first day which was very overcast, but the vies were just stunning. We came across this amazing ranch while driving and it had totally awesome looking fence around it and I had to make a panorama shot with the very rustic fence framing the mountains. Almost as if it’s the little hence is protecting the mighty mountain.

Man is free at the moment he wishes to be…
Crystal Mill
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Voltaire.

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Another shot from the beautiful crystal mill near Marble, CO. We were quite late for getting good fall colors, in fact our guide told us that up to couple of days ago there was good amount of color but they had very windy couple of days and most of the aspens were now stripped of any color.

Shooting here was challenging as it was early afternoon and the sun was still pretty high up in the sky and would occasionally get out of the sparse cloud cover and ruin my shots. As I was using two filters to compensate for the available light, the direct sunlight was causing extreme flare. But I managed to get couple of trick shots which convey more fall foliage than there actually was.

Where hast thou wandered, gentle gale, to find the perfumes thou dost bring?
CO-62
by Sandeep Thomas
  • William Cullen Bryant.

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CO-62 is a fantastic piece of road that connects the small towns of Placerville and Ridgway. When I say small, I mean tiny. Both these towns are small and usually not a prominent stop. Nearby towns like Telluride and Montrose attract most of the tourist traffic. While I was planning our trip to Colorado, I went through my usual practice of tagging all the target locations in google maps. Ridgway immediately stood out with so many sites nearby, and we decided to make it out the first basecamp. When we started to look for hotels near Ridgway, and it turned out to be a struggle. But finally, we got a reservation even though I was apprehensive about selecting such a small town as our basecamp.

In reality, the town turned out to be even smaller than we imagined. But we found some fantastic restaurants, and the motel was superb. We met some wonderful people as well, but the genuine surprise was the natural beauty around the area. We drove up and down the main highway that leads out of Ridgway many times. The road had some of the best fall scenery in the USA, and we often found ourselves pulling over and taking shots every few miles.

The world is always in movement...
The world is always in movement...
by Sandeep Thomas
  • V. S. Naipaul.

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If you have followed the descriptions of the images that I post on Flickr, then you might be on to the fact that I am a compulsive planner. I derive a lot of joy from meticulously planning a destination. I often try to gather as much info about a future destination as possible before guessing the best time to shoot that location. Initially, I just took the direction of light into account, but these days I track storms in the area, tidal charts, and various other information in search of better conditions. Despite all this careful planning, most of the time, you will experience situations that genuinely shock you. Our trip to Rainier NP was an excellent example of this, we expected relatively clear skies but didn't see the mountain for the first three days.

Today's post is about a similar incident. We were on our road trip through Colorado. I was confident of bagging a perfect clearing storm photo at sunset from the Buck Mesa Viewpoint near Mclure Pass. We got to the spot with some time to spare, but the sky was a drab shade of grey. I thought I miscalculated the storm timings and that there was no way it's going to clear up in an hour. I was thinking of just packing up leaving so I can hit the bed early, but my wife convinced me to stick around until at least the sunset. That was an excellent idea as soon the wind picked up and started to move the clouds around. Some texture began to appear on the grey sky, followed by the sun breaking through the thick cloud cover. We had some spectacular light show that day and I am forever glad that my wife convinced me to stick around. And that's the lesson for today, sometimes all the planning and plotting can make you overconfident about weather patterns, but it's always worth it to stick around. You never know when the fortune is going to turn in your favor.

What is art but a way of seeing?
Last Dollar road
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Saul Bellow.

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On our time driving through the last dollar road, we came across a lot of Aspen groves but since we were there just after peak fall, most of the groves were bare. Finally towards the end of the drive we came across this little patch of gold. The grove was well protected from the wind and was full of leaves both on the trees and the ground. We also have stunning late afternoon light coming in from the south west giving a nice little pop to this classical fall scene.

You can find peace amidst the storms that threaten you…
The world is always in movement...
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Joseph B. Wirthlin.

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A shot from Buck Mesa in Colorado before the storm clouds made the last of the peaks invisible. This was one of the most stunning outlooks we visited during the trip even though the fall foliage was well past its peak. As September is coming quickly to an end, I can’t escape the thoughts of the amazing road trip we took to Colorado around this time last year.

We had plans to head to New England this year for fall foliage but crazy work schedule and an unforeseen wedding pretty much thwarted our plans for the trip. Hopefully next year. Thankfully we live in SoCal so I’ll be heading to the Big Sur coast this winter.

Nature always wears the colors of the spirit…
Last Dollar road
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Another shot of the stunning last dollar road, this was taken more at the b of the road before the road got really muddy. We were passing beautiful rural ranches with tons of aspen groves and beautiful yellow splashes everywhere. We are hoping that this year hopefully we would finally get to visit New England during its signature season. It’s kind of sad that after living in Boston for almost 4 years I have never really explored New England that much except a couple of trips to the White Mountains and Vermont. We enjoyed exploring fall colors so much I have a hunch that this fall trips in Sept/Oct are going to be a norm for us.

You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it...
CR-8
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Robin Williams.

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On our last day at Ridgway, we explored county road 8 and I found out that the county road is marked wrong in Google maps. Basically, the road splits at a certain location and if you take the road Google maps suggest you will end up on a private road. I found this by chance as I was reading John Fielder's guide to Colorado and his directions to CO-08 didn't match the road which I mapped out in Google maps. So I switched to satellite view and found a road that was not visible in the normal map view of Google maps. I was still not sure so I kept an eye out while my wife was driving and as we reached the split in the road I noticed that the right turn would lead to a private road that was gated and locked.

Thankfully I had downloaded Jason Hatfield's fall guide to Colorado, which by the way I highly recommend and it had great directions to this awesome spot along the road. This spot gives great views of Cimarron Ridge South, Turret Ridge, Courthouse Mountain & Chimney Rock. There are some parking spaces and a small hiking path leading away from the lot to a small rock outcropping which provides this amazing view of Cimarron Ridge South. Thanks again for visiting.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us…
Last Dollar Road
by Sandeep Thomas
  • J. R. R. Tolkien.

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I found this picture in my backups while I was searching for an image for testing out my exposure blending skills. This was taken during our trip to Colorado last fall, if my memory is correct, this was taken on the Last Dollar road. I have a soft spot for rustic fences and when the fence has vivid fall colors and fourteener peaks behind them, I am sold.

Ridgway and Telluride area has so many beautiful sights, I think you’ll need a month to just cover them. I am glad I got at least 4 days to roam around and take pics of this stunning state.

Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it…
Lizard Lake
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Theodore Roosevelt.

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When we planned our fall road trip to Colorado, one of the key spots I wanted to see was the beautiful Crystal Mill along the Crystal Creek near Marble. I spend countless hours looking at various 4-wheel trail drive videos to assess whether I would be able to self-drive the trail to the mill in our new Subaru. But thankfully we decided on a jeep tour that took us to the mill and in a couple of hours. The tour took about two hours to drive the 10 miles out an back trail and was pretty good moreover, they explained the history of the various abandoned cabins that we found on the way and the geographical history of the trail itself. But we soon realized that the amazing scenery deserved to be photographed for its own beauty. We decided that the next time we visited, we should hike the trail and take as many photos as we can on the way.

While we were on the jeep tour, we took a break at one point near a small pond on our way back and I had an opportunity to take a shot of this beautiful scenery along the road which had some interesting light and some beautiful reflections of the nearby hills.

For this shot, I used a two stop ND grad filter to balance the light in the sky and the foreground. The difference in light at this scene is so great that if I didn’t use the ND grad filter and expose for the bright sky as conventional wisdom demands the whole foreground will be in the dark. So, my only choice here is to bracket the image and make an HDR image or use an ND grad filter to balance the bright and dark sections of the image perfectly. This also allowed me to get the leaves and grass blades in the foreground with crisp details. I also focused this scene by focusing at the hyperfocal distance making sure that the whole scene is in sharp focus. I didn’t use a polarizing filter as that would have cut into the reflection and since there is not much foliage in the scene to accentuate using the polarizer. I love how the reflections of the sky and the surrounding hills came about in this shot as well as the leafless aspens on the hillside. Hope you will all enjoy the read about this shot as much as I did making it.

Garden of the Gods
Garden of the Gods
by Patrick Clancy

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Thanks to all Phoide contributors to Colorado!
Most notably Sandeep Thomas, Andrey Sulitskiy and Birgit M..