Gunnison National Forest

• Edward Hopper.

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As a travel and landscape photographer who lives in the western United States, it’s a bit difficult to impress me with the grandness of a vista. So two years ago when we drove up the viewpoint to Buck Mesa for a fall foliage shot we didn’t expect much. For one there was precious little on the interwebs regarding the vista point or the view. Then the county road to this location gave our Subaru Outback a proper test of its offroad capabilities and once we reached we realized that the ridge I was thinking of taking the picture from was on private property. Add to that the mountain peaks were cloud covered and there was not much light to make the photo interesting. With no reference to the actual scene, all we saw was a valley covered with fog and clouds and some aspen groves that were past their foliage prime. I was ready to pack up and go as didn’t want to get stuck here once night falls and if something happened to the car, but my wife insisted that we stay till sunset even if we couldn’t see the sun.

Turns out she had excellent intuition, as I set up my camera and tripod, the wind started to whip up the clouds and started to clear them out of the valley. Also, the mountain peaks came to view, and the setting sun streaked through the clouds with some much-needed contrast and sharpness to the scene. I took this panorama as the wind started to clear some of the thick cloud cover from the left. Later we even got a nice golden ray of light on the mountains and it turned out to be a stunning photo. While packing up and preparing to leave this stunning location, my wife and I couldn’t stop smiling at each other, on some level we knew that this one was special.

• 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.

• 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.

• Samuel Daniel

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Another shot from Buck Mesa, this was taken a shot I posted. This happened very quickly when the setting sun opened up and blasted the mountain side with a beam of light so strong the I almost clipped my highlights. Reaching this particular location was a challenge, and I wouldn’t recommend it with a passenger car or without some kind of offroad tires that can shed mud quickly.

It was fairly difficult to find the viewpoint as the path leading up to it was pretty hidden among the trees and bushes. So after a bit of bushwhacking, we managed to get to the beautiful viewpoint only to find a completely overcast mountain and soft even light which was robbing every bit of color present from the fall foliage. But just a the sunset neared, the sun broke through to bring back color and contrast in abundance.

• Confucius.

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It's that time of the year again when the holiday season is about over and everyone is preparing to go back to the daily grind.

Even though 2016 started with a tragedy for us we had a lot of things to be thankful. I managed to settle down and move to a more permanent job after my days as a nomad consultant. I am thankful that I have a wife who supports our crazy lifestyle and hasn't thought of leaving yet. I am also thankful that we are healthy and we have the opportunity to explore and see the world.

Hopefully, 2017 will more or less move in the same direction and will give us more opportunities to explore our passions. And I also wish all of you the best of luck in the coming year. While in Colorado on our fall road trip we reached Buck Mesa for a sunset picture and after the grueling drive found that we had an extremely cloudy sunset. We were a bit discouraged but decided to hang sound until sunset anyway. but as sunset neared, the wind picked up and clouds started moving around and what we got is amazing light on the mountain for a couple of minutes before the sun went back behind the clouds.

• 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.

• 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.