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Rocky Mountains #13

The last light of the day striking the Crags hilltop at Lily Lake, Estes Park, Colorado, U.S.A.

The story behind this image

A hike around the lovely Lily Lake, just outside Estes Park in Colorado, came to an end for my wife Liz and I just as the sun was about to set.

Across the road from the lake, the crisp clean light at 9,000 feet above sea level was lighting up the summit of the Crags with knife edge definition.

Even as we watched entranced, the edge of the sunlit zone edged ever higher up to the top of the Crags, so I snapped out of my reverie and set up my camera as rapidly as I could.

I just managed to take this one exposure before the line of sunlight vanished upwards, leaving the scene as an overall grey monotone.

Back home after our holiday I was reviewing files for possible publication, and looking at the original colour version of this image I realised that none of the emotional impact that we felt at the time was coming through.

A conversion to monochrome and a serious boost to contrast restored the drama that so affected me at the time.

Image data

Filename - rocky mountains 13.jpg

Camera - Canon EOS 6D

Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 32mm

Exposure - 1/6 sec @ f8, ISO100

Location - Lily Lake, Colorado, U.S.A.

This image - 800x533px JPEG

Conversion - Adobe Lightroom

Comments - Tripod, mirror lockup and cable release used to prevent camera movement