Click on the image for licensing terms
Hiking in the Rocky Mountain National Park, in late Spetember 2015, my wife Liz and I were rendered speechless by the beauty of the fall colours all around us.
One particular hike stands out, the trail between Bear Lake and Bierstadt Lake, up at 9,500 feet above sea level in cool, crisp air with light that cut like a knife.
The aspens were glowing orange, yellow and gold all around us as we made our way up the trail, and as we passed though a dense patch of trees I looked up to see the sun playing hide and seek amongst the branches.
So I framed this image, pointing my camera up at the canopy and adjusting the polarising filter to give the best colour contrast between the blue sky and golden leaves.
A bit of a shuffle left and right to get the sun just peeping through the branches resulted in this final image, showing those lovely colours in all their glory.
I'd love to go back and do it all again!
Filename - rocky mountains autumn trees 11.jpg
Camera - Canon EOS 6D
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 24mm
Exposure - 1/80 sec @ f8, ISO100
Location - Bear Lake, Colorado, U.S.A.
This image - 800x640px JPEG
Conversion - Adobe Lightroom
Comments - Polarising filter used to enhance colours.
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2026 unless otherwise stated.