Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado, September 23, 2020, Part 1

As I walked towards a valley overview for early morning photography, I went past my neighbor campers, a middle age couple, that I had correctly assumed to be hunters, as they prepared to head out on their morning hunt.  We chatted briefly, before I continued on my short hike over the open, frosty, grassy area.

Frosty Morning View. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 50mm, 0.4s, f/11, ISO 64.
Meadow Grass Morning. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/160s, f/11, ISO 3200.

It was also a little breezy, so I had to use higher ISO than desirable (noise increases with increasing ISO) to get a sufficiently fast shutter speed to freeze the motion of the grass and/or other vegetation in the images.

After the golden morning light was gone from the distant mountain tops, I continued to shoot as the shadows retreated from the broad meadow.

Cold Ground. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 28mm, 1/125s, f/11, ISO 1600.

I began working my way down into the meadow towards the sinuous drainages running running across it, with the intent of using the drainage as leading lines,  stopping along the way to shoot a few images of the sunlight sparkling in the morning frost.  I was largely unsuccessful at capturing the sparkle with my lens of choice this morning, although I did not try to get really up close with the lens, so maybe I should not put the failure on the lens.

Frosty Meadow. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/200s, f/11, ISO 800.
Frosty Meadow. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/125s, f/11, ISO 250.

I found thin ice on small pools of water in the drainage, so it apparently got below freezing last night, at least in the low areas in the valley.

Cold Meadow. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/160s, f/11, ISO 320.

The beetle killed evergreens on the mountainsides made for much unattractiveness in the scenes here and I’ve tried to minimize that impact in my images.

Sinuous. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 56mm, 1/125s, f/11, ISO 200.

Eventually satisfied that I had achieved as much as I could this morning, I headed back to my vehicle for coffee and a light breakfast, before heading on along FSR 380 looking for my next campsite.

Thanks for following,

Ken

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