Found a little color or Smoke Gets in your eyes…..

All who love are blind

Oh, when your heart is on fire

Smoke gets in your eyes

                                The Platters, 1959

I’m not sure if Tony Williams (lead singer of the Platters; 1955 thru 1959) ever visited central Colorado during fire season but I have to think the inspiration for the refrain of this hit song could have been my late October photo shoot. While the skies cleared periodically, I could always detect the hint of pine smoke in the air but central Colorado lived up to the many calendar photos you have seen over the years.

After spending a couple of nights south of Buena Vista, I crossed Monarch Pass and worked my way up to Crested Butte to meet up with Mandy Lea and her partner Kendrick. Mandy Lea, among other things, leads photography workshops. I spent a little more than three days with her and Kendrick exploring gravel roads and photographing the mountains around this famous ski town.

We camped about five miles west of town on Forest Service land. I arrived on a Monday after the weekend warriors cleared out of this very popular spot. The view was spectacular and the few neighbors were quiet. A word of advice here, if you decide to explore this area, find your boondocking spot early in the week. Every day there was at least one more rig parked close by. Crested Butte is a very popular area, especially in the fall.

Our days started around 6:15 to allow us enough time to be in place before sunrise. Fortunately, the location of our camp was central to some dramatic vistas so the travel time to the location of the first shoot each day was short.  While the location of the camp works out well, there was just a minor problem with the slope.  It took a couple of tries to park the ORV so that the trailer was within the limits of the auto-leveling system.

One of the many challenges I have to overcome every time I travel a thousand miles in search of a good photograph is that I have already visualized what that photo will look like. This seldom works out for me because the local conditions are never as I had envisioned while sitting in my basement back home. A lot of things tend to go wrong. The blue skies and puffy white clouds may never materialize. The waterfall may be dry because of the drought. A busload of tourists may decide to swarm between my camera and the perfect shot of the Grand Tetons. The “busload of people” thing has happened more than once at the Tetons and in Yellowstone.

Mandy was able to guide me to some very interesting locations that I would have driven past without a second glance. She was not always able to deliver the perfect clouds but did point out the possible compositions that I didn’t see.

One afternoon we explored the aspen trees growing on Kebler Pass. The aspen grove here has been said to be the largest in Colorado, a state that is known for its Aspen groves and is possibly the largest grove in the world.

On our last day out we drove up to Irwin lake for the sunrise photos. While at the lake Kendrick used his time well by catching a few trout that he later cooks for our dinner. It was fun watching him get excited about each fish landed.

Mandy and Kendrick were wonderful hosts and provided a great experience. I hope to be able to meet up with them again soon.

Dennis

Click here to find Mandy’s workshops. https://mandyleaphoto.com/product-category/all-products/photo-workshops/

PS: Mandy’s patrons suggested she do a scavenger hunt while in Colorado. They gave her a list of things to find and photograph. Lucky me, I ended up being in the resulting video. I am now waiting for casting directors to come calling. Click here to see my film debut. About 13 minutes in. Don’t blink, you will miss my role.