Anatomy of a Composition - First Light on a Last View

One of the more intimidating scenes from this summer. Hiking out in the faintest morning light after spending a rainy night above Gothic, I didn’t expect the weight of the fog to be so heavy and for it to stay around so long. 
I couldn’t for the life of me figure out a composition. I so wanted to capture the motion and the scale, something I felt I could only do if I was closer, and something I felt a time lapse would only really convey in that moment. 
But there was that tension, that feeling that no matter what I did, the scale and scope would be lost. Then, just as startling, the realization of the impermanence and the imperfection. I remembered how a rainbow was more about the moment then the specific technique. Yes, to capture a moment is often what makes the photo, more valuable than the photo. The likelihood of standing high above Crested Butte, engulfed in an inversion, a second time, much less the fortune of seeing it once wasn’t lost on me. In the moment to be seized by the thought that “life is for the living” brought me to switch out a lens, frame the breaking sun on the top of the mountain and click away at the shutter in order to capture the moment. 

Over the past six years of traveling to and around this area, Crested Butte has offered some of the most incredible moments and captures. Thinking back to the first motorcycle ride through, and then camping trip to Crested Butte, I couldn’t have even imagined how important photography would have become to me, and how much of my identity would change because of photography. This renewed sense of wonder has been a welcome breath of fresh air, something that has been subverted, and simply disguised as “being active.” Activity can generate experiences, but without wonder, it creates no appreciation, it just creates only fatigue and anxiety. To move beyond experience and add in that sense of wonder, we have to leave old patterns of behavior behind, that can include people, places and situations. So, I’m no longer certain about Crested Butte - it’s still just as beautiful and it has been so important to be personal growth, and my growth as a photographer, but hope and reality don’t often align. I’m left wondering what other destination might hold for me, and whether I should continue down the same paths that I have. I may need to leave Crested Butte alone for a while. I may need to seek solace in different sunrises and different sunsets. I may need to leave in order to grow.

July, 2020 - As always, thank you for joining me on this adventure

For more thoughts on some of these images, head over to www.wordpress.com/alma175w  

First Light on a Last View - ISO 100 • F/1.8 • 1/800 sec. - Sony a7riii - FE 135GM
Single image, shoot at 135mm.  Final edits made in Lightroom.