Emerging

Emerging, originally uploaded by navandale.

Rocky Mountain National Park, sunrise in Moraine Park.

I lucked out with this image. The previous day when I drove into Estes Park, a snowstorm hit. This was to be the beginning of the Huge winter storm of 2010. I found a place with internet connection, and the forecast called for snow and clouds for the next few days. I had a decision to make: stay and hope for the best, or go on down south to the San Juan Mountains...

I decided to stay. This morning I woke up to dull clouds covering the entire sky, but I drove on into the park anyway. The dim light of dawn provided little promise, but I hiked along this river in Moraine Park, taking shots here and there. Then I found these rocks, and the cool tree in the background... but this scene was against a backdrop of gray. I decided to set up my tripod anyway. After a few shots, I was ready to move on. Then, all of the sudden the fog lifted to reveal emerging mountains. As the fog continued to lift, the morning sun gently bathed the waking mountains, trees, and rocks with warm light.

This is an Panorama from 3 Vertical HDR images, each image processed from 3 RAW images (-2, 0, +2) using Photomatix Pro and Adobe Photoshop