This is a continuation of my series - The Story Behind the Images - the stories about my favorite photographs as I remember them. I hope you enjoy and please share.

I first visited the Snowy Range, on a geology field trip during graduate school at Colorado State University.  It is a small range located west of Laramie and east of Saratoga that geologically marks a transition from the mountains of Colorado and the mountains of Wyoming.  The peaks are comprised of a beautiful white Precambrian quartzite and numerous alpine lakes and pools.  Many of the rock outcrops still have glacial striations that scour the quartzite.  At sunset and sunrise the white quartzite can really glow.  If you are driving on I-80 through southern Wyoming, it is worth the detour.   

Alpine Primrose (1999) - Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming

This picture was taken sometime in the summer of 1999.  I likely had just finished the draft of my Masters thesis and was about or had started my career as a geologist at an Environmental Consulting firm in Fort Collins.  I really wanted to get a great shot of Sugarloaf Mountain and Medicine Bow Peak (the highest in the Snowies).  However, while exploring the area I found this lone flower (Alpine Primrose - best guess) in the midst of the quartzite rocks and this turned out to be the best image of the day.  Looking back, I would have liked to have had some front tilt which would have helped with the depth of field.  

Photo Details - Nikon N90s and a Nikon 24mm f2.8 lens on Fuji Velvia 50 transparency film. It was scanned by West Coast Imaging using a Heidelberg Tango Drum Scanner. If you enjoyed this post please share and visit me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Flickr (links on the left). Thanks again. Jason C. Ruf

This is a continuation of my series - The Story Behind the Images - the stories about my favorite photographs as I remember them. I hope you enjoy and please share.

This image was taken in the Bitterroots National Forest on a backpacking trip early in the summer of 1999.  I was returning from a road trip to Seattle and stopped into to visit my sister in Missoula who was at school at the University of Montana.  We decided on a quick trip to the Bitteroots which Kim had been talking up during her time at the U of M.  We were attempting to camp at a Mill Lake but after making our way through deeper than anticipated snow surrounding the lake and noticing plenty of mountain lion activity, we decided to set up our tent back down the valley where the mountain lion activity at least wasn’t so obvious.  This outcrop of rocks was located just up the hillside from our camp. 

I remember waking early and climbing the hillside to set up for the shot.  I knew there was some nice rock outcrops based on what we had seen from the valley floor the night before, but I hadn’t scouted the location and was very excited to see the water cascading over the rock face.  The clouds were moving quickly and I knew this would create a nice motion offsetting the flow of the water.  

I photographed this image with a Nikon N90s and a Nikon 24mm f2.8 lens on Fuji Velvia 50 transparency film.  It was scanned by West Coast Imaging using a Heidelberg Tango Drum Scanner. If you enjoyed this post please share and visit me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Flickr (links on the left). Thanks again. Jason C. Ruf

This is a continuation of my series - The Story Behind the Images - the stories about my favorite photographs as I remember them.  I hope you enjoy and please share.  

This image was taken late in the day on the way back to the Bear Lake Trailhead in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.  I am fairly certain my graduate school roommates, Tim and Trista, were with me as we were making our way down from Lake Haiyaha - I think.   I can vividly remember pulling my tripod and camera out of my pack and setting up on the side of the trail trying to beat the disappearing light as the sun set over the Front Range.  The scene was cast in blue light from the sky and glowing white snow that was lit by the setting sun.  The rocks and trees added contrast and were almost black against the snow. 

Glacier gorge is a glacially carved valley situated between Long’s Peak (14,259 ft) to the east and McHenry’s Peak to the west. The mountains in Rocky Mountain Park are tall enough to disrupt the jet stream and can create some amazing cloud formations in the the right conditions. In this case, a lenticular cloud formed on the west side of Longs Peak, which is unusual for lenticular clouds, and provided a nice feature that mimicked the walls of Glacier Gorge. The combination of the lenticular cloud with the reflected blue light and white snow glowing from the setting sun created a nice composition with great light.

I photographed this image with a Nikon N90s and a Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 lens on Fuji Velvia 50 transparency film.  It was scanned by West Coast Imaging using a Heidelberg Tango Drum Scanner.  If you enjoyed this post please share and visit me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Flickr (links on the left). 

Thanks again. Jason C. Ruf