While I’ve only spent limited time in Colorado, I was impressed with the photographic diversity that I experienced. This article shares a small selection of images from Colorado captured at Mesa Verde National Park, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Garden of the Gods, and Rocky Mountain National Park.
NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.
Mesa Verde National Park provided a good range of subject matter from close-up views of plants and tree stumps, to majestic wide angle mountain scenes, along with a number of archaeological opportunities.
If you visit Mesa Verde National Park you may want to take part in one of the facility’s guided tours to the numerous archaeological sites as seen below.
Great Sand Dunes National Park provides some quite unique and spectacular photographic opportunities with its extensive sand dunes.
Incorporating some people in photographs can help to establish a sense of scale as you can see in the image below.
The Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs was another unique experience with all of the rock spires and other structures.
I found myself drawn in by the character of the weathered rocks, and I enjoyed stacking a number of them in my compositions to create more depth in some of my images.
Prior to visiting Colorado I suppose I had a stereotypical vision of the state being chock-a-block full of mountains. Finding treasures like Mesa Verde, Great Sand Dunes National Park, and the Garden of the Gods, gave me a better appreciation of the state.
We took the opportunity to drive along Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park which takes travellers well above the tree line to experience some unique views.
We continued on into some river valleys which produced a completely different viewing experience.
I’m not sure whether we’ll have the opportunity to visit Colorado again, but we certainly enjoyed the limited time we spent in this beautiful state. This small selection of images from Colorado doesn’t do the state justice, but hopefully provided a few insights on the photographic experiences the state provides.
Technical Note:
All photographs were captured hand-held with Nikon 1 gear as per the EXIF data. All images in this article were produced from RAW files using my standard process of DxO OpticsPro 11, CS6 and the Nik Collection.
Article Copyright 2018 Thomas Stirr. Images are Copyright 2016 Thomas Stirr. All rights reserved. No use, duplication or adaptation of any kind is allowed without written consent. If you see this article reproduced anywhere else it is an unauthorized and illegal use. Posting comments on offending web sites and calling out individuals who steal intellectual property is always appreciated!