Golden Aspens

We hadn’t been in the area at the base of the Tetons more than a few hours and I saw a grove of those beautiful golden aspens.  Off I go.  I’m not sure if it’s the glow of the yellow/gold leaves or the contrast of that white/silver trunk but it is an awesome subject.  Influences of golden aspens imagery from Ansel Adams and David Muench were running thru my head.  I shot and moved and shot and moved.  After moving quite a distance from the car my brain returned, Oh my.  My son, Eric, lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and hikes and fly-fishes regularly.  I hear about his adventures and regularly ask “did you have your bear spray?” He is very cautious to carry it.  But, here I am in the depths of the aspens in the neighborhood of the grizzlies thinking of beautiful images and absent minded about the risk.  So I move a bit closer to the cars and keep my pursuit of the beautiful golden aspens going.  I guess it shows how my mind can get so focused (pardon the pun) on the image possibilities.

Normally when I shoot there is something about the view that suggests to me about black and white or color.  It may be when the graphic nature of the image is strong that it pulls me to black and white.  Sometime, when there are strong colors it’ll be color.  Photography doesn’t always play by rules, though.  With this image I shot thinking more of color but it wasn’t quite happening and then after processing I tried black and white, in Lightroom, and it clicked.  It’s gotta be black and white and I love it that way.  I have more images shot within the same walk that may be processed in color.  I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Nikon D200 at F11 HDR and ISO 200 Nikon 12-24mm f4 Lens Photomatix Pro  Lightroom

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©Gary Culley