Even before the sun rose this morning I could see that it had snowed last night. Since I could see few clouds in the sky, I immediately changed my plans.

Instead of going back to bed, I dressed quickly, grabbed my camera and keys, and ran out the door. I headed for Panorama Point on Flagstaff Mountain Road and got there before sunrise.

Doug Goodin, a professional photographer who I met at Open Studios a week ago, inspired my morning. He had displayed a stunning photograph of Red Rocks in his studio. Here is a smaller version from his website (http://www.boundaryphoto.com/gallery.php?num=2 ).

Red Rocks (Photo by Doug Goodin)

He told me that he had hiked from Panorama Point down the Viewpoint Trail, where he captured this scene early one morning. Although I hiked that trail a couple of months ago, I was there in the late afternoon. While I didn’t get a photograph of Red Rocks then, I met my cousin Erica there.

This morning when I reached the trailhead at Panorama Point, the temperature was 31 degrees. Where the trail lacked snow it had ice. So for the first time this season I put on my Yaktrax (a type of crampon) over my boots.

Just as the sun touched the Red Rocks this morning I was in place to capture this scene.

Red Rocks at First Light

Different season, different lighting, different composition from Doug’s photograph. In fact, I’m surprised that this shot came out at all. I stopped the aperture way down to f/36 to get as much depth of field as possible with ISO set at 3600. The telephoto was extended to its maximum focal length of 200mm. But I didn’t noticed until afterwards that I made this shot at 1/40th of a second. Normally at that focal length we need to use a shutter speed of at least 1/200 (the one to one focal length: shutter speed rule). But my lens has wonderful image stabilization — using a built in gyroscope, of all things!

After taking 10 more shots of the same scene (just to be sure), I moved on. On the way back I stopped at Chautauqua Park for this shot of Boulder’s famous flatirons.

Our Flatirons

Hiking up the Enchanted Mesa Trail from Chautauqua yielded this close-up scene of the First Flatiron. It sure looks like a great place to go rock climbing!

The First Flatiron

Back home, I walked around Tantra Lake. Here is the lake, our fitness center, and 8,500-foot Bear Peak.

Home

Small scale beauty is also here. Staying in bed and sleeping late was not an option this morning.

A Flower Growing near the Office

Wet Leaves