Front Range

The Front Range of northern Colorado has some great scenic opportunities.  Despite the growth of the Denver metro that really is turning the Fort Collins and Loveland area in suburbia, there are still some good scenery.

Get past the first few hills and it is even more so.

So when I was in Fort Collins I decided to get out early each morning and see if I could grab an image here or there.  On the west side of town you quickly go up into the hills past Horsetooth Reservoir and then into some scenic areas.

I drove out a few times to watch the sunrise, take a few images, and even get in a short hike.

It was good to get out of town for an hour or so, get some good activity, make a few images and then be on about my day.

Here are a few from my mornings there.

I drove out by the lake and could tell there was a good sunrise going to happen.  So I set up an an overlook and waited for the clouds to glow orange and got a nice image of he sunrise.

A little farther down the road I came around a corner and could see a small cloud raining and rapidly dissipating as a thunderstorm faded away.  I had no great landscape in front of me but did have the road.  Quickly I got the tripod out and framed up the shot with the road as a leading line.  This gives a great view of what it looks like just 10-15 minutes drive from Fort Collins.

I found a nice little open space area/park just west of there and took a walk.  Just a few hundred yards up the path I saw this great tree that I knew I had to get a shot of.  

I liked that enough, I went back a day later and out in the early morning even saw a few mule deer bucks.  Now, not being a wildlife guy, I do not have any big telephoto lenses.  In fact, traveling light like I was I only had my crop sensor Sony NEX6 with little 16-50 kit lens.  I zoomed out to the 50 mark and got a few frames with the bucks in it. 

Over the few days it made for some good quick photography sessions each morning and added a nice element to the trip to get a few images.