Golden Sunrise with Fog

The reward for waiting: I had already made my plan for a morning photo of the Wet Mountain Valley the night before and my camera ready for the first light flooding the wide open, enormous space of the valley. But the next morning looked completely dismal: Thick fog filled the valley, hiding everything from view including the foothills and dramatic 14,000 ft+ peaks of the Rocky Mountains towards the West. For almost an hour I hung around my specially selected shooting point on the edge of a large meadow, which usually offers unobstructed views of the entire valley. But all I could see were huge fog clouds drifting tightly packed through the gigantic cavity in the landscape. Finally, defeated and disappointed, I was ready to give up and leave. I grabbed my gear and started trotting across the alpine meadow, shimmering and sparkling with thousands of dew drops in the early morning rays of the sun, which was just bursting over the ridge of the Wet Mountains to the East. I stopped my retreat and soaked in the gorgeous, beautifully illuminated scenery for a while, snapping a few photos. Then, just as I was about to continue my walk back, that little voice in the back of my head, told me to turn around and check on the Valley again. Good thing I listened and looked! To my surprise, the fog had lifted rapidly and the leftover fog banks were now racing with time lapse speed towards the South, revealing more and more wavy fields all over the valley, bathed with the light of the sun now flooding into the valley, giving the impression, that the fields were glowing as if they were covered with a gold. In addition, the outline of a lone ranch house, emerging from the fog, was slowly becoming visible, which actually gave the entire scene a sense of perspective and dimension. Simply stunning!
I was so floored by the view that I almost forgot to take photos…and moments later, when I was finally looking through my viewfinder, I remembered the old saying: “Good things will come to those who can wait…”
ENJOY!!

Nikon 950

Minor adjustments in LIGHTROOM