My column today is more of a reflection than a "how-to." It was inspired by a snowy walk I made at sunset a few days ago. This was a gorgeous evening right after a major snowstorm. The trees were covered with fluffy snow and there were some amazing colors in the sky. This was a quick evening hike, not far from Golden, Colorado on the Chimney Gulch trail. A trail that I ride on my mountain bike many times in summer but have never gone up with this much snow on it.

Hiking this trail reminded me of the reason why I do this, why I get up before sunrise to hike for hours or miss dinner to catch sunset light. This time, as often is the case on these trips, I was completely alone. Everything was quiet, deer were foraging on the sunlit slopes and it was just me and my camera, walking through powdery snow not 10 minutes from the city. Often we can get too involved with the mechanics of photography and forget about the magic of just being there, seeing, and snapping pictures. As this shows, opportunities are often right around the corner and you don't always need to do days of backpacking.

Layered view of the foothills near Denver. Bigger version here. Pretty much a straight conversion in Lightroom. The frame was added using a little Photoshop action droplet I created.

I took many images, some better than others and never thought about the camera perhaps not working at the frigid temperatures of that evening's new record subzero temperatures in Denver. My camera performed just fine even though I had it out all the time and it was far below the nominal operating temperature. I had some trouble with frost on the lens which luckily, despite the frigid temperatures, evaporated without issue. Who says DSLRs don't operate at such low temperatures? My fingers, despite the biking gloves I use when out shooting in the cold, were a little less happy about the whole ordeal.

Snowy rock. Bigger version

So what does this have to do with Lightroom? Well, of course I culled and edited my images mostly in Lightroom. Even though I shot 170 or so frames, many to be assembled later, editing was a pleasure that did not take away from my outdoors experience at all. This sort of thing used to be a chore where I never quite got what my mind's eye saw and where I got frustrated with the computer as it struggled with the RAW files. It is amazing how, in a short time, database-oriented programs such as Aperture and Lightroom have changed the way we approach photography. In this case, I happily juggled my RAW files and 500MB tiff files assembled from these RAW files without much trouble and generated dodged and burned and grad-filtered final images. Most importantly, the initial rounds didn't take more time than the actual hike.

Just like your camera, these organization and post processing tools need to just get out of the way allowing you to focus on your images. If this becomes too much of a hassle, why bother taking the picture in the first place? This is especially true since considerable monetary return on the effort is not likely. Very few people make a good living with landscape photography, so often much of the reward has to be internal. For me digital photography tools have brought back a lot of the joy in outdoor photography even though I know my images cannot rival the detail in a 8x10 film capture. Then again, you should check out the cover on this month's Outdoor Photographer magazine. Galen Rowell shot this superb image using a Nikkormatt FTn (a classic, simplistic 35 mm Nikon film camera). Sure, a large format capture would have been far sharper. It might also never have been taken.

Check out some images from my frosty night in this link. After my hike and after the sun had long set, I drove up to the top of Lookout mountain where you get an overview of Golden and Denver. It was so cold that the brewery (actually more like a factory) down there was generating some amazing clouds. I generated this panoramic view using the method I discussed before. I don't think I have ever seen this bustling and booming place this peaceful.

In conclusion, whatever your style is: in or outdoor, people or landscape, nature or travel, large format or crop sensor, film or digital, I hope you too can find this place of inner peace in your photography. Happy Holidays!