- April 22, 2006 -
I had to drive down to Manitou Springs to deliver a print to a gallery where I'm participating in a juried show, and Garden of the Gods was in the neighborhood. I've been told by me fellow nature photographers that the best time to photograph the Garden is at sunrise, when the light is softer and really shows off the red color of the rocks. So I set everything up to go last night, then woke up at 4:30am and hit the road. Everything looked really promising, beautiful tones as the sun rose. And then, clouds. No pretty soft golden light on the rocks. At this point it was only 6:30am and the earliest I could drop off the print was 10:00am, so I decided to just wait it out, see what happened. I found the formation I was most interested in photographing - The Siamese Twins - picked a boulder, and unpacked a book to read. The sun didn't come out. A guy walking his dog came along. "Waiting for the light?" he asked. "Yep," I replied. "You'd be better off to try tomorrow," he said. I looked up, pointed at one small spot where the clouds were much thinner. "I'm hoping that spot will help me out." He shrugged and continued with his walk. The thin patch didn't really do much.
Eventually I gave up and drove into town. I had breakfast at a Village Inn. I still had an hour to kill. I found the gallery and decided to window shop a bit, only to discover that the shops were mostly closed at 9am on an off-season Saturday. But I did find a café with outdoor tables, so I ordered a chai and sat for an hour with my book outside on the idyllicized Old West streets of Manitou Springs.
After I was finally able to drop off the print, I realized that the skies were now blue and the sun was shining. It wasn't the soft golden early morning light I was hoping for, but at least the rocks wouldn't look so dull and the sky behind Pikes Peak would be blue instead of a dull, washed out white.
The Siamese Twins is a pair of similar tower formations that are joined at the base. Through the base is a natural window that frames Pikes Peak perfectly. That is the photo you get today.
On the way out of the Garden, there was an Earth Day event going on at the ranch near the entrance. So I figured my Garden adventures were rather appropriate.
Earth Day at Garden of the Gods
yesterday
tomorrow