Springtime comes very late in the season here.  We won’t expect to see proper seasonal springtime weather for a few weeks yet.  This puts a bit of a damper on me capturing proper spring landscape photographs.  I must wait.  Still, I can occasionally find something to shoot in the middle of extended winter in the high elevations.  Lately, I found just such an opportunity.  I captured an early moody spring landscape photo.

Winter conditions in high elevations can be brutal.  Winds whip and snow flies.  Then there’s the hazards of walking and driving on ice.  Early spring doesn’t look much different in most cases.  However, the snow does melt off eventually.  Still, I manage to find the occasional landscape scene which works for me.

We had business which took us out.  With the state of gas prices, I brought along my camera knowing that this would be one of a few rare occasions where I could get out and away.  I didn’t want to miss a chance for new landscape photos.  However, I wasn’t sure what I would find.  Oftentimes, these extra excursions don’t yield anything for me.  This time was different.

As we took care of our business, I watched the weather.  It was cloudy and windy.  My chances of finding something I wanted were small.  Then I looked over at the mountains at the right time.  I noticed a dramatic set of clouds passing by the gap in the mountains.  There were interesting layers visible in the mountains as well.  All I needed to do was capture the moody spring scene in front of me.  Thankfully I came prepared with camera in tow.

As it turns out, this was merely the edge of a snow storm whipping up.  This meant that the wind was cold and biting.  Also, it was blowing the clouds away from the scene.  I needed to work fast to capture the view.  Also, I needed to do so with increasingly cold fingers refusing to work properly.  I didn’t have time to grab proper gloves or I would have missed out.

What a cold and miserable 5 minutes it was to try and capture the scene.  There were flurries whipping through my view and stinging my face.  I didn’t want to remain out there longer than necessary.  So, once I captured what I could, I returned to the car and spent the next several minutes disassembling my tripod with uncooperative fingers.  Then I spent more time warming my fingers back up on the way back.

Something I’ve learned as a landscape photographer is that you cannot properly appreciate what conditions were like unless you were present yourself.  Some landscape photos I’ve taken were downright pleasant to take.  Others were shot in the middle of miserable conditions.  However, you cannot tell from just looking at the photo itself.  This photo was one of the later category.  Still, it added a moody spring photo to my portfolio.