July 17, 2012
Alpine Meadow in the San Juan National Forest, Colorado

It was interesting yesterday morning at my favorite location for wildflowers in the San Juan National Forest. It started raining just before sunrise, and I kept shooting because the light was shining in under the cloud layer, but I didn't like the results. After the rain stopped, I photographed some intimate scenes under the solid cloud layer. Then the clouds broke and I switched back to grand scenics. It was so nice to use a 2-stop hard graduated neutral density filter to capture the scene in one exposure. For a wide angle lens, a hard grad has a fairly soft, yet narrow, transition, so it was perfect for holding back the sky with the uneven horizon.