Wind is a fact of life during winter in Rocky Mountain National Park. Gusty weather conditions are probably my least favorite to take pictures in. The reason why is landscape photographers love using narrow apertures to maintain a sharp depth of field. However, with narrow apertures come slow shutter speeds to allow enough light to expose an image.
During the spring and summer months windy days make it difficult to keep flowers and other foreground subjects in focus when using slow shutter speeds. The leaves of aspen trees and other foliage also blur on windy days in the fall months. In winter, wind remains an annoyance to a photographer (winds at this time of year are not just cold, they can literally knock you off your feet in the Rockies) though wind can also create interesting patterns of clouds or snow drifts circling peaks as in this shot taken of Thatchtop Mountain. There aren’t many times wind works to the advantage of a photographer (the only time I ever remember loving the wind was when I was shooting sailing regattas in the Caribbean) but days like this one come to mind when the wind wasn’t too intense to shake my tripod where I was standing, but enough to cause this dramatic circling snow cloud a few thousand feet above allowing me to take a sharp, yet compelling landscape photograph.
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