This Photograph Is Ordinary
Hallett Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colorado on November 07, 2015 by Victoria Mroczek. Photographed with a Fujifilm X-T10 and XF35mmF1.4 R lens at 35 mm | ƒ / 7.1 | 1/220 sec.
This photograph is ordinary, yet I have been thinking about it for the last week. It is from a vantage point that is easy access from a short hiking trail. It is a subject that has been photographed countless times. If you Google the term "Dream Lake Rocky Mountain National Park", you will find thousands of images of the same mountain. Thousands of those results will be better than the photograph you see at the top of this page. The weather conditions will be better. In some cases the mountain is illuminated by the rising sun, making it glow bright orange. Some of the photos are captured in the summer when the grass is green and the water is perfect for a refreshing dip. Other images show the valley below covered with snow or fog rising from the lake as the morning sun warms.
So why are we talking about this image? This image is different. The lighting is considered less than ideal. The tip of Hallett Peak is front and center. This image utilizes a tighter crop with details from the surrounding forest removed. Yet this tighter crop makes you feel like you can reach out and feel every rocky detail. I like to think it's a minimal composition of something much bigger.
Most important, this photograph is ours. We made it, or should we say Victoria made it during our first trip to Colorado. To capture this photo we took a drive from our hotel in Denver to Estes Park. Making our way to Rocky Mountain National Park after a quick pit stop at the famous Stanley Hotel. We hiked up the short trail to Dream Lake where Victoria captured this moment at 1/250th of a second. We didn't spend a ton of time here, it was rather crowded with selfie seeking tourists that can get under your skin. So after taking in the view we headed down the mountain which was treacherous to say the least. Most of the trial was covered in a sheet of ice, a side effect of the Colorado Mountains on a warm November day. There were no added safety features, it is just you, the side of a mountain, a lot of ice, and the hope you aren't the one to fall off. At times, the ice was so bad we had to slide down on our butts. We nearly made it to the end of the trial without falling flat on our ass, but there were only a few who were so lucky. It is a memory we hope we never forget.
This trip to Colorado was so influential that we returned two years later. A trip that almost convinced us to leave our tiny apartment in Hoboken and move out west to the mountains. It was our first time in a national park. It was where the seed for our National Park exploration and honeymoon was planted. While this is just a photo to most people, its the start of a journey for us.
