I've finally finished my freshman year of college at CU Boulder. I've been home for 9 days and for seven of those, I've been up shooting raft photos on Clear Creek in Idaho Springs, CO.
I absolutely love my job. Being outside on the river all day, hanging out with raft guides, taking photos— it's pretty hard to beat for a summer job as a college student. However, going from school to an instant full-time gig has left me a few spare minutes of free time, hence my personal photography has suffered.
Luckily, I was off river-duty for the same two days that our long-awaited spring snowstorm hit. The front range has been a little dry for this time of the year, due to the countless summer-like days in February and March. The Colorado natives have been praising this late spring snowstorm. We desperately needed it.
After about 1.5 feet of snow, I had a little extra time on my hands and decided to do a quick hike to Maxwell Falls in Evergreen for one last winter hurrah. I clipped on my snowshoes, threw my camera in my daypack and walked out through the fog towards the falls.
I reached the falls, a hidden gem in Evergreen, and couldn't decide where to set up for my shot. I definitely wanted to do a long-exposure of the creek, but couldn't figure out how to get to the bottom of the falls. I had only been out here once before, but the river was still frozen then. It had thawed out by now, but it was a slippery, snow-covered maze of rocks to the base of the waterfall. So after scrambling around the rock formations for a little while, I decided to move back upstream to this little riffle I found in the creek.
The water here was shallow enough for me to walk out in the middle of the stream without completely soaking my snow boots. I set up my tripod, slowed down my shutter speed and attached a ND filter to my wide-angle lens. The snow was completely undisturbed creating a perfect winter scene. The creek was running ice-free and the snow had a mashed potato consistency, giving the photo a heavy, "spring" effect.
I got my imagined shot and continued to snowshoe back to my car and woke up early the next morning to head back out to the river.