My goal on a photography trip is to capture one good image every day. To many, that may seem a trivial goal. But the longer I practice landscape photography, the fewer shots I take. And correspondingly, the effort per shot has gone up tremendously. My bar for a "good" image is now quite high. If the composition isn't pleasing or the subject isn't perfectly sharp, nobody but me will ever see the picture.
Meeting my goal of "one image a day" starts early in the morning. The more chances I give myself, the more opportunities I have to capture that one good image. Nevertheless, I do enjoy sleeping on my vacations! For this particular morning, I knew I wanted stay close to the town. That would let me get more sleep since I wouldn't need to drive an hour to a pre-selected location. I woke up an hour before sunrise, packed my gear, and jumped in the car with no destination in mind. The only thing I knew was I wanted a picture of Mt. Elbert, which sits prominently to the west of Leadville, CO. I parked next to a bike path, and a short walk later, I stumbled upon these abandoned tracks. Minutes prior to sunrise, I scrambled to find the ideal composition.
After settling on a composition I liked, it was just a matter of waiting for the sunlight to work its way down the mountain. It's always nice when I can take a good picture at sunrise; it means all my other pictures for the day are bonus.
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