By Jenn Gidman
Images by Kevin Gilligan
With its diverse wildlife (think elk, bighorn sheep, and moose), the highest paved roads in all the US national parks, and hundreds of miles of hiking trails, Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park offers some of the most dramatic photo opportunities in the US. LA photographer Kevin Gilligan visited Denver in October and took a side trip to the park, squeezing in a full day's worth of hiking and picture-taking.
"The great thing about the park is it's open 24 hours a day, weather permitting, so I was able to put in a solid 12 hours," Kevin says. "I knew I had just one day, so I researched some popular photo spots online and was lucky enough to get some tips on what to see from a couple of gracious photographers. I could have stayed there forever with my camera—I was like a kid in a candy shop."
Kevin brought along his Tamron SP 24-70mm VC, SP 70-200mm VC, and new SP 150-600 VC lenses. "Rocky Mountain National Park should be on your bucket list if you love photography and the outdoors," he says. "There are so many terrific things to capture, and I had the ultimate range of focal lengths with those lenses. The Vibration Compensation (VC) feature on all three lenses also helped me eliminate camera shake and take sharp, clear photos of each scene."
Getting up early was how Kevin achieved success with his first images of the day: a black-and-white photo taken right before sunrise (shot at 27mm, F/2.8, 1/8 of a second) and one right after sunrise on Bear Lake (24mm, F/8, 1/50 of a second). "I left Denver around 4 a.m. and drove two hours to get to the park," he says. "It was pitch black when I got there—I had to drive down a long, narrow, winding road for 20 minutes, then hike in the dark up a trail with a headlamp."
When Kevin finally stopped to set up, he went to put the camera on his tripod and discovered his ballhead was gone. "I had to adapt very quickly, before the sun came up," he says. "I switched on the Vibration Compensation on the 24-70 and just tried to get the camera as steady as possible using my jacket, some rocks, and whatever other doodads I could find in my backpack."
Even more critical to achieving these images was that Kevin arrived early enough to capture beautiful reflections. "The wind kicked up shortly after I took both pictures and those perfect reflections disappeared," he says.
Kevin's never quite sure before he takes a photo how he's going to process it on the back end ("it's always the composition for me first"), but once Kevin saw the view from Trail Ridge Road—the highest point in the park at 12,000 feet—he knew he was going to convert to a black-and-white image with a slightly bluish tint. "The view was stunning up there," he says. "I wanted to show off the various contrasts in the sky and landscape, so I converted the image. I took this photo at 24mm, F/8, 1/800 of a second."
A black-and-white landscape taken with the 70-200 allowed Kevin to indulge his inner Ansel Adams. "The perspective of this scene reminded me of Adams' 'Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico' photo a little bit," he says. "This was actually taken from quite far away, but I love the details in the mountains I was able to get with this lens. I took this photo at 70mm at F/5.6, 1/250 of a second. I'm heading up to Yosemite in April for spring break and hope to pay even more of an homage to Adams with photos like this."
Three hours into his morning hike, Kevin came across a lake toward the top of the mountain that was shimmering in the sunlight. "The light was bouncing off the water in such a magical way," he says. "I couldn't believe how clean and clear the lake was—you could see the rocks on the bottom. I used a polarizer to cut down on some of the glare and took the photo at 24mm, shooting at F/5.6, 1/100 of a second."
After his relaxing hike into the Rocky Mountain heavens, Kevin started his descent and came across another lake he had spotted earlier that morning on his way up. "When you're in a national park like this, the light can change dramatically throughout the day," he explains. "Sometimes the way the light hits the mountains, there may be too much shadow, or the reflection in the water won't be quite right. When I first hiked up that morning, the green of the trees here was too dark. When I came back down around 11 a.m., though, the light was illuminating the trees and the lily pads just right. That's when I captured this image at F/5.6, 1/125 of a second."
As he entered the lowland meadows, Kevin spotted a line of cars. Visitors were snapping away with their iPhones, iPads, and cameras with short lenses, trying to capture photos of a magnificent-looking elk about 300 yards away. "I give them credit for trying, but why bother from so far?" Kevin says. "I pulled out my 150-600, put it on my tripod, and starting taking pictures. The elk was walking around and I was following it with the camera when he suddenly stopped and looked right at me. I was zoomed in to 309mm and took the picture at F/6.3, 1/800 of a second. I love the detail I was able to get in its eyes and fur—I wouldn't have been able to capture this photo if I didn't have the 150-600 with me. There was another photographer trying to capture the elk with a shorter lens. When I showed up next to her with the 150-600, she took a look at the lens, looked at me, dropped her head, and said, "I should have brought a longer lens" and walked away.
To see more of Kevin Gilligan's work, go to www.photosbykag.com.