Photos of Cathedral Spires Reflecting Upon Sky Pond at Sunrise
Colorado Photos of Cathedral Spires at Sunrise in Rocky Mountain National Park. These images were captured on a 9 mile round trip hike to Sky Pond. The jagged formation of rocks known as the Cathedral Spires are located above Sky Pond at around 11,000 feet. Sky Pond is situated on a high shelf above Loch Vale. The Petit Grepon and The Sharkstooth are a favorite of rock climbers. In fact, we could hear climbers shouting to each other as they traversed The Sharkstooth above us. This is one of the areas of Rocky Mountain National Park that truly has an otherworldly appearance. The hike up to Sky Pond requires your to climb up the side of a water fall called Timberline Falls. The climb can be quite slippery and challenging, especially in the dark. These photos were taken on August 1, 2018 between 6:33am and 8:39am.
Rocky Mountain National Park Cathedral Spires & Sky Pond Photo Gallery
Gear Used to Photograph Sky Pond and the Cathedral Spires
The following camera gear was used in the Landscape Photography of Sky Pond and the Cathedral Spires in Rocky Mountain National Park:
- a Nikon D850 with a Really Right Stuff L-Bracket,
- F-Stop Gear Aloe Green Tilopa 50L Back Pack (with large Pro ICU),
- a Gitzo CF6X Mountaineer 2 tripod (GT2530),
- with a Really Right Stuff BH-40 LR Ballhead,
- and a Nikkor AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8 lens.
Due to the length and difficulty of this hike we minimized the gear we carried on this trip to only 2 lenses and one camera body (with accessories) and a tripod. The photo to the right was captured as a 14 Bit RAW image and converted to Black and White using Nik Silver Efex Pro. These photos were all taken on the Gitzo CF6X Mountaineer 2 tripod. The D850 exposures for the images averaged between 1/3 of a second to 1/200 of a second at f/11. We used the D850’s native ISO of 64. A few of the photos were created using HDR exposure blending in Adobe Lightroom Classic CC. We also used Adobe Lightroom’s built in panorama feature to create the panoramic photos of Sky Pond.
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