A Winter Night above Ouray

Bridge of Heaven,Colorado,San Juan Mountains,camping,tent, Ouray, February

Eager to test drive a newly purchased camera, I headed out yesterday for a night of winter camping up on the “lower” Bridge of Heaven overlooking the town of Ouray, Colorado. I found a ridiculous spot to pitch my tent, right on the point of a precipitous rock outcropping! This airy perch provided a spectacular scene for tent photos, as well as an island of dry rock amongst the snow to cook and relax in ease.

Bridge of Heaven, San Juan Mountains, Colorado, Ouray, February, night, stars, tent, camping

The evening was calm and quiet at first, but once I got into my sleeping bag the wind whipped up and shook the tent all night long. Though I knew the tent was solidly anchored down with rocks, the unnerving ruckus kept me awake most of night anyways.

Bridge of Heaven,Colorado,San Juan Mountains,camping,tent, Ouray, February, sunrise

The morning brought a colorful sunrise along with a quick morning snowstorm before I packed up and headed back down. Thanks to Steven from Texas whose infectious enthusiasm to get out for some winter hiking ended up inspiring me to get out and make the trip!

6 thoughts on “A Winter Night above Ouray

  1. Hi Jack,

    New camera? . Maybe a Sony AR 7 with Canon adapter for your TS lenses ? Just curious.
    Always enjoy your photography here from Germany.

    Best regards

    Uwe

    1. You got it, Uwe! My first impressions of this combo so far: noticeably more resolution to work with, on par with my drum scanned 4×5 film. However, attaining this resolution is more demanding since the lenses must be stopped down quite a bit, like to around f/8 or more, or else details can soften in the corners. I’m not sure if this is due to variances in the adapter precision, or just the fact that the higher resolution sensor is showing some limits in the lenses that I haven’t noticed before. Probably a combination of the two. In any case, because of this, I’m thinking that this camera combo might be a “one trick pony”: excellent at big landscape scenes but perhaps not so easy to use for other types of shooting such as telephoto work, or large aperture work such as nighttime shooting or close up shooting with bokeh. I need more time to experiment with it. But so far I think it’s a keeper. 🙂

  2. Great pictures Jack! Makes me wish I could have made it! Maybe we can hit another spot next time I”m up there, wonderful area you live in.

    Take care,

    Steven

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