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One of the most popular hikes in the Rocky Mountain National Park is the trail up from Bear Lake to Dream Lake, which my wife Liz and I enjoyed in the early part of our two week holiday in the area.
About halfway between Bear Lake and Dream Lake lies the pretty little Nymph Lake, a shallow expanse of water, covered in lily pads when we came upon it in late September.
Nymph Lake proved to be a welcome resting point in our hike, not having quite acclimatised to the 9,500 feet of altitude we'd recently gained from our sea level home in North Wales.
Once we'd got our breath back and had a bite to eat we spent a little time exploring and photographing the lake.
It was a bright sunny morning, cool and crisp, which was lovely for hiking but not so good for photographing shiny lily pads and reflecting water.
Fortunately I had my polarising filter with me, which I consider essential for any photography involving water or foliage, so I was able to take most of the glare from the foreground lily pads, thus allowing the vibrant colours to take centre stage.
On reviewing the RAW file on our return to the UK I decided to apply a light 'orton effect' processing to the image, to further enhance the colours and add a certain dream-like quality to the final picture, which reflected the other-worldy ambiance of this lovely spot.
Filename - rocky mountains nymph lake 01
Camera - Canon EOS 6D
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 28mm
Exposure - 1/10 sec @ f16, ISO100
Location - Mills Lake, Rocky Mountains
This image - 600x800px JPEG
Conversion - Adobe Lightroom
Comments - Polarising filter used to reduce glare
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