breck mag2011 005

“Fall Color and Bald Mountain”
Boreas Pass
Gold Run Road
Breckenridge, Colorado

.The old Gold Run Trail Road ran from the gold mines outside of Breckenridge to the town ore crushers in the 1800’s on French Creek. The trail is now popular for hiking and biking. This shot is between the junctions of Boreas pass and Gold Run which are one and the same trail running from the old gold camp Tiger to Como, Colorado from Breckenridge, Colorado.
This shot captures an amazing fall color on Aspen trees. The heavy rainfall of summer contributes to the varied colors on the Aspen trees on a historic trail.


From Breckenridge Magazine Article
2011
Doubt that this is one of Summit’s most inspiring times of year? Ask former National Geographic photographer and Breckenridge local David Carter Pfau. “My favorite two weeks of the year are fall color
season,” he says. “I’ll plan spots years in advance, scouting one year, returning the next.” But capturing the magic with a camera isn’t such a snap. That panoramic view that made you pull your car over to grab a shot often looks puny and dull in your view finder. Pfau’s philosophy is simple: “The first thing you have to learn is not to take pictures,” says Pfau, who takes a mere 500 images a year as a pro. “Only take them during magic moments when everything is coming together...not every moment is a camera moment.” Other moments are for reveling in, he says. Pull over, stop, walk around, and absorb the beauty of a scene, but resist shooting it unless it’s going to be a lifetime shot. “Otherwise, you’re just documenting, not creating a moment. Shooting volume makes something mundane. You just overdid it instead of capturing just a few quality images. Train yourself not to take a single frame until something truly takes your breath away.”
Another challenge shutterbugs face is the leaves themselves. “The quaking aspen leaf is a delicate thing to capture,” says Pfau. “It has a dynamic range of color and most cameras can’t capture it. They don’t understand that variety and light, so the photographer has to overcome the camera’s limitation.”
Read less