To shoot photos, or not to shoot photos; that is the question raised by Erika Price’s most recent post.

During yesterday’s long trip through Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, I often stayed away from my camera to stay in the moment, but I often just had to try to capture yet another photo, because I wanted to remember it, and my memory doesn’t provide images in brilliant color.   But I didn’t want it all to be about capturing yet another image. It was quite a conundrum.  Experience it versus photograph it.   There were other conundrums too. Look at these incredible scenes wordlessly, or think about them in words while you look at it.

What an incredible experience, to be able to walk through this incredible park, even though it was about 20 degrees and even though the wind was often howling. Down on the trails of Bear Lake, I had my first chance to walk on snow shoes. The perfect tool for the job, when you are sometimes walking on two or three feet of snow.  Note:  Click on any of these images for a much larger version.

My camera (a Canon SD1100IS is a consumer grade camera with photo stitch feature–most consumer cameras have this feature.  I ended up taking about 10 panoramas, because a single photo just doesn’t quite preserve that immense feeling of space.

I was in Denver for a conference last week, and my trip to Rocky Mountain National Park was only for a day. Alas, I dreamed of someday staying there for a week, hiking during the day and writing at night.

Then, when I thought I had seen the most magnificent sights, today I was greeted with a brilliant sky on the way to the airport.