Sunrise Elopement in RMNPElopement Details:

The weather in the mountains continually is changing.  That is something we were reminded of for Tristan and Hannah’s Elopement.  While we know that as the sun comes up the clouds will as we call it burn off we also know things are not instantaneous.  We met up with them in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) for their wedding.  It was sunrise and outside of this other couple that was going some hiking the only other company we had was a herd of Elk.

The day was more cloudy than what the weather forecasted and for us it meant that the photos would be darker with less of a background.  Often in this type of high altitude rocky mountain terrain on cloudy days the mountains above tree line will disappear into the clouds.  While many photographers would love the consistency of the lighting we found it less than ideal as we love direct light from the sun and a lot of it.

We did the ceremony in this field overlooking the mountains as the sun began to come up.  From there we took photos of them as some random breaks in the clouds opened up.  While you might think since you could see Longs Peak in the background you could get the couple in the photo with the mountains.  We started with the flash a little lower in power but found ourselves pushing it to the 400ws worth of power up close with the aperture all closed down.

What this means is we focus on the background and the couple and so that the couple is not black we light them up with a flash.  This recipe will make for a dramatic look and certainly with some clouds surrounding us.  The sun did come out and we shifted over to the other extreme getting some sun saturated photos.  It is quite rare that in the same shoot we get both of these level of extremes but welcome to the Colorado mountain life.

You can see more mountain weddings on our blog and see more mini weddings and elopements at that link. If you like what you see here and are considering using Rocky Mountain National Park here are some of the other shoots we have done at Rocky Mountain National Park.