Colorado revisited

Landscape photographers are often encouraged to go back to locations they’ve previously visited, but is waiting 40 years too much?

- Tom Mackie

As landscape photographers, we’re always told to go back, time and time again, to the same locations to increase our chances of coming away with a great shot. I make a point of doing this, but I generally don’t wait 40 years! I was in Colorado shooting the mountain wildflowers and decided to revisit a couple of locations that I had photographed back in the early ’80s. I wanted to see if they had changed much, but mainly I wanted to see if I could improve on what I had created before. Technology has come along way since I was hiking around with a large-format 5x4 camera, so I was anxious to reshoot these using my D850.

Maroon Bells is an iconic location that attracts many photographers, especially in the autumn, when the aspens turn a golden yellow. As I was driving down the road to the lake, the traffic came to a stop where there’s now a tollbooth collecting an entrance fee. I was out of cash, so I handed over my credit card only to be told they don’t accept cards, only cash or cheques. Do people still write cheques?