i had been commissioned to photograph some national forest land near a client’s cabin. as is almost always the case, i wondered up there full of coffee well before the sun had risen, to be there when the first light starts to expose the beauty of the landscape. as the sun was making its way above the horizon, the mountains to the west were showing off the results of the previous evening’s weather: the first significant snowfall of the season at higher altitudes. pockets of light making its way through the mountains to the east provided spotlights of warm light on the cold snow outside of leadville, colorado. this was, in my humble opinion, the best of those moments that i was fortunate enough to have seen that morning.