Azure Morning Clouds
Colorado

20×20″ prints are $1,500
30×30″ prints are $3,000

In 2003 Ruth and I had a very successful photographic trip which included making many worthwhile photographs in Colorado. I rarely make cloud photographs, it has to be something very special to move it out of the cliche realm.

This photograph was made early one morning. We had been photographing near McClure Pass in Colorado and decided to check out another area of the state where there were reported to be some tasty groves of aspen trees. We had just driven over the summit of Berthoud Pass at 11,300 feet when I saw this cloud formation. I had Ruth pull the van over and park on the shoulder of the road.

I quickly set up my Hasselblad camera using my 300mm Tele-Superachromat lens. I focused very carefully and then made an exposure on Velvia 50 film at f/5.6, the sharpest aperture of this lens. Because of the clarity of the air at that high altitude and the extraordinary resolution and perfect color rendering of that lens, the film has amazing tonal separation and detail.

Since when printing Cibachrome I always use special high resolution Apo-EL-Nikkor lenses, the Cibachrome prints have great delicacy and fine detail. Making a Cibachrome print is not easy but it is possible to make prints that convey what inspired me to make the photograph.

An Orthodox priest I know visited my studio on the day I was making prints of this image. He gazed at the print for a while and then remarked “Christopher, you’ve been photographing this world for quite a while but now I see you’ve photographed heaven.”