Are the Beetle Killed Pine Trees Ruining Your Photography?

A couple of days ago I decided to take a little walk up to Emerald Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. I wasn't expecting to get very many pictures on that particular trail though. Nymph Lake is the first lake one comes to when hiking up from Bear Lake to Dream or Emerald Lakes, and it used to make a beautiful foreground for a photograph of Long's Peak or Hallet's Peak. These days though, when one takes a photograph from Nymph Lake, one can expect to be disappointed. The beetle killed pines are thick, and the picture appears depressing with all those gray, and dead trees. A couple of years ago, the dead pine trees were somewhat attractive as the pine needles were red, but now the needles are gone and only the dead branches remain like the twisted fingers of a witches skeleton. In fact taking photographs in Rocky Mountain National Park has become quite a challenge in this regard, and I imagine that this poses a challenge for all photographers anywhere that the pine beetles have made their presence known.

So when you are looking at various photography sites, and photographs taken recently in the Rocky Mountains all the way down to the Mexican border, keep in mind this additional challenge photographers now face in order to get that perfect shot, and if you have any pictures of Nymph Lake with Hallet's or Long's Peak in the background, treasure them, because it will be many, many, years before you can take another shot there with green pine trees gracing the rocky mountainsides.