Snowscape in both color and black & white

Always attracted to the sensuous shapes formed by snow on the landscape, I was lucky today in that I could incorporate them into a photo of scenery, instead of shooting them alone.  To emphasize the curves, I stayed at a short distance and zoomed in more than I usually do for landscape photographs. 

Like many winter scenes, this I rendered this one in both color and black and white.  I'm unsure which I like better, so I included both of them here.

Oh, the strange shapes you'll see

Snowstorms earlier in the week coated the windward side of every tree.  Then the sun and mild temperatures would melt the snow, which re-froze at night, creating some interesting ice formations like the one above.

This caught my eye as I was snowshoeing up the mountainside, and I was more than willing to take a rest to catch my breath and fire off a dozen or more photos.  This one is my favorite, because of the bokeh pine that creates great contrast with the ice.

Panorama gif file

By combining eight images into a single animated gif file, I found a new way to make a landscape panorama. 

Click the image, if it's not animating for you.

Sensuous Snow Shapes

A day or two after a new snowfall, sun and gravity work their magic on the landscape, creating some fantastic shapes in the snow.

I brought the black slider up in Photoshop levels to improve the contrast of this photo.

Black and white winterscape

Hiking to the top of Huntsmans Ridge, these snow-covered trees were irresistible.  Though it looks like I was using a polarizing filter, all I had was a UV filter on the lens.  The sky was just that blue.  I converted to black and white using the Channel Mixer in Photoshop. 

This was one of my favorite photos of the day, and I had a lot of good ones.  Of over five hundred photos shot, I posted only ten to my flickr pages.  One of the many advantages of digital is the ability to compose the same scene many different ways, and choose the best once you get home and upload the photos to your computer.

I cropped up from the bottom on this photograph, mostly to improve the balance (rule of thirds), but also to remove some unnecessary foreground.

Frosty plant on a frosty morning

The frozen water drops and delicate frost on this plant caught my eye as I walked through the snow to capture a winter landscape (winterscape) one chilly Colorado morning.

Driftwood in Snowdrift

It's funny how the different seasons cause one to see things differently.  The winter landscape can be rather stark, with the absence of leaves and many plants covered in snow.

Walking along the riverbed after a snowstorm, the wind and sun had exposed the top parts of driftwood among the rocks.  The textures and contrasts really stand out when all else is removed from your field of vision.

monochromatic landscape

A gray day with snow flurries is a perfect time for black and white landscape photography.

Walking along the riverbed, I found many pieces of driftwood that had interesting textures.  I grabbed this one and carried it to a bend in the river where the snow and ice formed interesting shapes among the rocks. 

After taking a few photos standing and kneeling, I held the camera a few inches off the ground, pointing it in the same direction and angle that I did in my other shots.  The wide angle causes the viewer's eye to start at the rocks and driftwood, and work upward into the rest of the landscape.

After I got home, I converted the image to black and white with the Channel Mixer in Photoshop.

Free Online Photo Editing

Maybe you haven't purchased image editing software yet, or maybe you're away from the computer that has it, but you've got some photos and you have access to the web.  What do you do?  I like picnik.com in these situations.  Since I carry my camera in the car all the time, it's not unusual to capture a great image on the way to work.  Eager to share it with the world before I get home, I'll upload it to picnik and edit it there.  Below are just a few examples of the many options available to you there.  

For this first image, I used picnik's auto-correct and sharpening functions.  It's a pretty true representation of the scene I saw.  Then, as I often do with snowy or cloudy scenes, I converted it to black and white:

 The image above applies an effect that picnik calls "lomo-ish."

The one below is using their "hdr" effect.

Timing is Everything!

 

Sometimes you get lucky.  The more you go out to shoot, the better your chances are of this happening.  It's a good idea to bring your camera with you all the time.  I started doing this about five years ago, and as a result have been able to capture some images that would otherwise exist only in my memory.

For the shot above, I was showing my folks around Marble, Colorado on an autumn afternoon.  We started driving back to my house when I saw a plane taxiing to one end of the small airstrip there.  There's very little activity at this strip, so I recognized this as a rare opportunity.  We pulled over at the far end, and I positioned myself so the plane would fly right over my head.  As the plane approached, I fired off half a dozen shots.  This is my favorite.

In an effort to capture the amazing colors of autumn in the mountains, I got up early every day for over two weeks and drove to the far side of Beaver Lake in Marble, Colorado.  On this particular morning, it was pretty clear when I left home, but some rain clouds were moving in quickly from the southwest.  The sun rose over the mountains to the east as the clouds and rain reached Marble, creating the conditions for these two photos.  The first is the light hitting the rain falling to the valley downstream.  The next one is the rainbow that formed when the rain reached the far side of the lake.  I especially like how the base of the rainbow is on the colorful mountainside aspen trees.

Clouds and Colors

A couple weeks past peak color, the mountainsides were still brilliant this year.  On this particular morning, the overnight rains left behind fog and low clouds that are always fun to photograph.  This shot was taken just below McClure Pass, in the Crystal River valley between Redstone and Marble, Colorado.

Black and white landscape with mountains and river

I really thought my black and white treatment would decrease when the summer colors returned, but the classic look of a landscape (especially those with great clouds) in black and white is keeping me at it.

This photo of the Crystal River beneath Chair Mountain appeals to me both because of the great patterns and textures, as well as all the natural lines that lead the eye into the photo.

Clouds refleced in Eagle Lake

I normally turn the polarizing filter to cut through the glare on the water, revealing the rocks and trees beneath the surface.  For this shot, I turned it to maximize the reflection of the clouds overhead. 

Eagle Lake is in the Holy Cross Wilderness Area of Colorado.

Wildflowers

I like to call these types of shots "microscapes," because they're miniature landscapes.  Besides composing for the flowers, including nearby rocks and logs, positioning everything properly in the frame, and considering the bokeh are all things to keep in mind when shooting microscapes.

colorado landscape with mountain

Mt. Sopris, just south of Carbondale, Colorado, dominates the landscape in much of the Roaring Fork and Crystal River valleys.  It looks best from the north/northwest, which means you're often shooting into the sun when photographing it.  That means you need to photograph it in the evening, or during the months when the sun is very high in the sky (i.e. May-August). 

Arches National Park

Skyline Arch in Arches National Park yesterday morning. 

Driving into the park while looking at the map, it seemed like we wanted to hit those features that you could view from the east or south sides, so they would be lit by the morning sun.  There was a parking area and sign pointing to the west side of this arch, but it looked like we could drive into the campground and get a better view of it there. 

We parked at the ampitheater, and followed a well-worn but empty trail behind it to the arch.  There was nobody around, which couldn't be said for the rest of the park on this gorgeous Sunday.  Climbing around the rocks, we took a few photos of the arch from different angles before I noticed this patch of sand with some grasses and flowers that looked like they could be interesting foreground elements.

Big sky photography

I'm still enthralled with black and white photography, both because of the muted colors of spring, as well as the great contrast between clouds and sky.  I usually compose my landscapes with the horizon about one-third of the way below the top of the frame.  That allows the wide angle lens to capture more of the foreground, and pull the viewer into the image.  During a break in the stormy weather yesterday, I went out to grab some shots, and couldn't resist showing the fantastic clouds above the mountains.  This required moving the horizon to the bottom third of the image, which is so hard for me to do.  I'm pleased with the results, however, especially after the conversion to B&W.

Colorado riverscape in black and white

I am really enjoying black and white photography this year.  I began in late winter, and continued into the spring, mostly because the colors are rather muted now.  Even today, when an azure sky was graced by fluffy white clouds, the black and white treatment looks fantastic. 

desert lizard

I love everything about this photo.  The angle of the light relative to my camera, the camera's height and angle, the bokeh in the foreground and background, the lizard's pose and position in the frame - all of it.

Too often people shoot small wildlife and flowers from above.  I prefer to get down low, much closer to the subject's height.  For this shot, I got as close to the lizard as he would let me (they spook easily), zoomed in to about 100mm, and held the camera down and away from me.  I've been shooting this way for a while, and am getting pretty good at knowing what's going to be in the viewfinder.  Even still, I'll take several shots to ensure one of them is a winner.

Colorado National Monument in black and white

We enjoyed a couple of nice walks in the Colorado National Monument this past weekend.  The feature known as Eagle Rock is a natural element to want to include in landscape photos.  As I walked along the trail, I kept my eye out for interesting features to include in the foreground.  I found a few, and stopped at them to take some photos.  But the real treasure was a gully, or wash, flowing away from the cliff wall.  Walking up the wash yielded several fantastic views and I got some great shots at each.

The view above, unlike the others, seemed to work much better in black and white than in color.  Maybe it was because of all the rocks in the foreground.  It's the only black and white shot from the day.

Spring is "mud season" in the mountains, and I'll be seeking out lower elevation hikes and desert outings for the next month and a half.

rain drops on plants

I should really invest in a macro lens, so I can get much closer to my subject.  Lots of rain last night made for foggy conditions today, but not foggy enough for the landscape photos I hoped to take by the river.  Instead I found this plant on the way back.  Unlike most of the others, which had some drops, this one was covered with them.  I positioned the tripod in several spots, each yielding both a different view and a different background.  This one was chosen for the great bokeh.

Spring rapids

The Crystal River dwindles to a flow of forty cubic feet per second in late winter.  Fueled by the spring melt, it surges to over two thousand cfs at its peak, usually in May.  Yesterday it was flowing at four hundred cfs when I set up my tripod to take this shot.  I still had the neutral density filter on the camera, as I was hoping to capture the "hidden falls" I discovered last year.  That had yet to start flowing, so I figured I would get what I could, despite the cloudy skies.  As long as the colors remain muted, I'll continue to convert to black and white.

A seasonal waterfall

I recently got a 4x neutral density filter, and wanted to try it out on the seasonal waterfall south of Redsone, Colorado.  The colors this time of year are rather muted, so I may be converting all of my photos to black and white with the channel mixer in Photoshop.

Landscape Photo Carousel

PictureTrail.com is a site where you can create all sorts of fun ways to show off your photos.

Mt. Sopris on an early spring evening

Given its majesty and how well it looks in the late afternoon and evening, you would think that I had thousands of photos of Mt. Sopris.  I've got a few I really like, but the conditions have to be right for me to pull over on the way home from work and fire off a few shots.  Last night was one of those times when conditions were great. 

Instead of the hazy or snow-filled skies, or the boring cloudless skies of a really nice day, there were just the right amount of clouds surrounding the summit of this 12,950 foot peak south of Carbondale, Colorado.

The polarizing filter deepened the color saturation and brought out the contrast between the clouds and sky well.  I zoomed in a bit, using a 44mm focal length (66mm equivalent), and this morning cropped up from the bottom to finalize it.

Sunny early spring day in Colorado

Bad weather and other circumstances have kept me from getting out and photographing on my day off for the last several weeks.  Nothing was stopping me today, and we went down to the river to see what was worthy of capturing.  Though we had some new snow this week, it's that time of year when it's melting faster than it's falling, and the river banks showed that. 

This bend in the Crystal River, between Redstone and Marble, Colorado, is called Placita.  It's one of my favorite places to go any time of year.  I had a polarizing filter on the camera, but because we were shooting into the sun much of the time, it didn't have much of an effect, other than cutting through the glare on the river.

One of my favorite vistas

Driving north from the Paonia Reservoir on Highway 133, one crests McClure Pass and is treated to an incredible view up the Crystal River valley.  When first time visitors to my home come in from Carbondale, to the north, I'll often pass my house and continue up the pass to show them this scene.

It's also a place from which I like to take many photos.  I got a great night shot here when the January full moon was illuminating the landscape.  It's also great in the spring and fall, when morning fog fills the lower reaches of the valley.

On this morning, the day after taking some okay shots, I waited until the morning light was just hitting the foreground, and put a polarizing filter on the camera to accentuate the blue sky and make the clouds stand out more.  I have to say conditions were near perfect, and I'm very pleased with the result

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

I've been exploring black and white photography lately, as the winter landscape lends itself well to monochrome treatment.  Some of the results have been stunning, which made me wonder what other photos I had that might improve if I removed the color.

The Black Canyon is a challenge to photograph.  Because it's so narrow and deep, little light reaches the bottom, and while the views from the rim are stunning, capturing that on film or digital sensor is not easy.

I really like how this one came out.  The clouds and mottled light on the northwest wall show up well, and you can really appreciate the texture of the walls.

morning light on mountaintops

The hour after sunrise and the one before sunset are often referred to as the "magic hours" because of the soft warm light cast by the low sun.  In the mountains, this time also means that many valleys will be shaded.  This is a great opporunity to use a graduated neutral density filter or create a high-dynamic-range (HDR) image.

The photo above was neither, as I pulled over on my way to work to capture the scene with a handheld camera.  With my tripod and camera manual in the truck, I hope to try some bracketed photos in the coming weeks, and see if I can turn them into HDR at home.

Icicle Bokeh

The icicles outside my bedroom window are always interesting, but tonight the idea occurred to me that they might take on a fantastic look at sunset.  I set up my tripod and camera just after 5pm, and took about eighty photos over the next forty five minutes.  This is one of the last photographs.

It was tempting to include the mountainside across the river, but I opted instead to have only the clouds and sky in my frame for most of the shots.

I think I'll rename and refocus this site on landscape and nature photography, as my website, Best-Landscape-Photography.com, is concentrating more on landscape photography.  Maybe the blog will attract a different audience that way.

Three more icicle photos, including one of the first, are on my flickr pages, where I have a landscape photograph from earlier in the day.

Winter landscape in black and white

The winter landscape is somewhat monochromatic, especially on cloudy days.  That's why black and white photography is a natural in this season.  I normally try to avoid shooting into the sun, but it worked out surprisingly well this time, with the glare off the ice highlighting the surface texture.

This photo was taken along the Crystal River, below Chair Mountain and McClure pass, between Redstone and Marble, Colorado. 

Snowscape

Winter photography offers both challenges and opportunities that don't exist in the other seasons.  What would have been an otherwise uninteresting row of rocks along the riverbank becomes a study in textures and shadows when covered with snow.

The surface of the snow, after a number of sunny days and very cold nights, has many flat crystaline shapes which reflect the sun.

This shot was taken while snowshoeing along Anthracite Creek near Erickson Springs, between the Paonia dam and Kebler Pass in western Colorado.

exposure

My photography career takes another leap forward with an online gallery at the mountain travel site Rockies.com. Right now they're building their new site at coorsfield.com.

Not only do I hope they send some traffic my way, but their link to my site should improve its credibility with search engines - something I need to build traffic.

My Web Presence

Still trying to determine the role that each of my various web entities will play and how they relate to one another.

The first blog, Colorado-Wilderness, is going to adopt a travel-focus, mostly on hiking and camping in the wilderness and backcountry of Colorado. There are plenty of vacation and tourism sites on the web, and I've no illusion of competing with them. However, I think I can carve out a niche for those who seek adventure travel and the lesser-known and lesser-traveled, but equally gorgeous scenery. For those who don't go venture into the wilderness as often as I do, I'm creating posts with tips on packing, eating, and other advice helpful in making for a positive backcountry experience.

Meanwhile, I hope to put most of my energy into my website, Best-Landscape-Photography. That's where I'll showcase my best landscape and nature photographs in my photo gallery, offer tips and techniques on composition, light, and other aspects of nature photography, tell you how you can sell your photographs, let visitors post equipment reviews, and more things related to photography in general.

As for my CafePress stores, like Colorado-Flower, where you can purchase t-shirts, mugs, and other gifts with my great columbine photo, and I-Love-Horses, where I joke that I "sell horse shit," I think I can incorporate these into the blogs and web site.

Best Landscape Photography

After years of critical acclaim for my incredible landscape photography, I'm pleased to announce that I finally set up my own web site.

Best-Landscape-Photography.com is more than a showcase for my landscape images. I'll also share my secrets for great composition, and have other tips and techniques for anyone wanting to improve their own photographic skills.