Snow and Hoar Frost

Hiking up Avalanche Creek three days after a respectable snowfall, the scenery was full of winter wonder.  Hoar frost, ice crystals, and mounds of soft snow were all around us.  Despite the mid-December date, the sun felt very warm on our skin.  It was a great day to walk around capturing nature in mega-pixels.

Autumn Mountain Landscapes

In most of the years I've lived in Colorado, the leaves are well-off the trees before any decent snow falls.  The late-changing colors this year, however, afforded a rare opportunity when we got a good snowfall the other day.  It cleared overnight, and I waited until the sun was high in the sky, illuminating the west slope of the mountains across the river from me before driving up to the pass to capture this scene of autumn leaves and snow-covered peaks.

Autumn Landscape with Mountains and Trees

The leaves have finally begun to turn out here.  In a normal year, the aspens would have been at this stage a week ago, and the scrub oak would be two weeks past their peak.  But this is an unusual year, as you can see from these photos of Chair Mountain and the Crystal River valley.  Shot in the beautiful stretch of scenic road between Redstone and Marble, Colorado, this area is ablaze with great fall colors every year.

Mountain Landscape with Pond and Clouds in both color and black & white

I usually turn the polarizing filter to cut through the reflection on the water, but a lack of subsurface interests prompted me to turn it the other way and maximize the reflection, capturing both the mountains and the fantastic cumulus clouds.

This pond is next to the airstrip, a mile or so west of Marble, Colorado.

Frying Pan Lakes

Spending two nights at Frying Pan Lakes, in the Hunter-Frying Pan Wilderness Area of Colorado, allowed me to photograph them at sunrise, sunset, and all times in between.

As usual with landscape photographs, some of my favorites were those taken with the polarizing filter.  I particularly liked the ice formations on the lower lake my last morning, and the polarizer cut through the reflection to see the rocks beneath the surface.

Colorado National Monument in Grand Junction

Bordering Grand Junction, Colorado to the west is the Colorado National Monument.  This year, it celebrates its 100th anniversary.  The canyons, mesas, and outcrops are most photogenic early in the morning, when the rising sun lights up their east-facing features.  This area is high desert, and the cactus blooms in late May bring lots of color to the landscape.

The buck returns.... in better light

Deer are so prevalent in the U.S. that many people who don't live in urban areas can see them frequently.  Still, like most wildlife, there's an attraction to spotting them.

There are three bucks that have been visiting my neighborhood lately.  Often they come after sunset, and photographing them is difficult.  This one was grazing in front of my house yesterday evening about 6:30, and thus was easy to capture - if I didn't spook him.

The Yule Creek valley and Mt. Justice

A pair of bucks were grazing in front of my house this evening

I happened to be walking through the living room when I saw two bucks in front of the house.  Knowing how easily they spook, I ran quickly and quietly to the garage and grabbed my camera from the car.  I turned up the ISO to 640 because the light was fading, and took a few photos from inside the house.  Then, ever so slowly and quietly, I opened the front door and crept out on to the deck.  They didn't notice me, and I was able to walk a few steps out to get a better view.  From then on, they would occasionally look up, and I had to remain motionless until they were convinced I wasn't there (or wasn't a threat). 

Disappearing Mountains

An infected bug bite has kept me from doing what I like doing for a couple of weeks, but it's healing now, and I look forward to many photo hikes.

This photo was shot on my way to work this morning.  Overnight rain and high humidity (for us) is making fog and low clouds that are great for landscape photography.

That's Chair Mountain shrouded in clouds, as seen from Highway 133.

Mt. Sopris, Carbondale, Colorado

Mt. Sopris is just a few dozen feet shy of 13,000 feet.  It can be seen from much of the Roaring Fork valley, and is admired for it's beautiful shape and the way it stands alone, almost like a sentinel guarding the Crystal River valley.

Depending on the season, weather, and time of day, Sopris can have many moods.  It's almost always very photogenic.  On this particular afternoon, the humidity of monsoon season was creating some very dramatic clouds.  With just enough sunlight hitting the northwest slope of the mountain, I had to pull over and take a few shots.

Rain

It's been very rainy here for the last week.  We've had showers and thundershowers every afternoon or evening.  While this makes landscape photography a challenge (if not an impossibility), it does create some great opportunities for other nature photography.

The flat light is great for close-ups of plants, most of which have rain drops, which always has an interesting visual appeal.

When shooting this close, you're going to have very limited depth of field.  I recommend taking many shots of each leaf and flower, and looking over the on the computer to see which ones you like best.  I also believe you should crop much of the scene away, leaving the colors, textures, and contrast of the items that drew your attention in the first place.

As always, avoid centering.  Try to place the most interesting part of your image off-center.

Mmmm, plant life

Leaves, bark, buds, bugs, and bokeh

A nice walk in the Wisconsin woods yielded several good photos as well as a few hitchhiking ticks.

Colorado wildflowers

When photographing wildflowers, there are several things to keep in mind in order to produce the best results.  First of all, get close.  I'll often get as close as my lens can focus.  Then zoom in.  Fill the frame with the flowers, if possible.  Also, consider the orientation of the flower.  For the yellow one above, it was best shot from above.  Most wildflowers, however, are best shot from the same height as the flower itself.  Get down low.  If the ground is muddy or you're unable to get your body as low as the flower, hold your camera down there and shoot several exposures.  Over time you'll become comfortable aiming your camera without looking through the viewfinder.

Consider the background too.  For the shooting stars, I sought those that were partly in the sun, but had a shady area behind them.  This really helps the flowers stand out.  Also, make use of shallow depth of field to create an unfocused - or Bokeh - background, as I did with the white flower above.

Finally, consider your composition.  Do not center the flowers in the frame.  Either when shooting or afterwards when you're in post-production, crop the image so the main flower in your image is off-center and above or below the mid-point of the frame.

Glenwood Canyon's Hanging Lake

I posted both stills and videos to my Colorado Wilderness blog, but since Hanging Lake is such a popular destination, I thought I should put up a few here too.

Putting the polarizing filter on the camera for the first time this year, I hiked up to Hanging Lake to shoot both stills and videos (see the videos here).

It was bright enough that I handheld the camera for all of these shots, using the aperture priority setting and choosing "cloudy" for the white balance (a setting I like because it gives such a warm tone to the images).  Later, in Photoshop, I needed only small adjustments to levels and the unsharp mask.  The black & white image was created (as most of mine are) using the channel mixer (boosting the green and lowering the red channels).

I really wish I had a wider angle lens for situations like this.  The entire scene, from the lake at my feet to the top of the canyon walls around me, is worth capturing.

Seasonal waterfall cascading into the Crystal River

I don't use my neutral density (ND) filter often, but this scene, especially on this day, called for it.  The ND filter and f25 aperture allowed a 1/3 second exposure, which softened the gushing falls and surging river.  On a cloudy day, the slow exposure seemed to work well with the muted colors.

More morning fog

There were just a few wisps of fog when I got up this morning, but the temperature and dewpoint (38 and 37, respectively) were very similar to those two days earlier, when a dense fog filled the valley. 

When I got to the top of McClure Pass, the fog was filling the Crystal River valley nicely, and there were some low clouds clinging to the peaks of the Ragged Mountains.

Foggy Mountain Panorama

Morning fog in the Crystal River valley.

This panorama was created from six images.  My friend stitched them together in Photoshop, then sent me the file which I cleaned up at Picnik.com.

Though it was relatively clear when I got up this morning, I noticed the temperature (38) and dewpoint (37) were very similar to what they were on Monday morning, when I got some great fog shots.  Waiting an hour or so allowed the fog to form and the sun to rise.  I was rewarded for both my patience and the drive up to McClure Pass to capture these images.

Click on the image to see it full-size (or at least your screen size).

Snow on the mountains; fog in the valley

Landscape with mountain and field of dandelions

Mt. Sopris is south of Carbondale, Colorado, in the Crystal River valley.  Spring clouds and fields of dandelions make this majestic mountain especially photogenic in both color and black & white.

Two very different landscapes in black & white

Frequent visitors to my blog or flickr pages know I love both color and black & white photography.  Images with sharp contrast differences, especially those with muted or few colors, lend themselves well to conversion to black & white.  The problem is choosing the best way to do it, and how.

McCloyd Canyon, Cedar Mesa, Utah

Seasonal Waterfal, Redstone, Colorado

For these two photos, I used my favorite method of conversion - the channel mixer in Photoshop.  However, the process is very different for the two shots. 

Most of my alpine shots require little more than clicking the "monochrome" box and making slight adjustments to each channel (usually pulling down the blue to darken the sky, while giving slighter boosts to red and green to keep the whites very white).  With desert photos, however, this method initially results in a shot that leaves much to be desired.  Acting on a hunch a couple weeks ago, I made some adjustments that had a tremendous impact.  I lowered the red and blue channels by 50 each, while boosting the green channel by 70 or 80.  In addition to darkening the sky and the rocks, it brightened the desert plants.  Previously the plants would be somewhat indistinguishable from the surrounding red dirt and rocks.  I'm quite pleased with the results, and look forward to creating some striking desert landscapes in black & white.