Emerald Lake Panorama

I shot this standing on the middle of the blown open area on the ice that you can see in the previous post. This year has been very low in snow and the ice was just wonderfully reflective as you can see. This panorama was 360 degrees around and is shown in a cylindrical projection. When you are standing in this spot, the mountains just tower around you, so this really doesn't do the majesty much justice except when you see it large. It's also great in a panorama viewer but I need to figure out how to embed that on this webpage (preferably without flash or java).


On the ice. Buy a print. On Flickr. On facebook. On Google+.
Stitched from 12 images. Nikon D600, Tokina 11-16 mm f/2.8 at 16mm, f/16, 1/60s, ISO 100.

Enter the dragon

This is an image I created a few weeks ago going up to Haiyaha and Emerald in gorgeous Rocky Mountain National Park on a gorgeous (albeit cold) morning. This image was created in the early morning hours that provide great light for landscape photography. In this location, due to its shelter in the Tyndall gorge, the light stays nice for quite a while in winter affording lots of great photographic opportunities. The purplish color in the sky is due to the some hazy clouds in the air. I really like the contrast between the cold colors on the ice and the warm colors on the dragon formation.

Enter the dragon. Buy a print. on Facebook. On flickr. On Google+.
High resolution composite of 9 images. Nikon D600, Nikon 24-85 mm f/3.5-4.5 at 50mm, f/16, 1/80 s, ISO 100.

Apex sunset

Shot using my old iPhone on yesterday's bikeride in Apex Park.

A much simpler way to serve retina displays the right images

A while ago, I wrote a post showing how to serve high resolution images to people using retina displays such as the iPad, iPhone, many android tablets, and retina Mac Book Pros (I use one of those which is why I am interested in this). I have now found a far simpler way to do this than I explained before and it all hinges on simply giving a id tag to the image and replacing the src property of the image in a javascript. You still need to have statement in your site's CSS:

<script type='text/javascript'> var retina = window.devicePixelRatio > 1 ? true : false; </script>

Then in your post you call an image the usual way but making sure to add the image width and height specifically as well as pecifying an id

<a href="http://lagemaatphoto.smugmug.com/Landscapes/National-Parks/ZionNP/10459860_zVKwP3#!i=725608231&k=Bm22LF3&lb=1&s=A" title="Tree and glow"><img alt="Tree and glow" height="600" id="zion_011213" src="http://lagemaatphoto.smugmug.com/Landscapes/National-Parks/ZionNP/i-Bm22LF3/4/L/_DSC0517-_DSC0525-L.jpg" title="Tree and glow" width="480"></a>

Then at the end of your html, or the end of your blogpost include the following:

<SCRIPT type="text/javascript"> if (retina) { zion_011213.src="http://lagemaatphoto.smugmug.com/Landscapes/National-Parks/ZionNP/i-Bm22LF3/4/X3/_DSC0517-_DSC0525-X3.jpg"; } else { ; } </SCRIPT>

This replaces the image in the img tag above with this one that is precisely 2x larger in both dimensions (so 4x in area) and therefore fits retina displays perfectly. I don't think the else part is needed but I like to be neat. A disadvantage of this method above the previous one I talked about is that browsers might end up loading both the low resolution and high resolution image. On the other hand using this method makes your post share correctly on social networks with the image intact. Using the older method the image would never show up. Now to make it complete, here is the actual image referred above:

Tree and Glow. Buy a print. On flickr.
This image is a redo of a 9-image high resolution composite I created in The Narrows in Zion National Park.
A quick way to test the effect is to compare this image in a web browser that supports retina/hiDPI such as Safari and Chrome, to one that doesn't such as old versions of Firefox (15 and below). Of course this only makes sense if you are actually using one of those displays.

Freezing my fingers off at Lake Haiyaha

Last Sunday the 30th I went for a sunrise hike to Lake Haiyaha followed by Lake Emerald and above. I have already posted a few images from this trip here and here. I have several more nice images to share from Emerald later but first I want to share a few more images from Haiyaha. Haiyaha is apparently a native American word for rock, which is quite apt as the lake is bordered by lots of really large boulders left by the glacier that carved this valley and is still found higher up in tiny 'Chaotic glacier' which is more like a snowfield. It's visible in the image I posted before. As always I waited a while for the sunrise to come and got shivering cold too lately realizing that I had handwarmers in my backpack - another lesson learned ;-).

Hallett on ice. Buy a print. On flickr, On Facebook, On G+/Picasa.
Nikon D600 on tripod, Nikkor 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 at 24mm, f/16, 1/13s, ISO 100

The ice on the lake had all these domed structures over large rocks beneath the ice where it had frozen over before and the water level receded creating small pyramids or domes over the rocks.

Lake Hayiaia sunrise panorama. Buy a print. On flickr. On facebook. On G+/Picasa.
Stitched from 15 handheld images. Nikon D600, Nikkor 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 at 24mm, f/11, 1/50s, ISO 100.

The above image shows about 230 degrees of the view on the lake.

Hallett hat. Buy a print. On flickr. On facebook. On G+/Picasa.
Nikon D600 on tripod, Nikkor 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 at 42mm, f/11, 1/30s, ISO 100.

I like this more close-up view of the peak. Next up will be some images on the ice of Emerald. Those are my favorites from this hike.

Fault line

Crack in the ice and trapped bubbles on Emerald Lake. I took many images of the cracks and structures in the ice the beautiful morning I was here. When surrounded by grand peaks and vistas don't forget the small details!

fault line. Buy a print. On flickr. On Facebook. On G+.
handheld Nikon D600. Nikkor 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 at 44mm, f/8.0, 1/25s, ISO 100.

Fish creek trail waterfalls

A few weeks ago, I went on a hike along fish creek near Steamboat Springs.
Upper fish creek falls detail. Buy a print. On flickr. On facebook.
Nikon D600, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 130mm, f/16, 1.8s, 3 stops ND filter.

This is a detail of the falls I came accross after hiking a while along the trail. This is sort of a mini version of the really well known Fish Creek Falls that is just a short hike from the trailhead. Reaching this took quite some slipping and sliding over icy trails and wading through surprisingly deep snow in places. At the end there was some scrambling over very icy rocks before suddenly this waterfall opened up. I thought this was a nice opportunity to try out the 70-200 mm f/2.8 VRII I had rented from lensrentals.com to play with. That lens is just extraordinary in sharpness and handling and apart from the weight (especially annoying on a long hike such as this) it is ideal. I am looking forward to trying the much lighter 70-200 f/4 that just came out. Below is the context for this shot:

Upper fish creek falls. Buy a print. On Facebook.
High resolution compisite, stitched from 9 images from Nikon D600, Nikkor 24-85 mm f/3.5-4.5 at 50mm, f/16, 0.5s, ISO 100, 3 stop ND filter.

I tried pressing on a little higher than this place but was thwarted by very deep snow that was hard to get through without snowshoes, so I decided to turn around and photograph the well-known Fish Creek Falls closer to the trailhead around sunset time. At the bridge, I jumped the railing and scrambled over the rocks and jumped the creek a few times and arrived at a secluded area around the corner where I came accross this:

Seclusion. Buy a print. On flickr. On Facebook.
Nikon D600, Nikkor 24-85 mm f/3.5-4.5 at 38mm, f/16, 0.5s, ISO 100

I searched around for some different views and took many intimate images of the ice. I like the following image:

Cascade. Buy a print. On flickr. On Facebook.
Nikon D600, Nikkor 24-85 mm f/3.5-4.5 at 24mm, f/16, 0.6s, ISO 100

I like the hint of the sunset light in the top here. I also took some more conventional images of the big waterfall one of them is below:

Fish Creek Falls in Ice. Buy a print. On Facebook.
Nikon D600, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 70mm, f/11, 1/5s.

I took a lot of other more wide images of the falls too and also one under mostly moonlight. I might post those later perhaps. Lastly, here is the G+ link for this post.

Braving the elements

Braving the Elements - Bristlecone pine on a ledge above Lake Emerald.
Buy a print. On facebook. On Flickr. On G+.
Handheld manual exposure, Nikon D600, Tokina 11-16mm at 16mm (yes it works great full frame at 16mm), 1/30s, f/16, ISO 100.

I found this tenacious survivor on a ledge above Emerald Lake (visible on the right) on last Sunday's sunrise snowshoe in Rocky Mountain National Park. These amazing organisms continue to surprise me in the shapes they have and in the amazing persistence they show in places where little can survive. Some of these are thousands of years old. This tree actually had two jays in it pecking away at the cones. I tried several compositions here but think I like this one best even though it occludes Hallett peak. You can see the gorgeous (and aptly named) Dragon Couloir on the right though in the sunlit area. One this hike I also took many really intriguing (at least to me) images on the ice that I'll share later. I also have more images from Haiyaia than the one I posted yesterday.

Winter sunrise at Lake Haiyaha

Buy a print. On flickr. On Facebook. On Google+.
High resolution composite from 4 handheld images from a Nikon D600, Nikkor 24-85mm at 24 mm, f/11, 1/50s, ISO 100.

This image was one of many that I shot on a sunrise snowshoe up Chaos Canyon (where Lake Haiyaha is located) and up to Emerald lake and up after this sunrise. As you can see the sunrise was spectacular even if this hike was extraordinarily cold. It is really a privilege to be able to reach such places and see sights this gorgeous. The peak that is lighting up is Hallett peak, a prominent feature in RMNP but not often shown from the backside as you see here. In winter however, the sunrise hits it most prominently from the backside. In the map below, imagine the sunrise coming from about EastSouthWest.

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