A frosty morning in Mt. Galbraith open space park

Mount Galbraith is a nice open space park close to Golden. I go there often to photograph some of the very nice trees you can find here. This morning I went because we've had some freezing rain recently and I was excited about the prospect of hoar frost. It did not disappoint. The trees were gorgeous and I will share some images at a later time. In the mean time, I stitched a 360 panorama that I did from handheld images as I had forgotten my tripod. It worked out really well anyway. See and explore it below (click and drag to look around) and you can make it big by clicking on the view in google maps link.

Some late fall color on the Eaglesmere Lake Trail

Quite a while ago (the 28th of September) I went on a nice fall color hike with the cmc photography section. There was fresh snow on the ground and the fall colors were peak this day so it was just glorious. We hiked along the Eaglesmere Laker trail mostly as there some great aspen groves along it. Highly recommended if you want to catch fall color next year.

Looking up. The color was just radiant with the crowns of the tree sunlit, but the ground not.

Nikon D600, Nikkor 24-85 mm, f/3.5-4.5 at 24mm, f/10, 1/125s, ISO 100, handheld.
Bigger and prints. On flickr. On Facebook.

Geometric. A slightly different perspective to the previous scene.

Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 16mm, f/11, 1/100s, handheld.
Bigger and prints.

The glow. The sunstar might be hard to see in this small image but it has a full 18 points! I also love the oranges in the leaves.

Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 16mm, f/16, 1/50s, ISO 100.
Bigger and Prints. On Facebook, On Flickr.

Eagles Nest peak framed by trees.

Nikon D600, Nikkor 24-85 mm, f/3.5-4.5 at 55mm, f/16, 1/50s, ISO 100, handheld.
Bigger and Prints. On flickr. On Facebook.

Orange moon.

Nikon D600, Nikkor 24-85 mm, f/3.5-4.5 at 85mm, f/8.0, 1/40s, ISO 100, handheld.
Bigger and Prints. On Facebook. On Flickr.

Radiance.

Nikon D600, Nikkor 24-85 mm, f/3.5-4.5 at 24mm, f/16, 1/60s, ISO 100, handheld.
Bigger and Prints. On Facebook. On flickr.

The Spring of Winter.

Nikon D600, Nikkor 24-85 mm, f/3.5-4.5 at 80mm, f/8.0, 1/25s, ISO 100, handheld.
Bigger and Prints. On Flickr. On Facebook.

I have some more nice images to share from this trip but for now 7 images will have to do ;-). I hope you enjoyed them. I certainly enjoyed taking them. Check out the Facebook and Flickr links to explore some more.

Indian Peaks Sunrise

I spent this morning before sunrise hiking up to Upper Blue Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. This lake is A ways above the well-known Blue Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness and which is a popular hike from Brainard Lake. Not many people go to the upper lakes as it is quite a scramble up a steep moraine behind which the upper lake is hidden. I had an absolutely lovely morning at this lake watching the sun come up. Here is a first image from this where I am looking east towards the plains where the sun is just about to come up.

Sunrise at Upper Blue Lake. Buy a print. On Facebook. On flickr.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 20mm, f/22, 0.4s, ISO 100.

Great Horns

On a bike ride yesterday I found a nest of Great Horned Owls in the cliffs of Matthew's Winter's park. Went back today to take some pictures of them. Quite amazing animals.

Trio. Buy a print. On facebook. On flickr. On Google+.
Nikon D600, Nikkor 70-200 mm f/4 at f/4.0, 1/400s, ISO 100. Fairly tight crop.

Lost dollar aspen

Lost dollar Aspen. Buy a print. On flickr. On facebook. Google +.
High resolution composite assembled from 9 images. Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 at 35mm, f/16, 1/30s, ISO 200.

Sunrise at Mount Galbraith

Mount Galbraith is a basically unknown open space park just west of Golden. It's accessed right off Golden Gate Canyon road. The morning these images were created last weekend, I was originally planning to go up in the mountains, but a combination of factors made me rethink that. The extremely high avalanche danger made me a little apprehensive about the location I had chosen and the roads leading there were extremely slick after the big Friday snow storm. So I chose to stay in a little longer and drive up to Mount Galbraith where I had taken some nice cloudy sunset images before (see here, here, and here) and where I had discovered a very nice tree that overlooked Golden, Denver and the plains that for sure would be offer some nice opportunities at sunrise. It's rare to need snowshoes in the foothills, but this day I needed them.


Sunrise over the plains. Buy a print.
High resolution composite from 16 images.
Individual shot technical data: Nikon D300, Nikkor 35 mm f1.8 DX, f/13, 1/125s, ISO 200
Same image on flickr. Same on Google+.

This is the tree and down below you can see Golden and North Table Mountain. You should really check it out large by clicking on it.

I also made a panorama at this same spot:


Wideness. Buy a print.
High resolution composite from 10 images.
Individual shots: Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 mm f2.8 at 11 mm, f/13, 1/100s, ISO 200

Again, seeing this large is the only way.

This is the tree from the other, sunlit side.


Glowing. Buy a print.
High resolution composite from 8 images.
Individual shot technical data: Nikon D300, Nikkor 35 mm f1.8 DX, f/13, 1/60s, ISO 200

I saw a lot of deer from which I will post some pictures later. Now I focus just on the landscapes.

This image was taken on the other side of Mount Galbraith long after the sun had come up but the shadows were still very very cool.


Hot and Cold. Buy a print.
Technical data: Single shot Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 mm f2.8 at 15 mm, f/10, 1/200s, ISO 200
Google+ post. Same image on flickr.

The hills you see in the back are I think those in White Ranch open space park and Golden Gate Canyon state park. I really like the very strong hot/cold contrast you get here between the shadows and the sunlit areas. This is really what it looked like to me. I lifted the shadows out of the darkness by using a graduated neutral density filter but to your eyes the shadows looked this crazy blue in contrast with the warm, sunlit areas.

On the back of Mount Galbraith there is also a large area of burnt trees from an area that burned last spring. These offer some interesting opportunities but are hard to frame effectively.

Dance of the skeletons. Buy a print.
High resolution composite from 8 images.
Individual shots: Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 mm f2.8 at 11 mm, f/11, 1/80s, ISO 200

Hope you enjoyed these as much as I enjoyed my morning that time.

Lake Helene and Notchtop

I blogged a little about this trip before here, here, and here. This early morning hike was one of the most impressive I ever did. It was windy and miserably cold, but the experience was unforgettable. I try to do many trips like this but seldom all conditions arrange for a great sunrise where geography, clouds, and sun cooperate. When everything comes together it is truly magical. The images of this trip were for me so ingrained in my mind that it has taken me a while to show them on my blog. One of the ways I check out geography and sun is by using Stephen Trainor's outstanding The Photographer's ephemeris app (for iPad/iPhone here, for Macs/PCs here). I also use Google Earth. I had decided that Lake Helene would be nice with a view of Notchtop illuminated by the rising sun.


View Larger Map

This was also my first outing with my new F-stop Tilopa BC pack which I highly recommend. On to the photos! The following two I showed before but only as a quick comparison.

This is a few minutes before sunrise. Imagine the clouds flying by at very high speed because of the high wind and a blisteringly cold wind flowing over the frozen lake. I really like the composition of this with the rocks and structures in the ice which mirror in the mountain and in the clouds.


Blueness. Buy a print.
Technical data: high resolution image assembled from 9 images from Nikon D300, 18-55mm at 24 mm, f/16, 2.0s, ISO 200.
Here is a slightly different viewpoint done as a single image instead of a high resolution composite that you might find interesting.

These assembled images I create will easily print 8 feet high with impeccable detail. If you're interested in such prints contact me as they take some special care to do right. The standard sizes that my site offers will print gorgeous as is straight from my website.

Just a few minutes later the sun had come up revealing this:


The moment. Buy a print.
Technical data: high resolution image assembled from 9 images from Nikon D300, 18-55mm at 24 mm, f/16, 1/8s, ISO 200.

As you can see from the much 4 stops faster shutter, the intensity of this light is quite a difference bathing the entire scene in warm light.

I stayed around for a little longer finding different viewpoints such as this:

Head in the clouds. Buy a print.
Technical data: high resolution image assembled from 9 images from Nikon D300, 18-55mm at 24 mm, f/16, 1/13s, ISO 200.

and this:

I wonder. Buy a print.
Technical data: high resolution image assembled from 9 images from Nikon D300, 18-55mm at 24 mm, f/16, 1/13s, ISO 200.

At this point, I could hardly move my fingers anymore and I really had to get out of the wind. I haven't found a really good solution yet for gloves that allow me to control the camera but still keep my fingers warm.


This was truly an extraordinary morning. Hope you enjoy the images.

Amazing sunrise on Sprague Lake

The following images are from a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park back in January. I was planning to hike up to one of the high mountain lakes from Bear Lake trailhead, but when I got to the trailhead early before sunrise it was blowing snow really hard up there and was dastardly cold. Not conditions in which you want to hike for a few hours and not get anything worthwhile. I waited for an hour or so drinking my coffee and eating some sandwiches to see whether the weather would let up. But it didn't and I decided to go back down. The clouds that the snow was dumping out were really only hanging on the peaks around the basin and going down I noticed that it was relatively clear around Sprague lake. Sprague Lake is a popular very short trail that you can hike around with kids and be back before the whining starts. In winter it offers nice views of the basin. I hiked up the lake and found a great position and some interesting structures in the snow and the sunrise was spectacular. These images are taken away from the basin that kept being shrouded in clouds.


Symmetry. Buy a print. Also on flickr.
Assembled from 9 images (3 rows of 3) at 50mm, ISO 200, f/16, 1/20s


The wave. Horizontal crop of the above image. Buy a print.


Blobs. Buy a print.
Assembled from 9 images (3 rows of 3) at 50mm, ISO 200, f/16, 1/20s


Red dawn. A little later the colors changed. Buy a print.
Assembled from 10 images (2 rows of 5) at 50mm, ISO 200, f/16, 1/20s.

It was incredibly cold standing there in the blowing wind over the ice but undoubtedly better than up higher.

Yellow sunrise at Blue Lake

Stitched from 9 handheld images. 18-55mm at 18mm, f 8.0 1/80s ISO 100.
Buy a print of this image at smugmug.

This is a redo of an image I shot in 2008 at sunrise along the shores of Blue Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. Truly an awe inspiring place. I could never get the yellow right in this image, which was just blindingly saturated in real life. On a whim I redid this using the v3 camera landscape profile for Lightroom and this is pretty much what I got. Stitched from 9 images. Added a slight amount of vibrance and clarity and there is a grad filter brightening the rocks and water as well as some curves work to add some contrast. Amazingly, the sRGB version you see here loses quite a bit of saturation from what I see on my wide gamut monitor. I'll put it on smugmug at some time too (the image is several 100 MB so this is only a low-res jpeg)

Pictures from Idaho Springs

Just some silly stuff

Bleeergh


Fish Fry


Nachos and Beer


No entry


The end

Sunset in Roxborough state park

I should have been there a little earlier but still nice. The link goes to the flickr page.

Some old images from this summer

I redid some images from last summer. I had a blogpost about them before. Here they are:

The full set from this place is here. I put one on flickr too if you like commenting.

Sunset in Mayflower Gulch

I went shooting at sunset with Ben (gorgeous website here) and Dave. Ben's images had been an inspiration for me for a while so that was fun. Both Ben and Dave had shot in this location before but I had only been there to ski in the winter, so this was a revelation. Seas of wildflowers! You can see all images in my Rocky mountains set on smugmug or in the flickr set. The links behind the images go to the smugmug pages where you can also order prints as always. For the social networkers, visit my flickr set on this. Here are the first few I liked.

A classic near/far image with Columbines in the foreground:

Columbines and rocks:

Yellow paintbrushes:

Columbines on a ledge overlooking the basin:

On the enlargement (click the image) you can actually see the insects that like to sit inside the columbines.


More in the next post! Including some amazing sunset shots!

Rusty and Crusty

Walked around Georgetown when my mother-in-law was here last week. They have an amazing play structure in the city park in Georgetown that my daughter loves. Georgetown is an amazing mix of dilapidated houses and trash, but also well-maintained touristic fronts.
This mansion for example was just gorgeous:
.

These old rusty engines were on a trailer in front of the old schoolhouse:


Some sort of emergency generator:


More to follow later!