Evening light panoramas on Mt. Galbraith

I went on a short evening hike with my daughter and thought I would generate a few more immersive panoramas. This time (contrary to the last time I was there! see here and here) it was clear and even warm. This panorama was taken on the lookout point over Golden and Denver. This is right next to my favorite bonsaï-like tree there that you can see here. Make sure to click on the "view on Google maps" link to see it large and to use your mouse (or finger on a mobile device) to look all around.

I also took a panorama at the top in the same spot as I did last time. I was not aware that there was so much of a view up there as it was completely fogged in then. Not so much this time.

The next image is for comparison with an image I posted last post.

Hope you enjoyed these!

Evening over Denver

Impressions of the great smog cloud ;-)
These are some images I took testing out a rented Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. Truly an amazing lens. Incredibly sharp, even hand held. Heavy though. Be sure to click through for much bigger versions.

Denver dusk panorama. Buy a print. On flickr. On Facebook.
Stitched from 17 handheld images, Nikon D600, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 at 70mm, ISO 800, 1/80s, f/5.6

Color layers. Buy a print. On flickr. On Facebook. On Google+.
Nikon D600, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 handheld at 200mm, ISO 1800, 1/200s, f/5.6
On the original you can see the individual cars on Colfax avenue. You can also see that air quality sometimes leaves something to be desired in the Denver metropolitan area. The blocky structure up front is NREL's new solar covered parking garage.

More from the Loch and Lake Haiyaha

Previously I posted a few images from The Loch here and here. Here are a few more that I took, as well as on my hike over to Lake Haiyaha. First this is at the outlet of The Loch:


Ice and Fire. Buy a print.
Technical data: D300, Tokina 11-16mm at 11mm, f/10, 1/500s, ISO 800. I painted in a 1 2/3 stop graduated ND in Lightroom to darken the sky.
Relevant Google+ post. Image on flickr.

I really love the yellow glow over the mountain here. This is the Sharktooth. The name of which is much clearer when you take a look at it from the other side.
Keen observers will notice that I made a mistake here and left the camera at a high ISO that I used for family pictures the evening before. Luckily noise reduction in modern raw conversion software is so good that you don't notice even zooming at 1:1 so it's not a big deal at all and the quality of this image in print is just great.

Here is a horizontal pano that I shot on the same spot as where I took the iPhone panorama posted a few days ago.

Surround. Buy a print.
Technical data: Assembled from 10 images (2 rows of 5). D300 with 35mm f/1.8 DX at f/11, 1/100s, ISO 200. 1 stop darkening of the clouds painted in in Lightroom.
Relevant Google+ post. Image on Flickr.

This should really be seen large. As you can see, the sky is much more dramatic in the DSLR image than in the iPhone panorama, but the iPhone holds up well in the web image. Of course, when you make a large print of this 45 MP image (out of a possible 100 MP or so when rendered full resolution), you'll get incredible detail out of it. The iPhone panorama will not hold up to close inspection in that case. Of course only photographers really care about resolution. People who love the art of photography are looking far more to composition, color, and what kind of story the image tells. Both images work fine in that respect with the dramatic color advantage to the DSLR panorama in my opinion.


Echoes of Grandeur. Buy a print.
Technical data: D300, Tokina 11-16mm at 11mm, f/10, 1/500s, ISO 800. I painted in a 2/3 stop graduated ND in Lightroom to darken the sky.
This is basically a horizontal version of the vertical high resolution composite I posted before. I like both perspectives but slightly prefer this handheld image.
Relevant Google+ post. Same image on Flickr.

After the Loch I was first planning to walk up to Andrew's tarn, but decided to walk over the small trail from Glacier Junction to Lake Haiyaha and Dream Lake. This was very nice and I shot some images of small waterfalls and a little pond I came across. Here is the outlet to Lake Haiyaha. The name Haiyaha apparently means "rock" in a native american language which is an apt name as the lake shore is riddled with enormous boulders hinting at its glacial origin. This is not the actual lake which is further behind, but I didn't take any images over there as it was very windy here and I doubt I could get any nice reflections on it. The outlet however was quite sheltered and offered some possibilities for reflections as you can see below:


Hallett peak reflection. Buy a print.
Technical data: D300, Tokina 11-16mm at 11mm, f/5.6, 1/25s, ISO200

Here is another one at a slightly different location.


Misty evening. Buy a print.
Technical data: D300, Tokina 11-16mm at 11mm, f/5.6, 1/25s, ISO200

On the hike over to Dream Lake from Haiyaha, you come across a very exposed ledge that is actually quite scary in winter with deep snow, but that always offers a great view of Longs peak. Here are two more images looking back from that point to Longs. Unfortunately, I did not get any sunset light on it (which is always quite dramatic) but the clouds were very dramatic so I decided to post them anyway.


Longs peak in the mist. Buy a print.
Technical data: D300, Tokina 11-16mm at 11mm, f/5.6, 1/50s, ISO200


Parting the clouds. Buy a print.
Technical data: D300, Tokina 11-16mm at 11mm, f/5.6, 1/25s, ISO200

If I don't decide to go back in time to my gigantic backlog of images, next up will be some images from Dream Lake and Nymph Lake at dusk.

Farm images

D300, ISO 1600, Tokina 11-16 mm at 11 mm, f2.8, 1/3s handheld.
These are pictures of the farm where my sister and my father's wife board their horses in the Netherlands. When we were there last winter, we went out for a horseback ride in the bucolic Dutch landscape. Of course it started snowing like crazy while we were out there.


Old barn window boarded up with pastic
D300, Nikkor 18-200mm at 22mm, ISO 6400, f3.8, 1/15s


This is Kasper, a gorgeous and very large horse. He was waiting to go back into the stable. The yellow light is from one little really old light bulb to the left.
D300, Tokina 11-16mm at 12mm, ISO 1600, f2.8, 1/15s


Supplies
D300, Tokina 11-16mm at 11mm, ISO 1600, f2.8, 1/13s


Old car
D300, Nikkor 18-200mm at 44mm, ISO 800, f4.5, 1/6s

A few seconds difference

These two images were taken last Saturday evening in Mayflower Gulch (click for a bigger version, return by hitting the back button). They are only 37 seconds apart. You can see that it pays to pay attention to the light in landscape photography because of the very different moods in the two images. There was only a window of good light of a few minutes that evening where the setting sun shone through between two layers of clouds.


I have some more images from this little outing that I'll post later. There are a lot of flowers in the high country this year.

New post at inside Lightroom

I wrote a new post at inside Lightroom about the inner rewards of landscape photography. Check it out. I talk about a evening photohike a little while ago on an evening that it was -19F (-30C) where I was. Wonderful evening and wonderful hike. Here is an example image:



Check out the post and check out the hike images. There is a flickr set of the same place here.