Black and white conversions of snowy landscapes

I was rummaging through old material in Lightroom recently and I noticed some shots from an awesome multihut ski trip I did a few years ago (2008) with some friends. I wrote then about it on my blog and my friend Teresa actually made a writeup of that trip at that time here, where you can see some of the very few photographs that ever got made of me (elusive guy). I am in the red wind shell most of the time in the pictures from Teresa.

Anyway, I noticed that I never got around stitching several multi-image shots I made back then. For weight I was carrying my old Nikon D50 with the kit lens and I did not bring a tripod (more booze could be packed this way). In some cases I was doing handheld multishot panoramas to create higher resolution landscapes. If you do this right, they can still be stitched well even though you might have to do a little touch up afterwards. I worked up a few of these lost landscapes and below I'll post some. I am most focusing here on the aspect of black and white conversion as I noticed that this really works well with some of these. For example, this shot from the front of the Goodwin/Greene hut was captured around sunset. The sun was coming through a thin cloud of snow crystals and generated this absolutely gorgeous light. I cannot believe I never stitched this image.


5 shots using a Nikon D50, 18-55mm kit lense at 18mm, ISO 200, f/10, 1/320s. Assembled in hugin. Pretty much as shot - no nasty HDR. Buy a print

This image really has to be seen large, which you can if you click on the link. To get back here use your browser's back button.

I converted this to black and white in Lightroom simulating a light red filter which again has to be seen large.

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Another new image that I really like is this panorama of our group coming up on a pass, rising out of a foggy valley.

5 images from a Nikon D50, 18-55mm kit lens at 30 mm, ISO 200, f/11, 1/500s. Buy a print

In the same place, but looking in the other direction, I took this image:

6 images from Nikon D50, 18-55mm kit lens at 24mm, ISO 200, f/11, 1/500s. Buy a print.
At the moment, my blog's banner has another version of this image that was taken a few minutes later after the clouds on Castle and Cathedral peaks cleared up a little. This cloudy view is also quite nice and will print really nice large for on your wall ;-)

I have several more images waiting to be born in my library from this trip. We'll see when I get to them. I still have a gigantic backlog to deal with with some very nice images in them too that I haven't spoken about yet. I have a little picasa gallery of new snowy black and white conversions here.

Another Gold hill sunrise

An image from March that I had not worked up before

This is a composite of 8 hand-held shots done at sunrise from a hut in the mountains south of Aspen. For some reason I had missed this series. I have another earlier version of a different series of shots composited similarly. The colors are very different even if the time difference between the shots is pretty minor. This is a good illustration of how important timing is in photography.

Snowy sunrises

A little later, the mountain became blindingly bright instead of the fiery red and yellow you see above. This comes out very well in the black and white below I think.

The same in color

As always, prints can be bought in the links behind the images.

Images from my recent multiday hut trip

A weekend ago, I did a four-day huttrip in the mountains just south of Aspen. We visited the Markley and Goodwin/Greene huts. We crossed many dangerous avalanche paths and saw more snow than I have ever seen in my life. We had a great time with salad-dressing whiskey and other fun things. The skiing was also outstanding due to the constant fresh snowfall. The navigation to the second hut was somewhat difficult as a lot of it was above treeline and in the hut's logbook, we found many stories from people that took the wrong drainage in white-out conditions and ended up having to spend the night out. Even though we were prepared for that possibility, I am glad that we found the hut (which could only be identified by a PV panel and some pipes sticking out of the very deep snow). I took many images of which I will post a few below. More can be found in the smugmug gallery and a more extensive series is in my flickr stream.

Dawn at the Markley hut:

View from the pass

Skiers on the pass:

Dawn at the Goodwin/Greene hut looking at Gold Hill:

The same in B and W is here

Another dawn pic:

Colin ripping it up:

Panoramic view including a nice recent slide:

You can read more about this trip and see pictures wuth me in it in a writeup by somebody else in the group.

One of the things that some of my readership might find interesting is that contrary to many huts in the Alps, you have to carry in your own food which makes for interesting skiing. This is an advantage (actually good food) and a disadvantage at the same time. It is tough to ski with that much weight on your back. If you're interested in huttrips in Colorado, check out the 10th Mountain division website. These huts fill up quick!