A Dream sunrise

Last week, I went for a sunrise in Rocky Mountain National Park. The original plan was to go for sunrise at Lake Helene or Two Rivers lake to photograph sunrise on Notchtop. However those plans were scuttled due to a miscommunication with the friend that was coming with me. We both thought the other was picking us up. So we arrived too late to get to Helene. Due to this delay, we decided to divert to Dream Lake for sunrise, which you can easily get to in half an hour or so. It looked like it was going to rain and overcast completely. Luckily right at sunrise, an opening in the clouds at the horizon let through a spectacular sunrise.

This is looking back in the direction of the rising sun not long before sunrise. The glow is starting.

Ushering Dawn. Bigger and prints.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28mm at 16mm, f/16, 1.6s, ISO 100.

A few minutes later an almost unearthly glow was starting on Hallett peak and Dragon Couloir. There was a strong breeze kicking up waves on the lake which gives the water a smoky appearance.

Dreams of Snakes. Bigger and prints.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28mm at 16mm, f/16, 2.5s, ISO 100.

I also created a horizontal version of this image using another tree trunk as the foreground element.

Smoke on the water, fire in the ... . Bigger and prints.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28mm at 16mm, f/16, 1s, ISO 100.

A little later, the color got really intense and a few very short breaks in the wind allowed me to compose images that included a reflection. This was really quite spectacular. Very little editing went into these pictures. I did also move back a little bit to get some more quiet water.

The quiet. Bigger and prints.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28mm at 16mm, f/16, 0.8s, ISO 100.

The color was changing rapidly at this point. This image has a somewhat more perfect reflection but the sky was already taking on more blues. The light was fading in and out all the time due to the patchy clouds on the horizon as you can see in the first image above.

Upside Down Dream. Bigger and prints.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28mm at 16mm, f/16, 1.0s, ISO 100.

I also made a portrait version of this. I like both a lot. This one again has more direct light on the peaks compared to the previous shot

Reflection. Bigger and prints.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28mm at 16mm, f/16, 0.4s, ISO 100.

At this point, we moved on to Emerald, Hayiaha, Mills and more. On the way to Emerald. I came across a small strand of Aspen trees that was backlit and really glowed. This is a handheld shot.

Trees. Bigger and prints.
Nikon D600, Nikon 24-85mm at 28mm, f/11, 1/25s, ISO 100.

More tk.

Sunrise reflection of Mount Toll in Upper Blue Lake

Continuing with the last post's thread, here is an image of Mount Toll in the Indian Peaks Wilderness being reflected in Upper Blue Lake. This morning's sunrise was amazingly brilliant and changed color from deep red to the yellow you see here in the course of a few minutes. It is always an amazing privilege to be able to go to these places and see Nature's impressive displays.

Sunrise hits Mount Toll in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. Buy a print. On facebook. On flickr. On Google+.
Boring tech info: Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 20mm, f/22, 0.4s, ISO 100.

Here is the exact location for this image:
View Larger Map

Warm gorge

Two weeks ago, I went for a little sunset hike up Lake Haiyah and ended up in a blizzard up at the lake. There is a cellphone shot of this on Facebook. Going back down I shot some pics along the trail. At times there was a little golden hour color visible but I did not think much of the images until today when I loaded them in Lightroom and Aperture. There turn out to be some interesting images in there that I did not realize I had. Here is one of Longs with a hat of clouds basking in warm light.

The gorge. Buy a print. On facebook. On Google+. On flickr.
Nikon D600, Nikon 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 at 72 mm, f/11, 1/80s, ISO 100, on tripod.

Standley Lake sunset panorama

Standley Lake sunset. Buy a print. On flickr. On facebook.
Assembled from 6 images Nikon D600, Nikkor 24-85 mm f/3.5-4.5 VR at 24 mm, f/16, 1/4s, ISO 100.

Much more to come from this place!

Fall Drama in Glacier Gorge

Glacier Gorge Fall Drama. Buy a print. Image on flickr. Facebook.
Nikon D300. Nikkor 18-200 mm at 18mm, 1/250s, f/8, ISO 200.

Storm over Dunes

Rainstorm looming over the Great Sand Dunes in Southern Colorado. Click for bigger. Flickr. Google+. Facebook.


Storm over Dunes. Buy a print.
Tech data: Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-200 mm f/3.5-5.6 at 36mm, f/8.0, 1/800s, ISO 200

Canyonlands sunrise

Taken from Gooseberry on the White Rim.

Dish. Buy a print.
On Flickr. On Facebook. On G+

Hallett Reflection

Majestic Hallett reflects in Emerald Lake on a rainy and cloudy evening in Rocky Mountain National Park. From the same evening hike as the previous picture was taken.


Hallett Reflection. Buy a print. See on flickr. Google+. Facebook.
Assembled high resolution image from 9 shots using Nikon D300 at 22mm, ISO 400, f/16, 1/4s

Stormy fall

This is a waterfall just above Lake Isabelle in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. I was out on a hike with friends that only went to Lake Isabelle and I continued on to the glacier which would have been a little much for my companions. I showed the map profile to my hike in a previous post already. This was the wrong time of day for good light but nevertheless, some clouds came in and provided some extra interest.


A storm brewing. Buy a print. Click photo for bigger on my smugmug site.
Photo data: Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 mm at 13 mm, f/16, 0.5 s, ISO 200, 4 stop ND + polarizer.
Image on flickr. Image on Google+.

You can barely see Navajo peak peeking out above the falls. Above Lake Isabelle, the landscape is just teeming with Marmots. I must have seen more than 20 or so. I took a picture of one with my phone:


Post on Google+

They are quite funny.

The Swans

Two Swans with young (pulletjes) in a polder near Ouderkerk The Netherlands. Taken on a quick bike ride with my mother.


The Swans. Buy a print.

Tech Data: Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 at 45mm, f/9.0, 1/200s, ISO 200
Image on flickr. Google+ post.

Clouds and moon

... Buy a print.
Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8, f/8.0, 1/200s, ISO 200.
flickr link. Google+ post.

The lens I took this with got stolen from my luggage on a flight to Sweden recently. Pity as it was one of my favorites. Very sharp, very light, very affordable.

Sunrise over De Lek

Symmetry. Buy a print. Enlarge.
Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm at 16 mm, f/11, 1/60s, ISO 200. 2 stop Grad ND. Slight edits in Lightroom 4 to bring out the fog near the little pier and the sand.
Smugmug image. Flickr image. Google+ post.

This image was created looking out over De Lek river towards the rising sun. As a child and teenager I spent lots of time swimming from these sandbars near the river as well as sailing it. On the opposite side of the river is Langerak and Nieuwpoort where our old wooden sailboat was usually in the harbor.

An outerworldly glow

Panorama assembled from 25 images (3 rows of 5). Individual shots using D300, Nikkor 35 mm f/1.8 DX at f/8.0, 1/40s, ISO 200.
Buy a print.
Flickr image. Google+ post.

Sunset from a popular pullout along the road up to the top of Lookout Mountain and Buffalo Bill's grave. I had these lying around but never did much with them but decided to stitch them. The stitched image is 100 MP but that is only about half of the available resolution. The colors were really this strange at the time. You can see downtown Golden in the middle, the two table mountains, the buildings of the School of Mines, the Coors factory (between the two mesas) and the skyscrapers of downtown Denver towards the rightmost tree (probably not in the copies for the web though). Several years ago I shot a very similar dusk panorama on one of the very coldest evenings of the year that this should be compared to:



I wrote about that specific outing at the time as an example of how inspiring such outings into crazy weather can be. Surprisingly it is still online!

Clear Creek Canyon

Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 mm f/2.8 at 11 mm, f/11, 1/30 s. Handheld and using a grad ND filter. Buy a print.
Flickr image. Google+ post.

This image was taken halfway up one of my favorite mountain biking trails - Chimney Gulch - right after windy saddle. I haven't been able to ride my bike for a while now because of the significant possibility I'd wreck the trails. On this evening I strapped on my snow shoes which is always really funny to do so close to the urban area. One of my reasons for this outing was to test out my new Gitzo tripod (awesome btw) but I shot this image handheld as an afterthought.

More from Mount Galbraith

Mount Galbraith Golden Vista. Buy a print.
Assembled from 7 handheld images Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 mm at 11 mm, f/11, 1/160s, ISO 200

This is the same tree as I showed a few weeks ago. It's a nice vantage point overlooking Golden and Denver as you can see and I thought it would make a nice panorama. You should really see it large which you can by clicking on the image above. I stitched it together using the outstanding (and free) hugin software. The individual images were developed in Lightroom 4 beta and I did a little post in Lightroom 4 beta too.

Clouds and tree

Contrast, clouds, orange. Buy a print.
Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-55 mm at 32 mm, f/8.0, 1/160s, ISO 200
Flickr image. Google+ post.

This is in local open space park Mount Galbraith. Most of the trees in this area burned last year (picture in this blog post) and so all the trees look quite forlorn. I processed this in image in LR 4 beta. This gives just wonderful final quality but is still quite slow.

Dutch perspective on San Francisco

Dutch perspective on San Francisco. Click for bigger. Click here to buy a print. Image on flickr. Google+ post.
Technical info. D300, Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 at 11mm, f/8.0, 1/640s, ISO 200. Processed in LR 4 beta.

This was taken on a sail boat ride on the San Francisco bay when we were returning to harbor. The title of course is a pun.

Fiery vision

This is Notchtop in Rocky Mountain National Park in the clouds about an hour after sunrise.


Contrasts. Buy a print.
Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm at 16mm, f/8.0, 1/250s
Same image on flickr. Google+ post.

As people who have been on this trail in winter know, the wind can get very strong here. This was indeed one of those moments. From the image you would hardly know I took this image in gale-force winds and I was quite cold and actually shivering, but couldn't let this scene pass by without taking it to the plate.

It turns out I took this image in the exact same spot I shot another image at sunset a few weeks earlier. I posted it before, but I'll repeat it here so you can compare.


Fire over Notchtop. Buy a print.
Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm at 13mm, f/8.0, 1/20s

What a difference a few weeks makes!

Lake Helene sunrise panorama

I still need to work on the images from this trip up to lake Helene, but I think the following image will be one of my favorites. It is a panorama taken at sunrise over Lake Helene. You will get a much larger version if you click on the image below. In my opinion it should really be seen large on a darkish background. This image was created by stitching five images taken in a row together. It will of course print very well very large on the longer aspect ratio sizes and I would highly recommend sizes such as 10x20, 12x20 (exact!), 14x22, 20x30. I can do much larger custom prints too. Just contact me. As many people ask me about this: The logo will NOT show up on your print.


Fire in the sky. Buy a print.
Technical data: 5 stitched images from Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 mm at 11mm, ISO 200, f/16, 1/10s.
This image is also on flickr. Google+ post on this image.

A Notchtop Morning

I was out at Lake Helene yesterday morning and it was just absolutely spectacular if not very cold and quite deep in the snow (I had not expected to need snowshoes so I was sinking deep at every step). I am still going through the images but I quickly wanted to already share this image with you. It shows Notchtop mountain at the moment of sunrise but covered with a blanket of clouds. The wind was so fierce that these clouds were puffing around really quickly almost as if I was looking at a timelapse video but happening in real life. Quite neat.


A Notchtop morning. Buy a print.
Tech info. Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-55mmf/3.5-5..6 at 24mm. f/16, 1/13s. Raw image developed in Lightroom.
Same image on Flickr. Relevant Google+ post.