Andrews Creek

In the process of cleaning up my Lightroom catalog I am running into 100's of images I love. Here are two images from Andrews Creek in Rocky Mountain National Park that I took on July of 2015. I published one image from here but have never shown two others that I love. These are both at the point where the semisecret trail (it's not marked and disappears several times in the trees so you'll need some route finding skills) to Andrews glacier takes off from the main trail that leads to Lake of Glass and Sky Pond in Loch Vale. This is a gorgeous area in Rocky Mountain National Park well worth the hike. The first image is one I published before but never highlighted. The second and third are ones that I just discovered and actually like even more. I hope you enjoy these images.

Downfall.
Nikon D600. Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 16 mm, f/13, 0.8s, ISO 100.

Jumbled.
Nikon D600. Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 16 mm, f/16, 0.8s, ISO 100.

From hither.
Nikon D600. Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 16 mm, f/16, 0.8s, ISO 100.

A purple desert

I came across this scene driving back from the Vermillion Cliffs last spring. I had stopped at Bryce and Calf Creek Falls along the way and now was heading back home with vague plans to stop at Goblin Valley. on the way between Capital Reef (an extraordinary place I can also highly recommend) and Hanksville I got struck by the scene below of just seas of purple/pink flowers on the desert floor in front of the impressive buttes. I had to stop and take some pictures as you can well imagine. I think it is extraordinary how life seems to find a way in these places.

Seas of Purple. Buy a print. On flickr. On facebook. On Google+.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28 mm f/2.8 at 16mm, f/22, 1/40s, ISO 100.

Old Man and the mountain

Old man of the mountain flowers blooming at the shores of Andrews Tarn below Andrews Glacier in Rocky Mountain National Park. I visited this place after my visit to Sky Pond and Lake of Glass for sunrise. The mosquitoes were amazingly thick this morning and they were not impressed by the bug spray I was using ;-).

Old Man. Bigger. Flickr. Facebook. G+
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 16mm, f/22, 1/60s, ISO 100, handheld.

Indian Peaks morning

Last weekend, I went on a short sunrise hike with friends from the cmc Dan and Jon at the Arapahoe Pass Trail in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. We waited for sunrise at a very steep waterfall that had quite a few flowers around it. Unfortunately there was so much wind there that all the flowers were getting blurred in all our pictures, so I have 100 images with blurs where the flowers are supposed to be. Most of the high resolution stitches I tried to do at sunrise didn't work for that same reason either. Also, the clouds prevented the sun from rising at its scheduled time and it didn't show for 20 minutes after sunrise. I did come away with some images I like though that I'll post over time. Here are a few to start. As always, click on the images for a bigger version.

Arapahoe Pass Trail Sunrise. Buy a print. On flickr. On Facebook. On Google+.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 16mm, f/22, 1/6s, ISO 100.

I was standing in the waterfall to take this image. Luckily my boots are still fairly waterproof. Below is the same waterfall looking up. I also have an interesting image of about the same viewpoint taken on the way back down in different light that I will post later.

From hither. Buy a print. On flickr. On Facebook. On Google+.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 16mm, f/22, 1/8s, ISO 100.

There were enormous amounts of flowers along the trail. Here is a cluster of Columbines that I really liked.

Stack. Buy a print. At flickr. On facebook.
Nikon D600, Nikon 70-200mm f/4 at 140mm, f/4, 1/80s, ISO 400.

Spectators. Buy a print. On flickr. On Facebook. On Google+.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 16mm, f/22, 1/10s, ISO 100.

I have a lot more to share from this very pleasant morning. In the mean time, I'll share with you this map with the geomapped locations of all the pictures I took that morning on it. I love this feature in Lightroom. I generate gpx tracks using my phone. Import the tracks into Lightroom and just autotag the entire series of images in one click. Couldn't be simpler.

DYC!

Yellow flowers along the Enchanted Forest Trail in Apex open space. I snapped this with my iPhone on my mountain bike ride yesterday. In May these flowers show up for a few days in large numbers. I photographed them before (See here for example) but have never been able to photograph them in numbers this large.


Flickr link. Google+ post.

Floating

Floating. Wild sunflower in Golden Gate Canyon State Park. Buy a print.
Geeky tech data: Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-200 mm f/3.5-5.6 at 120 mm, f/5.3, 1/160s, ISO 800
Smugmug (bigger) image link. Flickr image. Google+.

This is a budding sunflower along the horseshoe trail in Golden Gate Canyon State park seen on a family hike. I rarely do these square in the middle compositions, but I think it works for this image.

Patch of Columbine

I shot this image a few weeks ago in Mayflower Gulch. I was there with my daughter to photograph the sunset which is often spectacular there. This evening, we had mostly gray skies and light drizzle rain. We still had a good time and once in a while some color appeared. There actually were a few seconds of good color that I was lucky enough to catch (you might see one of the images next to this post in the featured gallery sidebar). I will blog about those images later. The Columbine image below is a high resolution stitch that will print 6 feet high while retaining exquisite detail.


Assembled from 9 images, D300, ISO 200, 18-55 mm Nikor at 35mm, f/16, 1/30s. Grad ND to darken the sky.
Buy a print of this image.
See this image on flickr.

Contrast

Shot on yesterday's bike ride with my iPhone using the pro HDR app. As it came from the camera. I liked the contrast between the yellow and the deep blue skies. I could only get that out using multiple exposure techniques. The built-in camera app gave blah results even with the HDR option turned on.

Wet Spring Late Flowers

From yesterday's bike ride. iPhone picture. I used the pro HDR iphone app.

Sign of spring

Spotted this Pasque flower on a bike ride (another test ride) a few days ago.



These are quite pretty flowers that only bloom for a short while in spring around Easter as their name suggests.

On the same bikeride, I also took this pano of an area that burned a few years ago. It's close to the upper parking lot (I rode from below of course, I don't take shortcuts) in the Mount Falcon open space park. Mount Falcon is popular amongst Mountain Bikers because it is a good long uphill slog that is not very technical giving a good afterwork workout and has some good singletrack in the back on Parmalee Gulch.

Sky Pond

A while ago (More than three months now) I spent a day photographing Sky Pond and the gorgeous Cathedral Spires that are right above this beautiful lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. To get to Sky Pond before sunrise (a little after 6 am), I had to start hiking at 4 am, which necessitated a 2 am start from home. The hike is very nice, even in the dark and I noticed that there were still many flowers next to the trail. When I got above The Loch, some dawn glow started on the horizon and I snapped a quick cellphone image:



After passing the Lake of glass and climbing up a wet waterfall, I got to Sky Pond which was nicely lit by predawn light.


D300, ISO 200, 11-16 Tokina f2.8 at 11mm, f8.0, 2.5seconds. Single exposure.

A few seconds later, the spires lit up brightly and the mood completely changed,

9 images stitched from a D300 using 18-55mm kit lens at 30mm, ISO 200, f/14 and 0.5s exposure. A 3 stop grad ND was used on the top row of images.

As you can see there is a red glow in the water and the mountain is lit up very brightly. The color you see is almost impossible to reproduce on a standard monitor and using sRGB color spaces. Only when at home I was looking at these images did I discover that there were several climbers at the foot of the Petit Groupon (one of the spires) getting ready to start climbing. They must have spent the night there which is possible if you get a permit from the park service. These spires are a popular climb. In the screenshot below, you can see the climbers as they appear in the stitched image above when zoomed at 1:1 (click on the image to see the full resolution). There is more info in the original images but this is representative of the detail present in the stitched image above. This also gives you an idea of the scale of these mountains.


I went on to shoot some more panos and individual images (all on the smugmug gallery). This was one that I liked in particular because of the glow on the water.


D300, ISO 200, 11-16 Tokina f2.8 at 11mm, f16.0, 1/5s. Single exposure 3 stop grad ND.

Going down from Sky Pond, one comes along a gorgeous waterfall that is strangely unnamed (at least on all the maps). I had some fun shooting all around it. One image that I liked from there was this image of a gnarly root of a twisted pine I came accros with the waterfall in the background.

D300, ISO 200, 11-16 Tokina f2.8 at 11mm, f16.0, 1/5s. Single exposure, 3 stop ND filter.

From the waterfall, there were also several interesting viewpoints of the spires such as this whirlpool:

D300, ISO 200, 11-16 Tokina f2.8 at 13mm, f16.0, 1/6s. Single exposure, 3 stop grad ND filter.


Or this mossy image:

D300, ISO 200, 11-16 Tokina f2.8 at 11mm, f16.0, 1/8s. Single exposure, 3 stop grad ND filter.

It was quite impressive to see the glow on the water in the little stream (Icy Brook). Around the stream there were many flowers still this late in the season. Here is a shot through an opening in the rocks that I liked.

D300, ISO 200, 11-16 Tokina f2.8 at 11mm, f11.0, 5 handheld exposures from 1/50s to 1/3s.

This is a composite of 5 handheld shots (too lazy to take out my tripod again) that I created using enfuse and hugin (to make sure the images are aligned).

Below The Lake of Glass, one has to climb down a slick waterfall for a little and it was here that I came accross a bevy of late season flowers that I photographed in various ways. Here for example are some bluebells and yellow flowers (forgot their name for now) in a crack in the rock.

D300, ISO 200, 11-16 Tokina f2.8 at 15mm, f8.0, 1/40s handheld.

Or these yellow flowers on a ledge

D300, ISO 800, 11-16 Tokina f2.8 at 15mm, f2.8, 1/500s handheld.

Right below the waterfall there was a gorgeous meadow with many photographic opportunities, several of which I took:

D300, ISO 200, 11-16 Tokina f2.8 at 11mm, f16.0, 1/10s, 3 stop grad ND.

Or this view that includes a piece of wood

D300, ISO 200, 11-16 Tokina f2.8 at 11mm, f16.0, 1/10s, 3 stop grad ND.

This hike is highly recommended even if you are not willing to get up as early as I did. It is gorgeous any time of day.
Check out the entire gallery on my smugmug page.

Shooting star

Saw these neat flowers near a stream while I was out riding my mountain bike in White Ranch open space park yesterday so I had to take a picture, even if it is just cellphone quality. According to Mariska, who knows a lot about native plant botany, these are Shooting Stars. Aptly named I think.



White Ranch is a superb place to go mountain biking as long as you don't follow the guide book's recommendation to go up boring Belcher Hill trail where you'll be riding a wide fire road queued up behind a 100 other bikers. Take off from that trail as soon as you can on Whippletree and take the South branch of Longhorn up. You'll see 1000's of Mouse Ears, Larkspurs, Paintbrush and such. A little later in the year there are loads of sunflowers. Then at the end of Longhorn go right on Shorthorn which hugs the side of the mountain and goes through wooded areas with lots of flowers, wildlife and mushrooms. When hitting the North branch of Longhorn go left (up) and you'll see the little stream these flowers are next to. I usually go up to the upper parking lot, loop back to Maverick and then go down on the North branch of Longhorn, which is superfun and sometimes even scary to ride down. Then cross another stream all the way at the bottom and climb out through a very plush looking field of Poison Ivy (has a lot beebalm mixed in in late summer) and a big patch of white violets (don't know what the are really called, but you can see them here in a shot from Apex park). If I have a lot of time, I will often go all the way up to the top of Belcher hill after reaching the upper parking lot and go down Mustang trail which crosses a little stream many times. Then I go back up and hit Maverick again. If you follow these routes you will see very few other bikers and be immersed in nature all the time.

Spring flowers

It is finally spring in Colorado and flowers are coming out in the foothills. Here are some pictures of Pasque flowers (Bigger in the flickr link). These pictures were taken in Lair of the Bear park and on a hike to the top of Bergen Peak which is near Evergreen in the Elk Meadow park.

Pasque


Going to a concert


Rising


Under the bridge


Lone

Picacho Peak

I recently spent some time in Southern Arizona with my family. We hiked in Picacho Peak State park, which is on the highway between Tucson and Phoenix. Early spring (late March and early April) this park explodes with wildflowers. You can also go up to the top of the peak but you have to do some scrambling with cables stuck in the rocks and such. Lots of fun. I took a few pictures there that I'd like to share. The time of day wasn't entirely right for good light, but I still like them. Much larger versions are available in the links underneath the images.

Lupine, Poppies and Saguaro:


Poppies and Saguaro skeleton:


Sea of lupine, Saguaro and Picacho Peak


Sea of flowers:


Enjoy!

More images from the forest

This is a followup on my last post. First is another image I took but only stitched today. It is a different angle at the same location as the yellow flower shot in the previous post.

I think I prefer the one from yesterday but this is pretty good too.

I also went back to the same place yesterday thinking that the wetness of the constant rain might be interesting. I mostly just got wet but took some interesting shots anyway. Here is a misty forest:

A jumble of leaves:

And some wet, yellow flowers which caused them to hang their heads.

The location with the crossed logs that I photographed the previous day was quite uninteresting due to the hanged heads unfortunately so I let that rest for another time. I am guessing that in a few days time all the yellow flowers will be blooming making it more of a sea of yellow than of green.

Lastly, Apex creek in the rain drizzle:

Flowers in Enchanted Forest

I went on a quick afterwork photohike along the Apex trail that is one of my mountain biking favorites. When I rode it last Friday, I noticed many blankets of flowers along a trail in the Apex open space called "Enchanted Forest". This place is an uncommonly wet and dark forested area for the Denver foothills. I took my wooden panorama setup to make some high res imagery. I take 9 images at regular angles and stitch them together with hugin. This also allows for dialing in a shift, mimicking the effect you get with a tilt-shift lens on large format. Here is one of some sunflower like flowers (larger versions in the link):

These appear to be white violets. Many blankets of these were to be found along the enchanted forest trail.

At this point, I had to scurry to avoid getting completely soaked by an approaching thunderstorm however and hoped these would come out good. As they indeed did! These images will print great even at the very largest sizes my service offers.

Last but not least. Here is the flickr set.

Update: Some more images of this same place.

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.