The glow

Intimate landscape in Zion National Park's Taylor Canyon. We were here at sunrise time and the light hitting the canyon walls bathed everything in a red glow.

The glow.
Nikon D300, 3 images stitched. Nikon 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 at 50 mm, f/16, 2.0s, ISO 200

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.

Soft rays

I discovered that an earlier photo from the sunrise at Blue Lake (see yesterday's post) has an intriguing atmospheric effect in it. There are some subtle rays visible in the sky that appear to converge onto Mount Toll. Of course they do not actually converge but are parallel lines that appear convergent due to perspective. They look to be caused by light scattering of sunrise light in the high atmosphere that hits higher altitudes moisture before it hits the peak itself.

Soft rays. Bigger and prints. On flickr.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 17mm, f/16, 6s, ISO 100.

An Equinox sunrise

On the day of the fall equinox, I went to see the sunrise at one of my favorite locations in the front range mountains, Blue Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. My old friend Jean-David joined me. I don't often get to go out with others for these crazy sunrise hikes so this was great. We were greeted at the lake with very little wind, which is something that almost never happens in this place as well a fantastically colorful sunrise. A major treat. I took a series of images at sunrise with the same framing.

This image was taken just before sunrise:

before. Bigger. On flickr.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 16mm, f/16, 2.0s, ISO 100

The moment of sunrise:

The moment. Bigger. On flickr.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 16mm, f/16, 0.5s, ISO 100

Right after sunrise the color was most intense:

Intense. Bigger. On flickr.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 16mm, f/22, 0.6s, ISO 100

I created quite a few more images of this place, including the full 360 degrees panorama shown below. Click and drag to zoom around:

Views: Blue Lake spherical. This High lake is in the Indian Peaks Wilderness and is gorgeous at sunrise. Rarely is the surface of this lake still enough for a good reflection but today I got reasonably lucky. by Jao van de Lagemaat

Portal - a quiet Mount Toll reflection

Mount Toll is an iconic peak in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. Usually you see this peak from a completely different angle. In September I decided to hike up to try and see a glacial lake that is clear on the topo map above the well-known Blue Lake and made it over the moraine in time. I wrote about that hike before here and here and there is a gallery that has images from it here. Going through my library looking for some images to test print on some nice paper I got from Santa, I came across the below image that I had somehow ignored first time around but that really struck my eye.

Portal. Bigger and Prints. On facebook. On flickr.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28 mm f/2.8 at 19 mm, f/22, 1/3s, ISO 100.

Panorama at Upper Blue Lake

Here is a panorama done at Upper Blue Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. The sunrise light was just hitting Mount Toll. I have a few more images from here to share. Those that want to look ahead can check out my Indian Peaks gallery on smugmug. Hopefully this can provide some sunshine in the rain and flood drenched Colorado.

Upper Blue Lake sunrise panorama. Buy a print. Photo on facebook. On flickr. on Google+.
Stitched panorama from 7 images. Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 20mm, f/22, 1/3s, ISO 100.

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

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.

Icy Reflection

This is an image from Emerald Lake that I captured on a hike up to Emerald Lake for sunrise on December 30th of last year. I have posted on this trip before on this blog and I have many images from this that you can already see in my Emerald Lake gallery mixed in with older images. I spent a long time out on the ice this day capturing many images of the ice and reflections on it. I will post more from this extraordinarily beautiful place but for now here is an image created by stitching 9 images from my D600. This image will print wall sized with amazing detail. Click on the image for a larger view.

Emerald Ice Dragon. Buy a print. On flickr. On Facebook. On G+.
High resolution composite from 9 images from a Nikon D600, Nikkor 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 at 24mm, f/16, 1/60s, ISO 100.

Up and Down - Standley Lake Reflection

One of the first 1000 images I took with my new D600. I am now at 6600 or so shutter events and had to clean the sensor for the second time.

Up and down. Buy a print. Flickr. Facebook. Google+.
Nikon D600. Nikon 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 at 24mm, f/11, 0.6s, ISO 100.

Baker Beach Sunset

These images are from a California trip I did with my family last winter. We went to Baker Beach at sunset and played in the water a bit. This is a really nice place to see the sun sink into the ocean and see the famous bridge illuminated by nice golden light. Even though it was December 22nd, it was wonderfully warm and we had a blast. I posted one image from this little outing a long time ago already over here so I won't repeat that image and instead give you a few others.

Sunset at Baker Beach. Buy a print. At flickr.
Stitched from 10 images. Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 at 18mm, ISO 200, 1/320s, f/11.
As you can see my daughter was having a lot of fun in the water.

Golden Gate Sunset swoop. Buy a print. On flickr.
Nikon D300, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8, ISO 200, 1/80s, f/11.
The breaking waves gave lots of opportunity for interesting shapes.

Golden Gate Sunset swoop. Buy a print. On flickr.
Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 at 18mm, ISO 200, 1/80s, f/11.
And gorgeous color contrasts.

Red and Blue. Buy a print. On flickr.
Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 at 52mm, ISO 200, 1/125s, f/8.
That got more intense later. I just love the contrast between the blue water reflection and the red bridge.

Sun worship. Buy a print. Not on flickr ;-).
Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 at 55mm, ISO 200, 1/800s, f/5.6.
I did not put this image on any social media. Baker beach is well-known for a "certain kind of sunbathing". Even though this image is in no way risqué in my view, American sensibilities are rather strange to me so I only put it here.

Narrows reflection

I recently found this image from the Narrows in Zion National Park while going through my Lightroom library. The image is a composite of 9 images to create a very high resolution image and I hadn't noticed while shooting it that I had blown out (i.e. it was overexposed outside of the range of the camera's sensor) the cliff in the back. At the time, Lightroom wasn't able to bring these back to anything resembling nice color so I never bothered stitching the images. However the latest Lightroom versions are far better at this and surprisingly by just dialing back the exposure slider a little on the individual raw files, suddenly a blue sky showed up and detail in the rock appeared. So after some stitching and editing (mostly some dodging and burning) the image below was created that I am very happy with.

Narrow reflection. Buy a print. Image on flickr. Image on facebook. On Google+
High resolution composite from 9 images from Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-55mm at 24 mm, f/16, 0.6s, ISO 200.

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!

Mills Lake sunset

I went to catch the sunset at Mills Lake with my daughter a few weeks ago. Haven't had time since then to post the pictures here.

Sunset at Mills Lake. Buy a print. Also see this image on flickr. Facebook.
High resolution composite from 9 images. Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-55mm at 32mm, f/16, 1/6s, ISO 200

Mills Lake horizontal. Buy a print.
High resolution composite from 9 images. Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-55mm at 32mm, f/16, 1/6s, ISO 200

More later.

hiding images

Some images I found hiding in my library from Summit Lake on Mount Evans.

King's crown. Buy a print.
High resolution composite from 9 shots. Individual shots: Nikon D300. Nikkor 18-55mm at 34 mm, f/16, 5.0s, ISO 200.

Shroud. Buy a print.
High resolution composite from 12 shots. Individual shots: Nikon D300. Nikkor 18-55mm at 35 mm, f/16, 10.0s, ISO 200.

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

Emerald Lake reprise

I went up to Emerald Lake in RMNP yesterday evening with my daughter. Even though this place is a traditional sunrise setting, I know from the geography of this place that in midsummer, it should work as a sunset too. Hallett peak and the ridge to the left should be lit by the setting sun and could create a nice band of light especially when it is cloudy at the same time. This evening looked promising but unfortunately, as happened many times before, the clouds were just too thick for any color. On top of that it started pouring right at sunset and didn't let up the whole time walking down to the car. Still had a great time. I did create the below panorama that I still liked.


Rainy Emerald Evening. Buy a print. See on flickr. See on G+. Large on smugmug.
Stitched from 7 images. Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 at f/16, 1/10s, ISO 400 (forgot to change it ;-) ).

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.

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.

Sunrise at the Bol

I went to photograph the sunrise at a small natural area forming a riverdune in the Lek (an extension of the Rhine river) in The Netherlands yesterday morning with my father (an art silversmith living in Schoonhoven - check out the link, he makes extraordinary stuff). This is an interesting area with lots of beautiful flowering trees, tidal planes and more. Here is an interesting reflection captured in the clay-like mud.


Fingers. Buy a print.
Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 mm f/2.8 at 11mm, f/16, 1/50s
Smugmug enlarge. Flickr image, Google+ post.

This was a wonderful morning where we saw lots of pheasants, hares, and other animals but also gorgeous skies.