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!
This is one of many images I took strolling around the interior of the Dunes. There are so many amazing little scenes you can find all around the dunes with plants clinging to life in the most extraordinary circumstances as you can see here.
I found this image hiding in my library. It is from a trip with photographer friends that I did in 2014 to Bisti Badlands, Alstrom Point, and White Pocket. On my way back I swung by Bryce Canyon and Calf Creek Falls. The above image had been lurking in my Lightroom catalog for quite a while, me not realizing the potential of the image. I think I now actually like it as one of the best images from that sunrise. This is a while before sunrise as you can see from the stars still being visible but a purple glow was on the clouds already and a yellow glow started at the horizon announcing the coming sunrise. If you want to see more pictures, here is an earlier blog post on this place.
A river of rock. Calhan Paint Mines.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28 mm f/2.8 at 22mm, F/8, 1/15s, ISO 100. Focus stack from 5 images to get everything in pristine focus front to back.
I visited the stunning and fairly unknown Calhan Paint mines that are hidden in a little town-run interpretive park for a sunrise on Feb 21, 2016. Since the last time that I was there 100's of very impressive wind mills were added all around it but luckily the views were not spoiled. This is truly an extraordinary place and well worth a visit if you're ever near Colorado Springs. You can find an immersive panorama that I made the same morning in this link.
Radiance. Matthews/Winters park.
Stitch from 4 images from Nikon 1 J4, 10-30 mm f/3.5-5.6 at 10 mm, f/4, 1/400s, f/4.0
I took this photograph on a short hike with my wife and son over Dakota ridge. I ride this on my bike often and it is a beautiful trail. Here we were hiking back to the trailhead and we came upon this scene with clouds lit by sunset light. I often like struggling trees as you can tell.
Golden Dawn. Chautauqua Park, Boulder open space.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28 mm f/2.8 at 16mm, F/8, 1/30s, ISO 800. Focus stacked.
I was scouting Chautauqua park on May 13, 2016 for a sunrise photography class I would lead the next morning. This is one of the vantage points I identified there. The flowers are fantastic in spring in this place. The next morning was rain and fog the whole time which made for very different but still very interesting images as you can see next. I also hiked up to the royal arch this morning and made a few immersive panoramas there that can be experienced here and here.
Forest scene. Chautauqua Park, Boulder open space.
Nikon D600, Nikon 24-85 mm f/3.5-4.5 at 72mm, F/8, 1/80s, ISO 450.
I got many images like this the morning of May 14. So different from the day before.
Fairytale Forest. Boulder Brook, Rocky Mountain National Park.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28 mm f/2.8 at 16mm, F/16, 1s, ISO 100.
This little micro landscape scene can be found along one of my very favorite places in Rocky - Boulder Brook trail. It is reached from the Storm pass trailhead and the nicest parts are hidden from view from the trail but you can easily hear the little waterfalls. In autumn this place gets covered with aspen leaves that make it look like somebody scattered gold coins all around.
Longs glow. Rocky Mountain National Park.
Nikon D600, Nikon 24-85 mm f/3.5-4.5 at 48mm, F/16, 1/3s, ISO 100.
The same day as I shot the small forest scene above I drove up to Forest Canyon overlook along Trail Ridge road and enjoyed sunset as it hit Longs peak. Truly a magnificent end of the day.
The ancient one. Mount Evans.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28 mm f/2.8 at 18mm, F/16, 1/40s, ISO 100.
This image is from a sunrise on Mount Evans in the Mt. Goliath area. When the sunrise didn't materialize much, I hiked around and followed the trail up the mountain and found this tree being backlit by soft morning light. I made the sun peek through some holes in the tree branches and stopped down to f/16 to cause the sunstar to appear. This lens also has the fascinating property that next to sunstars it will show nice diffraction rainbows that are easily visible if you look at the print and even in this web sized version. You can see this image in the rotunda of the Colorado state capitol building for a few more months.
Ice Lake Dusk. Ice Lakes Basin, San Juan Mountains, Colorado.
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28 mm f/2.8 at 18mm, F/16, 20s, ISO 100.
This image was taken on a night I spent in Ice Lakes Basin near Silverton. This is a stunningly beautiful place with seas of wildflowers, gorgeous glacially fed lakes, and rugged peaks. I was here to photograph star trails as you can see in this image. I like this image a bit better than the star trails image due to the streakiness of the clouds. If you look carefully you will spot a yellow tent on the shelf on the right. I made a time lapse of the individual images in the star trails image but I haven't shared this anywhere yet.
Ephemeral Glow. Bierstadt Moraine, Rocky Mountain National Park.
Nikon D600, Nikon 24-85 mm f/3.5-4.5 at 34mm, F/11, 1/40s, ISO 400.
This image is from a wonderful fall sunset hike I took with my son up to Lake Bierstadt and back. We hiked up the Moraine which was covered in aspen trees that were in full fall regalia. I took many images but this is one of my favorites for sure. Afterwards we had a great mexican dinner in Estes Park.
Night on the Moraine. Bierstadt Moraine, Rocky Mountain National Park.
Nikon D600, Nikon 24-85 mm f/3.5-4.5 at 24mm, F/8, 30s, ISO 100.
This is from the same fall sunset hike as the previous image. This was way after sunset when we were hiking down. The very long exposure caused the lights from one of the RMNP busses to smear out causing the little S in the center. The dusk light really deepened the color of the fall leaves.
Curving. Chasm Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park.
Stitched from 3 images. Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28 mm f/2.8 at 16mm, F/16, 1/6s, ISO 100.
On October 23 I hiked up to Chasm Lake together with my good friend Jean-David to see the sunrise. We discovered many small patches of ice on the edge of the lake and I used this one as a nice foreground element. The blobs are drops hanging from the bottom of the ice. This was a glorious morning in an amazing place. I also created an immersive panorama that you can experience in this link.
I hope you enjoyed this series of images as much as I enjoyed showing them to you! Happy holidays and a happy new year to all.
Swirly - Sunset on lollipop formation in White Pocket, Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-28 mm f/2.8 at 17 mm, f/16, 1/15s, ISO 100
This was taken during a spectacular sunset on the White Pocket formations in the Vermillion Cliffs wilderness. The White pocket is one of the few places where you don't need a permit and I spent overnight here with some good friends photographing the place. There are many pictures of this place on my website and many more that I haven't worked up yet. Truly an extraordinary place with amazing formations on every corner. It is just really hard to reach with a many miles long deep sand road.
Sunset on the Great Sand Dunes, April 2015. I got sandblasted quite heavily on top of this dune and even though I was wearing many down layers and a good windshield, I still was colder than I often am on snow laden trips. Nevertheless, sunset on top of the dunes is still very much worth it and I highly recommend you try it if you get a chance.
On Seas of Calm. Nikon D600. Token 16-28 mm f/2.8 at f/16, 1/5s, ISO 100
Twilight light makes the wings formation in the Bisti Badlands/De-Na-Zin Wilderness in Northern New Mexico glow.
The Wings in the Bisti badlands are glowing in warm twilight light
Nikon D600, Tokina 16-288mm f/2.8, 21 mm, f/18, 6.0s, ISO 100.
Sunset at White Sands National Monument.
Not realizing that the White Sands website was incorrect on closing time, the ranger was lightly annoyed that we were too late exiting the park. It is a pity that the park closes so early. One can camp out on the sand, but the days that I was there, every morning had a missile test. which meant that one could not get camping permits. If you are going here for sunrise or sunset pictures, be aware of the restrictions.
Nikon D600, Nikon 70-200mm f/4 at 70 mm, f/16, 1/5 s, ISO 100.
On smugmug. On flickr. On Facebook. On Google+.
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.
A gorgeous sunset on the rocky shores of Corsica, France.
The End of Day. Buy a print. Flickr. Facebook. Google+.
Nikon D600, Nikon 24-85 mm f/3.5-4.5 at 24mm, f/11, 1.6s, ISO 100
I took this picture by perching the camera on some rocks as I did not have a tripod with me on this trip. I did have to crop out a little bit of out-of-focus rocks on the left, but the waves came out nicely dreamy anyway. I have lots of other nice sea pictures from Corsica that I will share in the near future.
A few weeks ago, I spent a few days in the Moab area with some photographer friends photographing in Arches, Canyonlands and other associated areas. The day I arrived here driving from Fruita (see here for some pictures from Colorado National Monument) and spending a few hours trying to fix my bike's frame at Moab cyclery (they carried the part (a derailleur dropout for my Santa Cruz bike) that I tore apart in the Fruita mud and were very helpful in fixing the problem), I decided to hit Arches for sunset as I hadn't been able to hook up with anybody yet. The area had just seen some snow a few days ago I think and sunset was great. Below are a few of my favorite pictures from that evening.
This is North Window Arch as seen from the "window well".
Balance. Buy a print.
Nikon D600. Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 16mm, f/11, 1/40s, ISO 100. Handheld.
North window from a different angle
I see you! Buy a print.
Nikon D600. Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 28mm, f/8.0, 1/60s, ISO 100. Handheld.
The shadow cast by Turret Arch on the South Window really looks like a mountain lion head here.
Mountain Lion. Buy a print.
Nikon D600. Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 16mm, f/8.0, 1/10s, ISO 100. Tripod.
I found this awesome puddle on the far end of Turret Arch that nicely reflected the turret's eye. The water was frozen over in a very thin and very reflective sheet of ice and its shape appears to mirror the Turret. The camera is probably not more than 6 inches from the water (the puddle was tiny) so I had to stop this all the way down.
Seeing Double. Buy a print.
Nikon D600. Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 17mm, f/22, 1s, ISO 100. Tripod.
This is another image from Turret arch seen from the back. The sun had just gone below the horizon but is still glowing warm. You can see the La Sal mountains to the right and a hint of North Window through the arch. I like the leading line leading up to the arch.
Happiness is a warm turret. Buy a print.
Nikon D600. Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 at 17mm, f/16, 0.6s, ISO 100. Tripod.
I captured this long view looking towards the La Sal mountains. There was some nice pink in the sky and the snow-capped mountains looked nicely blue. A nice color harmony that begged exploitation.
Jaws. Buy a print.
Nikon D600. Nikon 70-200mm f/4 at 135mm, f/5.6, 1/10s, ISO 100. Tripod.
Walking back up to the North window, I thought I was more or less done and would head back to town to meet up with my friends, but I was struck by the sunset behind the Turret. So I took out the gear again and shot this image looking west.
Glow. Buy a print.
Nikon D600. Nikon 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 at 32mm, f/5.6, 1/30s, ISO 100. Handheld.
I'll let this speak for itself.
Moon Cradle. Buy a print.
Nikon D600. Nikon 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 at 24mm, f/5.6, 1/13s, ISO 400. Handheld.
Last but not least, Also check out the galleries on the social sites:
Gallery on smugmug. Gallery on flickr. Gallery on Facebook. Gallery on Google+.
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.
