Glowing Hoodoos

The edges of this Hoodoo in Bryce Canyon National park seem to be translucent and glows from the sun's back lighting.


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Virgin River and the Sentinel

This is the Virgin river of Zion National park with the Sentinel in the background catching the last rays of setting sun.

This is HDR image that is made up of 6 differently exposed images. It's not terribly photo-realistic, but I love the painterly feel.

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Blue Morning

Early morning at Avalanche lake in Glacier National Park. This was the last, and only morning that I got up early for photo. The next morning I work up with the flu. There went my motivation for the next few days.

This is another HDR made up of a set of 6 images. The parameters were chosen to push the image towards the more surreal end of the spectrum.

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A Very Good Morning.

During our recent vacation, we stayed in Leadville, Co for a few days prior to the Leadville Marathon and Heavy Half. One morning, while I sat at Turquoise Lake enjoying the sunrise, Kelly got in a little shoreline run. The only thing I was missing, was a coffee.

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Sands of time

I'm still away visiting family (the girls are SO cute!) and also way behind on processing the photos from our recent vacation. So, I'm again going to the archive. This is a photo taken back in Dec 1999 at Whitesands, NM and was taken using slide film. A few months ago, I took a few slides to a local lab to get them scanned. Most of the scans were crap - including this one. I think that I was able to save the scan by cloning out dust and scratches and applying some art effects.

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Pikes Pink

A 10-shot panorama of sunset on the north face of pikes peak.

Some of our 4th of July plans got rained out yesterday. I still fired up the grill, but did so under an umbrella while dodging lightening. Regardless, it was a great day to spend time with the family.

Off to the art fest!

2:30 AM

Yesterday was one of the few days that Roxborough State Park opened early enough to allow people to shoot the sunrise. They opened at 5:00AM for the 5:35AM sunrise. I've been wanting to catch one of these sunrise openings. The early openings in April and May were raining, overcast days. Today was the day!

I made sure I got there about 4:30AM so that I stood a good chance of getting the spot I scouted out during my last trip (see Scouting Roxborough). I was the third in line at the gate. Over the next 40 minutes (yes, the ranger was late), the line of cars waiting grew to 13. It felt like a race - not a relaxing morning of hiking and shooting! Once we all got to the parking lot, I grabbed by camera bag and tripod. The ranger asked me if I'd seen the bear as we were driving in. I had - it was a good size bruin. Too bad it was too far away to get a photo. Somebody used that diversion to get to the spot I scouted out. However, this second choice of place is not too bad either.

The whole time I was here and taking shots, I keep thinking to myself that I was missing the real show. The sky to the east had a fair amounts of clouds and looked like it may be the best sight. I decided to stay where I was because I didn't know of any good spots from which to shoot the eastern sky.

As with most photo trips I take, I learned something: when scouting a location, look for other possible alternative angles/shots depending on possible alternative weather and light conditions.

After capturing a number of versions of this popular composition, I hiked around a bit looking for compositions and subjects that express my style a bit more. Some of these photos are sure to appear in future posts.

Oh, and the title? That’s the horrible time that I had to wake up at in order to get this shot…

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Opportunity

Yesterday was the first chance for me to play with the camera in more than a week. So, I was disappointed when my truck was totally dead and would not start. After getting a jump start, I drove the ungrateful machine to my mechanic so he could find the issue with the electrical system. On the way there, I saw a huge field of wildflowers. As I was anticipating a long wait at the garage, so I left my camera at home. The overcast skies would have been perfect for shots of flowers. Anyway, 5 hours later, I was parked on the side of the road by this field. Luckily the sky stayed overcast. I'm sure that drivers along Austin Bluffs Blvd were wondering why that fool was rolling around on the ground and contorting himself.

I'm also sure that most of the drivers took no notice of me, and were oblivious to the field of wildflowers.

I'm not very good at photos like this. So, any suggestions for improving the composition would be greatly appreciated!

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Expectations

This photo blog has been a very interesting experience. It has lead to some personnel growth and has taught me some unlikely lessons. I'm an engineer by trade and thus have spent years exercising left-brain activities (heck, I use a spreadsheet to plan vacations!). I've never considered myself an artist. Photography started as a hobby for me, a way to record memories. It was never meant to make art. So, I was so surprised and pleased on that day that a film developer asked to display one of my photos on their wall. What a kick! Still, coming back from a vacation and having a $200-$300 bill to develop all the film lead me to eventually start to leave the camera in the closet.

I decided to start the blog last year, after I took the plunge and bought a digital SLR. I reckoned that it would be a good way to journal my attempt to becoming a better photographer, and to share stuff with friends and family. I certainly did not expect other people to read it!

I was looking for feedback when I started posting photos in public areas. It was a bit frightening when I first did. I was hoping for constructive criticism, but fearing ridicule or, worse, disinterest. I was ecstatic when I received some criticism. I learned a lot from it. The linked post is a result of that.

Then, I discovered the concept of photo memes. For awhile, I just lurked. There are so many people out there with interesting stories, beautiful poems, and gorgeous photos! I learned lot by lurking. When I stopped lurking and decided to contribute to a meme, I was, again, full of trepidation. But the response to my first post was, to me, overwhelming.

That’s when I learned that having a audience is fun. I’ve never liked being a center of attention, so, this surprised me! However, I also found that this brought with it a certain amount of pressure. After that first post to Skywatch Friday, I wondered what I’d post next. Looking through my collection, I saw nothing that I thought was as good as that one. I felt pressure to perform well. I’ve used that perceived pressure as a goad to get out and take a lot pictures, try need styles of shots (portraits, for example) and new techniques. I believe that I am a much better photographer than I was 10 months ago when I started the blog.

This, finally, brings me to this photo. A few days ago, I posted a photo. In that post, I mentioned that I took another that is one of my favorites, and that I’d post it today. The response to that was amazing. Now I’m obliged to post this one. What’s interesting is that in the past, I’d be nervous about the implied expectations, now, not so much. If nobody else likes it, I still like it, and I guess that’s what really matters. But, all you readers have helped me to gain some confidence in “my art”. I don’t yet consider myself an artist, but perhaps, I’m getting closer. Thank you all very much!

About this image: I saw the rays of the setting sun striking the tops of the grass and saw a cool photo. I took a number of shots, different compositions, and camera settings, etc. One of them I took with a slower shutter speed to capture the waving of the grass. I got the blurring of the grass in the foreground, but it didn' look right. But I still liked to overall image. So, I applied the Orton Effect which softens the overall focus. In the end, the result of that helped the image convey what I felt when I was standing there.

Sorry for the long post - I didn't expect that when I started writing :)

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Geotagging

Here's a shot I look over Memorial Day weekend while traveling around Crested Butte. I'm not entirely sure exactly where I took the photo. I've been playing around with a new method of Geotagging my photos. I really enjoy being able to look at Google Earth and seeing where I was when I took a shot. Unfortunately, my geotagging system got messed up with this series.

I suspect that, one day, all digital cameras will have an internal GPS to handle geotagging. Just as long as they don't put a cell phone in my camera. I already have a useless camera in my cellphone.

What did ya'll think of the slideshow post (Edit: Fixed link)? I'm trying to decide if I should post more slideshows. Look in my side bar for a poll on this subject.

I'm about to head up to Cripple Creek to play another Texas Hold'em tourney. I'll be taking my camera in case I have time to walk around town. Actually, I'm taking two cameras: My usual Canon 40D and my old Nikon F70 (a film camera). I've filled it with some B&W film and put a 50mm lens on it. That should be an interesting challenge! I'm sure I've forgotten how to use film.

That's today's Scenic Sunday. Take a stroll over to Scenic Sunday's site, and look around!

Narrow Margin

Yesterday I awoke very early to capture some sunrise shots. Rather stupidly on my part, I didn't check the weather report when I made these plans. The morning turned out very cloudy, misty and, ultimately, rainy.

My buddy and I threw our plans away and headed for Red Rock Canyon open space here in Colorado Springs. That's right, yet another Red Rock Canyon. I got very few photos worth keeping, but we had a great morning of hiking.

It's been a few years since I've visited this park. I'm now really eager to return as I saw lots of potentially interesting shots.

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Morning in San Francisco

Early morning is the best time in which to visit the city. The light is beautiful and the traffic is light.

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From the Westering Sun

Here's another sunset shot from the series that I took at Mueller State Park. The park is just west of Pike's Peak. One cannot see the actual peak in this image, only the western slopes.

Be sure to visit Scenic Sundays before the next sunset.

PS: As is was a drizzly rainy day and I'm a bit of a desert rat, I created a banner for the blog. What do you thing?

Rain in the Garden

This image of the Southern Gateway rock is another shot from my Garden of the Gods Series. It was raining up on the mountain, and it threatened to rain while I walked up to the ridge that overlooks the park. I got back to the car in time to prevent soaking the camera. This ridge is same place, but a different angle (and day) from that used in the Classic View shot. I fiddled around the with PSE a bit to bring out the structure in the clouds. It's really hard to capture them on a gray day. But the water really brings out the colors.

I did not take a single shot today. Instead, I worked all day on re-designing my website. Seemed like a good idea as today was also very damp and drizzly. I've gotten spoiled by being able to wear shorts the last few days...

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Cheyenne Mountain Sunrise

For all you fans of Stargate SG-1, Cheyenne Mountain is the mountain at the far left of the photo.

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Scenic Sunday: Colored Soils

Here's another shot from the Paint Mines Interpretive Park showing three of common color soils that you can find there.

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Classic View

Here's a classic composition of Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. This shot has been done by many people. I've lived here for quite some time and decided that I finally needed to attempt it. Given the snow storm this week, I decided that this was a great time. I got to parking lot just before 6 AM. I discovered two other photographers had the same idea. Two or three others joined us in the next 1/2 hour. Like I said, it is a popular shot.

While I was there I captured a few less obvious shots. I'll share them in the coming weeks.

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Geologic Layers

Earlier this year I spent some time shooting at the Paint Mines Interpretive Park. I got there early on a clear morning. Although the light was gorgeous, it was unsuitable for photographing the canyons. In retrospect, I realized that I what I really needed was diffuse light. I reckoned that it would fill in the shadows. Friday, I got the chance to test this hypothesis. This time, the sky was overcast. I arrived at the park around 11 AM. The light was bright and very diffuse, lighting up the interior of the canyon nicely. Overall, I think the light was easier to work worth. I can't wait to try again - in this canyon and others. I will be back to the Paint Mines as I don't feel that I've captured it adequately yet.

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