Linkins Lake

Linkins Lake is a short hike from highway 82 near Independence Pass and Aspen Co.

Maroon Bells II - Alpine Glow

Pre-sunrise view of the Maroon Bells.

Cottonwood

Backlite cottonwood in the Garden of the Gods

Intimate Landscape

One way to cure photographic ennui, is to photograph new subjects, or old subjects or locations in new ways. This photo was taken at a spot that I've photographed many times, but always on the grand landscape scale. I purposefully returned to this spot to see the area in a new, and hopefully unique way.

Big Mountain, Bigger Sky

I got bored recently with photography. Or maybe, I should say I've gotten bored taking pictures of the same old thing. I mean how many photos of Pike's Peak and Garden of the Gods do I need?

I guess the answer is more! Truthfully, I never get bored of watching the many faces of the peak. I just have this personality that gets obsessed with something and focuses a lot of time, energy and learning on that thing (photography, a game, dancing, poker, birding, etc). I devote myself almost solely to that subject. At least until the next interest comes along. It's all about ebb and flow. Time to catch that wave again.

Be sure to visit Skywatch Friday!

Peakview

Pikes Peak crowned in clouds, hidden by red rocks at Garden of the Gods

Abstract Wet and Dry Lands

Abstract Wet and Dry lands - Ute Valley Park.

Great Sand Dunes

Sand dunes and Sangre de Cristo mountains at sunset. Great Sand Dunes National Park, Co.  This photo is of the extreme south western portion of the dune fields from near the entrance.  See map.

I arrived at the Great Sand Dunes for a weekend of camping, hiking and photography to find about 4 inches of fresh, heavy and very wet snow.  The skies were extremely overcast, but it was fairly warm.  Great blobs of snow falling off the trees filled the air with wet plops.

I didn't get many good photos, but I did hike to the top of High Dune (650ft above valley floor).  I went early in the morning and found the icy crust of snow on top of sand to be fairly challenging hiking.  I also scouted out a number of likely locations for some other shots.  I can't wait to return!

Mesa Arch Sunrise II

Here's another view of a sunrise at Canyonlands National Park's Mesa Arch.

Mesa Arch Sunrise I

Kelly and I spent a long weekend in Moab. Kelly is a coach for Team in Training, and we were in Moab for the Canyonlands Half Marathon.

As soon as we arrived in Moab on Thursday, we headed to Arches National Park to run the Devil's Garden Trailhead. What a great place for a trail run.

Friday morning, I awoke early to attempt a sunrise shot of Mesa Arch in Canyonlands. Unfortunately, the sunrise was a bust due to the heavy cloud cover. A rain/snow storm blew in later that day. This wasn't a waste though, as I got to experiment with various compositions and angles.

Instead of watching the marathon on Saturday, I again headed to Mesa Arch for the sunrise. This time the dawn skies were clear. When I arrived, I found 6-7 other photographers already setup. Luckily once the action started, we all moved around a lot to try various angles.

Afterwards, I went for another run along the Murphy's Point trail.

What a glorious day!

Return to Delicate Arch

Here's one last image of Delicate Arch. In the sky above is the Moon and Jupiter (probably).

When setting up for this shot, I didn't have a lot of light. A long exposure would have exposed more of the foreground, but too long would cause the Moon and Jupiter to become elongated (due to the Earth's rotation). A shorter exposure might have lost Jupiter, but exposed the moon better. It’s a tricky exposure problem capture both the foreground and the bright objects.

In order to get a short shot, I pumped up the ISO on my camera, knowing that noise would be an issue. I really didn't want the noise, but, I couldn't think of another option. I was hoping that I could somehow mitigate the noise at home. In this case I decided to add more noise; I applied a crinkled paper texture to the photo. Sometimes, a little noise is annoying, while more is pleasing (hopefully).

You may note that moon has flares and is overexposed. I believe the flairs are due to the very small aperture is used to capture the scene. Overall, the moon looks more like the Sun than the Moon and lends a surrealistic feel to the image.

Be sure to visit Sky Watch Friday for other views of the sky from around the world.

Viewer's Choice

Sunset on the La Sal mountains behind the Delicate Arch in Arches National park.

This is very common image. While I was there, on a cold, breezy evening, there was at least 30 other photographers. I like to try to capture the cliche images at famous place and then try to find unusual subjects, or, familiar subjects seen in unusual ways.

This image is an HDR image taken a few minutes later, from a slightly different image.

Which one do you like better?

Something Blue

This was the view from my campsite in Arches National Park on my first morning there. I used my 200mm lens to isolate the silhouette of rock formations against the various shades of blue from the background. Occasionally, a blue morning is a great way to start the day.

Glowing Hoodoos

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


For more beautiful scenes, head over to Scenic Sundays.

Cotton Candy Clouds

The sky above Bryce Canyon National Park.

Be sure to check out SkyWatch Fridays for other views of the sky.

Joshua Tree

I arrived in Bryce National Park yesterday and spent the day washing clothes and processing pictures. I've run out of space on my CF cards, so, I really needed to free up some space.

Today I got some sunrise shots from Bryce point and did a number of hikes. Bryce Canyon is incredible. I've been in a number of places that have hoodoos, but Bryce takes the prize.

Since I was able to get some pictures processed, here is a silhouette shot of a Joshua Tree taken a few weeks ago.

Be sure to visit Skywatch Fridays!

Angel's Landing

This morning I did the Angel's Landing hike. What a beautiful trail. It goes 2.5mi from the valley floor up 1488 ft to the top of a knife edge ridge. What a view!!

As I was descending, I came across a number of people crawling up on their hand and knees. At least they are trying.



iPhone photo from the top. See the stretch of road 1200ft below? The prominent shadow at 10:30AM gives a good idea of the depth of the canyon.

Tomorrow I'll tour around the area by car and do a little bike riding. Then on Wednesday, I'll hike the Narrows to the famous "Wall Street" - a place in the canyon that is 22ft wide and 1500ft deep.


-- Post From My iPhone

Cliche?

Since last we chatted, I spent two days and and night in Joshua Tree National Park and a couple of days touring around the Newport Beach, CA area. Tomorrow is David and Nicole's wedding. It looks to be a wonderful event!

After this, I'll spend almost a week in Las Vegas. Besides playing a little poker, I hit the Valley of Fire park, Hoover Damn, and Death Valley.

This picture is the last of the series of photos I took at the Whitetank Mountain Regional Park near Phoenix. The third morning was very overcast in the eastern sky during the time in which the sun was supposed to be rising. Unlike the day before, the sun never made an appearance. Luckily, the moon was setting around the same time. I covered a lot of ground looking for a shot like this before it disappeared.

Be sure to visit Skywatch Fridays!

Bad Weathers yield Good Photos

When I first went got to the Phoenix area, I went to the Whitetank Regional Park to scout out the area for a morning shoot.

After driving and hiking around, I finally found this spot. I thought that the cactus in the foreground against the sunrise light mountain in the background would make for an interesting picture.

However, the next morning was heavily overcast. I thought for sure that I would get no sun. But, I setup up the tripod and camera and prepared to wait.

And wait.

About the time I was ready to give up, the clouds starting opening up, allowing intermittent light to shine though. What a glorious sight. I hope that my photo captures some inkling of the reality of the scene.

I went back again this morning to capture some other subjects. This time around, the sun never did come out. Still, I'm glad that I put myself in the position to capture such a serendipitous moment.

Atmospherics

Today, was mostly about photography. I awoke at 5am to catch the sunset at the White Tank Mountain Regional Park. Afterwords, I showed my mom how to build a lightbox, and we took pictures of my parent's arts. Processing those photos took much of the afternoon. It's a great day when you can devote the whole day to one's hobby!

This shot is from White Tank Mountain Regional Park looking over Phoenix, AZ. This is a very nice little park and I plan on heading back bright and early again tomorrow.

Be sure to visit Scenic Sunday!