Balloon

Apres Eclipse Blue: At the Colorado Classic Balloon Festival.

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Flare

I used a little arch in the formations to create this star burst flare (actually, 2 flares, can you see the smaller one?) during a recent sunrise in the Garden of the Gods.

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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.

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Sailors Warning

Red sky in morning, sailors warning. Red sky in night, sailors delight.

Luckily both are a photographer's delight.

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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.

Chimney at Sunset

Kodachrome Basin State Park, Utah - a chimney of rock, aka sand pipe. The park many such chimneys. They are believed to be solidified sediment that filled ancient springs or geyser left standing after the softer surrounding Entrada sandstone rock eroded away.

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Cotton Candy Clouds

The sky above Bryce Canyon National Park.

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Deep

By the time I arrived in Zion National Park in mid October, I had been on the road for about a month. I was getting very tired of hotels and campgrounds.

However, the beauty of Zion smashed that home sickness away. What an amazing place. October is the perfect time to visit. The crowds have thinned, but the shuttle buses are still running. The weather is comfortable, and the leaves are changing color.

This photo was taken up the Upper Emerald pool where the walls of the canyon loom over you.

While in the park I keep running into pair of Portuguese photographers, Joao and Antonio. It was quite funny - lots of "you're following me" jokes. In fact, we had dinner together on their last evening in the park when I stumbled into the same restaurant.

Be sure to visit Joao's and Antonio's websites.

Also, take some time to visit Skywatch Fridays.

Invisible Sky

After David and Nicole's beautiful wedding, I left southern California and spent almost a week in Las Vegas. This photo is not the real Eiffel tower, but of the fake Eiffel tower at Paris, Las Vegas. I had never been to Las Vegas before. I found myself constantly amazed by the sights and sounds. I literally could not wrap my mind around the excesses all around me.

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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.

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Arizona Sunset

This is my first post from my iPhone (using iPhone camera as well). Hopefully, this works, else I won't be posting much over the few weeks.



I wished to take photos at Whitesands as I passed through the area. Sadly, it was closed today due to a missle test. So, I drove on to southern Arizona.

At least they can't close the sunset.

Skies above Waterton

The sky above Waterton Lake in Waterton Lake National Park, Canada.

While in Waterton, we took a boat tour down to the southern end of the lake which is in Glacier National Park in the USA.  Incredibly beautiful!

Strangely enough, "they" cut down all the trees along the border between Canada and the USA.  There is a point on the lake where one can actually see the border between the two countries. Heck of a lot of work! [Edit] You can see the border Google Maps.

On other news, I was invited to attend the Belvedere Blues Festival in order to take photos of the 3-day event.  Pretty cool, that!  I'll be sure to post a few of those photos on this blog.

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Organic Clouds

Professional photographers will tell you to only display your best work, your most compelling images. I suppose that in marketing speak that would be called 'building a brand'.

For today's Skywatch Friday, I break that rule. This image is not good. There is no real subject, its chaotic and its rather boring.

That is, perhaps, until it is explained. Call this a documentary photo rather than an art photo.

What you see here are clouds of small flying bugs back lit by the westering sun. We saw these bugs on an evening drive through Waterton Park in Canada. This cloud went for miles! I can truthfully say that I've never seen anything like this.

Be sure to visit Skywatch Friday for less buggy skies.

Dawn of a New Age

Old mine structure near Leadville, Co.

I've been playing with Photomatix (software for creating HDR images) for awhile. This is one of my better attempts. There are a rather complicated and bewildering assortment of adjustments used to control the effect.  I still learning which types of images and situations that I think work well with HDR and how best to process them.

This shot was made up of 3 images taken at -1, 0, and 1 EV.  One interesting side effect is that the clouds are very soft due to the movement between shots.  I find the sharpness of the building against the softness of the clouds rather pleasing.

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Cloudscape

Sunset on a cloud bank (5-shot panorama using a 200mm).

This SkyWatch Friday is an anniversary of sorts for me - I started this blog 1 year ago on Aug 7th, 2008 (here's the first post). The month before that first post, I took the plunge in buying a new DSLR and re-started my dormant interest in photography.  I'm not sure  exactly why I decided to restart this hobby, but I'm glad I have.  I've had a great time, seen some awesome scenery, and meet some cool people. 

Thanks, ya'll!

Be sure to visit SkyWatch Friday for great images of our skys.

Twinkle, Twinkle

When I consider my photography, I notice a trend. I tend to take a lot of photos that includes the sky - and lots of it. I really love watching the sky, watching clouds form and evolve. I love watching storms roll in and hit. I love watching the light dim as the sun sets and the stars begin to appear. I feel that these photos are my most successful. So, I guess that its natural that I point my camera towards the sky.

However, I continue to try to branch out and grow as a photographer. One area I would love to improve in is photographing people. Recently, I "discovered" a well know photographer Clay Enos. I find his portraits amazingly compelling. I'm especially impressed by his street studio series where he gets wonderful portraits from random people passing by.

All I can say is wow. Something to shoot for.

Be sure to visit SkyWatch Fridays for more photos of the sky (and less rambling about portraits).

Duck and Cover

This is my first attempt at this type of picture. I've always loved those cool pictures of lightning. Colorado Springs has a lot of lightning, but it's usually not visible to a large extent, at least near where I live.

Last weekend when I went to Albuquerque I ran into an amazing sunset. I wanted to get to the hotel a descent hour and passed the photo-op by. I reckoned that I'd have a good chance the next evening. Armed with some suggestions from my cousin Leslie, my mom and I took off for a spot up near the Volcanoes. I setup my tripod and took a few test shots. I was good to go! Only the weather didn't cooperate. I started seeing lightning from an approaching storm. In the back of my mind, I keep thinking of how lightning and a metal tripod would interact. I pulled out a list of alternative spots that Leslie suggested. With my eye on the evolving sunset, I drove around and tried a few. Sadly, none of the spots offered the view I was looking for.

By the time the sunset was history I had no photos worth keeping. However, the lightning from the storm was putting a quite a show. We started brainstorming on where to find a good vantage point with which to capture this show. I used to live in Albuquerque, but left almost 20yrs ago. I remembered a “make-out” spot of old and guessed that it would be a good vantage point. We had to drive all the way across town to reach it. We followed a couple of dead ends, but finally found it. It turns out that it is a decent spot, not great, but OK. It’s also still a “make-out” spot. It was a bit strange being there with my mom (not to mention a camera – what a perv, right?).

I took around 30 shots, each 2-3 minutes of exposure. This final photo is a stack of 5 photos that actually captured lightning (while still being sharp). I mentioned in the Storm I post of the difficulty of using a gorilla pod to attach to a car window. Because this is not a steady arrangement for the camera, the camera shifted position between some of the shots making it a challenge to align the photos for the stack in post production.

For those interested in trying the same sort of shot, here’s what I did:

• Used the shortest focal length I have (17mm) to capture as much of the sky as possible
• Put the camera in manual mode and used a fairly small aperture (f/11).  You need good DOF and a long enough shutter to randomly capture lightning bolts, but not too long as to get a lot of noise.
  
• Focused at the approximate hyperfocal distance
• Used a cable release to minimize vibrations when taking the shot
• Stack the photos (fairly complicated procedure that I'm not sure I could explain)
  
• After stacking the photos, cropped out the uninteresting upper section of the sky

This composition has room for a lot of improvement, but I’m happy with this first attempt.

Be sure to visit Sky Watch Friday for more views of the sky.

The Storm I

This is a photo I took a few weeks ago during an early evening storm. This was an incredible storm to watch. During the course of the storm there was much lightning, a rainbow and a sunset. Later shots depict the deepening sunset going through yellows, oranges, and reds. I’ve never seen a rainbow during such a deep red sunset (not to mention the lightning). What a sight.

I sat at this location for about 1hr. Because of all the lightning, I didn’t feel safe standing outside with my camera on a metal tripod. So, I stayed in my vehicle. I have a Joby Gorillapod that I use as backup, lightweight tripod. In this case, I used it to attach the camera to the partially open window. It was very unsteady and required constant adjustment, but it did let me get 2-3 minute shoots. After that experience, I’m now looking into getting a car window mount clamp that sports a tripod mount.

Be sure to visit Sky Watch Fridays for more images of the sky from around the world.

Pretty in Pink

This is an early Sky Watch post for me, I usually post on Friday. However, tomorrow starts vacation and I may not be around a computer. Yeah!

Here's the tail end of a spectacular sunset earlier this week. By the time I got to a place that I could shoot without houses, the sunset degenerated to this.

Not too bad in itself, but you should have seen the one that got away!

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TGIF

Another sunset from the eastern plains of Colorado.

I'm ready for the weekend and a chance to get away from work, see the world, and take some photos.

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