first light on the flatirons

date of activity: 12/25/08

Since I was going to (have to) spend quite a bit of Christmas Day with the in-laws, I decided to get up early and do something fun to start the day (not that spending time with my in-laws isn’t, um, “fun”)… so I went into Chautauqua Park to shoot the Flatirons at sunrise. I mean, c’mon, what better way to spend Christmas morning than standing on a snowy hillside when it’s 13 degrees out, waiting for sunrise, so you can photograph beautiful mountains at first light? And I even made it back home before my wife got up!

Chautauqua Park in Boulder is one of my favorite places to photograph the Flatirons. You get some great views from about halfway up the hillside. I have my favorite spot there, about fifteen yards north of the trail, which I always gravitate to. I like that particular spot because you get a lovely angle from which to view the mountain, and also get some nearby pine trees as foreground interest.

I processed these shots in HDR, which really brings out the lovely touch of alpenglow that painted the mountains this morning at dawn. (HDR is a blending of three different exposures, so that the details in the highlights, shadows, & mid-tones are enhanced.)

Thanks for reading about stuff I’ve photographed. ~Rich

night photography in the mile-high city

date of activity: 12/7/08

I wanted to try my hand at some night photography in the city, so my wife & I headed into Denver on this Sunday evening a few weeks ago. I figured the Christmas lights on different buildings & along the 16th Street Mall would make for some interesting shots.

We parked (free on Sundays!) on Larimer, near 18th Street, and made our way over to the 16th Street Mall. We slowly strolled eastward on the mall until we reached the Civic Center Park. As dusk began to settle in and I scouted for a promising spot to set-up, I chose that moment to casually mention to my wife that the park is known for its illegal drug trade. She wasn’t terribly happy to hear this bit of news.

Even though it was getting dark, I convinced her it was okay to hang around since, besides the usual shady characters, and the people wandering around talking to themselves, and the skateboarders, and the homeless folks, there were also quite a few families with kids who were gathered on the west side of the park, waiting for the Christmas lights to come on at the City & County Building. There were also other photographers milling about. So as night came down in earnest, we all waited for the Christmas lights to come on. And waited. And waited. And waited. I guess because I had a camera set-up on a tripod, people kept coming up to us and asking if we knew when the Christmas lights would be turned on. I actually had no idea, so I just smiled and kept saying, “Well, it’s dark, so I thought they would’ve been on by now.”

Even after I’d wandered over to the other side of the park and taken a few shots of the State Capitol Building, the City & County Building still wasn’t lit up. And by that time, the coffee my wife had drunk earlier was beginning to… um, well, you know. She didn’t think it was very funny when I kept suggesting she use one of portable toilets there in the park. (They are SO foul.)

We decided we’d walk back down the 16th Street Mall, let her go potty in a safe, sanitary location (like Starbucks!), get a few shots along the mall and then of Union Station, and get the car. Then we’d drive back down to Civic Center Park and see if the Christmas lights on City Hall had been turned on by then. So that’s what we did. While walking back westward, I got a cool shot of the Daniels & Fisher Building in the background, and lights wrapped around trees on the mall in the foreground. I tipped the camera to about a 45 degree angle for this shot, to get a bit of a different composition. Then when we got down to Union Station, my wife was pretty nervous about me standing out in the street in order to get the shot I wanted. (Since then, I was asked by a transit online e-newsletter if they could use this photo in their publication.)

After collecting the Mini and driving back down to the park, we were delighted to find that the Christmas lights had (finally!) been turned on at the City & County Building. This was our first time viewing the decorations & lights and our reaction was somewhere between, “Geez, how gaudy!” and “Hmm, that is kind of neat.”

All in all, it was a fun outing. Having never before photographed at night, I experimented a bit with different shutter speeds & ISO settings & whatnot, and was pleased with the shots I came away with. I was very glad I had taken along my tripod, as this seems to be a key element to really successful night shots.

Thanks for reading about stuff I’ve photographed. ~Rich

photographing stuff that moves... like people

My wife and I went over to the home of some friends of ours this morning. They’d asked us over so that they could sit for my wife and have her take a family portrait for their Christmas card. My wife is very good at taking pictures of people. I, on the other hand, do much better photographing things that don’t move—like mountains.

Despite the fact that my wife was today’s official photographer, I decided to take my camera along anyway and mess around “behind-the-scenes.” So before and after they sat for my wife, I kind of snuck around getting informal shots of the family.

For having taken pictures of stuff that moves (like people), I’m actually pretty pleased with my shots. I won’t post the photos on Flickr, to respect our friends’ privacy, but I thought I’d share one shot here on my blog. I chose this one, since it’s my favorite from today. While this little guy’s mom was busy putting his socks & shoes on him, I sat down on the floor and got a few shots. This one turned out the best because it was the only one where he was looking directly at the camera, and it’s also the only shot with his hand in the frame. For some reason, having the hand in the shot made it a better composition. I guess that’s just a subjective call on my part, though. Anyway, after getting home and opening up the shot on the computer, I used Photoshop Elements 6 to convert it to black&white.

You have to be pretty flexible (taking advantage of opportunities as they arise) when you’re shooting informally like this, but it still helps to (quickly) think about what will make a good composition. In this instance, I saw the little guy lying there on the couch and realized that if I got down so that I was at eye-level with him & that if he would then turn his head toward me, it’d make a nice shot. And even in that moment, I also had it in the back of my mind that it’d probably look pretty darn good in black&white.

Thanks for reading about stuff I’ve photographed. -Rich

doudy draw sunset

I was really hoping for some jaw-droppingly dramatic color in the clouds this particular Friday evening. I had banged-up my arm at work earlier in the week, and by Friday I had a bad case of cabin-fever from not getting out for a few days. So I decided to run over to the Doudy Draw Trail for sunset, and try to get a few shots with one or two trees I’d scoped out when I’d been there before. It’s not a terribly exciting spot, but it’s easily accessible (which I had to take into account because of my arm), and I’ve always liked the stately, barren emptiness of the landscape there… and I figured some Technicolor in the clouds would make for a cool photo.

Well, as you can see, I got a bit of color in the clouds, but nothing anywhere near jaw-droppingly dramatic. Still, I like this shot a lot. I enjoyed the quiet solitude here as I waited for the sun to set.

While I was waiting, I thought about how each day is made up of a rich variety of circumstances—whether I’m at work or at home, at the grocery store or watching a sunset, in a room full of people or driving alone in the car. And each set of circumstances I encounter are like crossroads marked by signposts. Go this way to choose joy, this way to choose discontent. This way to choose hope, this way to choose despair. Go this way to choose love, this way to choose selfishness. This way to choose adventure, this way to play it safe.

The great thing about these crossroads & signposts is that they remind me I have a choice. In a very real way, I can contribute to the creation of each moment. In all the people, events, and circumstances we encounter, the greatest gift we can give the world is to choose our contributions wisely and with integrity… and with a healthy dose of fun and adventure.

Anyway, back to this photograph. I initially found myself very disappointed in the sunset this Friday evening. I had set out wanting to photograph a dramatic sunset. What I was given instead was a moment of subtle beauty and quiet solitude. And so rather than walking away disappointed, I instead chose to enjoy the gift of that moment.

And I think I still got a pretty cool photo out of the whole deal!

Thanks for reading about stuff I’ve photographed. -Rich

meaningful, memorable experiences

Since writing my last post, I’ve felt kind of badly about a comment I made concerning “tourist shots.” I’ve been afraid that comment sounded a bit elitist. I’ve been thinking quite a bit about how the photographs a person takes as they journey through life are all part of the attempt to make a record of meaningful, memorable experiences. And although I may take the photography-part of the equation a little more seriously than the ‘average’ tourist, that doesn’t automatically mean my experience was more meaningful or memorable than, for example, the girl at Delicate Arch taking a picture with the camera on her cell phone, or the person photographing Balanced Rock through their car’s windshield. When they get home and look at their photographs, I’m sure they feel the same thrill as I do when I look at my photos and think, “I was here! I saw this! I did this!”

And just as an aside… Any time you start to feel cocky about the shots you take somewhere, all you need to do to bring yourself back down to earth is make a visit to the gift shop wherever you happen to be. There you’ll find photos, shot by professionals, which make yours look like they were taken by a six-year-old with a disposable camera. But again, that has more to do with the technical-side of the equation (or just being lucky enough to be at a certain spot and capture some exceptional lighting or weather), and not so much to do with having a personal record of a meaningful, memorable experience.

Life is comprised of a series of meaningful, memorable experiences. Experiences of joy & sorrow, pride & disappointment, love & heartache. And while those experiences unfold in a rigid chronological sequence, in our minds & hearts they sort themselves out in quite a different order of importance. None of my photos of my German Shepherd are technical masterpieces, but now that she’s gone, they’re more special to me than anything else I’ve ever shot. And while my photos from my hike up Longs Peak are undeniably rough, they mean more to me than the many other ‘prettier’ shots I’ve taken in Rocky Mountain National Park.

When it’s all said and done, what matters most (at least for us amateur photographers, since we don’t have to make our living with our camera) is the experience, and the thoughts & memories of that experience which are summoned up by our photographs.

Thanks for reading about stuff I’ve photographed. -Rich

arches national park

date of visit: 11/6-8/08

I had been looking forward to my trip to Utah for several reasons: 1) I would be on vacation! Woo-hoo! 2) I had never been to the desert before, & 3) I hoped to have fun getting in some good photography. And I wasn’t disappointed on any of those points. It was nice to be off work, of course. And being there in the desert was an incredible experience. In fact, I was on overwhelm the entire time, because the landscape & environment were so very different than anything I’d previously encountered. And I did enjoy myself immensely as I photographed at some really cool spots during my visit.

Before leaving for Utah, I’d done a bit of research by searching for photos that other folks had shot at Arches National Park. Most were ‘stock’ tourist shots (drive up to viewpoint/parking lot, get out of car & take picture, get back in car and drive on), so I tried to think of some ways I could make my shots stand out a bit from the crowd. Two things I decided to focus on were time of day & foreground interest.

Time of day really has to do with light. The angle/direction of light, and the quality of that light, is so important in photography. That’s why landscape photographers seek to make the most of the ‘magic hours’ at sunrise and sunset. Prior to my trip, I’d looked up the times of sunrise & sunset for the days I would be in Moab. I also found some helpful charts that other photographers had put together, listing the best times (sunrise/early morning, late afternoon/sunset) to get shots of each significant landmark in Arches. With all of this information in hand, plus a map of Arches, I knew precisely what I wanted to shoot & when I wanted to shoot it, even before I left home.

Trying to include some foreground interest is another important consideration in landscape photography. At Arches, your photos will pretty much always be focused on one dominant feature of the landscape (an arch or a unique rock formation), so foreground details will help create a feeling of depth & distance in the image, and add an element of interest to the composition. It was actually pretty difficult finding some interesting foreground to include in my shots at Arches, because there in the desert you’ve basically just got a bunch of rocks & scrawny bushes to work with. But I did what I could. At Arches, sometimes it's actually the background that provides interest, if you get the distant La Sal Mountains in the composition.

The photograph that accompanies this post is a shot of Delicate Arch at sunset. Time of day was important with this shot, since the setting sun bathes the arch in warm red light. You will not get this effect, from this viewpoint, at any other time. And although there’s no foreground interest in the composition (there simply isn’t any to include!), this composition with the La Sal Mountains in the background can only be achieved if you take the trouble to hike up to this spot. You can see Delicate Arch, from a distance, from a viewing area you can drive up to. To get the shot pictured here, however, you have to earn it the old-fashioned way— by making the hike up across the slickrock, up through the sand, up across the ledges, up, up, up… but oh is the view ever worth it!

Thanks for reading about stuff I’ve photographed. -Rich

loch vale hike

date of hike: saturday, 11/1/08

“The land here is like a great book or a great symphony; it invites approaches toward comprehension on many levels, from all directions.” –Edward Abbey

For those who enjoy being outdoors and also love photography, there’s no better place to be than Colorado. At least that’s my humble opinion, after moving here late in 2007. And my favorite place in Colorado to fuel my twin passions for hiking & photography is Rocky Mountain National Park.

My first visit to RMNP was this past June, and since then I’ve made fifteen return visits. (The annual pass I purchased on that first visit was a wise investment!) In those sixteen trips to the park, I’ve hiked over 100 miles & shot many hundreds of photos. No matter how many trips I make to RMNP, I hope I never forget the genuine thrill I felt on my first visit, as I thought “Wow! I’m in Rocky Mountain National Park!!”— and I hope that, despite a growing familiarity, I’ll never become blasé about paying a visit to one of America’s premier national parks.

On this particular visit, my destination was Loch Vale. I had been on hikes up Glacier Gorge on several occasions (as far as Black Lake), but I had never before been up Loch Vale. I lost count of how many times I’d be hiking & photographing in other parts of the park, and someone would ask me, “Say, have you been up to The Loch?” I got really tired of always having to answer, “No.” So before the weather got too bad this year, I decided to go ahead and get this hike under my belt. And now when someone asks me, “Say, have you been up to The Loch?” I can smile and answer, “Yep!”

When I pulled into the Glacier Gorge parking lot about twenty after six on this first Saturday morning in November, there was only one other car in the parking lot. It took me just a few minutes to gather my gear, shoulder my pack, and head up the trail. On most hikes, I’ll have my pack with both cameras, assorted filters & lenses, 32 oz. of water (this varies, depending on the weather & length of the hike), some kind of snack (most often trail mix & an apple), and also my tripod. All told, this adds up to about twenty pounds of stuff I’m lugging along with me! I have a Tamrac Adventure 9 backpack & I’d recommend it without hesitation. It has certainly performed yeoman duty on all my hiking adventures, and even went to the top of Longs Peak with me.

I passed Alberta Falls about twenty minutes into the hike, and ten minutes later (about 7am) it was light enough that I didn’t need my headlamp any longer. At the major trail junction between the Loch Vale & Glacier Gorge Trails, I bore right and headed up into new territory for me. The trail gained elevation pretty steadily, and then- after negotiating a few switchbacks- I found myself at the famed Loch. It’s definitely a location that has the scenic-thing going for it, but I found myself disappointed for two reasons. First, because on the hike up, there had been absolutely no wind at all, and I had harbored high hopes of getting a nice reflection shot once I reached the lake—but once I got up to The Loch the wind was blowing VERY hard. I thought perhaps it’d die once the sun came up (since this has been my experience on other occasions), but it just never let up. My second reason for disappointment was in the lackluster light that accompanied sunrise. With the dawn, there were a few scattered clouds off to the east, but over RMNP there was almost solid cloud cover. This cloud cover was being carried very quickly from west to east, and within a few moments of sunrise it had completely doused any direct light from the sun. As a result, the light was very flat & washed-out, not just at sunrise but on the entire hike. I don’t think I saw my shadow the entire time I was out on this hike. Not so great for photography. I wished the clouds would’ve at least been photographically-interesting ones (big, billowing, stormy ones maybe), but this was just a grim, solid, gun-metal gray cover blanketing the sky.

The photo that accompanies this post is a four-shot HDR panorama. After scouting along the shore of the lake a bit, I settled on this spot because I thought the trees on each side might frame the shot nicely and also provide a bit of foreground interest. I really would’ve liked to wait until the sunlight crept down the peaks quite a bit farther, but this simply wasn’t an option since those darn clouds were racing east to extinguish the dawn’s early light. Moments after I got the shots for this panorama, the direct light was cut off.

All in all, this wasn’t such a great morning for photography, but I did get in a nice hike. AND now I can finally say I’ve been to The Loch!

Thanks for reading about stuff I've photographed. -Rich

south boulder peak hike

date of hike: sunday, 10/26/08

After hiking up to Bear Peak back in April, I'd had it in the back of my mind to return sometime and also bag its next-door-neighbor, South Boulder Peak. The diverse sprawl of land that makes up The City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks includes six "major" peaks, and South Boulder Peak (8549 ft) is the tallest.

On the hike up, by the Stockton Cabin, there was a small pool of water alongside the trail. I broke out the PowerShot and took 5 or 6 shots of the leaves which had fallen and collected in the water. I thought the disorderly variety of shapes & (muted) colors might make for an interesting photograph. And this turned out to be my favorite photo from this hike. I titled it "The Fallen." As I was taking the photo, I was consciously trying to compose it so that the entire frame would be filled with leaves, and so the yellow leaf (a splash of brighter color) would be in the center of the shot. After I got home and had the JPEG opened up on the computer (the PowerShot doesn't have the capability to shoot in RAW), I went through my usual workflow in Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 to tweak the shot. Depending on the shot, my 'usual' workflow includes: levels, brightness & contrast, saturation, sharpening, lighten shadows/darken highlights. With this shot, I also ran it through the Poster Edges filter. There are quite a few features & tools in Elements that I still don't quite get (like layers), so I usually just stick with the basics when I'm editing a shot.

I like photos such as this- ones that focus on intimate details of the landscape that you'll most likely miss if you are not actively searching for them. One of the things I enjoy about photography is that it's teaching me to see the world differently. John Fielder (an amazingly talented landscape photographer who lives here in Colorado) said, "Photography is 90 percent seeing and 10 percent photographing..." And I've found that to be so true. I look at the world differently when I have a camera with me. I constantly scan near & far, on the look-out for interesting contrast and light, color, line and shape, texture.

I shot quite a few other photos on this hike (let me tell you, finding a place to set-up the tripod on the jumbled rocks of the summit was tricky), but as I said before, this is my favorite. I'm not sure I can tell you why, except maybe that it's the most 'intimate' landscape I shot that day.

Thanks for reading about stuff I've photographed. - Rich

getting started

Although I have a Flickr account (I'm seriously addicted to Flickr), I decided to start this blog so that I could begin to write a bit more about stuff I've photographed. I have two digital cameras: a Canon PowerShot S5 IS and a Canon EOS 40D. I mostly use the S5 for close-up/macro shots, and the 40D for everything else. Both cameras are great. I bought the 40D after doing some research on DSLRs and finding a review where the guy said the 40D is the camera he'd take to Everest base camp with him. I use Photoshop Elements 6 to edit my shots. I also use Photomatix Pro 3 for HDR.