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