Independence Day, Telluride, Colorado 2008

I was trying to do something different. Here it is. F/16, about 10 seconds, Fuji RDP III, 100 ISO.

The Wave Panorama, April, 2008

I pulled this panorama out of a 4×5 image to accentuate the wave look of the different walls. I shot using a Fuji 360mm from a little farther back from the bowl getting some compression using the longer focal length. These exposure variations may be better suited to digital where one can experiment literally hundreds of times without worrying about film expense. Exposing 4×5 color sheet film is now $7.00 each including processing. I also flipped the image horizontally to change the the flow of your eye from left to right.

The Wave, Second Visit, April 2008

I wanted something different this time. On anyone’s first visit you might be overwhelmed by the awesome spectacle of standing above the bowl and looking down at the striations, and color, and the majestic sight before you. Because the view is so inspiring you just begin shooting and it may end up being just like every other image of it you have seen.

I accentuated the foreground on this image, setting the tripod very low to the ground. I used a 120mm Schnieder, which still allowed me to tilt the standard and pull in both near and far points.

One thing you can count on is that the exposure will be close to sunny 16. Mine ended up being a half stop under and then I darkened this image a little more in photoshop.

La Plata Lupines

This is an image I don’t care for but wanted to post to remind myself to keep trying. The sky was flat due to the cloud layer, which I thought I was going to like but the image comes out a tad flat looking. And then there is the sky itself, a little overexposed for my taste, and the mountains are way off due to the wide angle lens I used, a 75mm, 4×5 Schneider Super Angulon.

Fort Lewis College Photographic Art show 2008

I was pleasantly surprised to win first place color for the second time at Fort Lewis with my entry, ‘Red Rock at Cajon.’ I had the idea of making the image a sepia tone, black and white and then adding back in some color in the foreground, kind of like tinting in Photoshop. It won the prize from 147 entries and it sold twice.

Coyote Buttes, The Wave

I just recently went to The Wave for my second time. I was hoping to get something a little different from the first visit having added a longer lens for this trip. It was another beautiful day with no wind in the morning and great clouds.

We stayed later in the day but not until sunset because of threatening clouds. This image was made about 4:00 P.M. when the sun was down a bit giving a richer look to the rocks. One problem with staying all day is getting too tired to push yourself to make one more image. I felt as if I could have done more with this one but alas, not to be.

I thought still, that it would be a little different but after I returned I saw two images from almost the same spot, although both were horizontals.

Owl Creek Pass

A favorite area of mine is Owl Creek Pass and Silver Jack Reservoir, east of Ridgway, Colorado. The drive up the pass is not that bad, some road ripples but as I remember, two wheel drive doable. It provides great views back towards Sneffels for the first few miles with an overlook pull off and a great place for a picnic. There are a number of campsites near Silver Jack and wonderful views driving up the middle fork of the Cimarron River.

Reaching the top of the pass there is a right hand turn back into a nice meadow and hiking trails below Courthouse Mountain and on into the Big Blue Wilderness. It also has some great wildflower photography opportunities. We took the dogs there one year and they played around in the flowers I was trying to shoot. Big mistake. I suppose if they were poodles it would have been okay but they were 100 pound Labradors.

I made this image of the paintbrush in the morning before we moved on and have always wanted to do it again, and never have. The clouds are a little hot and the rocks may look better in afternoon light but the times I have revisited have always been too soon or too early.

If you get up there this summer, look for this beautiful field of Paintbrush on Owl Creek Pass. It is quintessential Colorado mountains.

Under A Big Western Sky, 2007

One requirement for being successful is pre-planning the image. How you think it will
be presented, what focal length lens, what angle, what time of year, so on and so forth. I had an image in my head on how the mitten shadow should look and a friend and I drove to Monument Valley with this image in mind.

We scouted different locations all day and finally picked a spot, set up our gear and then waited. As the sun neared the horizon I exposed several sheets of film with the shadow just as I had visioned. I was using longer focal length glass to get a somewhat compressed view, which was keeping with that idea. It looked “okay” on the ground glass but certainly as spectacular as I had thought it would be. and there were these nice clouds that were being cropped from the frame in my horizontal set up.

Knowing this could all disappear in a second, I hurriedly switched from the 300mm lens to a 180mm lens and rotated the ground glass to vertical. I had to add a filter holder and three stop split ND glass to hold back the brighter sky. I refocused, closed the shutter, reset the f/stop, inserted the holder and then exposed two sheets of film to get a new composition, which minimizes the mittens and accentuates the sky and clouds. I liked this new image so much more than the one I had pre-visioned.

This shot would never have occurred if I wasn’t able to work with my gear with confidence and in a timely manner that comes from repetition and keeping the gear within an arm’s length.

Delicate Arch in June, 2007

I’ve been to Delicate Arch many times but always when the summer heat was long gone. I wanted an image with the full moon as close to the arch as possible, about 112 degrees, and that meant I would have to go in June or July. Guessing June would be cooler I drove to Moab on June 18. Well it was probably cooler than July would be, but still it was 100 degrees plus a few points, but who’s quibbling over a few degrees?

I gave myself plenty of time to reach Delicate before sunset. The hike was brutal and I was grabbing shade where I could find it, which wasn’t often. Reaching the top of the slickrock I took a few minutes to cool off before continuing to the overlook.

Well I got the shot but it doesn’t do a lot for me. Not much color and the longest lens I had was a 180 Schneider. but if you want a full moon above Delicate Arch in June, this is where the moon rises.

Tuweep, Grand Canyon, North Rim

I have wanted to photograph Tuweep Overlook for a number of years and in early April I traveled with a friend down there. We drove down the Pipe Springs road, 60 miles of arduous rutted gravel and returned via the Trumbull Wilderness road into Colorado City based on Laurent Martres recommendation in his book, “Photgraphing the Southwest” volume II. While this road was a lot smoother there are still some surprises, which suggest you keep your speed reasonable. Also it is not recommended in rainy weather. The last five miles beyond the ranger station is also slower but still 2WD accesssible. There are 11 first come, first served campsites a mile away from the rim.

The overlook was first photographed in 1872 by J. K. Hillers and undoubtedly done by thousands of photographers since then. There are several points to shoot and after scouting several locations, we picked the one near the day use area.

We were the only photographers there the following morning so there was no jockeying for position. I shot on Velvia 100 and Provia 100 using a split neutral density to drop the sky light, exposing plenty of film.