Photographer in Colorado

While on the beach at Salmon Creek, there were plenty of waves crashing against the rocks. This was one of my successful images that showed the peak action of the crashing waves.

The view towards the north was also spectacular. In this image, I was lucky to include several gulls in flight above the stormy seas and crashing waves. Also, there are several birds swimming in the sea between the rocks.

Several surfers were taking advantage of the surf. This surfer had just left the water.

Several people were busy fishing along the beach. I managed to capture one fisherman with all his fishing rods lining the beach.

While at the beach, I found this really interestingly shaped rock being engulfed by the sea. The tide was gradually rising, so this rock was almost surrounded by the flow of water rising. I had waited for several minutes for a wave that would surround the entire rock. Unfortunately, I had to abandon that idea since our schedule on the beach was coming to an end!

We moved to another location further north along the coast. This location offered some interesting images of the sea from a different viewpoint. This image looks like a maelstrom swallowing a rock.

I made to make a second image of another rock that was swallowed by the maelstrom. For both these, I converted the images to monochrome. This enhanced the contrast of the raging sea.

Our next port of call was lunch at Bodega Bay.

Early last month, I attended the Sonoma County Autumn Photo Workshop hosted by Derrick Story. Our first location was the beach at Salmon Creek. There was a large accumulation of driftwood that was spread over the beach.

This driftwood provided plenty of resources to construct shelters along the beach. This was one of server shelters that we found.

Crawling into the shelter, I captured this image looking out of the shelter towards the pacific ocean.

There were a variety of methods used to construct these shelters. I found this cord that was used to bind driftwood.

Included among the driftwood were several strands of kelp that were washed up onto the beach. The following image reminds me of the Borg Queen!

Several pieces of driftwood had been buried below the beach sands. I found this large piece of partially buried driftwood.

After leaving the beach, we headed farther up the coast. Here I captured an image looking back towards Salmon Creek.

Those Sumacs in fall colors just keep lighting up the neighborhood. While, out for daily exercise, I stopped to capture some images. In the following image, I like the contrast of the duller foreground leaves in the shade, against the bright out of focus sunlit Sumac leaves in the background.

The City Ditch runs through our neighborhood. At this time of the year, water still flows through the ditch. Several bridges are installed to allow trails to cross the ditch. In the following image, the water provides the ideal medium to reflect the fall colors.

Here is another image that shows the contrast of the red Sumac leaves against the green leafy background.

Continuing through the neighborhood, I found another tree that was backlit by the setting sun. There were some interesting shadows that were cast onto one of the leaves.

My neighborhood walk takes me past a school. Overlooking the parking lot are several rows of grasses. Interspersed between the grasses were some bunches of flowers. On this day, the last rays of sunlight lit up these grasses before the sun dropped behind nearby houses.

Finally, I made this image of the high clouds that were lit up by the setting sun.

Last weekend, I headed down to the South Platte Park. Maybe there would be some birds that had migrated here for the winter. Most of the summer visitors moved off during the last few weeks, but the returning winter visitors had not arrived back! However, the Rabbitbrush bushes were in flower, so I decided to give more attention to the fall colors instead. A Painted Lady butterfly was moving from flower to flower.

Here is another image of the Painted Lady that shows the hairs glowing when backlit by the sun in the late afternoon.

I headed out under the bridge, hoping to find some birds on the other side of the highway. The concrete bridge was reflected in the slow flowing South Platte River. This created some interesting abstract patterns in the water.

Not finding many birds, I returned back under the bridge and headed downstream along the river. Sitting on a rock was a female Common Merganser and some friends! We had seen several resident Mergansers during the summer months, so maybe this female was a resident. Or maybe she migrated south?

Further downstream, water flowing over shallow submerged rocks had developed some interesting patterns. These patterns broke up the fall colors reflected from the opposite bank of the river.

Returning to the parking area, I passed Blackrock Lake. Here the setting sun highlighted the fall colors and created some nice reflections in the water.

Close to the parking lot was a patch of grasses that were lit by the setting sun.

I approached closer and made a second image.

Within a few minutes, the sun had dropped below the mountains for the day.

This last couple of weeks have seen the fall colors work down into the city. Whilst doing daily walks, I passed by some Sumac bushes that had started to turn. One bush had several flowers that had turned into a red fruit earlier during the summer. I found this Sumac fruit that was surrounded with a ring of green leaves.

Sumac typically turn from green to yellow then orange. Finally, when the leaves turn red, they are spectacular. In the image below, the fruit has a backdrop of bright red leaves.

There are several species of Sumac. The one that I had found was the Smooth Sumac. In the following image, I concentrated on the leaves.

I found another Sumac bush that had a branch with red leaves which was flanked by another branch with green leaves.

Often during walks, I cross Harvard Gulch where there is a spillway. Here I found some leaves with their fall colors that had fallen into the gulch. They were then trapped under running water that was flowing over the spillway.

During another daily walk, I found a Sumac branch where the leaves had turned to a striking orange color. Here I found an dark background that contrasted with the orange leaves.

Close by, was another Sumac bush that had started to turn from green to yellow. Sun light streamed through a gap in the tree canopy to highlight the leaves in this image.

Finally, crossing to Rosedale Park, I found several trees that were in the process of turning colors.

In the image above, one can see all the colors from green, through yellow, orange and red. These leaves were shiny, so I made sure to include the light shiny surfaces that reflected the sky light on the leaves.

Earlier this week, I made another trip to view the fall colors. This started with a stop at Trout Creek, along the roadside leading in to Buena Vista. I frequently stop here to take a break and spend some time by the creek. This area contains some cottonwood trees that grow along the creek.

The creek has slow flowing water with watercress growing along the banks and underwater. I found one spot where the creek split forming an island, as it meandered in an S-curve.

In the shade of some bushes and trees, I found watercress growing underwater in the creek. The overhead sun lit up the creek bed, revealing abstract shapes of the green watercress below the surface.

There was a magnificent cottonwood tree that was turning from green to yellow. In this image, I moved to create a backlit image. I chose a small aperture so that the sun was rendered as a sunstar in the final image.

After stopping in Buena Vista for a coffee and muffin, I headed over Cottonwood Pass, reaching Taylor Reservoir. The west side of reservoir borders a steep slope that has several aspen and pine trees. In this image, I was interested in making a image that included reflections of the trees in the water. There was also a light rain shower that created some texture from the falling raindrops.

The image below was made near the reservoir’s dam wall. Here some of the lip of the dam and the rocky cliff face was reflected in the water. Also, pine and aspen trees that grew on the steep slope were also reflected by the water.

I chose to return to the Ohio Creek valley again. At the roadside were three aspen trees growing in a row. Each tree had different colors of leaves; yellow at the back, then red in the middle, and green in the foreground. Of course, I had to stop for this one. Also, some of the leaves are past their peak color and have turned brown. So four colors in all!

At the base of Ohio Pass, is an aspen forest. The aspen trees at the edge of the sage brush in the foreground created an array of trunks that appears like a fan.

To my left, across from a field where cattle were grazing, there were aspen trees in yellow fall colors, behind the fence line. I took care to include the fallen dead aspen tree trunks and some pine trees behind that little tree at left; this contrasts with the young aspens in full bloom.

Finally, I stopped along the pass, where ferns were growing at the base of the forest. Here, I setup tripod and made several exposures of different fern plants. Here I used focus stacking to increase the depth of field with ferns that were really close to the camera.

I searched around for another fern plant, for one that had caught two aspen leaves that had fallen from the trees above.

After this, I made my way over the pass and made a return trip home.

Returning home, I made my way back via the Ohio Creek road and headed up Ohio Pass. On the cliff face, the afternoon sun caught these aspen trees on the edges of the scree slope.

In the following image, I chose a composition where the line of aspen trees climbed up one side of the cliff face, over the top, and then continued down the other side. Almost like an inverted V-shape.

I spent time making some images of ferns that grow at the base of most of the aspen forests. I have never been very successful with capturing these ferns. Add to self: maybe next time?

During the course of the afternoon, the storm clouds over Castle Mountain grew in intensity. The color image does not do justice to this big storm, so I converted to a monochrome black and white image. This shows the contrast of the mountain cliffs, dark skies and low clouds.

After reaching the top of Ohio Pass, it is a short distance to Kebler Pass. I made my way down to the base of the pass, near Horse Ranch Park, to make this image. I like the way that the mountain meadow forms an S-curve as it winds up through the forest.

When the aspen leaves change colors in the fall, the edges of the green leaves are lined with yellow. Over time, this yellow lining then spreads inwards until the green is replaced. I managed to find one tree close to the roadside that showed this progression of color change, below.

The aspen tree trunks have some interesting bark patterns. The following pattern looks like a helmet. Did Darth Vader visit the aspen forests?

Finally, along came a spider!

After making these images, I headed home through Crested Butte, Cottonwood Pass and Buena Vista.