Photographer in Colorado

Last weekend, I returned from a short vacation to Utah and Arizona. Work has also been busy, so this post is a little late. I made the trip to Moab, stopping at Cisco during a late afternoon storm. After camping, I headed up to Arches National Park early the following morning. The cottonwood trees in Courthouse Wash had taken on their fall colors — a vibrant yellow. I set up away from the park road to capture the high altitude clouds with the sandstone skyline in the distance.

Arches Fall Sunrise

Later in the day I made my way towards Escalante. After passing through Hanksville, I spotted this abandoned concrete truck at the roadside. It seems to be covered with graffiti from a previous election.

Vote No Concrete Truck

In late afternoon, I headed towards Devil’s Garden that is located along 50 mile road. This is a dirt road that rapidly degrades into a bone-jarring experience as one drives further along. Devil’s Garden has several sandstone hoodoos. The hoodoo at the left edge always reminds me of a statue with a huge nose!

Devil's Garden Hoodoos

Whilst working the area, I encountered another group of photographers attending a workshop led by Jack Dykinga. I have long admired Jack’s work and introduced myself. Jack asked whether I was a pro photographer. I said “No, but I do make some print sales”. To which he joked that I was “hurting his business”! After chatting for a while, Jack setup a tripod for a night photo session under Metate Arch.

The canyons around Escalante are reknown for an abundance of slot canyons. The following morning, I took a hike into Zebra slot — this slot has distinctive stripes in the canyon walls. It had not rained in the area that day, so I was assured that there would not be any flash floods in the canyon. This is something to be constantly aware of when hiking slots. Soon after entering Zebra slot, I discovered that the canyon floor was flooded. Bummer! I never did get to those stripes, but here is a view of the canyon floor.

Flooded Zebra Slot Canyon, Escalante

That afternoon, I arrived at Zion National Park. I entered the park via the east entrance that follows along Pine Creek. Here may be found a rock outcrop with a small tree growing from the top. I have see this tree be referred to as a “funny little tree”. This does not do justice to this unusual tree that I have named “Serious Big Tree At Zion”.

Serious Big Tree At Zion, No 2

Whilst working this area, I met another photographer from a group that was out from New Jersey. I am not sure whether this was another group attending a workshop. I never did get to find out. This guy noticed my shoes, and proceeded to talk about shoes for the next five minutes!

One feature of Zion during the fall are maple trees. This variety does not grow very tall and has small leaves. During this trip, the maples glowed a magnificent red. Here is a small cottonwood that contrasts nicely with the red maples.

Cottonwood And Maple In Pine Creek

This is the typical site that greets you when you climb down into the creek bed.

Maples In Pine Creek, Zion

During the time at Zion, I hiked into The Subway, meeting a couple of other photographers — CW and Brett — and taking my time to explore Zion. After spending three nights camping at Zion, I made my way to Page, AZ. I settled into a cheap hotel room, where I could have a shower later (there are no shower facilities in the Zion campsites).

Then I headed out to the Paria Rimrock area, where there are several hoodoos. I was planning to make photographs looking down upon the hoodoos. This requires a drive along a dirt road (that was closed several miles further than I needed to travel) and a 40 minute hike to the cliff edge. After arriving, I setup tripod and then opened my backpack to discover no camera! Earlier in the day, I had taken the camera out to prepare for quick access when required. I had forgotten and the camera got tangled up the a coat! Well that ended that opportunity — the sun had set by the time I got back to the truck. I decided to may my way to the hoodoos from the base for some night shots.

Light Painting Of Toadstool Hoodoo

Some time ago, I found a cheap and powerful “million candlepower” flashlight with rechargeable batteries for some night photography. So I decided to take this opportunity to light up Toadstool Hoodoo by light painting. This is the first occasion that I attempting light painting. However, the experience did allow me to make half a dozen or so images before the batteries discharged! I used the flashlight to light up the prominent hoodoo against the darkening night sky. Not to shabby for a first attempt.

Two weeks ago, I posted some infra red photographs at Samson Park. This week, let’s see how the park looks with regular falls colors. Walking down from light rail in the morning, I was greeted by the fall colors against the blue sky.

Fall Colors, Greenwood Village

After work, I stopped off at Samson Park before the sun set. This summer, a dome-like sculpture constructed from vines was completed. The park is home to several rabbits that scampered everywhere as I strolled through. However, the rabbit below was quite happy munching away at the grass while I was making photographs.

Vines With Rabbit

Walking around the pond, I reached the black fence at the southern end.

Black Fence At Samson Park

The hedge of burning bushes have turned to the burning red fall color. The Ciber buiding was reflected in the pond in the light of the setting sun. I used the burning bushes to frame the building’s reflection.

Ciber Reflection In Samson Park

The last rays of the sun lit the dome and the grass at its base. These were reflected in the still surface of the pond.

Dome Reflection

There is an interesting wind sculpture that moves as it catches a breeze. Here it takes the appearance of a mohawk. I like the way the sun is reflecting off the vanes.

Mohawk Wind Sculpture

The sun was almost on the horizon. I laid down on the ground under the dome. I groveled around until the sun was obscured by the vines to form a silhouette as the sun was setting.

Vine Silhouette, Samson Park

Last weekend I visited Red Rocks park. There are several spots among the rolling hills in the park where sumac bushes may be found. Around this time of year, sumac leaves turn a burning red. Many times, in previous years, either I missed the optimum color or the weather was bad. Near the entrance to the park, I parked and took a walk along the road. At the roadside, I was greeted by these fall colors.

Fall Colors At Redrocks

Further up the road, I noticed a field of red. This day was cloudy with the sun coming out periodically. When the sun came out, the sumac glowed red in the sunlight. I got down low so that the red sumac could fill the frame.

Field Of Sumac At Redrocks

I found another single sumac growing at the roadside. These leaves were burning red in the sunlight.

Sumac, "On Fire"

Close by, I found some muted fall colors on one of the bushes.

Autumn Leaves

Soon after, I headed towards the northern entrance to the park. Red Rocks gets its name from the red sandstones that are the most distinctive feature of the park. I stopped by one tree that was growing in front of the sandstone cliffs. This tree had the full range of colors from greens and yellows to red.

Fall Colors At Redrocks, No 2

It is difficult to include more of the sandstone backdrop at this location — there is an ugly power line that is located just above this tree. Finally, here is another view of this same tree. This time with a green backdrop from another tree that had not started to turn.

Fall Colors At Redrocks, No 3

The opportunity to make infra red photographs diminishes as the leaves turn and drop from the trees during the fall. So this last week, I made some more infra red photographs. Returning from work, I stopped by Samson Park. The park is surrounded by a black steel fence. This contrasts very strongly against the grass that is rendered white in infra red.

Fence Around Samson Park

Inside the park, there is a pond that is bordered by burning bushes on two sides. These bushes are mostly green but soon they will start to turn into a burning red like they do most years. Right now, with infra red, they are white.

Burning Bushes At Samson Park

I turned into to park — this has an “Alice in Wonderland” theme. The white rabbit, which is actually a dark brown sculpture, stands out against the green foliage.

Black Rabbit At The Park

Several children were playing in the park, followed closely by their mother who was making photographs of their adventures in wonderland. I just stayed out of their way while pursuing my own adventure!

Several new works of art have been added to the park this summer. During construction, a hut stood here. This was later replaced by a translucent white structure on a pentagonal base. When backlit by the sun, this hut just glows white.

Glowing In The Sun

There is another set of sculptures constructed from intertwined branches along one edge of the park. The branches from the trees have managed to grow through these structures and around these structures to catch the sunlight. Here they glow white reflecting infra red from the sun.

Sculptures In Infra Red

At the entrance to the park, is a bench sculpted with a woodland theme — fitting with Alice’s adventures. The back rest has an opening that I have used as a window frame for the garden in the background.

Framed By The Bench

Soon the sun set, ending my adventures with infra red for the day.

Windy Ridge is a location where bristlecone pines may be found growing along the treeline, at an elevation of about 12,000 feet. These trees grow in extreme cold and windy conditions. The force of the wind causes the trees to bend over — some specimens appear to be lying on the ground. Last week, I took a couple of vacation days and made a day trip to make some images of these magnificent trees.

Windy Ridge

These magnificent trees are extremely tough and withstand both the cold and fires. They have no natural enemies — only man. The bristlecones in this grove of trees grow for up to 1500 years. The windward side of these trees frequently have no bark; the windy conditions probably contributed to this phenomenon. The tree below shows a typical tree — the wind prevails from the left side.

Bristlecone Pines At Windy Ridge

Soon after arriving, a storm moved in. Looking across South Park, the storm passed over Alma. There was a rain shower (and maybe mixed with snow) falling on the town.

Storm Over Alma

The incoming storm continued towards Windy Ridge. The sun was setting, causing the storm to take on the orange color of sunset.

Approaching Storm

As the sun set behind the nearby mountain peak, the storm clouds picked up the color of the setting sun. The entire landscape around me was bathed in an orange light. In the distance, I could make out a line of bristlecones against the orange of the storm clouds.

Bristlecone Pines At Sunset

Turning around, the sky lit up the foreground in an orange light. In the distance, the setting sun caught the tip of the distant peak.

Fall Sunset At Windy Ridge

Soon afterward, the sun disappeared below the horizon.

This summer, the spiders have been busy spinning plenty of webs in our garden. While enjoying the garden, I noticed one spider crawling around the mint plant. I headed inside to retrieve my camera and tripod so that I could make some images. By the time I returned, the spider had crawled away. However, nearby was a large expanse of web, probably the result of its labors. There was even a bee caught in the webbing — probably several days old — and maybe it was a tasty treat for the spider.

Spider Web On Mint

One area of the web had trapped some pollen. Probably from cosmos flowers that are growing nearby.

Spider Web And Pollen

This year the cosmos grew like crazy. Probably the result of the long hot summer. Earlier in the season, the bees visited the spiraea bushes. Now that they have finished flowering, the bees have moved to the cosmos flowers. Here is one bee that visited the cosmos flower which I was photographing.

Cosmic Bee

Last year, I harvested the seeds from the dead heads of the cosmos flowers, as I do every year. These were then sprinkled in all the flower beds. This year, we were rewarded with a hedgerow of cosmos plants that have grown to a height of 5 to 7 feet. This reminded me of the roadsides in South Africa, where the cosmos also flower (during April in the southern hemisphere). In previous years, we have had colder weather, and even snow, that put an early end to the flowering season.

Pink Cosmos In A Hedgerow

The breeze started to blow the flower heads, making photography difficult, so I took my gear inside. Earlier in the morning, I had attempted to pick up a plant that had collapsed. Unfortunately, it broke. So I pruned the branches and put in a vase. I took the opportunity to make some images of these flowers. Here is a close up showing some detail from the pink petals.

Cosmos Petals

I also setup the camera low down so that I could shoot underneath the flowers, where the flower was lit by sidelight from the window. This flower came from the same plant as the pink flower above. However, the petals are mainly white with pink streaks.

Below The Cosmos

That concluded the cosmos photo session. Now was time to attend to repairs of the garden fence.

Last Sunday, I did a short hike at the Lost Creek Wilderness area. This is located at the western edge of the Heyman Fire Area – the site of a huge wild fire back in 2002. From the parking lot, there is a short hike down to the creek, where I spent a couple of hours working my way upstream. At this time of year, the fall colors are reflected in the flowing water.

Lost Creek Boulder And Reflections

Along the banks of the creek are several trees that have fallen down. When lying down, the branches and trunk form a hub and spoke composition.

Fallen Tree At Lost Creek

At this spot, the granite cliffs towering above the far bank reflected from the flowing creek.

Reflections In Lost Creek

The sun dropped down behind the mountains, so it was time to head out of the creek. The Heyman Fire burned many of the pine trees in the forest. It will be many decades before the pine trees grow back. However, the aspen are growing vigorously at higher elevations. Here the yellow aspen contrast against burnt tree trunks.

Yellow Aspen In Burnt Forest

Looking up, the skyline reveals a forest of burnt trees interwoven with aspen.

Heyman Fire Area

Most of the aspen leaves turn yellow during the fall before dropping. However, there are occasional patches within forests that have a few aspen with orange and red leaves. I switched to the Lensbaby to blur everything except a group of orange leaves.

Orange Aspen Leaves, Close Up

From this spot, it was a 5 minute walk back the the truck for the return trip home.