Photographer in Colorado

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.

Tonight (September 22), I gave a presentation on “High Dynamic Range (HDR) Imaging” to the Mile High Wildlife Photography Club. My presentation notes may be found on the Files page. I updated my presentation with new images and minor edits for this presentation. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to export the file as PDF for the presentation, so I had to work from the 2008 version. Yes, Murphy really does exist. The files page has both versions.

I have also created HDR processing notes. This document details the workflow steps that I use with Lightroom, Photomatix and Photoshop when processing HDR images. This document may also be found on the Files page.

Fall is here! Last weekend, I made a trip into the mountains to see the fall colors. On Saturday, I arrived at Cottonwood Pass shortly before sunset. The aspen trees were still green at at base of the pass. About half way up the pass, they took on their yellow fall colors.

Aspen On Cottonwood Pass

On Sunday morning, I was up before sunrise, packed up the tent and headed to Twin Lakes and Mount Elbert. Looking down towards the lakes, were these aspen peeping out from the pine trees.

Colorado Gold On Mount Elbert

Looking up, I was rewarded with the gold against the clear blue sky.

Aspen And Blue Sky, Mount Elbert

This summer was extremely dry. This weekend was no exception with no clouds in the sky until Sunday sunset — there were about six wanabe clouds down south towards Gunnison! It was so dry that that driving on dirt roads kicked up tons of dust. This evening it rained down here in the city; I hope the mountains got some too.

With all the aspen, we must not forget about the little guys. The forest floor is covered with low growing plants. These plants typically turn orange and red to complement the aspen gold.

Don't Forget The Little Guys

The road up Mount Elbert meanders though the forest, forming an avenue of aspen.

Avenue Of Aspen On Mount Elbert

Finally, here are glowing aspen leaves, up close and personal.

Colorado Gold, Up Close

We are fast approaching Fall, so the opportunities for infrared will become reduced. This week I made some more infrared images over the course of two days. On the way to work, I pass this parking garage. The trees taken on their typical characteristic appearance with infrared. A worker from garden services was also busy mowing the grass.

Entrance To Parking Garage

This was a typical Colorado sky with no clouds. You may even notice a white streak in the sky to the right of the second light. This is an aircraft that had recently taken off from one of the airports around Denver.

The walk down the sidewalk takes me under an avenue of trees. Looking up through the trees, I noticed this branch with leaves lit by the sunlight against the dark sky.

Looking Through The Tree

Further down the sidewalk, these Ponderosa pine trees were reflected in the pond.

Reflections In The Pond

On the next day, I made this image of the hedgerow with Ponderosa pine in the background.

Tree And Hedge In Infrared

Looking toward the south, we had clouds in the skies. This is an ideal condition because in brings some relief to the deep blue skies that appear almost black with infrared. Under normal conditions, this building appears a pale blue as it reflects the blue skies. However, it appears dark because little infrared is reflected.

Building And Clouds

Across from the our office is the Cascades building. This stands out nicely against the skies with the bright trees in the foreground.

Cascades In Infrared

So here are the images from our road trip to the Badlands. We arrived at the Cedar Pass cabins after dark. I climbed one of the mounds and made this image of the cabins.

Cedar Pass Cabins At Night

The next morning I woke up just before sunrise and headed towards Cedar Pass. The rising sun picked out the texture of the Badlands peaks.

Badlands Peaks

Here is another image of the distant peak.

Badlands Sunrise

A couple of days later, I was up before sunrise and made my way to the trails in the “Door” area. The low sun grazed the nooks and crannies on this mound.

Badlands Sunrise At The Door

Near the base of the peaks are elevated mounds covered with grass. As one walks through the prairie grasses, the grasshoppers fly out when disturbed.

Badlands Grasslands

These mounds are eroded by the action of water at the rate of about an inch per year. This mound is about 5 feet in height.

Badlands Sculptures

That rounds out the road trip images.