Sunday, August 31, 2008

Zion National Park, Utah

At the last minute I decided to join Stephen Johnson for a workshop at Zion National Park and drove out on Friday.  There were four of us besides Steve and we spent three days wandering around taking pictures at various spots in the park and it was a wonderful time.  Even though I have taken workshops with Steve before it is always good to hear the concepts again as I always learn something new.  It is also good to have a refresher course on composition, I don’t care who you are.  My big thing to take away this time was to simplify my compositions to only include what is absolutely necessary in the photograph.  I mostly try to follow this rule but sometimes wander away from that with some of my compositions.

On the first day we drove out to the east entrance to the park stopping at many places along the way.  The above image was taken at checkerboard mesa, named that for obvious reasons.  It had rained a little earlier in the day and this helped knock the haze down a little bit and you can see the clearing clouds.  We had to fight our way through a couple of buses of Japanese tourists at the parking lot but quickly left them behind by actually walking the quarter mile to the mesa.  It is amazing how easy it is to avoid people at these parks by actually walking away from the parking lot.  It was nice to get to the mesa and enjoy the sounds around us of the wind rustling through the trees and the light of the approaching sunset.

We also spent an afternoon wandering up the road to the mesas above the park to the west and it was incredible how diverse the landscape was and how few people there were.  We went from desert at the start of the road to pine and aspen forest at the end, I am really glad that we had that excursion.  Zion is a wonderful park and one could spend a week there to really see everything.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Invesco Field at Mile High, Denver, Colorado

It doesn’t matter who you support, I couldn’t pass up the chance to attend Obama’s historic acceptance speech or to take my 12 year old daughter to see this event.  Actually, it was an amazing event but also an ordeal to attend, I took the afternoon off to get through security but it only took 45 minutes so I had a lot of time on my hands.  Luckily the program started at 4:00 and there were lots of speeches by just about everyone in the Democratic party.  The place really started filling up around 6:00 and the program got more interesting with Sheryl Crow, Stevie Wonder, and a really awesome performance of Yes We Can by wil. i. am.  Before Obama came out Al Gore came out to talk and that was really an unexpected surprise for me, really a highlight of the evening.  The place was pretty packed when Obama came out and everyone on the upper level with us stomped on the metal decking in excitement.  The speech was incredible and it was just amazing being there to see it.  As you can see from the picture, we didn’t have very good seats but it did provide us with a bird’s eye view of the event.  You can’t really tell from the picture, but our section was really very ethnically mixed and there was tremendous excitement and enthusiasm for Obama.  I’m glad my daughter Maggie got to attend, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  After the festivities it took us about an hour and a half to get out of the stadium and find our way home, the crowd just completely overwhelmed the public transit system, but it was definitely worth the effort.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Sylvan Lake, Colorado

We had a fun weekend up camping with some friends of ours at Sylvan Lake State Park near Eagle, Colorado.  This was my first experience camping in a State Park and it was eye opening as to how noisy it can be as the campground was full.  The first night someone drove around the campground at 2:30 am, and then someone else with a loud muffler at 6:30 am.  And people stay up all hours also, at least until 11:00.  What I didn’t understand were the trailers with their generators and satellite dishes, why even go camping at all?  Our friends were staying in the yurts which were in a secluded aspen grove a couple of miles away.

Despite the campground we had a lovely time.  Sylvan lake itself is a couple of acres and there is a mile or so loop around the whole thing.  We ambled around it on Saturday with both families and then I woke up early on Sunday and spent an hour or two taking pictures.  There was a lovely wetland around the river leading into the lake and I spent a lot of time wandering around getting pictures of the meandering stream and the tall grasses and flowers.  The sky was clear and in the background I could hear birds chirping over the noise of the stream rushing over the rocks.  There were two men out fishing on the pond but I was the only one on the path and had some peace and quiet for a little while before returning to the campground for some breakfast.  As I was walking back some small clouds had formed above the lake and the reflection provided me the perfect composition seen above.

Besides the crowds it was a lovely place and I would definitely recommend staying in the yurts and visiting the lake.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Maroon Bells, Colorado

Elizabeth and I got up at 4:45 this morning to get up to Maroon Bells for the sunrise and believe it or not we were not the first car there when we pulled in at 5:30.  I got set up on the lake in good time to catch the little bit of color that appeared about 6, by that time there were about 15 of us taking pictures.  It was a beautiful still morning and Maroon Bells reflected perfectly off the glassy smooth lake.  Also the reflection of the pine trees and rocks off the water caught my attention, the gradation of the greenish yellow colors was so vivid.  Eventually a breeze picked up and blew the reflection away, so I started wandering around the meadow shooting pictures of the various flowers with Maroon Bells in the background.  As I got to the top of the meadow I took the above picture of the whole scene, a composite of 5 separate frames that I couldn’t have shot in a single frame.  I think it nicely captures the overview of the whole area.

It has been great having the opportunity to take so many pictures over the last few weeks, I’m off to Europe now and it may be a few weeks before I get another post on here.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Snowmass, Colorado

Decided to walk down the Canal Trail in Snowmass today, I’ve had some success there in the past, mostly in the winter so I wanted to try it in the summer.  It was a beautiful morning, perfect for wandering along the trail.  It crosses the Campground ski trail and as I walked across I noticed a whole field of Columbines, a veritable goldmine compared to yesterday.  The trail meanders on along towards the peak at the headwaters of Snowmass Creek, it is either Snowmass Peak or Hayden Peak.  There are groves and groves of Aspen trees and the tall white flowers in grottos nestled at their feet.  It took me over two hours to wander out and back taking pictures of just about everything.  As I came back across the ski runs I spent some time taking pictures of the various wildflowers, it was incredible.  Some clouds had come up so the light was low and the slight breeze made it difficult to shoot the flowers, but I think I got something decent.  I took the above picture on my way back through one of the grottos.  When I got back to the parking lot I wandered up the ski trail where there was a large field of wildflowers, what a great morning.  I finally had to put my camera away, my head was so tired from all the picture taking, a great problem to have.