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2013-05-07 00:02:25 (13 comments, 13 reshares, 88 +1s)

*Mt. Sneffels *

Taken fall of 2011, from outside of Ridgway, Colorado.  Along CR5.

Three bracketed exposures, processed in Nik HDR Pro, layered in Photoshop with the original middle exposure, and the HDR version blended with luminosity only, at about 55%.

 #MountainMonday +Mountain Monday by +Michael Russell 
 #NatureMonday +NatureMonday by +Rolf Hicker and +Jen Baptist 
 #landscapephotography by +Margaret Tompkins +Steven Carraher +paul t beard  and +Jim Warthman and hosted on +Landscape Photography  
 #BreakfastClub curated by +Gemma Costa hosted on +Breakfast Club
 #hqsplandscape by +HQSP Landscape +Delcour Eric  +ara mo
#MountainPhotos +Mountain Photos by +Baki Karacay 
+10000 PHOTOGRAPHERS  curated by +Robert SKREINER  
 #Colorado #mountains

2013-03-29 16:29:59 (14 comments, 25 reshares, 123 +1s)

Mystic Falls II
Taken last fall.  Same trip as a prior post of the falls http://goo.gl/a12Lo .  Tucked away in a very narrow canyon, a double falls, estimated to be about 180 feet ( 55m) high.  Located near Ophir, Colorado.

Photo Processing: Five bracketed frames merged in Nik HDR Effects.  Results of HDR process was then exported to Photoshop along with the original mid-exposure from the bracketed set.  Original layered on top, and transparency reduced to about 60%.

 #landscapephotography by +Margaret Tompkins, +Steven Carraher, +paul t beard and +Jim Warthman, hosted on +Landscape Photography 
 #FlowingWaterFriday by +Kate Church and +Rolf Hicker and hosted on +FlowingWaterFriday 
+Breakfast Club #BreakfastClub curated by +Gemma Costa  
  #hqsplandscape curated by +HQSP Landscape +Delcour Eric +Ara MO 
 #MountainPhotos +MountainPhotos by +Baki Kara... more »

2013-03-13 22:09:00 (16 comments, 12 reshares, 121 +1s)

Old Farm Above Telluride, Colorado

Coming down Last Dollar Road, heading into Telluride.

Photo Processing: From a five image bracketed set processed in Nik HDR Efex Pro, using one of its more natural appearing pre-sets.  The original, middle exposed image along with the HDR processed image were sent off to Photoshop CS6 as individual layers.  The HDR layer was placed above the standard, and blended using the luminosity mode and set at about 75% opacity..

#COPhotoWednesday by +Al Nesbit, +Howard Weitzel,  - hosted by the Colorado Photography Community at http://goo.gl/IFZdR #landscapephotography by +Margaret Tompkins, +Steven Carraher, +paul t beard, +Bill Woodcock and +Jim Warthman , hosted on +Landscape Photography 
 #hqsplandscape by +HQSP Landscape  by +Delcour Eric  and +Ara MO 
#BreakfastClub curated by +Gemma Costa hosted on +BreakfastClub 
more »

2013-03-07 04:01:28 (7 comments, 6 reshares, 34 +1s)

New Style Cover Photos - Top Banner Photo

Interesting new photo banners/cover photos at the top of our profiles.  I think I like them, but it takes just the right photo to make them work well.  

Max dimensions are 2120x1192 pixels (16:9 ratio).  If you create something with those dimensions in Lightroom, make sure you find something that looks good with the top third cropped out, as that is the default display when someone first comes to your profile.  Users see the rest of the photo when they click on it, or scroll up.   For my current photo, I've cropped it so that the full mountain was below the one-third line in Lightroom.  Full photo, though, isn't that great with that much pure blue sky showing.  If I had a good set of clouds up there it would have worked out better, I think.

When I've got the time, I'll have to go through my stuffand se... more »

2013-02-25 23:33:23 (38 comments, 12 reshares, 253 +1s)

Above Telluride, Colorado

Coming down Last Dollar Road into Telluride, I came across this scene not too far from their airport.  I believe this is looking over Mountain Village, above Telluride, towards Silver Mountain and the Gold Hill Chutes.  

Photo Processing: From a five image bracketed set processed in Nik HDR Efex Pro, using one of its more natural appearing pre-sets.  The original, middle exposed image along with the HDR processed image were sent off to Photoshop CS6 as individual layers.  The HDR layer was placed above the standard, and blended using the luminosity mode and set at about 62% opacity.  This way, the colors and saturation came from the original image, but was able to pull up the detail that was lost in the shadows.  Brought back into Lightroom where a gradient adjustment was added to warm the grass in the foreground a bit, and adjustment brush usedon th... more »

2013-02-13 20:01:41 (34 comments, 26 reshares, 216 +1s)

Crystal Mill, Colorado

I went back and reprocessed an image that I originally posted when I first joined G+, and thought I'd share the new version with you.  Taken back in 2010 from a favorite place of mine to visit in Colorado.

Photo Processing: The original of this is from a five shot panorama, each shot bracketed in three exposures.  First, each of the three-bracket sets was processed in Nik HDR Efex Pro, using one of its more natural appearing pre-sets.  Those five HDR tiffs were brought back into Lightroom.  Then, in Lightroom I adjusted and synched the five original images of the panorama set that were taken at the middle exposure to get the best non-HDR image I could.  These five images, along with the five HDR processed images were sent off to Photoshop CS6 for stitching together into two aligned panoramas, one HDR and the other a standard exposed images. The... more »

2013-02-06 16:46:25 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 72 +1s)

Just a reminder to all youse guys and gals that tomorrow is #COPhotoWednesday , so get your Colorado on and post us a shot. You can either post in the COPhotoWednesday category of the Colorado Photography Community here: http://goo.gl/ZRLJU
or simply hashtag your shot with #cophotowednesday in your own stream. Just make sure to share it with Public so we can reshare with the community!

2013-02-04 18:14:59 (11 comments, 4 reshares, 91 +1s)

High Mesa Above Silver Jack

From this past fall,  while driving over Owl Creek Pass in the San Juan Mountains.  Shot from a distance away using a longer lens.

Single frame capture processed in Adobe Lightroom.  Processed twice, once for the majority of the image and separately for the rock face, which was processed to increase contrast and saturation to bring out more detail of the cliff.  Both versions were exported to Photoshop as layers, and the rock cliff was masked and merged into the original version.


 #MountainMonday +Mountain Monday by +Michael Russell 
 #NatureMonday +NatureMonday by +Rolf Hicker and +Jen Baptist
 #landscapephotography by +Margaret Tompkins +Carra Riley +paul t beard +David Heath Williams +Bill Wood and +Jim Warthman hosted on +Landscape Photography  
 #BreakfastClub curated by +Gemma Costa hosted on +BreakfastClub 
more »

2013-02-01 14:40:47 (27 comments, 10 reshares, 150 +1s)

Indian Peaks Wilderness - Lake Isabelle  II

Another one from a visit I took to Lake Isabelle last sumer.  Lake Isabelle is located in the Brainard Lake Recreation Area, north of Nederland, Colorado.  It is a fairly easy hike into the Indian Peaks Wilderness, and up to Lake Isabelle at 10,868ft (3312m) altitude.  

Image captured along the northern side of the lake, looking west towards Shoshoni and Apache peaks.  Base photo is from a five-bracket capture merged in Nik Software's new HDR Efex Pro 2, using its "Natural" preset.  This was opened as a layer in Photoshop along with the normally exposed frame from the bracket set.  The two were blended/masked together, with the rocks in the foreground coming from the HDR frame, and the rest of the scene from the standard frame.

 #landscapephotography by +Margaret Tompkins +Carra Riley +paul t beard+David ... more »

2013-01-14 21:06:51 (21 comments, 12 reshares, 166 +1s)

My submission to the #PlusOneCollection2012 Project

This was taken the morning of John De Bord's fall meetup of photographers for Rocky Mountain National Park.  The morning gathering point before we headed into the park was in the parking lot on the shores of Lake Estes.  We were fortunate enough to have a wonderful fog to shoot the sunrise through.

Submit your photo before Jan 16:  http://plusonecollection.com/submit/ 
Pre-Order your book to support the project:  http://igg.me/p/305566/x/2020311
Publication of this book is for a good cause.  See who we're helping:  http://thekilgorisproject.com/

Thank you to +Ivan Makarov and +Andy Lee for their hard work on putting together this project.

2013-01-07 15:59:56 (13 comments, 1 reshares, 96 +1s)

Chimney Rock - San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Along the road heading up to Owl Creek Pass, east of the town of Ridgway on the west side of the pass.  Just to the right of this area is the meadow that the movie True Grit (the original with John Wayne) filmed the shootout scene with the bandits.

Single frame capture processed in Lightroom.

  #plusphotoextract #photoextractplus Curated by +Jarek Klimek hosted at http://www.photoextract.com/plus-extract and +PhotoExtract Photography Magazine 
  #MountainMonday +Mountain Monday curated by +Michael Russell 
  #NatureMonday +NatureMonday curated by +Rolf Hicker and +Jen Baptist
  #landscapephotography by +Margaret Tompkins +Carra Riley +paul t beard +David Heath Williams +Bill Wood and +Jim Warthman hosted on +Landscape Photography  
  #BreakfastClub curated by +Gemma Costa hosted on+Breakfas... more »

2012-12-28 13:27:07 (7 comments, 3 reshares, 77 +1s)

Mountain Goat Standing Watch Over Her Kid

From this past spring, up near the summit of Mount Evans, Colorado.  The mountain goats were running around all over the place, with their baby kids in tow.  This mom cooperated and stood for a portrait with her child.

Single frame capture processed in Adobe Lightroom.

 #WildlifeWednesday curated by +Mike Spinak and +Morkel Erasmus
 #BreakfastClub curated by +Gemma Costa hosted on +Breakfast Club 
 #HQSPanimals +HQSP Animals by +Joe Urbz and +Marina Versaci
 #MountainPhotos +Mountain Photos by +Baki Karacay  
 #Colorado #mountains #wildlife #goats

2012-12-20 02:44:25 (28 comments, 13 reshares, 157 +1s)

High Mesa Ridgeline - Near Silver Jack Reservoir, Colorado

From this past fall, just south of Silver Jack Reservoir at the turnoff to go towards Owl Creek Pass.  Looking up towards the cliffs of the High Mesa.

Single frame capture processed in Adobe Lightroom.


  #MountainMonday +Mountain Monday by +Michael Russell 
  #NatureMonday +NatureMonday by +Rolf Hicker and +Jen Baptist
  #landscapephotography by +Margaret Tompkins +Carra Riley +paul t beard +David Heath Williams +Bill Wood and +Jim Warthman hosted on +Landscape Photography  
  #BreakfastClub curated by +Gemma Costa hosted on +Breakfast Club 
  #hqsplandscape by +HQSP Landscape +Delcour Eric +Ara MO +Blake Harrold 
  #hqspautumnshots by +HQSP Autumn Shots +Delcour Eric +Carina Marsh +Rinus Bakker  
  #MountainPhotos +Mountain Photos by +Baki Karacay    #Colorado ... more »

2012-12-10 14:50:49 (20 comments, 11 reshares, 118 +1s)

Chimney Rock and The Courthouse

During my visit this past fall, many areas of the San Juan mountains were past peak in terms of foliage color.  However, the west side of Owl Creek Pass seemed to be hitting its peak.  It was a cloudy day with spots of sunshine and blue sky poking through off and on, which made it tough to get even lighting.  

This is a five frame HDR image, using Nik HDR Effects Pro 2 for merging the frames.  Some cloning was done in Photoshop in order to remove a branch that I felt was just a little too obtrusive.


  #MountainMonday  +Mountain Monday  curated by +Michael Russell 
  #NatureMonday +NatureMonday curated by +Rolf Hicker and +Jen Baptist
  #landscapephotography by +Margaret Tompkins +Carra Riley +paul t beard +David Heath Williams +Bill Wood and +Jim Warthman hosted on +Landscape Photography  
 #BreakfastC... more »

2012-11-30 14:19:46 (11 comments, 5 reshares, 76 +1s)

Roaring Fork Cascade - Between Independence Pass and Aspen

The drive out of Aspen up to Independence Pass is one of my favorite fall drives in Colorado.  It follows along the Roaring Fork River up to its headwaters, and tops out at over 12,000 feet as it goes over Independence Pass.  There are many pull-outs along the way to take in the many fall vistas and water cascades along the way.

This is a 5-image bracketed capture processed in Nik Software's HDR Effects Pro.  The HDR processing helped bring out the details that were in deep shadows and tone down the bright highlights that resulted from harsh mid-day sun.

 #landscapephotography +Margaret Tompkins, +Carra Riley, +paul t beard, +Ke Zeng and +David Heath Williams +Landscape Photography 
 #FlowingWaterFriday by +Kate Church, +Rolf Hicker on +FlowingWaterFriday
+Breakfast Club #BreakfastClub+Gemma Co... more »

2012-11-19 18:13:21 (29 comments, 25 reshares, 174 +1s)

Last Dollar Ranch - San Juan Mountains, Colorado

The ranches in the area around Ridgway and Telluride, Colorado, are some with best views.  This is of the Last Dollar Ranch, which can be found, unsurprisingly, along Last Dollar Road.  The ranch sits below the western end of the Sneffels range, in the San Juan Mountains.

Single frame capture, developed in Lightroom.  

 #MountainMonday +Mountain Monday curated by +Michael Russell 
 #NatureMonday +NatureMonday curated by +Rolf Hicker and +Jen Baptist 
 #LeadingLinesMonday Curated by +Pam Chalkley-Boling, +MICHAEL STEWART , +Elle Rogers, +David Murphy 
 #landscapephotography by +Margaret Tompkins +Carra Riley +paul t beard  +Ke Zeng and +David Heath Williams hosted on +Landscape Photography  
 #BreakfastClub curated by +Gemma Costa and +Andrea Martinez hosted on +BreakfastClub 
 #hqsplandsc... more »

2012-11-09 18:40:59 (17 comments, 15 reshares, 118 +1s)

Mystic Falls - Near Ophir, Colorado

Back in 1999 I was given a copy of John Fielder's book "Colorado 1870-2000".  In it Fielder publishes photos taken by William Henry Jackson in the late 1800's, paired with an modern day image taken by Fielder from the same location.  One of the pairing was with Mystic Falls, circa 1893  ( http://goo.gl/ns33V ).  A double falls estimated to be about 180 feet ( 55m) high, and in a very narrow canyon.  Seeing those images made we want to visit these falls.  I tracked down the location, but wasn't able to visit until this past autumn.

The images I have do not capture the experience I had visiting this site.  For the roughly two hours that I was there, I had the falls to myself.  The narrow canyon and sound of the water made it easy to shut out the rest of the world.  I will be returning - for both, to try to bettercapture ... more »

2013-05-16 18:03:13 (25 comments, 12 reshares, 157 +1s)

Maroon Bells - After the Storm

View large for best effect.

This image is from late September of this year.  The same stormy day that my "Misty Pinnacles" image (http://goo.gl/zNnlx ) was taken.  By this point, the clouds had risen above the peaks and the storm had left a fresh frosting of snow on the mountains.

Single frame processed in Lightroom into two versions - one for the trees and foreground, the other for the mountains and sky.  Both versions were then exported to Photoshop as layers and the two areas were masked separately.  The sky was masked off again and duplicated, and a little more contrast added to provide better definition.  Layers were merged and brought back to Lightroom, where a little bit of a darkened vignette was added.

  #plusphotoextract #photoextractplus Curated by +Jarek Klimek  hosted athttp:/... more »

2012-10-26 14:47:24 (20 comments, 33 reshares, 148 +1s)

The Famous Stanley Hotel - Estes Park, Colorado

Another image from +John De Bord's first meetup date this past September.  Again, taken from Lake Estes at sunrise.  Some of the clouds and fog was beginning to clear, when some direct sunlight lit up the hotel.

Using four frames from a five frame bracket set, processed in Photomatix using Fusion Blend.  The result left the yellow aspen at water's edge a little too dim for what I envisioned, so a second processing in Photomatix was done using settings that made the colors pop a little more.  These two images were layered in Photoshop, and on the version that had the brighter yellows I did a color selection of the yellow trees only, and blended into the first version at about 15 to 20 percent opacity.

 #plusphotoextract #photoextractplus Curated by +Jarek Klimek hosted athttp:... more »

2012-10-24 14:16:18 (16 comments, 2 reshares, 98 +1s)

There's a Backup on the Freeway ... Traffic is Movin' Slow

Mountain goats kids playing around.  From earlier this spring, up on Mount Evans west of Denver, Colorado.  


  #GoatWednesday by +Paul Songy  hosted on +GoatWednesday  
  #wildlifewednesday  by +Mike Spinak  and +Morkel Erasmus  on +Wildlife Wednesdays  
  #weneedalaughwednesday by +Pat Kennedy Corlin  on +We Need A Laugh Wednesday  
 +Breakfast Club #BreakfastClub curated by +Gemma Costa and +Andrea Martinez 
  #nature #wildlife #naturephotography #wildlifephotography #wildlifephoto #Colorado #mountain

2012-10-22 06:56:36 (11 comments, 4 reshares, 116 +1s)

Misty Morning Pinnacles At Maroon Lake

View large with the black background for best effect.

After standing in the drizzling rain for three hours I finally gave up.  I was down the road from Maroon Lake and a ways up the valley side, waiting for the storm to break to get a shot of the Maroon Bells.  The cold won out and I went back to my car and drove up to the parking area for the Maroon Bells lake.  After another 45 minutes or so, spots of daylight were periodically poking through the clouds, so I decided to walk around the lake.  This image is of the pinnacles that rise to the north of the lake, taken as some of the clouds began to clear.  

The rain did eventually clear out and provided fresh snow on the Bells and some great clouds around the peaks.  I'll post some of those images another time.

Single frame processed in Lightroom.

 #Mount... more »

2012-10-17 14:49:34 (10 comments, 4 reshares, 96 +1s)

Elk - Lake Estes

Another from a few weeks back, in Estes Park, Colorado.  Again, at the town's local park on the way into town.  From the same morning as a previous post ( http://goo.gl/6W0Hk ) of the elk crossing the lake.

Single image processed in Lightroom.

+Breakfast Club  #BreakfastClub curated by +Gemma Costa  and +Andrea Martinez 
 #wildlifewednesday  Curated by +Morkel Erasmus  and +Mike Spinak 
 #landscapephotography  by +Margaret Tompkins , +Carra Riley, +paul t beard, +Ke Zeng  and +David Heath Williams  hosted on +Landscape Photography    
 #waterscapeartwednesday Curated by +Terrill Welch +Dane Clingan  +Trisha Standard  and hosted on +Waterscape Art Wednesday     
 #naturephotography +NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY #wildlifephotography   #wildlifephoto
#Colorado #elk #water #RMNP #EstesPark #Fall

2012-10-22 23:10:45 (31 comments, 25 reshares, 190 +1s)

Misty Morning Sunrise

Another on Lake Estes, but from a different day than my previous posting.  This comes from this morning's gathering at +John De Bord's fall event. Check it out if you are in the Colorado Front Range.  The G+ event listing at http://goo.gl/pt20z , and full details in +John De Bord's blog, at http://goo.gl/e5Q47 .  While the G+ event only shows a few people confirmed going, there were about 10-12 folks there this morning.  I'm guessing there will be more who will make it Saturday and Sunday.

This image is from a two shot blend, one used to enhance/darken the silhouette portions of the image.  Colors enhanced some in Lightroom, along with sharpening and contrast adjustments.


  #plusphotoextract #photoextractplus Curated by +Jarek Klimek  hosted at http://www.photoextract.com/plus-extract and +PhotoExtract PhotographyMagazi... more »

2012-09-19 14:37:37 (13 comments, 4 reshares, 75 +1s)

Elk Walking Across Lake Estes

Last week I went up for a day in Rocky Mountain National Park to check out how the fall foliage was coming along, and to see the elk, who are entering their fall rut.  Taking Hwy 36 brings you through the town of Estes Park.  Coming into town I always scan through a small park on the shore of Lake Estes as I pass by.  It seems that about 80% of the time there are elk there.  This time, I saw two bulls, so I pulled in and started shooting.  Another guy in the park started walking quickly  towards them, and drove them both into the water, where they crossed the lake.  I never realized how shallow this lake was, as they were both able to walk the whole way across.  I estimate that it was never deeper than about five feet.

This is shot of one of the elk in the water.  Single image processed in Lightroom.



 +BreakfastClub #Bre... more »

2012-09-10 03:02:00 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 23 +1s)

For Photographers Interested in Colorado Fall Foliage Updates

If you are interested in shooting Colorado's fall colors, and you are not already aware of this site, you need to check this out.  Darren Kilgore is a photographer based outside of Denver who maintains what I feel is the best single place to track the evolving of the season's colors throughout the state.  He also has created a very good listing of places to go and see while seeking Colorado's brilliant fall foliage.  While his informative page is titled "Fall Color Drives", it is really more oriented to the photographer.

Darren Kilgore's Colorado Fall Color Reports
http://goo.gl/aKVgh

Follow the link in his 9/9 update to see an excellent overview of the status of the foliage in many of the key areas in the past few days.
While at his web site, browse around to see hisex... more »

2012-08-10 14:34:46 (8 comments, 6 reshares, 89 +1s)

Prickly Pear Cactus

A shot from the vault.  From quite a few years ago, while on a hike near Kenosha Pass in Colorado.  A bee checks it out.

No special processing, this time.  Just a single exposure, adjusted in Lightroom. 

 #floralfriday curated by +Tamara Pruessner  +FloralFriday 
 +Buggy Friday  #buggyfriday Curated by +Ray Bilcliff +Margaret Tompkins 
 +Breakfast Club #BreakfastClub curated by +Gemma Costa and +Andrea Martinez  
 +Summer Photos  #summerphotos  
 #landscape   #landscapephoto   #nature #naturephotography  
  #Colorado  #flower #cactus

2012-08-03 19:27:25 (27 comments, 19 reshares, 155 +1s)

Sunflowers near Denver International Airport, Denver Colorado

Out scouting a couple of evenings ago, found this nice field of sunflowers out near the DIA.  The pointed roof of the airport's great hall and the controller's tower are seen along the horizon.  Had hoped for a better sunset, but the storm clouds were heavier than I had hoped for.

Single exposure, adjusted in Lightroom.  The clouds were pretty flat, so I masked separately and used Nik Software's Color Efex Pro to bring out some additional detail.

  #floralfriday curatrd by +Tamara Pruessner  - +FloralFriday
 +Summer Photos  #summerphotos  
 +Breakfast Club  #BreakfastClub curated by +Gemma Costa  and +Andrea Martinez 
 +Landscape Photography  #landscapephotography  by +Margaret Tompkins
 #landscape   #landscapephoto   #nature #naturephotography  
 #Colorado  #sunflow... more »

2012-07-24 16:21:27 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 63 +1s)

Nature Decay - Indian Peaks Wilderness, Colorado

Captured along trail in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, while returning from Lake Isabelle.  This is located in the Brainard Lake Recreation Area, north of Nederland, Colorado.  We came across this old decaying tree that showed interesting patterns in its exposed root system.

Image converted to Black and White in Lightroom 4.1.  The monochrome version and the original color were exported as layers into Photoshop, where the dark greens in the background were color selected and brought back into the B&W version, giving the image a subtle hint of color in the background.

 +Breakfast Club  #BreakfastClub curated by +Gemma Costa and +Andrea Martinez
  #TreeTuesday : by +Christina Lawrie
  #TuesDecay by +Ian Ference (not sure if this is the type of decay intended for this group)
  #Colorado #Tree #Nature... more »

2012-07-16 15:01:45 (26 comments, 10 reshares, 134 +1s)

Indian Peaks Wilderness - Lake Isabelle

Last week I went to the Brainard Lake Recreation Area, north of Nederland, and took the easy hike into the Indian Peaks Wilderness, and up to Lake Isabelle at 10,868ft (3312m) altitude.  It was a beautiful day. The first clear weather day after a series of much needed rainy days here along the Colorado front range.  While we didn't get any of the hoped for low hanging fog that I had noticed along the foothills the previous few days, we did have a very nice, clear day.  At first, absolutely no clouds in the sky, While a cloudless day can be a wonderful addition to the mountain hike experience, it can sometimes leave a photograph of the sky a bit flat.  However, as the day progressed, clouds did begin to build up to help provide a little bit of definition to the sky.

Image captured along the eastern edge of the lake, from itsdra... more »

2012-07-14 00:49:48 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 32 +1s)

Photos from this past weekend.  Denver Photowalk

Had a great time this past weekend on the Google Plus 1 Year Anniversary Photowalk, here in Denver, Colorado.  We were lucky to have +Thomas Hawk in town for the event.  He really does have a lot of enthusiasm, and its contagious.  It was also great to meet so may other G Plus'ers from the area.  We'll have to  make these get-togethers a more regular thing.

I also got to experience a few other adventures with him and a few others on the day following the photowalk.  Check Thomas's blog entry - http://goo.gl/rohic .

#gplusanniversarydenver   #gplusanniversary #oneyearanniversary   #googleplusoneyear   #Google +OneYearAnniversary,   #Google   #gplusanniversaryphotowalk   #Denver   #Colorado  

2012-07-04 01:25:27 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 25 +1s)

Thomas Hawk was tagged in Stan Showalter's album.

2012-06-25 14:42:41 (11 comments, 5 reshares, 104 +1s)

Summit Lake Thaw - Mount Evans, Colorado

This image was captured at the tail end of Spring, on the day of the equinox.  Summit Lake is roughly fourteen-hundred feet below the 14,265 foot (4,348 m) peak of Mount Evans, but with the lake surface at 12,836 feet (3,912 m) in altitude it is still well above tree line.  With the altitude's cold temperatures, the lake still has an ice/slush mixture covering a portion of the lake.  However, the dry winter and warm spring that Colorado experienced this year has left much less at this time as has been at this point in past years.  

Image captured from the eastern bank of Summit Lake looking west, with Mount Spaulding on the right and a ridge going off to the left that eventually leads up to the Mount Evans summit.  Single exposure this time.  I experimented with the B&W conversion provided by Lightroom, but ultimatelysettl... more »

2012-06-22 14:19:58 (18 comments, 14 reshares, 94 +1s)

Frolicking Baby Mountain Goats

Three weeks ago I went up Mt Evans in search of some of the wildlife that is often found there.  While I did come across a half dozen younger Big Horn Sheep, I didn't see much else.  Typically there are also Mountain Goats about too, with their young in tow.  You can read more about that trip and about Mt Evans (and its observatory)  in my posts here http://goo.gl/iIAYs and here http://goo.gl/uXoew

This past Wednesday I decided to take another journey up the mountain to see if things had changed.  This time was much different.  It is amazing what a difference a few weeks can make.  I estimate that roughly 30-40 Mountain Goats, and fifteen or so Big Horn Sheep were scattered about near the summit.  

Goat kids were playing with each other, and in general enjoying the sunny weather (which was cold for me at 40F (4C)  and veryhigh win... more »

2012-06-18 16:07:03 (20 comments, 15 reshares, 114 +1s)

Threading Interstate 70 through Glenwood Canyon

Interstate 70 is the major East-West thoroughfare running across Colorado.  The portion through Glenwood Canyon was completed in 1992. This was one of the final pieces of the Interstate Highway System to open to traffic.  It is also said to be one of the most expensive rural highways per mile built in the U.S.  Driving on this stretch of highway I am always amazed at how well the engineers designed it such that it left this canyon still an impressive wonder.  This shot was taken along the edge of the Colorado River near the Hanging Lake trailhead, and shows I-70 exiting one of the tunnels that was made to accommodate it.

Although I did take bracketed shots, this image is from a single exposure.  Sharpening through the use of blending a high-pass filter layer was done to bring out detail in the side of the cliff.  The vibranceslide... more »

2012-06-13 15:14:10 (11 comments, 20 reshares, 104 +1s)

Rifle Falls on the side

Another image from the trip to Rifle Falls.  While there, it began to rain for a short while.  Not real hard, but very large drops.  While waiting for the showers to pass, I took shelter in a spot that was under a tree located close to the rocks and the falls themselves.  Not wasting an opportunity, I fired off a few shots, resulting in this image.

This is a +/- 2EV bracketed set, merged in Photomatix using their "Natural" fusion blend modes.  A second processing in Photomatix was done using a detail enhance method.  This second result brought out a few more of the streaks of dark in the falls themselves.  The two images were brought into Photoshop as layers, and a mask applied to the detail layer, masking out all but the water in the falls themselves.  This masked off portion was then blended back into the first layer at 50% opacity. Lumino... more »

2012-06-08 14:34:26 (12 comments, 5 reshares, 78 +1s)

Rifle Falls - Black & White & Green Experiment
      #critiquepls

Last Saturday I was at Rifle Falls State Park in Colorado.  It was fairly cloudy (and rainy, for a while, too) so we had relatively flat light to work with.  This shot started with a 2.5 second exposure at f/22 and a zoom lens at 24mm on a full frame body.  While working with it Lightroom, I checked it out in Black & White, which was good, but seemed to be missing something.  So back in color I lowered both the saturation and luminance for yellow, resulting in deeper and darker green color on the foliage.  I exported both virtual copies (the B&W and the deepened green version) to be edited as layers in Photoshop.  On the color version, I did a color select on only the green tones and created a layer mask so only those green tones were on top of the B&W image.  I touched up a few areas ofgreen tha... more »

2012-06-06 13:10:00 (10 comments, 4 reshares, 67 +1s)

Mt Evans Bighorn Sheep

Last Wednesday I took a short trip, going up the recently opened road to the summit of Mount Evans, the highest paved road in the U.S.  I had hoped to find some mountain goats with kids to photograph.  No luck on that front, but at the summit I did come across a group of Bighorn Sheep.  The group was made up of ewes and younger sheep, none of which had the classic, curling rams horns that these animals are visually know for.  Never the less, on this day, this one seemed to be looking down on me, telling me that they were the king of this mountain.

#wildlifewednesday  curated by +Mike Spinak  +Mike Spinak 
#BreakfastClub +Breakfast Club curated by +Gemma Costa  and +Andrea Martinez 

2012-06-05 00:41:41 (10 comments, 5 reshares, 53 +1s)

Mount Evans Observatory Damage

Last Wednesday, I took a drive out Mount Evans, which is located just west of Denver.  The summit of Mt. Evans reaches 14,265 feet (4,348 meters) in altitude.  The paved road leads to a parking lot that is roughly 100 feet short of the summit, making it the highest paved road in North America.  

Near the summit, the University of Colorado Denver maintains  the Meyer-Womble Observatory, the highest observatory in America (third highest in the world.)  This past winter it was severely battered by high winds.  It is thought that it was hit by wind gust possibly reaching 165mph (265kph,) which tore off the door to the telescope's turret dome.  Once the door was off, wind rushed in and lifted the dome off kilter from its track.  As can be seen in the photo, the telescope equipment now lays bare to the elements.  The university hopes to beable to ... more »

2012-06-04 01:02:45 (7 comments, 5 reshares, 49 +1s)

Colorado Sunset From My Back Window #2

A tighter crop from the pano shared in my previous post.  This one featuring the silhouetted image of the Flatirons near Boulder, Colorado.  See http://goo.gl/UeNKD to view the original, and to read the details on its making.


   #skysunday curated by +Randy Scherkenbach and +Patrick Scherkenbach 
   #sunsetsaturday 
   #Colorado #sky #sunset #clouds #panorama  

2012-06-03 22:58:27 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 47 +1s)

Colorado Sunset From My Back Window

Last Friday evening I happened to glance out my upstairs, back window, and noticed the sunlight beginning to hit the lower side of a few of the clouds.  The sun was already below the mountains, but knew that as it set lower it would begin to illuminate even more of the cloud's bottom sides.  I grabbed my camera, and few minutes later took this five shot, hand-held pano.  Stitched in Photoshop, and the neighbor's rooflines cropped out, this is the result.  The silhouette of the mountains on the left hand side are the Flatirons formation that is near Boulder Colorado.  At the finished cropping, the finished dimensions are at 11222 by 3462 pixels, enough resolution for a 37X11.5 inch print at 300dpi.

 #skysunday curated by +Randy Scherkenbach and +Patrick Scherkenbach 
  #SunsetSaturday
#Colorado #sky #sunset #clouds ... more »

2012-05-14 13:48:55 (19 comments, 7 reshares, 127 +1s)

Maroon Bells/Lake

An image captured on my fall trip in 2010. Similar to an image I posted last October (http://goo.gl/MPNRh ) but with a different foreground and a bit different framing.

Hand blended in Photoshop from three bracketed images +/- 2EV.

#plusphotoextract by +Jarek Klimek
+Breakfast Club #BreakfastClub curated by +Gemma Costa and +Andrea Martinez
#MountainMonday curated by +Michael Russell
+Mirror Monday #MirrorMonday curated by +Gemma Costa and +Elizabeth Edwards
#Colorado #fall #mountains

2012-05-04 14:12:17 (13 comments, 5 reshares, 95 +1s)

Maroon Creek Pinnacles

Going back through my older shots. This is from a fall of 2010 trip to the Maroon Bells area. I really liked how the colors of the trees reflected in the swirling, rippled waters of the creek. This is where Maroon Creek widens and slows down in a bend before it enters Maroon Lake. For those familiar with the area, it is just before the creek flows under the foot bridge.

This image is from a three bracketed image set +/- 2 EV, blended in Photomatix using the Fusion Blend method. Contrast was tweaked a little using Nik Color Effects Pro, Dark Contrast filter.

+Breakfast Club #BreakfastClub curated by +Gemma Costa and +Andrea Martinez
#FlowingWaterFriday curated by +Kate Church and +Rolf Hicker hosted on the +FlowingWaterFriday page
#FourSeasonsFriday curated by +Karin Nelson and +Stephonie Ogden
#Colorado #mountains #fall

2012-06-21 18:16:34 (2 comments, 3 reshares, 17 +1s)

Using Photoshop to Perfect Your Profile Banner Image
◘ a free downloadable Photoshop template file for your use

The other day +RC Concepcion posted a nice video tutorial (http://goo.gl/EJmRc ) on how to use Photoshop to assemble the 20-image mosaic banners that both he and +Scott Kelby use on their profile pages. In the tutorial, RC identifies that the minimum size of the banner that G+ wants is 940 pixels wide by 180 pixels high. He then describes creating 20 appropriately sized images from your Lightroom library, and goes on to describe how to create an empty Photoshop file, bring in the photos, arrange them, and then export out a single, properly sized, JPG file to upload as your profile banner.

In RC's tutorial, he talks about the portion of the banner that is covered by your profile photo, and notes that some of the twenty photos may be partially or completelyc... more »

2012-04-09 12:13:13 (22 comments, 10 reshares, 88 +1s)

Hallett Peak from near Storm Pass Trailhead

From a few weeks ago, on the same visit up to Rocky Mountain National Park that I took the Sprague Lake photo that I posted a couple of weeks back. Beautiful, clear morning sky and temperature in the high thirties. Captured from a location just a short walk from the parking area for the Storm Pass Trailhead.

This is from a three shot bracketed set, +/- 2EV, processed in Photomatix using the Fusion Blend Adjusted option. The sky was replaced with the one that came from the under-exposed frame. The boulder on the right was sharpened and lighted a bit to try to separate it from the background a bit more. A bit of vignette was also added in Lightroom.

#MountainMonday curated by +Michael Russell
#NatureMonday curated by +Rolf Hicker and +Kate Church and hosted on the +NatureMonday Page
#BreakfastClub curated by... more »

2012-04-02 23:05:50 (25 comments, 11 reshares, 112 +1s)

Spring Willow on Kountze Lake

I met up with a photography group from meetup.com last Saturday morning, and we met at Belmar Library in Lakewood, Colorado to go around Kountze Lake to photograph waterfowl, and whatever. The morning light was still low, and provided nice side/back lighting for this willow tree that across a small inlet. A Canadian Goose volunteered to fill in the foreground.

The image as shot as a five imaged bracketed set, and merged in Photomatix using the Compress option. The resulting image blended back onto the slightly under-exposed frame at about 55%. The yellow of the willow was still a little too intense, so I did a color selection in Photoshop, and reduced the exposure of the yellow leaves a bit.

#NatureMonday curated by +Rolf Hicker and hosted on the +NatureMonday Page
#TreeTuesday curated by +Christina Lawrie and +Shannon S. Myers... more »

2012-03-26 15:49:32 (23 comments, 11 reshares, 123 +1s)

Owl Creek Road

Best viewed large, on the black background.
An image from my trip last fall down to the San Juan Mountains, here in Colorado. While traveling the road that goes over Owl Creek Pass, I came upon this scene as I drove into it. I backed up a ways, got out of the car, and captured the image. I really wish I hadn't driven into it, as the snow storm had just ended, and the snow was pristine and there were no other tracks other than mine. In Photoshop I cloned out a few of the darkest, most distracting tire tracks. Maybe later I'll go back and clean it up further.

This is from a three image, hand held capture bracketed at +/- 2EV. Blended in Photomatix using the Adjusted Fusion Blend mode. As previously mentioned, tire tracks cleaned up somewhat in Photoshop.

Tags: #NatureMonday curated by +Rolf Hicker and hosted on the +NatureMonday Page... more »

2012-03-19 15:10:45 (56 comments, 38 reshares, 225 +1s)

Rocky Mtn. National Park - Hallett Peak, from Sprague Lake

From my venture up to the park last week. Had hoped to have a few more clouds to have more dramatic sunrise. Instead, we had another clear Colorado cloudless, blue sky, which can be breathtaking to experience, but usually isn't as picturesque. I had Sprague Lake to myself for a little over an hour and a half after sunrise. The lake is still mostly frozen over except for a small portion at the far side (from the parking lot) of the lake. Getting a low angle I was able to get a reflection of Hallett Peak in the water, with some thin ice crystals that had re-frozen overnight.

No special processing for this one, except for a few minor tweaks in Lightroom.


Tags:
#MountainMonday curated by +Michael Russell
#NatureMonday curated by +Rolf Hicker and +Kate Church
#MirrorMonday curated by... more »

2012-03-16 01:49:17 (13 comments, 2 reshares, 55 +1s)

What to do with Sleepless Mornings

Have you ever had one of those nights where you wake up at 3 AM, and can't get back to sleep? And you really don't feel that sleepy, you feel like you should be getting up?

That's the way it was for me yesterday. I decided to take advantage of it and take the ninety minute drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park for sunrise and a day of photography. I hadn't been up there lately, and had seen some other photos by others here on G+ that had me itching for a visit. On top of that, a potentially record breaking warm day for this early in March was a predicted.

More images to come later once I've had a chance to sit down and work through them. Meanwhile, I thought I'd share this shot taken while waiting for the clearance to go past some of the construction which is beginning on Bear Lake Rd. Had to wait... more »

2012-03-02 23:23:58 (24 comments, 11 reshares, 144 +1s)

Winter Thaw II

Another image from a few years ago on the same hike in Rocky Mountain National Park as the previous frozen stream detail that I posted. This is a blend of two exposure bracketed shots, blended in Photoshop. Spot sharpening on the icicles.

To view this in its largest size, click on the thumb-nail, press the space-bar to remove the comments, and press F11 to move your browser to full-screen.

#FlowingWaterFriday curated by +Kate Church and +Rolf Hicker
#FourSeasonsFriday curated by +Karin Nelson and +Stephonie Ogden
#FrostFriday curated by +Laura Loralieh Nixon
#Colorado #RMNP #plusphotoextract

2012-02-20 16:01:28 (23 comments, 14 reshares, 114 +1s)

Conundrum Creek Valley

Driving up Castle Creek Rd outside of Aspen there are numerous pull-offs along the road with spectacular photo opportunities to capture the aspen in full color. Shortly after passing the turnoff to Conundrum Creek Rd, there is a pull-off with this view.

Right in the middle of all this, if you look carefully, you can see that someone has home in the midst of all this. I can only imagine what it would be like to wake to this every day.

This is a 6-shot (single row, camera in portrait orientation) panorama, with each shot bracketed +/- 2EV. The bracketed sets were processed in Photomatix using its Fusion Blend Adjusted method. The resulting six processed images were then stitched in Photoshop, with the final crop creating a 10600x5464 pixel image.

#MountainMonday curated by +Michael Russell
#NatureMonday +Rolf Hicker ... more »