Stuck at home

Yup you have heard that correctly. Stuck at home with nothing to do, no money to go anywhere and really itching to get out of town too. I am soooooo bored sitting at home . I wish somebody was having a wedding where they were needing a photographer. I am one that is available currently.

Finally

Well I finally got up to the mountains today, I only stayed for an hour. Just long enough to get a few photos. I went up to Loveland Pass which is one of my favorite places. It is close to town and is easily accessible and the scenery is spectacular, I am never at a loss of photographic opportunities when I am up there.
The above photo is of a ridgeline rising above the top of Loveland Pass. It is a common hiking area for people and is the route up to two prominent peaks in the Loveland Pass area. I had driven west of the pass summit, down about 1/4 mile I was wanting to get some photos of Grizzly Peak but when I turned around I was stunned at the way the sun was shining on this one spot along the ridge, so I got a couple photos of it, the few clouds passing by made for an interesting sky as well.
The above photo is the best shot that I got of Grizzly Peak, I was really looking forward to warmer colors in the sky, but I think the blue in this makes for a nice atmosphere. After all it is winter and you are not normally going to get bright colors. The photo is definitely fitting for the season that we are in

Disappointment

yesterday we were supposed to have a decent snow storm that was supposed to have dropped a couple of inches of snow on us. So during the late afternoon before the sunset I went to a local park to get some more winter shots. I was hoping that it would be snowing when I got there. Much to my dismay it had already stopped and much sooner than the news said it would. My goal was to get a similar shot like the one above but this time I wanted a row of trees lined up straight, which is found at the specific park I went to. I was really looking forward to a nice atmospheric shot, but could only get a bland scene.
The photo above was taken along the Highway of Legends south of La Veta near Walsenburg. I had spent a couple nights at Lathrop State Park and on the full day that I had down there, I decided to drive this scenic byway, but it was snowing very hard. I couldn't get any grand scenics that I always love taking but was instead rewarded with this moody shot

I was going over some of my photos today looking for ones to submit for publication in various things and I ran into a couple photos that I really liked from Crested Butte areaThe above photo is of East and West Beckwith Mountains on the western part of Kebler Pass about 30 miles west of Crested Butte. This area is home to, if I am correct, the largest Aspen population on Earth. It is truly amazing, the Aspens practically overhang the road and go on for miles on end. The photo above is on the western side of the forest. it is on a small plateau, where the base of the mountains drops down below this area like a canyon then expands outward into a valley to the west, it's quite the dramatic scenery. Undoubtedly I am going to have to go back to Crested Butte and explore this area even more later this summer

The Zoo

Yesterday i went to the zoo to get some photos, I went there last winter for the same purpose. I don't know why I choose to go in the winter. I do know that there are alot less people at the zoo in the winter and that makes it more enjoyable, but with snow on the ground alot of the animals are not out like I would want them for photos.
Last year I tried getting the lions but none of the photos came out, this year I didn't even get the chance with them and that left me disappointed a little bit, of course I can always go back and get them along with other animals I have not taken photos of yet or have tried but failed

My favorite exhibit at the zoo is the Tropical Discovery exhibit, especially the tropical reef section. There is just something about it, perhaps it's the type of life found in the water. It's hard to get good photos in the exhibit because of the low light for many of the displays, but the occasional display is bright enough to capture the scene and the fish in it like the one above
Another one that I took last year that didn't come out that I made another attempt at this year was the Jelly Fish, much to my pleasure, this time around one of the photos came out. The one above is the photo that came out from a series of photos both this year and last year, the light is low in this scene and is hard to keep the jellies sharp since they continuously move around.

Next up I think I will try the Ocean Journey Aquarium in downtown Denver.

Don't worry I still am going to find away back up to the mountains one of these days, either to go camping or at least spend a night in a lodge somewhere near the western part of Rocky Mountain National Park, that is my goal for this winter is some good photos from that part.

grrrrrrrrrrrr

I guess I am NOT going camping after all, tonight there is supposed to be a high wind warning in the mountains and COOOOOOooooold and snow is in the forecast for the entire time according to the National Weather Service so I am going to have to find another date for the trip. I don't mind camping in the snow, but I have no desire to travel 100 miles in the snow both to and from my camping site.So here is another photo I took last winter on the eastern end of Rocky Mountain National Park. This is a stream in the spring and summer, it is found along the Bear Lake Road just off of the main entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, the snow on the rocks resembling marshmallows really grabbed my attention. I was standing on top of a bridge overlooking the scene, I really haven't noticed it during spring and summer but I assume this would also make an interesting subject in those seasons as well.
One of these days I will get back up into the mountains and spend a night or two, I just don't want to travel the distance in a big storm common in our mountains

weekend

Finally am feeling better, I even went to school this morning, of course it was finals which I DID NOT want to miss. Miss the finals and it's a whole letter grade. I am going to the Art Institute of Colorado to get my degree in photography. I should be finished by 2009 but I might continue on after that(I say "might" but it's more than likely that I will). Now that the quarter is done and also my very first semester at the Art Institute, and am on vacation for the holidays ( or as they say in Europe, I am on a Holiday). The first thing I am going to do is a little winter camping this weekend, I'll probably leave on a Sunday and come back Monday. I am planning on spending the night in western part of Rocky mountain National Park. Get some sunrise and sunset photos of Baker Mountain pictured above.
The last time I was on the western part of Rocky Mountain National Park was almost a year ago, I spent the night in a small lodge. I actually blogged about it a little bit in an earlier post. I only got a couple good evening shots of a small canal behind my cabin. This time a round I am going to do some tent camping in the park itself, close to the mountains so I will be able to get good shots both evening and morning without going far, I am definitely looking forward to that, I hope the lakes aren't completely snowed over right now, they were last year to the point that you couldn't even tell a lake was there, it's still early yet so I hope there will be some open water.

sick

boy the last couple days I have been sooooooo sick, so no posts and no new photos taken, and we had a wonderful snow the other day that I missed being too ill to go anywhere. I still have plenty of photos from the past to share though.

This photo was taken this past spring when the snow started melting from the higher elevations. This was above Loveland Pass about 45 minutes west of Denver. I drove to the top of the pass than hiked up to about 13,000 feet on top of a ridgeline, there are 360 degree views of the mountains in the area, including two 14,ooo foot peaks which happen to be the two highest peaks on North America's continental divide (below)
a storm had just passed and as you can tell I was getting some dramatic lighting, especially to the west where the sky was turning pink.it was very windy and cold up there so I just took several shots and got back down.

Don't worry though the weather this weekend isn't supposed to be too bad, so I am going camping this weekend and with a 4X5 camera get some new shots.

Here I go again

another promised shot of Denver's City and County building lit up. This is of the front entrance. The manger scene on a prior blog is just to the right of this and is actually partially in the picture.

I went to a gallery in the Colorado Mills Mall in west Denver today. I would recommend a visit of the gallery, it's by Entrance One which is betwee Border's Book Store and the Sax 5th store and is across the main hallway from the sax, the gallery is one photographer who has really nice work. He is also a member of the Rocky Mountain Nature Photographers Network as am I. He is a very helpful person as he is further along in this photography thing than I am and has helped me with getting my work published. That is exactly how the other members of the Rocky Mountain Nature Photographers (here after the RMNP) network are. I am relatively new to the network but they have been very receptive to me and very accepting of my photos which as far as I am concerned are nothing to many of the members work. So don't be shy and stop by his gallery in the Colorado Mills Mall and maybe buy a greeting card from him or something. Tell him Paul from RMNP sent you.

I almost forgot, yesterdayI was watching the Wheel of Fortune which is not one that I usually watch (seriously) I am kind of glad, they had on the stage a photo on a tv screen of the Maroon Bells near Aspen. It was a nice photo too. The Maroon Bells are near Aspen and are the most photographed mountain peaks in North America. After being there myself I can understand why, with their dramatic cliffs and great maroon color and lets not forget the dual peaks near perfect symmetry. The above photo is one of my own

2 to 5 inches

that's how much snow we are supposed to get down here in Denver. It will make for some nice pictures this evening and tomorrow morning.
I love the snow and really love the photographic opportunities given by snow, especially mountain scenes, mountains just don't look right without snow. Sad though in the summer here most of our mountains in Colorado are devoid of snow, only in the northern mountains will you find some year round snow and what is left of our few dying glaciers. Luckily that is only a couple months of the year that it is like this.

Winter is my favorite season with the atmosphere produced by snow, both falling and fresh snow cover on the ground. It just feels very peaceful and comforting. This winter though has been far different than last winter, when last year we were constantly digging out from snow this year we have had very little. November saw some of the least amount of snow both here in the city and in the mountains on record, So far December is looking better in the mountains, they have had several feet fallen with a couple feet more predicted with this current storm.

I forgot something

A couple days back I blogged about the lights on Denver's City and County Building. I also mentioned that I was going to post another photo or two of the christmas decorations, I completely forgot about it up until now. The above photo is up close to the building and just right of the front entrance. I remember this manger scene from last year but I don't remember the soldier figure, I am not too sure but it might be a new feature, there is another one on the other side of the entrance

last nights sunset

much to everyone's dismay I didn't get tonights sunset. Actually I didn't even notice tonight's sunset, but I did get last night's. I took it from Rocky Mountain National Park. I was leaving the park after getting a series of shots from Sprague Lake, one of which is shown in yesterday's blog entry. I had just left the Beaver Meadows entrance when these incredible colors just appeared in the west, my mom was with me and noticed it, she swung the vehicle around and I jumped out with camera and tripod to get a some shots. The lighting didn't last very long either, amazing too because if I was driving no one would probably have noticed the sunset. Since I was on the road by the entrance to the park it was hard to avoid any obvious man made objects, so I kept the foreground out of it entirely and left the high peaks of the park as just a small section on the bottom of the photo. I wish I was still at Sprague Lake when the lighting occured, but there was no way of predicting it. I left when the sky and ground was very flat and looking too cold, no sun was shining and it was windy and cold. I can't complain too much though as the photo above shows, I got one of those rare fleeting moments of time. One of those moments that makes a photo special and separates it from just a regular picture.

Sprague lake

Went to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain national Park today. It was very windy, but I was still able to spend time outdoors and taking photos in Rocky. My mother came with me. Sshe doesn't get out very often and this was a nice change for her. She stayed behind at the vehicle when I decided to walk around Sprague Lake where I took the above photo from. It's too bad she didn't go with me for it is a nice easy walk with good views of the mountains to the west.
The photo above was on the eastern end of Sprague Lake looking west. Otis Peak, Hallett Peak, and Flat Top Mountain are shown in the photo. I was a little concerned about the lighting with the wave clouds over the mountains, but the color in the sky was nice and the color was being reflected off of the peaks so it turned out well. Next week I am thinking of spending a night or two in the park and getting some morning shots of a lake near this one called Bierstadt Lake using the same peaks as a backdrop, but with a 4X5 large format camera instead of my 10 megapixel digital camera like I did with this shot. If I actually do this, expect one or two photos to be posted here on my blog

Full of Christmas Cheer

Last night I went up to the casinos in Black Hawk. I took my camera with me hoping they would have their holiday lights up. I was very disappointed because there was almost no lights up, so far only one casino really has any lights on. So I went gambling instead. BAD CHOICE. As always I ended up losing money
Speaking of Christmas lights. This was my second year of going to Downtown Denver to capture the lights of the City and County Building. They have been making a tradition of lighting Denver's Courthouse for nearly 100 years now and at this point they use an average of 1 million lights on the building. This photo was taken across the street at Civic Center Park. I have also taken some nice photos of the front entrance of the building and in the next day or 2 I will post those photos on my blog.

A little walk

Lat night I decided to go to Crown Hill Park in Wheatridge to go for a little walk to get in shape. I have been doing alot of walking lately, mostly to prepare for a series backpacking trips into the Eagles Nest Wilderness, but that will be a different blog altogether ;-)
I decided to grab my camera to take with me while I was on the walk just in case any photographic opportunities arises. As it turned out I ended up spending more time taking photos than exercising. It's truly amazing how pollution makes for nice sunsets.
The good news is I did walk all the way around the lake so I did get some exercise

Another one

We just had another snow overnight, one that was apparently unexpected. Not much fell, but judging by news reports it made a huge mess of traffic, the roads were extremely slick. Our mountains got a couple inches of snow too, which helps with the ski resorts which were opening to very little natural snow at all, mostly relying on the man made stuff. So each one of the snow storms that drops a few inches helps the ski resorts. For me, I keep thinking back to last year when I spent my first night in this small but cozy lodge just outside the western entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. There was as much snow as anybody could ever want, the skies were clear and clean with a deep blue. Behind my lodge and pictured above was a canal or stream that was free flowing, it had no sign of freezing over at all which really added to the scene, the water was reflecting that deep blue sky and with it being surrounded with perfectly white snow, it was quite the contrast. The water was as calm as could be, creating the perfect reflections in it. It was a breathtaking scene, and with the wonderful little lodge with the nice fireplace I am really looking forward to doing it again.

For those that hate winter or are stressed out with the christmas shopping, just picture yourself in a small cozy cabin like lodge with a fireplace going sitting in your chair with a nice cup of hot cocoa looking out to the scene pictured above.

Our Second Snow

This is my first blog. I want to keep it to the point and start off with a photo of our second snow of the season. Taken on the morning of November 24th.
I had hoped for partial clearing during sunrise but the weather was predicting snow until noon time. I decided to head out for photos anyways. I decided on a local park that had a small lake. When I left it wasn't looking all that promising, the snow was coming down lightly and the sky was completely overcast so I was expecting a dreary sunrise. When I got to my destination I was greeted with orange color in the sky where the sun was rising. I quickly got out my camera and started snapping away. One of the photos that resulted is shown above. I continued until the sky started clouding over again.