changing film

I had used Fuji Velvia 100 for a while now, and i haven't been that happy with the results I get from the film. I have tried Velvia 50 in the past and seem to have received better results. I am also trying out Provia 100F and Astia 100. The Velvia 100 color casts were not up to my standards, so I am hoping I will soon find the film combination that works best.

I do deal with digital as well and the majority of my photos are done in digital, but my preference has been with film because of the clarity that can come with film

Rocky

Another shot from Rocky Mountain National park, this from Trail Ridge Road from near upper Beaver Meadows. This time with my 35mm film camera. As you can tell the Aspens haven't sprouted yet.

More photos

Another photo from last week, this time at Rocky Mountain National Park. Taken from Moraine Park in Rocky Mountain National Park. The photo is of the Big Thompson River and Stones Mountain. I didn't post yesterday, I was out getting more photos, those should be coming up real soon

Another day and another photo posting, this time it's from Barr Lake State Park north of Denver, this photo is of the visitor center that looks like an old farm house (and perhaps was built from one). I had to wait about 1/2 hour for the sun to shine through the clouds to give it this lighting

back out again

this week has been good for me, I have been able to finally get out and get some photos. I was able to get to Barr Lake State Park, Eldorado Canyon and Rocky Mountain National Park. This weekend I have plans on going into the Indian Peaks for some photos and hiking. The next few days I will be posting select photos from my trips.

The above photo was from Eldorado Canyon State Park about a half an hour after sunrise, the sky had some high thin clouds that was filtering the light just enough to create the soft lighting for this photo.

my new toy

I just bought myself a "new" camera. It's new for me but is actually made in the 1920's. It is a Graflex 4X5 large format camera. The film is 4 inches by 5 inches in size and is a significant jump from most other types of film. It is without a doubt vastly superior to even the best digital sensors available. The photos above are of my camera, the items in front of the camera in the bottom photo are the film holders, each one holds 2 sheets of 4X5 film, I have 3 of them totaling 6 shots without reloading, and believe me with the cost of the film and processing but above all else the sheer quality of an image this film produces, that is more than what I need for a single session, the best part is the camera is relatively small and light in weight given the kind of camera that it is, so it makes it an easy camera to backpack with, which is perfect for my upcoming trips into the Eagles Nest Wilderness.

Looks like my photography is going to take a huge leap

Great video

check this video out. This is in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado

Avalanche

The San Juans are an amazing mountain range in South West Colorado, probably would be considered the Alps of America.

I finally got out again, this time I went to summit county in the central part of Colorado. the county is also home to several famous ski resorts including, Keystone, Copper Mountain and Breckenridge and is in close proximity to Vail, but I didn't go anywhere near the resorts. I went north of all of them to a little traveled mountain pass called Ute Pass it is about 10 miles north of Silverthorne on Highway 9. It has great views of the eastern side of the Gore Mountains. The photo above is of some of the peaks of the eastern Gores. On the left is Peak Z towards the back of the ridgeline and on the right in the back a little towards the center of the photo is Peak S and Peak T (they are the very dramatic and extremely rugged spires) then on the right of that is Peak J, then K, then L, towards the right of that towards the front is Guyselman then on the right and in front as well is Peak N then the furthest right is Peak O. Most of these are not official names but are nicknames or in this case letter categorization. Some of them I do not believe are even official mountain peaks like Peak N and O, but I believe they are sub peaks of Guyselman (also known as Peak M).

This photo was taken on an extrmemely hazy morning, I was very disappointed it doesn't make for very sharp photos, but I was able to come away with one photo from this area.

The Gore mountains are part of the little known (and I am glad for it) Eagles Nest Wilderness. Even though it is near several world famous ski resorts and is definitely one of Colorado's more spectacular mountains, it doesn't get much attention nor traffic due to the fact that it doesn't contain any of the much loftier 14,000 foot peaks of other mountain ranges in Colorado, and the popularity of a wilderness is based on it's proximity to 14,000 foot peaks or how many the wilderness contains, and since there aren't any 14'ers as we Coloradans like calling them, this wilderness is by the most part ignored. Piney Lake about 16 miles north of Vail is one of the only exceptions to this.

I then went back south to Lake Dillon which is close to the ski resort Keystone. Lake Dillon is a popular and large recreational lake, but at this time of year it is still frozen over as the photo above indicates. The photo was taken on the south west side of the lake, closer to Breckenridge. IT was taken from an overlook off of the road, and is a small hike down to get to it. The photo is viewing Peak One and Ten Mile Peak the northern end of the Ten Mile Range which houses Breckenridge. Peak One and Ten Mile Peak are probably considered the runts of the Ten Mile Range since they are the lowest peaks on the range at an elevation of only 12,900 feet, compare that to the much loftier Quandary peak at 14,265 feet at the ranges southern end and several other peaks at 13,800 plus feet near Quandary. Though Peak One and Ten Mile Peak are not very high by Colorado standards they are quite the dramatic sight from the small town of Frisco on the western side of Lake Dillon and at the northern extreme of the Ten Mile Range, they are also highly visible from Highway 9 south of Frisco and are quite dramatic rising above the highway quite abruptly with a very rugged eastern face. These would make a nice climb for me one of these days.....oooh how I wish I was in better shape. Believe me, I will be getting in shape since I will be backpacking the Eagles Nest Wilderness this summer, but that is an entirely different blog.

My website has been down lately, but I have been redesigning it and going with a different host. The following link is a preview of my new site. Visit the site

Baker Mountain

Gee looks like I haven't posted in a while, whoops, of course I have been able to get out only once since the last time I posted, and that was a quick drive to Rocky Mountain National Park. The above is of Baker Mountain in the western part of the park. I took this at a pull-off just pass the entrance to the park, I took it late in the afternoon, it was difficult getting just the right lighting, especially on the mountain. Clouds were blocking the sun from shining on the mountain and most of the time it was completely in shadow, there were only a couple of points where there were spots of sunlight shining on the peak which was what I wanted, but I also wanted the long shadows in the foreground as well so there were only a couple of chances to get it and this photo above is the best one.

after getting the photo that I wanted I started photographing other subjects in the park.The above photo was in the park taken after the mountain shot. It shows signs of spring as the stream is starting to thaw out and run freely. The trees if you notice are dead, a common problem in Colorado with the majority of the states lodge pole pines have been killed due to a pine beetle infestation

A really old photo that I took from Brainard Lake below the Indian peaks. I couldn't have asked for anything more than having this kid on a rock in the lake fishing. This was taken a few years ago when I was still new at photography and was taken with a small 3 megapixel point and shoot

Looking forward to spring

Another one of my finds after going over my photos. This is of Independence Pass in between Leadville and Aspen. The summit of the pass which is where this was taken is a on a wide ridgeline at about 12,000 feet in elevation. This photo is looking to the south. It is undoubtedly one of the most scenic places in all of Colorado and is highly recommended (if you can handle a narrow road with lots of exposure). I am really looking forward to spring when this road reopens. I am definitely going to take this road again.

There is another mountain pass to the south of this one that takes people in the same direction over the same mountain range, but instead of taking people from Leadville to Aspen this other one takes people from Buena Vista to Crested Butte. I haven't taken that road yet, but I have heard that it is a spectacular drive. I think that I will check it out this spring and summer, since it takes people to Crested Butte, I might include it in my book about Crested Butte. The pass is called Cottonwood Pass and is a much smaller and less traveled road than the other ones that traverse the Sawatch Mountains, which is the mountain range in the area.

The sawatch m0untains are the highest mountain range in Colorado and is home of the states 3 highest peaks, 2 of which are near Leadville, it is part of the continental divide and is considered the back bone of the Rocky Mountains since they are the highest peaks in the Rockies. These peaks aren't exceptionally rugged but are very large and are no less dramatic than many other mountain ranges in the world
This photo is an old one that I took of the Sawatch Mountains, this is actually the eastern part of Independence pass at the bottom looking in the direction of where the road leads, it goes in between the peaks shown, the mountain on the right is Mt. Elbert and at over 14,400 feet is the highest peak in the state and the Rocky Mountains, and is the second highest peak in the Continental United States. This photo was taken on an obviously stormy day at Twin Lakes near Leadville

Another find

I have been having a field day going through all my old photos. I keep finding some good shots that I for some reason had overlooked initially like the one above.

This photo was taken from Maroon Lake looking to the north at Sievers Mountain. Maroon Lake is below the world renowned Maroon Bells, which I have photographed as well. Sievers Mountain is a peak at 12,700 feet that runs with a long ridgeline north east of the Maroon Bells. The peak itself is not visible in this photo, just some spires on it's southern slopes. It is not as photographed as the more dramatic and higher Maroon Bells, but these spires are very dramatic anyways

Been a While

I haven't blogged in a while, mostly because nothing of interest has been going on. I have not been going anywhere these last few weeks. So there have been no new photos in a while. The good thing is that I have been going through all my old photos and have found a couple keepers, ones that I feel are worth while.

The above image was taken last June in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was taken along Trial Ridge Road right after a thunderstorm had passed. If you don't know, Trail Ridge Road is the highest continuous highway in North America, reaching an elevation of nearly 12,200 feet. I took this photo from the Rock Cut section on the highway looking to the west towards the Never Summer Mountains. This road in closed in the winter so I am unable to return to this spot until late May or early June, even then I will be busy working on my two books about the Eagles Nest Wilderness and Crested Butte, so I don't think I will be returning to this spot anytime soon.

finally got the photos back

I finally got them back, took long enough, but they came out well. Here is the kicker though, I looked at the film and they all look great, but the digital scans I had the shop do don't look that great on some, looks like they need to work on their scanning technique, I wonder how they would look on an actual print, maybe I will have them do a couple proofs.
Anyways, the above photo is one of the good ones. It was taken from a park in Littleton along the South Platte River, the river is largely a north running river along this park, but this one area it forks to the east before turning again to the north and that is where I took this photo from

Denver's nature

I finally got out to get some photos today, I was fortunate enough to find out about a place right here in town that has alot of nature to it. I wish I had known of this area before. It is along the South Platte River in Littleton which is a southern suburb of Denver. I had quite the field day taking photos for about an hour and a half during sunset, very grand scenes were beholding me every minute that I was out there and I am looking forward to seeing how the photos came out..... and there lies the issue, I used my film camera and not my digital so I have to go in tomorrow to get the film developed, I am hoping it won't take long, and when I do get them back I will post several photos in other entries. So keep checking back often

missing summer

When summer rolls around I am definitely taking the time and traveling back to Crested Butte. More specifically Kebler Pass area. I spent a couple nights last summer above Lake Irwin. I had a spectacular campsite with panoramic views of the Raggeds Wilderness and the West Elk Wilderness. Going over those photos from this area really is making me miss the summer, well I totally forgot about the above photo of the West Elks Wilderness from my campsite that I took one morning. I am not too sure of the distant mountains but the front mountain peak is East Beckwith Mountain. The campsite is perhaps one of my favorite sites that I have camped in since I can remember, it is a back country site with noone else around and is hovering right around tree line at about 10,700 feet. The best part is there is noone else near you unlike a developed campground

well I tried

I got up to the mountains the other day, drove for 2 hours to the western part of Rocky Mountain National Park (a 200 mile round trip drive). Many of the roads in that area are snow covered and icy, they obviously got alot of snow this past month. When I got to the western entrance to the park I was going to pick up a pass at the visitor center there, boy was I disapointed, I didn't have any cash, only a credit card, and they were accepting only cash. Apparently this is a rule they have in that part of the park during the winters, cash only. I drove 100 miles and 2 hours for nothing. I was originally going to do some camping there but the temps were supposed to drop to 8 below zero and I changed it to a day trip. Well if anything I was able to get out of town.
The above photo of Baker Mountain was taken last year in Rocky Mountain National Park, taken along the trail Ridge Road on the western side of the park. Last year I already had an annual national parks pass so I had no problem getting in, I was hoping to get another annual pass at that visitor center this year but with no luck. I guess I am having to go somewhere else to get an annual pass.