Best Fall Colors Ever…Again?

I know I know I said this last year about the fall colors here in CO, but this year was truly, the best in vividness, and diversity as I have seen in 11 years in the state? Last year, I was in the Aspen area and Kenosha area and more locally, around Echo Lake, but this year, even though I went up tp Aspen, I also traveled to Ouray, Ridgeway, and Telluride to shoot. The yellows were in abundance as usual, but there were still many greens, and more orange and red than I had ever seen before. Much of that is due to the amount of moisture the trees got during the past winter, and boy did the San Juan mountains region see a lot of snow? For my money, I now have to say this years colors, at least in the Southwestern part of the state was by far the best I have seen in decade I have been here.

The leaves were also helped by a lack of early storms, no winds, and generally good dry and warm conditions leading up to the first day of fall. It was the ideal weekend to be in the San Juan mountain area, as Oct 1st – 3rd was probably peak colors for the area? Each year its a different guessing game as to what kind of colors and how much or how vivid they will be. Sure, the days get less and less light always on the same days, but snowfalls, high winds, or rain, dictate the timing just as much, and this year it all came together to make for a fantastic fall for shooting the aspens.

The Badlands…not just a clever name

A few weekends ago, a friend and I went to the Badlands of South Dakota to do some shooting of the area. I wanted to see some things there other than Mount Rushmore, and I found that the name Badlands is justly named. The first day in the skies were gray, snowy, and it was cold. While trying to shoot Mount Rushmore, the local fuzz decides to pull us over and harass us both for 20 minutes for not being able to see the dealer tag in the window of my car? He had nothing on either of us, and after wasting time and tax payers of South Dakota’s dollars, he let us be on our way. But his stop dulled me on the idea of going into the park, so although we were pulled over at the park entrance, we decided to forego seeing the mountain, and take our dollars elsewhere for the day. From there I attempted the long drive back towards the Badlands Nat. Park. The weather wasn’t much better; in fact, the winds were blowing to about 50-60 mph…insane for trying to shoot anything. I tried to take in the strangeness of the Badlands landscape, but the wind won that battle. I suspect that the park would be a nice kaleidoscope of soft pastel colors on a summer evening with the sun low in the sky and no winds, so one day, I may go back to there, but this time it was not to be. Essentially, the first day was a big bust for us.
Day two, Sunday would pan out much better, as the skies would not be as gray and the sun makes an appearance. This time I pointed the car towards Custer State Park, and the wildlife viewing part of the park that went on for miles from the south to the north. Not a few miles in we found out why it’s called the wildlife viewing road…buffalo! Lots of them and they were everywhere. They were nursing calves to, so they freely roamed the parks roads as they pleased and made themselves easy targets for me as I stretched my amateur status as a wildlife photographer? A beautiful and imposing animal, these buffalo walked right up to the car with no fear. The parks roads led through the best looking part of the state for sure, and yielded vistas of grasslands and trees as well as wild turkey and pronghorn.
At the near end of the park was Sylvain Lake. This lake was so picturesque, with its rock formations jutting out of the water, and blue skies, that I posted two shots from here on the site. From the north end, we made our way into Spearfish Canyon in search of a few waterfalls I had read about. In this canyon, which is where they filmed the final scenes of Dances with Wolves, we found Spearfish Canyon falls…and plenty of snow! It snowed high up in this canyon the whole time, but the snow enhanced the shooting of these falls in some ways by providing a nice touch of white snow on very green moss near the base of the falls. I was able to catch one other fall on the way out, but was unable to get real close to this one due to high water in the creek. We made our way out of the canyon on towards Spearfish, then south back into Rapid City, where the night was finished off with a good dinner at the local pub, and a hockey game between the Rapid City Rush and our Colorado Eagles.
On the whole, it was a mixed bag of a trip, but ended on a good note, so I wasn’t soured on the Badlands area completely. But after seeing the great Peter Lik on his show From the Edge, also struggling all weekend to land a decent shot, I realize that if I come away with a few decent shots, and maybe a couple of great shots, then the trip, any trip, is never a waste to the landscape photographer. Sometimes though, you have to go through a lot of bad conditions to capture even one good shot. The one thing a landscape photographer cannot control is Mother Nature herself? The weather in the spring in that part of the nation turns on a dime dramatically, and the weather report must be taken within hours of when you want to shoot…so planning is not always easy to do? So as far as the Badlands of South Dakota go, not a bad trip after all, and I will be back again to shoot some more.

The latest addition

Many, if not most of my shots, I took by driving my old 2002 Audi A4 to various locations. Almost every shot on my website came by way of me driving that car to the location. Sure, sometimes it was a truck, a friend’s car, and twice, a rental? But the old Audi was the chariot for most of my trips, but after so many years, she was getting long in the tooth, starting to wear, needed brakes, and at 109,119 miles, was becoming worrisome to have to drive it long distances this Summer and Fall. As with most 10-year-old cars, there was a growing potential of mechanical failure, as well as a higher cost of replacing major parts? I can’t really afford to rent a car every time I want to drive more than 200 miles to a location, and having Buda drive his Infiniti each time isn’t fair to him? So, I had decided about a year ago to finally get rid of the A4, but each time I tried, various roadblocks kept me from getting something else. I wanted a Saab 9-3, then I had an itch for a BMW 335, then a VW GTi came to mind, as I owned 2 others previously and loved them? I had driven an Acura TSX, but it felt disconnected, the Mercedes-Benz C230 was nice, but having driven the Bimmer first, it wasnt nearly as fun. I thought of another Audi, but the cost of maintaining them is high, and I was feeling burnt out on Audi’s? The Saab became to difficult to buy, as bank’s don’t want to loan you money on a car whose parent company may be out of business by years end? As for the BMW, I loved it, it really is the ultimate driving machine…but at a steep price? To steep for me at this time.

One other car had been on my radar for some time, as I loved the lines, the feature content for the price, and that it looked great, it is the Volkswagen CC. This past Saturday morning I set out to only get an emissions test done on my Audi, but was denied entry into the building because I was told that the aftermarket wheels on it, would throw off the machine, and the solution was to go out and buy the stock wheels? That was not the easiest or cheapest thing to do, and not exactly one I could do right away. Dejected, and irate, I drove away, with an expired tag no less, wondering how I would ever get the test done? After a conversation with my mother, I decided, maybe it was time to trade it in?

I didn’t have realistic hopes that I could, but I looked at the dealer that sold me the Audi to see what they had in inventory, and low and behold, a VW CC was on the lot in my price range? I drove over, checked it out, and drove it, and a minute in to it I knew it was just a nice fit for me and my wants and needs. Turns out, that my credit was better than I thought, I had just enough money to put down, and the numbers worked, and after 3 hours of haggling, I drove out in the beauty you see here? I admit, that I am still uneasy about the decision? The car is awesome, but, that Audi had grown on me, and I had been a lot of places in 5 years in it. The new car will take some getting used to, and I will need some time to let the shock of such a large purchase sink in, but I now have a 2010, VW CC, with only 22K miles on it, and it is ready for some road trips.

What to shoot, when there seems to be nothing to shoot?

I have loosely tried to go shooting the last two weekends, but never got out to do so, or did so in a very limited capacity? I havent been inspired to do so what with grey skies and no colors and plenty of wind, it kind of sours me on shooting? I’ve also grown to not want to shoot anything just for the sake of shooting, but rather make my outings worth while and be more selective about what I shoot and when? But we are entering the Spring here, and I know that the weather will start to turn more in my favor, colors will start to come back soon, and that fresh wet snow we are known for in March, will come to, making for some neat shots? With that said, I think I will aim for shooting more buildings and architecture this coming weekend in downtown until such time as the landscapes here start to change?

The importance of backing up images

A week ago I moved to a new apartment, and after setting up my PC again, I noticed my external hard drive would not spool up and work anymore? Whats significant about this, is that I keep all of my images on this hard drive…ALL of them. Every photo I have taken in the last 5 years, thousands of them, are on this hard drive. I had a feeling that I had lost them, or the ability to extract them at least. I knew I could retrieve them if I had the time and money to send the hard drive off to be recovered, but the initial scare made me realize that I havent done enough to back up these files over the years. Sure, I have most of them on CD’s, and several hundred are on my laptop as well, but the RAW files were only on the hard drive, as JPEG is the only type of file I am able to save to a disc. It turned out that the only thing wrong was a weak power cord, easily remedied by Buda, who tested it, and found me a new and stronger one…crisis averted. Tip of the hat to him! So with my last paycheck, I went and bought a new external hard drive, 500mb, and have started to copy all my images over to it, and will store it off site, as an additional back up…in case next time, the power cord is not the issue? Lesson here: make 2-3 backups of your images. It wasnt expensive, it takes just a little time, and it is priceless in the end.

Revisiting past locations

I try to find new and different places to shoot whenever possible, but I have been known, and will continue, to shoot places I have been to more than once? Often, it’s because the last time I just wasn’t satisfied with what I shot, or a change of season will make a place look way different from the last time I saw it, or now that I shoot exclusively in RAW format, a few places I have shot were when I shot in JPEG format, or I just didn’t shoot enough or get as good of a shot the last time?

Some places are always worth repeat visits (the Grand Canyon, Arches Nat. Park, and the Maroon Bells come to mind), yet some places or sites that I have been to, don’t need many repeat visits, as I feel I got what I needed or wanted already? Having said that, some places I have been to, Buda has not seen, and thus I like to take him to some of these places even if I myself don’t need to go back? This past Saturday, Buda talked me into going shooting some place close, and some place he had not seen before, and two places came to mind, the Paint Mines Interpretive Area and Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

For me, I had seen these places enough that I didn’t feel a need or desire to go back, unless there was a fresh snowfall, for which I have no photos of either of these places in that condition? We went, we saw, and I did come away with a couple of nicer shots of the Paint Mines than I had previously gotten before, but this time around, I seemed to have gotten better light and sharper color, and decided to post them in the Landscapes section on the website?

 Given the fact that I got a few nice shots of a place I had been to before, made me realize that I am likely to go revisit many former spots in the future, either for Buda’s first time, or for when I get a camera upgrade, (Hello Canon 7D and Tokina 11-16 mm wide-angle lens) for I will want to see if I can match or better my previous shots from the last visit? Next up on the list of places to revisit…not sure yet?

Best Fall colors ever?

Learning a lesson last year about weekend jaunts into the high country to shoot the fall colors, I decided this year to take 3 days off during the week to go shoot…as to avoid the throngs of people and tourists and the usual person who seems to be oblivious to my camera and framing of a shot and will just walk right in front of me and stand there? Saturday, Buhda and I went to Rocky Mountain Nat. Park…as did about 50,000 other people. We never managed to find a place to park after hours of driving around. So it would be Monday and Tuesday that our efforts would be rewarded. We went to Kenosha Pass on Monday and saw a decent amount of color, but on Tuesday, we left very early for Aspen, and the Maroon Bells Lake area, and saw probably the best color I have seen in this state in 5 years? The weather was a balmy 78 degrees, blue skies, no haze or wind, and we had 2 amazing hours of shooting and hiking. There was still a lot of people there that day, but we got lucky enough to find one parking spot thankfully. Hands down, it was the best I have seen the Bells in 6 attempts. It was a fantastic payoff. I have posted 7 new images in the Landscape section of my site.

The fall colors are here

Without a doubt, the Fall is my favorite time of the year. Apart from hockey season starting up, and being able to wear long sleeves and jackets again, the aspens are turning yellow and gold, and the changing season brings about a fantastic look to the already amazing scenery of the state. So, this year I made sure to set aside enough time to hit a few of my favorite hot spots to shoot the colors, and Buhda will be accompanying me for his first time at shooting the Colorado fall. Check back by the end of next week to see what I managed to capture this year.

Finally, back to shooting

I haven’t shot much in a few weeks, but this past weekend, Buhda and I made the trek to Glenwood Springs, and hiked to Hanging Lake. We were not the only ones with this idea, as there was no shortage of people coming and going on the trail. I posted a couple of images in the Waterscapes section on my site, but Hanging Lake itself, was not as photogenic as I had hoped, mostly due to the number of people in the shot, and the harsh direct sunlight. The falls behind the lake, and a small cascade half way up the trail in the woods, provided better opportunities. However, it was an excellent hike, great weather, and we were glad we went.

No shooting this weekend, instead…

I decided not to shoot this past weekend, I didnt really have a reason why, I guess I just needed a break from it, but one thing I did do instead was ride my new bike quite a bit. It has been awhile since I had a bike and rode, but it was a nice change of pace to just get out and ride by the Platte River and just enjoy being outdoors without having to frame a shot?