Picture of the Day - 1/28/2011

Ken Flying the C130 Simulator - A little different image today - well, it's late Friday! Sheila and I have been cleaning out shoeboxes of old family prints and scanning them into digital files. I ran into this one - ahhh, taken a few years ago - of me flying a C-130 cargo aircraft simulator based at what used to be El Toro Marine Air Station in Orange County, CA. Notice the fancy "flight suit"! As an active pilot back then (mid-70s), I was used to flying any number of single engine fixed wing planes - Cesnas, Cherokee Warriors and the fast little Grumman TR-2 trainer. This was my first effort at "flying" a multi-engine military aircraft and it was surprisingly easy! It actually seemed as responsive as any Cesna I'd flown.

Anyway, I ended up flying it from El Toro MAS to Catalina Island, about 20 miles off the coast of Southern California, circling twice and flying back. The takeoff and landing went well, but this picture was taken shortly after I crashed the plane into one of the hangers during the taxi! Oh well, no harm done! Guess I'll stick to smaller planes!

Picture of the Day - 1/26/2011

Crystal Mill/Pumphouse (toned B&W) - Still experimenting with B&W conversion in preparation for the workshop I'll be taking with George DeWolfe later in May at the Santa Fe Workshops. This is a shot of the famous Crystal Mill/Pumphouse, east of Marble, Colorado, and taken during our fall color tour last year. The primary purpose of this structure was to provide fresh air to the nearby gold and silver mines. It's rather difficult to get to, either requiring a 5 mile hike along a very rocky road, or a high clearance 4WD vehicle. The scenery, though, is well worth the effort! This B&W conversion was slightly toned to give it a antique "feel". Settings: ISO 800, Shutter 1/10 second at f11 (tripod-mounted).

Picture of the Day - 1/25/2011

Aspen Grove (B&W) - Recently, I've been experimenting with B&W conversions using Adobe's Photoshop Lightroom and Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro (plug-in). This scene was shot last fall during our tour to the Aspen, Colorado, area. It was originally captured as a vertical, but there was a bunch of sky showing as bright highlights in a band about 2/3rds the way up, which I felt was distracting. So, I cropped it as a horizontal keeping the boulder as an "anchor point". Because the sun had already set, the details could still be seen in the shadow areas. While this would have made a great image in color, I wanted to feature the more graphic nature of the aspen trunks. Most of the conversion was performed in Lightroom by first clicking on B&W, then adjusting the tree trunks with exposure and then setting the Blacks and Contrast sliders to darken the shadow areas bringing more attention to the trunks and boulder. Final adjustments of the individual color channels completes the conversion. Settings: ISO 400, shutter 1/100 second at f8.

Picture of the Day - 1/24/2011

Winter Sunset - This fantastic sunset was taken as I was on the country road home a few days ago with my compact Canon SX130. The clouds were formed into bands of intense blues and reds. The camera exposure compensation was adjusted to -1 EV in order to bring out the colors best. This is also a good setting for capturing rainbows. Settings: ISO 400, 1/100 second at f5. Cropped slightly top and bottom with Lightroom.

Picture of the Day - 1/21/2011

Aspens in Snow - During the last big storm a three weeks ago, I took off in the Explorer to go find some pictures. It was bitterly cold with a stiff breeze, which quickly froze my unprotected fingers. Fortunately, I was able to work from the warmer vehicle. Near our house in Woodland Park, are several groves of aspens that make great subjects. This was originally captured as a vertical (you generally shoot vertical subjects vertically), however, once on the computer and looking carefully, I realized the whole top half was cluttered with distracting elements. So, I decided to crop the image to a square format, lopping off the distracting top, and leaving the composition seen here. Three of anything is generally a pleasing arrangement and I really like the resulting simplicity. The grasses add a nice background of texture, which balances the boldness of the trunks. This is what originally caught my eye, so the right thing to do was to get rid of everything else that failed to add to the composition. This may make a good B&W conversion as well! Settings: +1 EV exposure compensation, ISO 200, 1/250 second at f11.

Picture of the Day - 1/20/2011

Old Wagon, Ashcroft Ghost Town, Colorado - This old broken-down wagon sits alone in a vast field near the old ghost town of Ashcroft, near Aspen, Colorado. This was one of our stops during the fall color tour last year and we really worked it for all it was worth! I liked this particular view and have played around with a black & white version as well. Settings: ISO 200, 1/60th second at f5.6.

Picture of the Day - 1/19/2011

Un-named Peak near Ashcroft, Colorado - Enough winter scenery for a while! This peak with the first light of dawn was taken during our photo tour around the Aspen, Colorado, area. It's an example why we get up and out to the field shooting well before sunrise! The only adjustment was to lighten the foreground a bit, otherwise, the color on the peak is just as we saw it. Settings: 80-200 mm lens at 200 mm, -1EV exposure compensation to bring out the color best, ISO 800, 1/250th second at f8.

Picture of the Day - 1/18/2011

Frozen Cascades - Sheila took this shot while we were exploring Eleven Mile Canyon, near Lake George, CO. The water has a light aqua coloring, which I particularly liked. The ice formations frame the subject nicely. As there was no sun this day, we didn't get the bright orange reflections, but you learn to work with what you're given on any day. She captured this at ISO 100, shutter 1/4 second and aperture f25 on the Canon Rebel T2i.

Picture of the Day - 1/17/2011

Bald Eagle Pair, Eleven Mile Canyon, CO - This nesting pair of bald eagles was captured last Saturday in Eleven Mile Canyon near Lake George, CO. While fairly skittish, they posed for quite  while on this branch - at least long enough for me to deploy the 600 mm lens with 1.4X teleconverter on my Canon 1D Mk2 (for a total equivalent 1092 mm focal length). This image was cleaned up and cropped slightly for composition. Normally, I'd place the birds more to the right side, so they were "looking in" to the frame. However, I liked the symmetry of the branch, so centered them. Here's a situation where you want to avoid using "matrix" or "evaluative" metering, as the eagles heads will likely overexpose, due to the dominant dark background. Best to use manual exposure in this case. Spot-metering their heads may also help prevent overexposure. Settings, ISO 800, Shutter 1/1600th second, aperture open all the way at f5.6.

Picture of the Day - 1/14/2011

Ice Crystals - Many nature photographers strive to capture the widest landscape scenes they can, but very often, a better technique is to extract a more "intimate landscape" from the "whole". In this case, I noticed a crunching sound as I walked along the bank of the South Platte River. Looking down, I saw a myriad of ice crystals. Steadying the camera, I captured a few of these in the viewfinder. Settings: ISO 200, 1/320th second at f4. Adjusted in Lightroom with slight adjustments in contrast and structure using Nik Software's Vivesa 2.

Picture of the Day - 1/13/2011

Sunrise near Woodland Park, CO - I'm usually an early riser and when I looked out the window to check the weather conditions, I could tell that the sunrise could be spectacular this morning. Leaving a bit early for a monthly business meeting, I grabbed my camera and captured images all the way into Woodland Park, where I live. This view is looking west a few miles from town. One of my neighbors can be seen enjoying an early morning bike ride in the brisk air - the clouds playing before him; a masterpiece painting by our heavenly Father.

Settings: Cloudy white balance, ISO 200, 1/50th second at f5. Exposure, sharpening and noise reduction was adjusted with Lightroom.

Picture of the Day - 1/12/2011

Blue and Gold with Boulders - Since there were no bald eagles to be found last Saturday (very odd!), we continued to turn our lenses to the river and all the great reflections. If you wish to accentuate the reflections, as well as impart "movement" to the water, try slowing the shutter down to 1/10th to 1/2 second. This image was taken at ISO 200, f18 and 1/6th second exposure. I love the subtle blue and gold striations in the main flow of water over the boulders. You can just hear the crashing of the water!

Picture of the Day - 1/11/2011

South Platte Glow - This image was taken along the South Platte River near Lake George, Colorado. Being winter here, there was a lot of ice, but the first thing I noticed was the sun reflecting a golden glow along parts of the surface. This image was captured with my 80-200 mm lens and then the top and bottom was cropped to highlight the rapids and colorful water swirling along. I set the shutter for 1/6th second exposure to blend the water.

Picture of the Day - 12/31/2010

Total Lunar Eclipse, December 20-21, 2010 - We'll close out 2010 with a composite image of the total lunar eclipse on the evening of the 20th and 21st. Images were taken with a 300 mm lens with 1.4X teleconverter and with the Canon T2i body, for an equivalent 672 mm. I used Live View to focus and assembled the collage with Photoshop CS2. Manual exposure was used.

Picture of the Day - 12/30/2010

Sunset, Ft. Collins, CO - I seldom miss a chance to shoot a sunrise or sunset. This was taken during a visit to Chris and Alex's place earlier this month. Shot with the little Canon SX130 compact camera.

Picture of the Day - 12/29/2010

Sunrise, Teller County, CO - I often rise before the sun - especially this time of year when the days are short. I really liked the muted and subtle pastels earlier this month filtering through the three aspen trees. Taken with the Canon SX130 compact. Taken handheld with settings of 1/80th second at f4.5 and ISO 400.

Picture of the Day - 12/28/2010

Abstract Tree, Denver Zoo - During our Zoo Lights trip through the Denver Zoo, I was on the lookout for any unusual lighting. This tree, lit reflecting nearby blue lights Looked like a possible subject - especially, with the contrasting red-lit leaves in the upper-left.  Since this was designed to be an abstract, anything is fair game! I enhanced the image slightly using Nik Software's Vivesa 2 by increasing the contrast and darkening the sky a bit. Since I wished to avoid carrying a tripod, I supported the camera on a nearby trash receptacle. The exposure was 5 seconds and f5.6 at ISO 1600.