Winter Milky Way and the Grenadier Range
Let’s kick off my return to blogging with one of my favorite photos taken after my last posting.
I call this, “The Star of Silverton”. The winter Milky Way and the Grenadier Range near Silverton
More to Come?
Not much else to say other than if I can get a shot with a similar subject matter with the North Star in the center perhaps I will make a Triptych. Your thoughts on these? Should I try more?
photos of speaking engagement
So how did I end up going almost 3 weeks without a post? Anyone have a time machine to send me back so I can catch up with the missed weeks?
Speaking of going back in time, a while back I mentioned about volunteering for the Senate Campaign of Lily Tang Williams. Many things did not go as planned, but I still was able to meet up with her and spend some time with her. To understand more of her positions you can go to her website at Lily4Liberty.com. Lily is the first Chinese Immigrant to run for the US Senate, and someone I am very excited about having and promoting. She received a unanimous nomination for the Libertarian Party of Colorado for the Senate race.
Above: Lily waits for people to arrive before a speaking engagement in the western slope. If you ever have a chance to hear her speak do it. She is regularly speaking on the radio and events all over Colorado and places in other states as well
She regularly speaks about her experiences growing up in China under the Maoist system and some parallels of modern US policy.
Not only is she an amazing speaker but she is a great listener
So check her out. If you like what you see, perhaps show her some support. I know many of us are looking for an alternative to the current line up.
and while you are at it
My website
How dark are our night skies
So wrong have I been, what an eye opening experience it was for me the other night. My very own perception of things were wrong. What I saw the other night totally changed my perspective and processing techniques.
What am I talking about? This
and this
What is wrong with these?
Almost everything about the skies. They are totally black. Isn’t that what the night sky should look like? Yes and No. To our eyes looking up with no reference our eyes and brain translates a black sky, but using a reference against the sky, we see a whole new perspective of our night sky, it is literally glowing throughout the sky. Try this experiment, and this requires an extremely dark sky with no light pollution. Sorry everyone who lives in a city, you will have to travel a good long distance, and sorry to those living on the east coast of the US or most of Europe, you are going to have to travel for a couple days by car or hours by plane to get skies dark enough. To truly experience this effect you will need to travel to a location that has skies rated at a Bortle Class 2 at minimum. For more information on the Bortle Classification of sky darkness go here http://www.bigskyastroclub.org/lp_bortle.html. For a link to a listing of the darkest skies go here http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html, this site allows you to zoom in really close. Notice how bad Europe and the East Coast of the US is? Now back to the easy provided you are in a dark location experiment, hold your hand up to the sky, notice a very dark void against a brightly glowing sky? That is air glow, the light of all those millions of stars filling the whole sky, your hand literally looks like a black hole against brilliant light (the glow of light pollution does not count, don’t try to be sneaky). Just that experience has changed my whole processing of the night sky, I always attempted to build a contrast resulting in a black sky. NO MORE from me, It is far more impressive to include as best as I can the amazing star glow I am witnessing every time I go out.
The above shot is a simple silhouette of the foreground. The sky really does glow enough to create a clearly defined silhouette when viewed against it. If you notice to the right of the center of our Milky Way are the planets of Mars and Saturn as the two brightest “stars”.
The other night I was at Vega State Park which is at the foot of Grand Mesa far from the slightest light pollution, the air glow was able to illuminate the ground enough for me to walk without needing a light. The kicker is that we are so accustomed to artificial light, either through light pollution of the cities, house lights, electronic equipment or dash/headlights from our cars it takes a couple of hours for eyes to adjust to that level of darkness, it is best to be at these dark locations from evening and allow our eyes to gradually adjust to the darkening skies naturally to enjoy the benefit of seeing the night like we were intended. I am by no means recommending going on a hike at night or a stroll through the woods at night without the proper illumination, so don’t even think of doing such, but the next time you have an opportunity to spend a night in a truly dark location do it, put up your tent and pull out your camp chair and sit back watching the stars move across the sky, your eyes will clearly make out the dust lanes in our view of the Milky Way
to view all of these photos at their uploaded size just right click on your mouse and click on “view image”. All above photos were taken about 15 miles north of the tiny town of DeBeque in western Colorado, you still get a slight glow of the city of Grand Junction in each of these images, but the overall sky is rated a Bortle Class 2. Vega State Park, images will be posted in an upcoming blog post, is about 40 miles south of that same tiny town of DeBeque. Again with each photo above Mars and Saturn are also visible to the right of the core of our Milky Way.
So how many of you live in a region that gives you an opportunity to see truly dark skies? How many of you are on the US east coast or Europe? Wanting to experience these amazing dark skies? I am considering doing photo tours and perhaps some workshops coming up in the future if anyone is interested.
return to Rifle Falls
Rifle Falls is a very popular waterfalls in western Colorado, a State Park about 14 miles north of the town of Rifle. It is comprised of 3 waterfalls each about 80 feet tall and is as close to a tropical feel as you can get in a largely semi arid Colorado. It was my first time at the falls for a shoot in several years, and is the first time I had used my Rokinon 14mm for something other than astrophotography. I timed my visit to the falls during a very rainy afternoon, in fact we had a strong thunderstorm that produced a gust of wind that toppled my camera with the 24-105 L lens over, luckily the camera and lens survived unscathed though my heart almost gave out when it happened.
This first one below was still taken with the required standard landscape lens. the Canon 24-105 F4L, all of these images are blended from two or 3 exposure, one for the foreground, one for the sky and if needed a 3rd with a really long shutterspeed to create the silky smooth water. The day was still bright enough that any accurate exposure at even F22 didn’t produce a long enough shutter speed, and though I do not have a ND filter, I learned how to produce the effect in layers in PS CC
The following were taken with the Rokinon 14mm, I have up to this point exclusively used it for astrophotography. It has proven to be quite efficient as an ultra wide angle lens for landscape though a little soft on the edges even in apertures not in the extreme wide. It will still be used mainly for astrophotography, but I now know I can get away with some grand scenics with it.
The falls has some really nice Lilac bushes to the right of them, but as of the shooting of these the leaves have barely started, seemingly a couple of weeks behind.
I was happily able to return to the McClure Pass region, this time during our recent massive spring storm that dumped several feet of snow in some mountain areas. Luckily it didn’t drop that much in the McClure Pass region, but it definitely had a wonderfully wintry feel. Two aspects of spring storms in the west that makes it an exciting time to get out is the wetter snow, it clings to trees better than the dry powdery snow of winter, and the fact that it is warmer so snow will not accumulate on roads as much. The drier Winter snows may be better for skiing, Colorado and Utah are known for this and is what brings millions of skiers and billions of dollars to the states economies, and the spring storms have a tendency of dropping significantly greater amounts of much heavier snow which can still create major travel issues. So it may not be all unicorns and puppies. For this photographer these spring storms are the opportunities to get out to capture some of the missed winter scenes that the slight colder winter temps kept me inside next to a heater.
I ended up with almost 500 photos that day and could have gotten more. Here is a hint, try not to forget where you put your extra memory cards, or better yet, don’t forget about those memory card pouches on the main camera compartment flap on your camera bag. It sure could save you some headaches, especially when those slots are staring right back at you.
Below are a few examples of that day. It’s been a long process of going through these and fine tuning the photos to fit exactly my experiences of the day. Each one of my photos is given it’s own personal touch as each photo was taken with a new and unique experience, even if it is taken from the exact same spot. It’s a long process to go through all 500 photos and with many more to be discovered in addition to the ones posted here, the post processing journey is as exciting as the trip itself.
The above two were taken at a small unnamed lake just west of Marble, it was a constant change of lighting almost the entire day with periods of snow and periods of sunlight with periods of snow with sunlight. A common experience in this dry western climate
A couple of scenes along the Crystal River further down from McClure Pass and much lower in elevation taken during sunrise, the opposite time of day from the above two photos
The dramatic weather and scenery along highway 133 between Carbondale and the town of Marble which is situated at the foot of McClure Pass.
The last two above are the exact same spots of the same mountain peaks. One minute the sun is shining and the next I am getting snowed on. The top photo shows the falling snow
Once again the center of our Milky Way has risen above the horizon for us in the Northern Hemisphere and will remain so until the end of October. At this point it sits low enough in the sky to make some dramatic panoramics.
The above image is a 12 image stitched panoramic from just west of my town in western Colorado. You can see the glow of the lights of the town and the much larger town of Rifle further east in the center of this image. to the far right is the faint edge of Grand Junction’s light pollution and to the far left is Mt. Logan of the Roan Plateau.
At this point I will not be able to photograph this for another couple of weeks, these last few days it has been cloudy and rainy and will be that way for a couple more days, once it clears out I will have to contend with moonlight as we approach the full moon. Once the moon is no longer a factor the Milky Way core should be even higher above the horizon. Perhaps high enough to photograph it in the mountain areas
This current storm system is giving me an opportunity to get out and take some landscape photos of western Colorado desert regions with rare dramatic storm light. Plus some heavy snowfalls in the nearby Elk Mountains including McClure Pass.
Above Photo: Haystack Mountain above a meadow with farming communities not too far outside of town in western Colorado. Most of this region is desert but there are obvious pockets of greener soil
Above is a 3 photo stitched image of Chair Mountain from the Marble Valley, it is at the foot of McClure Pass, the road is visible below Chair Mountain as a dark straight line through the trees. This area has received several inches of fresh snow during this powerful spring storm, a huge opportunity for me tomorrow to head up here for some new photos.
New Canvas Wrap completed
I just got this 48X32 Canvas wrap finished and sent off to it’s new home. I want to see this happen more often.
Many more choices are available from my website. International Shipping is available.
A return to my Autumn arrival in western Colorado
I am experiencing my first spring here in western Colorado, though this winter was apparently much harsher than normal, the winters in this desert region is much shorter than the rest of the state. With seeing the first Robin today and many trees already getting their leaves I decided to revisit my very first evening in this region as my new home.
As a matter of fact it occurred in the beginning of Autumn, right as the Aspens were reaching their peak in some mountain areas, which sadly I ended up missing.
I recently did some exploring in an area not too far from me, some nice camping and hiking areas. I am going to have to spend some time in these areas in the upcoming future so expect some photos to come from there as well
new photos and away
A full week in Vail. Not exactly a vacation, but it will be nice to get away for a full week, which means nothing from me for that period. I do not know how many photos I am going to get as it will be a very busy week for me, but I hope I can get out a couple of times for photos. Until then, I am finishing up on some recent photos and reprocessing some old ones.
Below are some evening and night shots from a favorite night photography location, well north of the tiny town of De Beque.
There will be plenty more when I get back, and don’t forget to browse my website for more photos.
paulscoloradophotography 