Photographing the moon as it sets at full phase or waning by just a day or two is one of my favorite things. Unless the sky is completely overcast I make several images on such mornings. This time, the moon’s position allowed me to capture its setting along with the many faces I see in the rock.
Wild Irises in South Park meadow with Pikes Peak on distant horizon.
This tall narrow view is a composite of multiple images. I was out making closeups of wildflowers on a stormy day with a macro lens when I found this scene. I made several images to stitch together rather than changing to a wide angle lens.
I like to capture images of Lions Head when the first rays of morning sunlight are striking its top and clouds in the west are lit with early colorful light.
The challenge with this scene is losing the trees in the foreground to deep shadows. The light reaches Lions Head a long time before it illuminates the trees. The range from highlights to shadows make this image a good choice for multiple exposure composites.
The 9,000+ ft. Lions Head is part of the forbidden park, closed to the public while in the planning stages. I wait impatiently for its opening. When that happens I may have to start a blog just for park photos.
The “twins” in bright morning sunlight.
Click on the thumbnail above for my early morning view of Pikes Peak from the Garden of the Gods. I was there at dawn, but the mountian was hidden by clouds. I captured this image as the clouds began to lift after sunrise.
This is my first post on wordpress. I’ve imported all my previous blogger posts and plan to use wordpress for future posts. I like the static pages available on the wordpress blogs and may eventually combine my website and blog. Sorry for the confusion, if any. Please update your links and feeds, but know that this may be a temporary change of address. After I get my hosting issues sorted out, the website and blog should be at one address.
A few days in the Colorado Springs area gave me the opportunity to photograph something different. Garden of the Gods is a free city park uplifted 25 million years ago and eroded to the present beautiful formations. I’d been there before, but never had time to explore all the trails and walkways.
Scouting the park for shooting locations the first day and returning a few times during my short stay enabled me to capture several images. I arrived before dawn to capture an image with Pikes Peak in the background only to find the mountain hidden by clouds until well after sunrise. It’s only a 2 hour drive from home, so I’ll be returning and perhaps get that image I wanted.
This wide angle image was captured in early morning sub-zero weather from just outside our room at the hot springs the last week of December. You see part of Mt. Princeton on the right and Mt. Antero on the far left with the chalk cliffs of Mt. Princeton at the center and the moon above. The moon called to me to come out with the camera and tripod in the wind and cold. Fingers and toes cried for me to go back inside even though I wore boots rated for the temperature and ski gloves while out. You may click the image to see it a bit larger.
In January, I see the sunset over the Kenosha range with the Platte range in front hiding all but the highest Kenosha peaks. Image capture 1/9/08. 1/100 sec, f/8, 22mm, 400 ISO.
