Scenic Aperture

On Sunday morning I made my first trip to Squaw Creek NWR since the great flood of 2011. The refuge closed in June when the Missouri river left its banks and submerged portions of the refuge, thousands of acres of farm land, homes, businesses, and several miles of I-29. The waters have mostly receded. The Refuge re-opened on August 26 and I-29 re-opened last week.

Each autumn, Squaw Creek is a major resting and feeding ground for migrating snow geese. It also attracts hundreds of bald eagles each year as they follow the geese south for the winter. It will be interesting to see if the migration will be affected in anyway by the flood. There are still submerged fields visible from the Interstate and I imagine the migrating birds will have feeding and resting locations that did not exist prior to the flood.

Of course the snow geese have yet to arrive this year and the Refuge was pretty quite this morning. Even on quiet days however, Squaw Creek usually has something to offer. This morning the most interesting find was this cattle egret. I know cattle egrets are fairly common in much of the U.S. but this is the first I have seen at Squaw Creek. I shot this guy about 30 minutes after sunrise from my car with a Pentax K-5 and Pentax DA*300 (hand held) 1/3200s at f/4.0 -1.3 EV ISO400.

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Cattle Egret

Three is a magic number. Compositions of three objects usually work better than those of two or four. Not sure why, they just do. There are lots of studies that show there is a psychological advantage to three in marketing, writing, and composition. Apparently, it is easier for the human brain to process groups of three. Somewhere I read that it all comes down to the way we humans process information. We are proficient at pattern recognition and three is the smallest number of elements required to create a pattern. Hence, the power of three.

I feel this photo works on many levels; lighting, color, and composition (get it, three!). The composition includes groups of three; clouds, mountain peaks, and reflections. It would probably also work with four mountains or two clouds, but there seems to be something to the power of three.  What do you think?

Technical – photo taken with Canon 5D Mark II and Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM  at 50mm, 1/8s f/9.0 ISO 100 with CPL and GND.

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Molas Lake, San Juan Mountains

There is something about mountains and horses that are irresistible to me. Horses and mountains go together like peanut butter and jelly. When I’m shooting in the mountains, I am always on the look out for a scene that includes horses. You usually have a compelling composition when you find them together.

This scene presented itself near Ridgway, Colorado a couple of weeks ago. I was admiring the rugged peaks of the Sneffels Range as I rounded a curve in the gravel road. When the  horses became visible, I knew this was one of those places where I could include horses in a classic landscape.

The light was a bit of a challenge but, in the end as usual, makes the shot one of my favorites. The sun was rather high in the sky at 4:00 PM and was positioned in front of me to the upper right of the frame. The distant mountains were covered in haze and providing a contrasting background to the the back lit aspens in their autumn color.

By the way, the original True Grit movie starring John Wayne was filmed in and around Ridgway (maybe that is part of my fascination of mountains and horses). There’s even a restaurant in town called the True Grit Cafe. It is decorated in classic western decor and is a must stop for the first time visitor but, for my money, I prefer the food and service at Thai Paradise just up the street.

Technical stuff: This photo was made with the Canon 5D Mark II and Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II at 155mm 1/40s at f/11.0 ISO 100 with CPL and GND. In the spirit of full disclosure, I must confess that in post I cloned out about 250 lbs of horse shit from the pasture; you never see horse shit in a classic John Wayne movie.

Thanks for looking.

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Near Ridgway, CO

The Sneffels Range

I just wrapped up 10 fantastic days in the San Juan Mountains, the last four leading the 2011 the Scenic Aperture Colorado Fall Color Workshop. The San Juan Mountains are located in Southwest Colorado, basically running north and south between Durango and Telluride. This area contains some of the most spectacular Colorado mountain scenery, especially when the rugged peaks are cloaked with iridescent yellow aspens each autumn.

The first few days were unusually warm which I suppose was at least part of the reason the aspens turned a bit late this year. As the week wore on, the temperatures dropped to the low 30′s at night and the aspens leaves really turned up the wattage. By the end of our time there, the color was a bit past its prime in the Silverton area, but just reaching full stride to the north near Ridgway and the Sneffels Range.

Typically, each day we woke up to crystal clear, cloudless skies but by mid-afternoon clouds moved in with rain showers. This daily routine provided us with great variety and most afternoon shoots were enhanced with dark dramatic skies which contrasted perfectly with the intense color at the base of the mountains.

Crystal Lake

Crystal Lake near Ouray, CO is a popular spot right off Highway 550. We made two stops; once at sunset and once at sunrise. Depending on your point of view, the lake provides a mirror like surface reflecting either the Red Mountains to the south or the nearby aspens to the west. To the right is one of my favorite shots of the week. This was taken at sunset. There was a bit of wind this evening so the surface of the water had some ripples. I used a 8 stop variable neutral density filter and a very slow shutter speed to smooth the reflections of the trees and the rocky lake shore. The Crystal Lake area also provided limitless material for detail shots in the nearby aspen grove. We spent considerable time climbing around in the hills along the lake looking for the perfect composition of white tree trunk, yellow leaves, and dark rocks. There just was not enough time in the day . . .

Another of our favorite spots was overlooking the Double RL Ranch with the Sneffels Range as a backdrop.”RL” stands for Ralph Lauren and yes, this is his ranch. They were cutting hay in the valley (I’m sure it was not Ralph down there) on our first stop. We came back a second time just after a short rain storm to find the valley illuminated in sun with very dramatic clouds at the peaks.

Double RL Ranch

The Sneffels Range of the San Juan mountains has to be one of, if not the most spectacular mountain vistas anywhere in the world. It streaches east and west and receives dramatic cross-light at sunrise and sunset each day. We spent hours scouting out the best points to capture the snow dusted peaks with just the right amount of orange scrub oak and iridescent yellow aspens in to make a great foreground composition. One cannot capture the magnitude of this range in one frame. Panoramas work well here and I made several. The one at the bottom of this post is one of my favorites.

As usual, this workshop was not only fun and exhilarating, it was also exhausting. We got up early and stayed out late. It was hot, it was cold, we got dirty, and we got rained on. We worked hard. For our trouble we were rewarded with innumerable spectacular photo ops. It seemed like the next great shot always presented itself if we just stayed out a bit longer, got up a bit earlier, or drove or walked a bit further. And as a result, I’ve adopted a new slogan; “The harder you work, the luckier you get”. Gary Player, the golf pro, is the originator but it applies just as well to photography as it does to golf.

A Perfect Ending

Our new slogan proved to be true on our last morning shoot. The skies were heavy and dark after overnight rain. We were revisiting the location of our very first shoot hoping for a nice sunrise. It didn’t look good. I was tired and ready to head back early. It was then we noticed a very small opening in the clouds. If we’re lucky, we thought, the sun would peek through that opening and illuminate the mountains for a few moments and we would get one more shot. We decided to wait a few minutes and then it happened. We got lucky! Hence the new slogan. The sun broke through that opening just as it was raining to the west in front of the mountains. At first just one end of a small rainbow was visible. However, as the light intensified, we were rewarded with an incredible full rainbow for our wait. Had I not left the EF16-35mm in the car, I would have the whole thing – but that is a lesson for another day. Regardless, it was a perfect ending to a perfect week in the mountains.

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Sneffels Range - San Juan Mountains

I’ve been notified that my photo of Shiprock has been selected as one of 13 images to be published by the National Park Service  in their National Natural Landmarks 2012 calendar honoring the NNL Program’s 50 years (1962-2012) of supporting the conservation of America’s natural heritage.

According to their web site: “The National Natural Landmarks (NNL) Program recognizes and encourages the conservation of sites that contain outstanding biological and geological resources, regardless of landownership type. It is the only natural areas program of national scope that recognizes the best examples of biological and geological features in both public and private ownership.”

Of course it is always wonderful to have your work recognized by others. It is even better when it supports such a worthy cause. Here’s the shot . . .

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Shiprock National Nature Landmark

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