Snowmass Village

The next pictures I want to share with you come from my many adventures biking around Snowmass Village and Aspen. This picture comes from Cozy Point Hill. I'm not entirely sure why they named it this, the hill is definitely not cozy or pointy, but it sure provided some great views. This first view is from the top of the hill (after a 45-minute, brutally hard bike ride) looking at Snowmass Village. I especially like this image because the leading lines lead to the vanishing point. Leading lines are lines that direct your eyes to the back and focus point of the picture. Editing wise, I did very little. I added some contrast and lightened the shadows, but for the most part, the picture you see is exactly what I saw when I took it. 

Into the Unknown

After watching the sunrise for a few hours, I decided to spend the rest of my time wandering through the wilderness. For anyone wanting to complete a solo hike, is thinking about hiking, or just likes to be out of cell coverage, let me give you a few tips. First things first, know where you are going. It seems simple and stupid, but one wrong turn could ruin the whole trip. I knew about Crater Lake and had looked at a satellite image on Google Maps about the route that led to the lake, but I never truly mapped it out. And when I began my hike up, there weren't many signs. At a major intersection, I asked another group of hikers which way to go, they said left. Long story short, the left path ended up leaving my confused, lost, and off the main trail. To avoid potentially becoming lost and ruining your trip, try creating an offline route to follow. I have found the free versions of All Trails, Map My Run, and Gaia GPS (in order from my favorite to least-favorite-but-it's-still-very-good) to be excellent at providing offline directions. Something as simple as knowing your route can save you a lot of trouble if you become lost or confused. Some other tips I would give are, bring extra food and especially water in case you spend more time than you aniticipate, know that 1.5 miles on a trail doesn't mean you're going to beat your fastest 1.5-mile run, and know the animals that are in your area. Taking just a few extra minutes before you leave to scout out your hike could save you a lot of trouble if you run into any. 

Maroon Bells

I wanted to start this series with a sunrise because that's what starts a day. This picture started with a 4:00 am alarm to begin the day. As bad as it sounds, once I left the condo, I quickly realized why this would be the best sunrise I have ever seen. The 45-minute drive into Maroon Bells was filled with bobcats on the roads and stars in the sky. Being from a big city, light pollution makes it incredibly difficult to see stars. As much as I wanted to stop and take a few pictures of the stars, I knew I needed to keep driving to make it by sunrise. When I finally arrived, I was immediately met by Maroon Lake and Maroon Peak, and a strong, cold wind (definitely check the weather before you go and if its 46 and windy, bring a pair of pants and a jacket. I wouldn't know this from experience or anything :). Soon, the sun rose and touched the peaks of the mountains, which is when I took this picture. I chose this picture because of the emphasis it has on Maroon Peak. The mountain is lit up by the bright rays of the sun, while the rest of the landscape has yet to awake.

Nightfall

Welcome to Colorado! Over these past two weeks, I have been shooting and editing these upcoming pictures. I have decided that for here out I am going to only post on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. This will allow me to take and edit higher quality pictures. Quality over quantity.

Anyways, this is a picture I took of Downtown Aspen Colorado soon after the sun had set. I had done some research as to where the best places to take sunset pictures are, and one of the spots was on Red Mountain Road. Well, that was very vague. It said just to drive up and eventually, you will pass through some private property and continue on a dirt road, but keep going. It seemed a little sketchy at first, but this is definitely one of the best places to take sunset pictures near Aspen.

Long Walk


For the final picture in this series, I saw this hydroelectric power plant and retaining wall and wondered how a picture of them would turn out. I positioned myself low to the ground and close to the wall, then waited for someone to walk on the path. I kept the focus crisply on the walker and had the power plant out of focus in the back.

Slow Motion


As I continued my adventure around the lake, I saw the spillway again. This time I was positioned below the spillway and could see the movement of the water. I took out my neutral density filter to allow for the shutter to be open longer and took a long-exposure. Unfortunately, it was a little windy that day, which is why the trees are blurry, but the movement of the water makes up for it.

Dragonfly


Next, I found this dragonfly just resting on the concrete ground. At first, I was weary if I would scare it away, and I kept some distance away from it. I then switched to my macro lens and kept pushing closer. I have tried to take pictures of small bugs and insects, including dragonflies, but they are constantly moving and hard to capture. This dragonfly didn't seem to move at all. Even when I was about a foot away, it didn't move. Eventually, when I got too close, it did, but I believe this is the best insect picture I have taken yet.

Lift Off

When taking pictures of objects that move fast (such as these birds), your shutter speed must be as high as it can be. I normally adjust all of my settings, shutter speed, aperture, and ISO, in unison. But, when taking pictures of fast-moving objects, I prioritize shutter speed over the other two. This will allow me to freeze any movements and capture the image without any blur.

Searching


After the collage, I decided to focus on only one image at a time again. I wanted to highlight the flying bird. To achieve this, I threw the image in black and white to have the white bird be easily seen on the black background. I feel black and white is beneficial to the picture because most people don't see birds in black and white. With photography, I want to show a scene that most people don't/can't see.

Taking Flight


For most of these pictures, I would rapidly take pictures of birds flying around. I didn't think of how they would look or how I should edit them. At my computer looking over all the pictures, I wondered how a collage of pictures would look. This is what I came up with. This is a collage of nine images from the flight of a bird as it flew around White Rock Lake looking for food.

Soaring


After taking the long-exposure, I repositioned myself to face to the south. I had seen some birds flying in the corner of my eye, but I hadn't yet focussed on them. I swapped my wide-angle lens for my telephoto lens and started taking pictures of the birds. From taking pictures of the birds, I learned a valuable lesson, patience. The birds, like many things in life, are uncontrollable. You can't tell a bird where to be and when. As a photographer, you have to be patient, and eventually, the perfect shot will line up. I should remember this for the next time that something doesn't go as I had planned it

Spillway


A few miles later, I came upon this spillway. Once I saw this, I instantly knew I wanted to take a long-exposure picture. When I look back at this picture, the long-exposure makes the water look like icicles. There is no movement in the water (I mean there is, but the picture makes it almost look still), and the colors mimic those in icicles.

Engulfed By Nature


After a blistering hot run around White Rock Lake, I decided to bike around the lake and take a few pictures. Five minutes into my ride, I found this older looking structure that wasn't occupied. And, right next to it was a patch of tall flowers. I positioned myself in the flowers, then took this picture. When editing, I put it in black and white because I wanted to make the picture appear older. Like this was an abanded building that was engulfed by nature.

Hanging


Towards the end of the adventure, the rain subsided, but the clouds remained. I was beginning to walk away, preparing to leave, when I saw these plants dangling over the water. I positioned myself as low to the water as I could and took a few pictures. There was very little color, but I feel the black and white aspect only adds to the picture.

Lily Pad


As the rain continued to fall, more and more leaves were becoming covered in water droplets. What caught my attention to this leaf was the number of droplets on the leaf. I have never seen so many droplets on a single leaf. I positioned myself such that the front of the leaf was facing the camera, and the background was composed of green plants, and I took the picture.

Urban Nature

White Rock Lake, as a public park, probably has some of the most trash out of any park in Dallas. It is hard to walk 50 feet without seeing a piece of plastic or trash. Even in this picture, you can see an aluminum can in the back of the picture, but I have seen pieces of trash ranging from the size of dimes to a shopping cart dumped into the lake. 

Floating


The rain continued to fall as I looked back at the lake. When I finally did look back, I saw this other duck just floating as the family of ducks ate. I am not sure what that other duck was doing. If it was the father, or if it was just protecting, or if it too was hungry. When editing the picture, I added some blue and green tones to it. I added to make it feel as if the water created a blue scene (the water was a very pale and dark blue, almost black) to accompany the rain.

Ducks in a Row


This reminded me of the statue in Boston about the mother duck and her ducklings following behind her. Although the mother duck is not leading her ducklings in a stroll, as she is looking in the wrong direction, I am still reminded of that statue.

Baby Duck


I think this is the best picture of this series. It is close to the subject, the subject is in focus, and the exposure is correct. The background has an interesting circular pattern in it. I believe that it is the leaves, and that's just the shape of the openings, either way, the mosaic of circles affixes to the appearance of the picture.

Food


As I said in yesterday's post, the ducklings ran around searching for food. It was a fun challenge taking pictures of them. Not only did I have to shield my camera from the rain, but I also had to keep an eye on the ducks as they were running all over the place. One second, they were eating in a grassy area, the next, they moved 20 feet away. But, it still was fun to be surrounded by the ducks.