Top Down

I am back! After taking a break from taking pictures and posting, I am excited to showcase some new ones I recently took during an adventure to Florida. As you may notice, this picture is looking straight down onto a beach. No, I did not take this from the roof of a hotel. Instead, I have added a new weapon to my arsenal, a drone. This is my first series of images with the drone, and I can undoubtedly say that I am very impressed. I ended up purchasing the DJI Mavic Air 2. It was between that and the Mini 2, but I chose the Air 2 for its higher picture quality and better safety features. Whether you care about that or not, it will allow me to (literally) reach new heights, and I have many drone pictures ready to post. 

This first image comes from a beach near Watercolor. I noticed the row of umbrellas and chairs and wanted to capture that line and the lines of the beach in a way not seen by many people. So, I flew the drone up to about 400 feet and snapped the picture. The dark blue umbrellas contrast with the light-colored sand, which contrasts with the teal water, and from this angle, it creates a unique and fascinating image

 Waterwalking

A few days later, I went on a bike ride around town. As I biked around, I came to this lake. A lake we call Teddy Bear Lake because there are three large, marble teddy bears on the opposite side of the lake. But, I did not focus on those bears. Instead, I found this bird walking on the lily pads. When I first arrived, I didn't even notice it, it blended in very well. Then, as it started moving, I saw it. I took a few pictures of it, then continued with my bike ride. 

 

Lightning

After returning from Colorado, I was sitting at my desk, looking out the window, and I saw this storm rolling in. The storm didn't contain much rain, but it did feature a lot of lightning. I was trying to focus on my homework, probably some math, but kept getting distracted by the lightning. I took my camera and set it up on the tripod. I pushed the lens as close to the glass as I could, to try to minimize the glare, and started taking pictures. The last time I tried taking pictures of lightning, I pressed the trigger or shot a video and hoped to capture it. This time was different. I used the long-exposure technique to keep the shutter open for multiple seconds. This would mean that the lightning could strike anytime between those seconds, and I would capture it. After taking a few blank pictures, I finally got what I wanted. A crisp picture of the lightning lighting up the sky, surrounded by clouds and trees. 

 

Into the Mountains

This is the final image of the Colorado series. I saved this picture to be the lost one posted because I think it is my best picture. You have the road leading you to the back of the picture, the car, breaking up the symmetry of the landscape, and Star and Taylor Peaks in the background. I took this picture right before I took the Ashcroft picture. We had passed Ashcroft and were continuing on the road when I turned around and snapped this picture. I didn't really think much of it when I was taking it, but it's those unexpected pictures that are always the best. 

Reflections

I think this is my favorite sunset picture out of all the others. Before the sunset, I had done some searching on Google Maps and found this lake near the place where we were staying. I biked over there and set up my camera. I placed it very low to the water to capture the full reflection of the tree on the lake and took some pictures. Then when editing, I recalled something I had learned in one of my school's photography classes, flipping a picture horizontally and placing the two mirrored pictures next to each other. So, this means that what I saw when taking the picture is only half of what you see now. I mirrored it because I like how it looks paired with the reflection of the lake. You have the reflection of the trees on the lake, and the reflection of the trees on either side of the image. 

 

Rolling Sunset

Next, I wanted to post three of my favorite sunset pictures. This first one comes from the top of Cozy Point Hill. During one evening, I wondered what it would be like if I took pictures of a sunset from the top of the hill. And boy, I was not disappointed. About thirty minutes before the sunset, some rain began to fall from the clouds. This along with the streaks from the sun created a magnificent picture of the mountains. 

 

Maroon Peak

As we start to conclude the Colorado series, I wanted to post some pictures that I wasn't able to edit in time. This first picture is of Maroon Peak. After taking pictures of the sunrise and visiting Crater Lake, I ventured off on the Scenic Trail Loop. I ended up on the other side of Maroon Lake (the west side) and facing Maroon Peak and a stream that flows from it. While I was taking this long-exposure picture, two deer ran in front of me and the camera. Unfortunately, they were too fast to be captured in this picture, but it was an incredible experience to have two deer run right next to you then cross this stream in front of a huge mountain. 

 

Fishing

A few days after hiking up Aspen Mountain, I went biking on the Rio Grande Trail. The Rio Grande Trail is relatively flat (or, flat for Colorado standards) as it traverses next to the Roaring Fork River. As I was biking along the trail, I noticed a man fishing. This was one of the first times that I have taken pictures of someone fishing. I wanted to achieve two things, to capture the line frozen in the air and the movement of the water. While it was hard to edit and combine the two pictures, I think it turned out very good. You can clearly see the line against the dark background of the trees and you can also see the streaks of the foam in the water. 

 

Looking Back

As I began my descent down the mountain, I found these two people looking back at what they had just climbed up. This is one of those pictures where it seems planned and directed, but it's not. I was walking down the mountain and happened to look up at them. They were both looking at the scenery around them, probably to give them the motivation to keep climbing. 

 

Movement

This next picture comes from the main viewing area at the top of Aspen Mountain. I intended to create a timelapse of the action that was occurring. To achieve this, I took multiple long-exposure pictures, then combined them while editing. The focus is on the mountains in the background, which is good because that is the most important object in the frame. Next, you can see the people moving. It's almost as if they are ghosts just floating around. Finally, there are the moving clouds on top. They look long and streaky, almost like cotton candy, except gray. 

Outlook

Once at the top of the mountain, there were some amazing views. The day I hiked there were lots of clouds and even a chance for rain. But, I used these to my advantage as I took some long-exposure pictures of the moving clouds. 

To create this picture, I combined a bunch of long-exposure pictures of the clouds with a regular picture of these two people sitting in the chairs. For each of the long-exposure pictures, I erased the area where the people were sitting, and just kept the clouds. I wanted to keep the focus of the image on the mountains. When I was taking the picture, I thought about where the focus should be and chose the mountains because that is the main idea for the image and what you will look at longer. 

 

Up Above

On the Aspen-Snowmass website, one of the hiking trails they suggest is the Ute Trail. Now, I didn't really realize that when they say the difficulty is hard, they actually mean it is hard. The first mile and a half of the trail was brutal. The trail goes up many switchbacks as it crisscrosses up the mountainside. Luckily, there is a great view of downtown Aspen at the halfway mark, which kept me motivated. 

I took this picture about a quarter mile up the from the rock, as I was looking back on some hikers behind me and Aspen behind them. I like the picture because of the leading lines and colors. There are lines from the trail and trees, both of which point to the mountains behind the hikers. I also like the colors of the landscape. Of course, there are lots of greens from the grass and trees, but there are also some browns, blues, and even a few yellows from the wildflowers. 

 

Slowing Down

This next picture comes from Hunter Creek Trail. The trail itself is relatively easy as it follows Hunter Creek up and into Red Mountain. This spot came after about an hour and a half hike. We were just about to turn around, but I wanted to take a few pictures on a bridge over the river. My dad wandered off to the other side of the bridge to see what was there, which is where I took this picture. So moral of the story, always wander off! 

The other side of the river had a little ghost town with some trails running through it. I saw these people hiking through and wanted to capture the moment. With the ghost house on the right side of the frame, hikers in the middle, and the mountain range and clouds in the background, the picture came together beautifully. 

 

Down the Mountain

After a grueling hour and a half hike, we made it to the top. We were met with familiar views, as this is the same spot where we have skied before. But still, the view was just as incredible as when I saw it the first time. 

We had hiked the trail towards the end of the day (about 5), which meant that the shadows were long and lighting was not as harsh. As we were walking down the service road, just a few hundred feet from the top of the trail, I saw my dad walking in the shadows. I thought it would look interesting if he was walking and the background was the mountain peaks. Luckily, I captured him while he was in the sunlight, which allows him to be seen more easily. And in the background are the chairlifts, clouds, and mountain peaks. The whole picture comes together as the perfect scene from the top of a mountain hike. 

 

Aspens

This next adventure comes from the newly redesigned Vista Trail on Snowmass Mountain. Earlier that day, both my dad and I saw that this trail had been redesigned and was open for the first time that day. We did some research and found it was about 1.9 miles long and had an elevation gain of about 1,300 feet. That ended up being an underestimate, and the trail was actually 2.4 miles long. It doesn't sound like that much, but that extra half mile was brutal. Unlike Ditch Trail or Cozy Point Hill, Vista is a trail mostly surrounded by trees. I wanted to showcase this by waiting for my dad to walk a little ways ahead of me, then taking a picture showing just how tall these trees are. 

 

Into the Mountains

Soon after the trip into the past, I biked up Cozy Point Hill, yet again. From the Snowmass side, once you reach the top, you can either turn around or keep going. This time, I went a bit further than I had during previous rides up the hill. Shortly into this new section of the trail, I found a wide, flat area of land that the trail cut through. I pulled my bike off to the side and waited for someone to bike through. 

The picture that I posted is actually two different pictures that I combined. The first is a long-exposure of the clouds in the sky. If you look at them, they should look less defined, have less structure, and look like they're moving. The second picture is the biker. I froze his motion to give him more structure and to make him look more like a biker and less like a moving blob. But combined, the two parts work very well together and capture my exact idea I had when taking the picture. 

 

Ashcroft

Our next adventure takes us to the Ashcroft ghost town. The town of Ashcroft was originally a silver mining town, but it's population quickly fell when the silver deposits ran dry around the 20th century. What remains are multiple buildings, including saloons, bars, a hotel, and a school. When I was taking pictures of Ashcroft, wanted to capture it in a different way than most people see it. I went off the trail a little and down by the river. There, I was able to capture Ashcroft along with the nature that surrounds it. 

 

Mountain Side

The next hike we went on was the Ditch Trail Hike. It is a relatively easy hike, with very little elevation gain. To get to this bench, it is only about a 15-minute walk. As we were hiking the trail, we started walking behind these two people. They sat down on the bench that is located just off the main trail, so we went up a smaller trail to another bench. Our bench was higher than there's, which created an interesting vantage point. I was able to find an angle to take a picture of them without trees being in the way (for the most part), while also capturing the landscape around them. 

 

Selfie

This next spot was just a short hike up from the last one. The reason why I titled this pictures 'Selfie' is because of the two people taking a selfie. When I was taking the picture, I saw them taking the selfie, but I thought they were out of the frame. It turns out that they were not, but I think that them being in the picture is a good thing. They show just how small humans are compared to everything else around them. 

River Crossing

As we continued around the Grottos, I found a spot on the river that looks directly at a bridge. I knew it would be a fascinating picture if I could capture someone walking across it. After a few minutes, these two people crossed. Unfortunately, I could not edit this because my access to Photoshop was restricted (I am hoping it will be fixed sometime within the coming days), but I figured this would be a good time to explain how I edit. 

I begin editing with a 5 step/star editing process. The first step is checking every picture for proper exposure and focus, the basics. Whether it's 7 pictures or 7,000, I look at every single one. And if it's a picture that is satisfactory, I give it a star. The second step is halving a series within a shoot. A series is a group of pictures of a single object. For instance, every time I took a group of pictures from the same location in the Grottos, that is a series. So, if the series is 10 pictures about these two people walking across this bridge, the 5 best would advance to step 3. Step 3 is like an advanced version of step 2. The difference is that in step 3, you take the best picture of the series. In step 4, I look at the best of the best pictures from the entire photoshoot and narrow them down even further. This is the first step that compares different series with each other and is the final step before I start editing them. Yes, I haven't even edited them yet. After step 4, I edit all the pictures. You never know how a picture is going to look until after you've edited it. Looking at the final, edited versions of the pictures, step 5 chooses the final pictures. 

This 5 step/star process is designed for you to look at all your pictures, evaluate them, then take only the best of the best. It takes a little bit of time and patience, but this process will help you evaluate all your pictures and chose only the absolute best ones. 

Waterfall

The next spot we visited was the Grottos. The Grottos is known for its ice caves, but I like the river that flows through better. The hike in the Grottos is simple. It's flat (relative to a Colorado hike), there is typically a lot of other hikers around, and it's wide open (not dense trees). I took this picture right at the beginning of the hike. I saw the waterfall and people and knew I wanted to capture it. I ended up taking the picture as a long-exposure to draw out the movement of the water. But, before I took the long-exposure pictures, I took a few faster shutter speed pictures to freeze the movement of the people. Then when editing, I combined the two pictures such that the people are sitting still while the water is flowing. I think it turned out really good if I say so myself. 

Top of the World

As I continued my bike on the hill, I found this bench. To access it, you had to bike off the main trail and onto a smaller one. But, the small detour was very much worth it. To the west, you could see Snowmass Village and mountain, and to the east, you could see the entire town of Aspen. This picture is facing west towards Snowmass. The mountain that you see right above the flower is Mt. Daly. It is easy to recognize because of the stripe that goes from the top left to the bottom right of it. 

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.

Observing


As I switched my lenses out and started observing the ducks again, the mother duck kept a constant eye on me. Most likely trying to protect her young, the mother duck stood her ground on this log while her little ducklings ate. I think that this is quite a unique image, not many times do you see a duck, standing on a log.

Little Nature


Next, I found this even smaller lily pad. I believe that the trick to taking pictures of water droplets is to show a perspective that most people don't see. When most people see water on a leaf, they see it from above, since they are likely standing over it. I have taken these types of pictures before, and they are not that interesting. I like to get almost level with the leaf. I want to show the three-dimensional shape of the water and a different perspective of the leaf.

Nature's Droplets

After taking a few pictures of the ducks, I turned my focus to the nature around them. Most of the time, when I take pictures of water droplets, I have flicked water on them. But, because of the rain, these droplets were entirely natural. I'm not sure what it is about water on leaves, but they have always fascinated me. I'm not sure why, but those little, clear droplets are very interesting.

Baby Duck

These pictures were pretty fun to take. The first major hurdle was the moving ducks. The ducks were very scared of me and kept running away whenever I tried to get close to them. To overcome this, I moved slowly and patiently and made sure to keep my distance from the ducks (but I still can take close up pictures with the 300mm zoom on my telephoto lens). Another, more serious, obstacle, was the rain. I went out taking pictures knowing it was going to rain, so I brought my raincoat and a cover for my camera. When I got to the lake, it started pouring. But that only made it more fun!

Sitting Duck


Welcome back to White Rock Lake! I ended up going back to the lake a few weeks later, but of course, it was still raining. When I first arrived at the lake, I drove around for a bit, looking for interesting picture opportunities. I have taken pictures at the lake multiple times, but I haven't taken many pictures of the wildlife around it. For these next 14 pictures, I will mostly focus on a group of ducks and some of the nature that surrounded the ducks.

Mother Duck

Lastly, for this White Rock Lake series, I found this duck family swimming near the banks of the lake, looking for food. I positioned my camera as low to the water as I could and took pictures of them as they swam by. I achieve the focus on the mother duck, I used my wide-angle lens, and it's f2.8 aperture. This made only the mother duck in focus, and the rest of the picture blurry.

Water's Edge

Next, I moved to another part of the lake, where I found this pier jutting out into the lake. The main reason why I took this picture as a long exposure was that birds were flying around, and I wanted to capture their movements. They ended up being too fast to be captured in a long exposure, but the picture still turned out pretty decent.

Fisherman's Walk

I soon found a puddle, but it didn't create any interesting reflections. But, it was on the walking path and could create reflections of those who walked by. I decided to position myself near this puddle with my neutral density filter (the filter that makes the image darker to allow for the shutter to be open longer) and tripod to capture a long-exposure. I waited for some people to walk by, then these two fishermen walked by.