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.