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