Bald Mountain

As we continue to plow through the series (day 20 of 45), I was reminded of a recent picture. The sky above Bald Mountain reminds me of the sky above Seaside from the Florida series. The baby blues, greens, and oranges all forming this gradual transition from color to color. Then you look down at the mountain and notice the ski runs twisting and turning all over the mountain. And to top everything off, there is the hint of orange on a singular western-facing slope. I don't think I have seen a better image of Bald Mountain. 

 

Shadows

This next picture is a simple camera rotation from yesterday's one. There was something about these mountains that was calling me to post them. Maybe it was the orange sun that hit only the western-facing slopes or the completely untouched snow and exposed rocks, but whatever it is, it is magnificent. Also, at the bottom of the picture is Mill Creek Road. This is just one of many hiking and offroading trails that are around Telluride. Right now, they are just lines in the mountain, but once summer hits, they are frequently visited and is definitely something I want to do in the future.

 

Mountain Top Sunset

After picking up some food from Telluride, I noticed the sky turning into some wonderful colors. Out of all of my skiing trips, this is the very first one where I was able to capture a colorful sunrise or sunset. For some reason, the sun has never cooperated while I have been in Colorado in the winter. But for this night, it did. The lower sky turned a bright orange, the upper sky a dark blue, and the clouds a vibrant yellow. I am not sure what more I could have asked for. 

Telluride

As I began the long flight to the parking lot, I stopped for a second to appreciate the view looking west. The tiny town of Telluride is situated in the valley of multiple 14,000-foot behemoths. Luckily, it had just snowed, and these mountains were a wonderful shade of white. For some reason, there was a slight issue with the white balance of the camera, as all the pictures (especially this one) turned out slightly blue. I am not sure whether that is just a side effect of shooting a white object or if it happens to all drones, but some minor corrections in Photoshop fixed most of the mistakes. 

Bridal Veil Falls

This is Bridal Veil Falls, if the title didn't give it away. It is a 365-foot tall waterfall accompanied by the Bridal Veil Falls hydroelectric powerplant at the top of it. The distance to the falls was much further than I originally planned. I simply put in a fresh battery (thankfully) and started flying towards the falls. And 5,460 feet later, I reached this point. I was a little nervous sending it all this way but was very satisfied with the performance; a perfect 5/5 signal from a mile away, very long battery life (30+ minutes), and zero close calls. I'd call it a successful day!

 

San Juan Mountains

Next on the adventure was a trip to Pandora, Colorado. You may recall my description of Pandora from an earlier explanation, but I have since learned that it was an abandoned mining town. On its east side is Trico Peak, the peak in the middle of this picture. The parking lot for this view is a decent way back from the actual mountain and falls, far enough to get a view of the whole scene but too far to see any details. But that sounds like the perfect job for the drone! This first picture comes from very far away, but tomorrow I venture closer to the falls.

 

Home

The next day the clouds broke and left behind snow-covered everything. This meant drone flying weather! While looking around from about 400 feet, I noticed this house. It was further down the road from some other ones, making it the perfect subject for this picture. I positioned myself so that the house would be centered and that you can see just enough of the road to get the essence that it was there without it being too intrusive. When editing, a simple contrast increase and a hint of saturation were all that was needed to create this masterpiece. 

 

Hanging On

As I kept walking around, I found this icicle hanging onto a pine tree. It is nothing special, but I thought it looked interesting, so I took a picture of it. More specifically, I took many pictures of it. I was trying to capture the snow falling around it. I was able to catch a few snowflakes, but nothing like what I was imagining. But the sharp focus and bright colors make up for the loss of snowflakes, so it turned out to be a pretty good picture. 

 

The Lift

As I mentioned a few posts ago, Wednesday brought snow clouds. Snow clouds mean no droning (a new verb I created for myself!). Instead, I walked around with my camera, the old-fashioned way. What interested me about this lift was its straightness. The further you look back, the more faded the picture becomes. It almost disappears, leaving me to wonder what's back there, but it's just more snow and the lift. 

 

Black Bear Pass

We have moved! Continuing our adventure, we traveled through the town of Telluride and into the town of Pandora. I'm not sure if it is entirely a town or if it's just a location on Google Maps, but I'll call it a town. Either way, in Pandora, on the east side of Telluride, there is a pass, Black Bear Pass. It connects the towns of Ouray and Telluride. It's a little hard to see from this image, but the cut bits on the mountainside are the lower parts of the pass. It cuts the mileage from 49.5 miles and an hour to 8.5 miles and about four hours. It requires a high clearance four-wheel-drive vehicle and is only one way and a car length wide in some parts, but with the right driver, it is passable and very, very beautiful. 

 

Sunkist

The sun was very much not cooperating with me. Not at all. Granted, I should have probably expected this to happen. Shooting towards the west while the sun is setting is not the best idea, but come on, if those clouds could have shifted up just a little. Maybe next time. I ended up embracing the challenge by taking many different images with varying exposures trying to find the perfect one. I chose the one that made the sun not too overexposed and the mountainside darker but not too dark so that it wasn't uneditable. And with the magic of editing, it all comes together like this. 

 

Divided

The way these trees look from a bird's eye view is magical. They aren't perfectly straight like I imagined. They look slanted and diagonal from up above, which is because they aren't in the exact center of the picture. With the road, it was hard to find a completely straight portion of it. It kept winding left and right, and around and over the mountains. I decided that the road didn't have to slice the image perfectly. If anything, that would make it look less interesting. So, I centered the road as best I could, then took the picture. 

 

Open

At the same scenic overlook, I flew over about 1,200 feet to the north. I was met with this hill that blocked the view of the town. At first, I was upset. I wanted to capture the town and all its city life from a faraway distance. But then I realized that having only nature in the image also works. Besides the highway, much of the land is entirely untouched. It's nice to see this land left to survive how it was meant to be. 

 

Freedom

After changing the camera angle, I found this view looking directly down. Throughout this series, there will be many of these 90-degree camera angles (looking straight down). But, each one appears a little different and tells a different story. This story is one of a hidden view that many don't notice. A lot of the time on the road, especially when we need to get to a destination fast, we don't stop at all the scenic overlooks. We just focus on the road ahead. For this picture, I wanted to capture the overlook and all the excellence that is around it. Maybe we should pay more attention to those signs like we do speed limit signs, or should I say, some of us pay attention to speed limit signs. 

 

Backcountry Road

One day I decided to go on an adventure. Where? I'm not sure. We went down to Highway 145 and took a left. I think that's south? Or maybe west? Either way, we took the highway for a few miles and found this scenic overlook. And scenic it was. Deep into no-service country, I did my new favorite action and sent the drone up. This picture came from directly above me, about 1000 feet up. High enough that it captures the movement of the road, with the beauty of the mountains all around it. 

 

Mountains

After flying around for a little while, I was fascinated by the surrounding mountains. Luckily, the early morning clouds were replaced with lighter, more sporadic ones. Each day the clouds had something different to offer. Sunday was snow clouds, Monday was broken ones, Wednesday was more snow, and Thursday and Friday, well you'll see those later. But, they were similar to these, just more wispy and silky (very technical terms), and a whole lot more appealing. 

 

Resort Town

After snowboarding for the first half of the day, the snow clouds were replaced by the sun and clear skies. So, I sent the drone up yet again. Different cities have varying laws about where you can and cannot fly drones. In Dallas, the only rule is to stay out of airport airspace and stay below 394 feet. In Telluride, you cannot fly above private property (which is hard to determine when 400 feet in the air), and some private properties have very restrictive drone policies. But, staying above public property and out of the resort's boundaries (yes, I checked the flight path afterward), I was able to capture this picture of the lift lines on Chair 4 and the surrounding buildings. 

 

Pine Forest

After waiting as long as I could, I sent up the drone. The temperature was around 15F, but I wasn't too concerned about the battery or the drone's performance since it was warmed before take-off. While in the air, I looked around, then looked down, and saw these snow-covered pine trees. I wanted to position the drone such that the entire frame was full of trees, which wasn't very hard to do. Then, when editing, I debated putting the picture into black and white. I eventually settled with color because I like the hints of brown and blue that add another layer to the image. 

 

Snow Flakes

As the snow continued to fall, I knew that I couldn't fly the drone, but trust me some incredible drone shots are coming soon. On the ground, I took out my camera and found the closest pine tree. My goal was to capture the snow falling onto the already accumulated snow. To do this, I needed to have a high shutter speed so that the snowflakes would be frozen in the air. This was the best of many pictures, but I like the way it turned out. 

Also, if it is even possible, I have taken too many good pictures. 45, to be exact. And if I continued with my recent three pictures per week strategy, that would take fifteen weeks. Lucky you, I will be trying to post for forty-five consecutive days. So, sit back while this remarkable Colorado series floats on by. 

 

Blurred

After waking up a little too early the next day, I decided to take a stroll in the shin-deep powder. Even after sixteen inches fell, it was still snowing. After walking for a little while, I found this lamppost and street sign. I set up my camera and tripod and took a long-exposure picture of the snow falling. Even in the short two-ish minutes that it took to take this picture, I still managed to accumulate a large amount of snow on the lens. You can see this with the circles of light and fuzziness of the lights. But I think it adds to the picture. Nothing says snowstorm more than not being able to see fully.