Stopping the motion

Waterfalls shot, a wider view than the last one. With the sun behind the trees, and some clouds overhead I couldn't quite stop the motion of the falls, but overall I think this shot turned out well.

Alternative View

I'm running out of things to say about the beauty of Colorado, so I'll let the images speak for themselves.

Wild Wild Life

Lots of wildlife (no, not fratboys) casually sauntering around Colorado, including foxes, rabbits, sheep and deer.

This doe was untroubled by me getting really close, and as such, I got some great shots of her feeding.

Stripes

Not from a park or a monument, just caught driving from one place to another. Once again the colours make the image (plus the lone tree in the upper right)

Lost

This was the last shot I took on a Compact Flash card. I changed cards and continued to shoot in the area (including caputing a heavy oncoming storm) but somehow in the process of transferring the files from CF to DVD, I'd lost that set.

A bummer as I was looking forward to seeing them, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

I think the skull is from a fox, I saw quite a few foxes out that way, but I don't really know.

Not Pointy!

I don't recall where I took this, Colorado National Monument I think, but a nice landscape with great sky ties it together I think.

Pointy!

The sky really makes this image. After a while I'd gotten used to seeing rocks jutting from the landscape everywhere I went and trying to capture them in new or interesting ways was taxing. But when the clouds rolled in suddenly everything came together (cue Beatles music)

Up close and personal

Not taken with a true macro, but rather taken with a 17-35mm lens at the closest focual point. I liked how the background turned out.

Contrasts

What I loved about Colorado was the contrasts in nature, as seen here, massive mountains, miles of flat area, then massive mountains again. Coupled with dramatic skies, and you've got a pretty good picture.

Revisiting

Remember that lone tree thing I was just talking about? Yeah here's another stab at that, from the Colorado National Monument. Although it was freezing up there, the sky was perfect and the Pinon tree (such as this one pictured here) was most co-operative.

Thank you tree.

Underground

Just in time for my trip to Colorado I snagged a flashgun for my D1x. No clue how to properly use it and when I visited some Caverns that allowed the use of flash photography (the ones in my state don't) I thought I'd be all set.

Turns out the flash didn't work well in the caverns, probably (heck, most certainly) user error, so I ended up handholding most of the shots, with predictable results.

But I did manage a few good ones, such as this one here.

Rings

Near the end of my trip I ran across an amphitheatre nestled into a series of red rocks (what else, right?) Middle of the week so nothing was playing, but I thought the contrasts between natual and man-made was interesting enough to photograph

Mixed Media

When I photograph landscapes, I don't like people in the view, and when I shoot people, I try to minimize the landscapes in the background. This area of Garden of the Gods was quite popular and crowded and I was never able to catch it sans humans. So I went with this shot, the stormy sky was great fun to work with, clouds rolling in and scattering every 5 minutes.

Basically my first stop in Colorado and what a place to behold!

End of the line

A sequel of sorts, to Tight Squeeze (posted earlier), this is the end of the line for the crevasses at Colorado National Monument, at least the area I went to. The walls are about 30 feet high, for a sense of perspective.

Here is a better one

Shot in portrait mode, the river serving as a leading line (Oooo, a school photography term!) to the end of the picture. The Black Mesa rocks really stand out here.

Let me know what you think.

Or maybe this one

Here you get a sense of colours, from the foreground red rocks, to the black mesa, fading off to blue from the heat and haze, down to the green vegetation by the river.

Translation Error

There are some vistas in Colorado I had the devil's own time capturing properly, Black Mesa Monument being one of them. Colorado is mostly reads and greens, and then there is this one area full of black, very black, rocks. Volcanic history or something, didn't catch the tour explaining it all.

In any case, the steep dropoffs don't help either, I shot several hundred (and deleted just as quickly) pictures trying to convey the sense of it all.

Maybe this one does.

Strong Impression

Solitary trees, backed by mountains or farmland have always made a stong impression to me. I've tried to capture that here, along with the brilliant red rocks, and stormy sky.

Colorado National Monument area.

I have no idea what this is

Taken in Colorado. It was surrounded by fencing, so I poked my camera through (shhhh! Don't tell anyone) to get a cleaner shot.

I'm guessing an igloo for giant Eskimos.

Another part

Another view of the Casino, a little action with the waterfall in the front.

But what about the Architecture?

What trip of mine would be complete without some architectural pictures? This was the front of a casino (I think) in Niagara Falls, lots of glass and chrome and sculpted waterways.

Oooooooh, pretty!

Great fun (read: A pain in the neck) trying to shoot through hotel glass without getting reflections, dirt, etc in the picture. Now add fireworks (they shot them on weekends over the falls) and water spray and most of the shots didn't turn out.

I have to admit they didn't shoot the fireworks off where I'd expected, so the angle wasn't the greatest, but it still gives the overall idea of what was occuring.

The power of water

Another shot of the east side of the Falls. Taken in a passing boat and from about 200 feet away the sound was all encompassing. Easily goes to show the awesome power of water to shape the world we live on.

Famous Places

This place should need no introduction, but all the same it's Falling Water, the house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Could only photograph from outside and only from certain positions but it still turned out well in my opinion.

Drag Girl

And if the concept of sitting on 500hp superbikes wasn't impressive enough, the riders were all women. I was *very* impressed, as drag racing is only now starting to open up to the fairer sex.

I like this shot for the contrast in motion, the far wheel frozen in time while the near one zips along.

Limitations

The drag race I went to a few weeks back held the promise of getting some great action shots and really pushing the limits of the Nikon D1x (which was designed for action photography)

The trouble was, 'non-pros' weren't allowed anywhere near the action, and there simply were no locations I could get to that were close to what was going on.

Not to sound like I'm whining, but I dd the best I could from where I stood. In any case, a few motionshots from the supercharged, Nitros-injected, superbikes.

This one has some adjustments on it

Specifically, the colour has been knocked out, otherwise it's from the same photoshoot. In deference to those viewers with dial-up connections, I've made the images smaller if you wish to click on them.

Full size (30+ MB) images are still available upon request, but now in addition to this journal being family friendly, it's now dial-up friendly.

No applause, just send money ;-)

Custom tailored

Yup, that's my custom made leather jacket with the Charged! GBH logo on the back. Was made by a friend of mine for a Halloween outfit years back. I still wear it when the weather gets cold, makes for a great conversation piece.

Have gun, will travel

Same effect, same settings, same happy accident. I like how there's just enough glint in her eye to keep her in detail, while the gun (a CZ-52) is the main subject in focus.

And yes, for those curious, that's a real gun and it was empty (checked by me and her) while in use as a prop.

...And now for something completely different!

So I have a set of studio lights I used extensively with my Fuji S2 Pro and I knew all the settings to get proper exposure. But recently I sold my Fuji and hadn't yet worked with the lights on my Nikon D1x.

A friend approachd me and asked if I would take some pictures of his girlfriend for him. So I dug out the lights, set things up as per the Fuji, and started shooting.

However, the results, straight from the camera here, were unexpected. Not sure how I managed such High Key looks, but I like the effect.

Through the looking glass

From the hotel room I was able to get a grand view of the area. Shooting through glass can be tricky, but with the advice of a forum, I was able to minimize the issues.

The Falls are lit up at night by huge and powerful Arc Lights that slowly changed colour.

This is shot with my new Sigma 10-20mm lens at 30 second exposure (on a tripod obviously)

I liked how the colours turned out.

Day Late and a Dollar Short

I am currently four photoshoots behind of publishing pictures, much less sorting and processing. My trip to Colorado, a drag racing event I went to, a model photoshoot and I just returned from Niagara Falls and the surrounding areas.

All in all, about 4,000 images I need to dig through and post the better ones. Lots of work for me!

If you couldn't tell, this picture is from Niagara Falls, taken from a boat tour that gets you soaking wet. Fortunately my Nikon D1x is weather resistant.