Colorado and Utah Trip - Maroon Bells (Lost of Pics)

jamesl

Howdy All,

I was very blessed two weeks back with my family allowing me to head into the wilderness for a week by myself. I decided to rent a van and drive through Colorado and Utah, ending with me in Arches right around the start of the shootout (I wasn't able to stick around for the shootout unfortunately). I slept in the back of the van most nights, and ate out of the van too. It was an awesome trip, and I was able to see and photograph some amazing country!

I'm still working on my pics, but wanted to share some from my favorite stop of the trip, Maroon Bells National Recreation Area. Once I'm done processing everything, I'll put together a Journey's post detailing my whole trip.

Besides what is below, many more in my gallery at:

http://www.langfordphotography.com/Colorado%20and%20Utah


Canon 30D, Canon 20mm prime lens w/ Polarizer. 6 shot bracketted (-1/0/+1) pano stitched with panorama factory and tone mapped with photomatix. CS3 for final adjustments.


Canon 30D, Canon 20mm prime lens. 6 shot bracketted (-1/0/+1) pano stitched with panorama factory and tone mapped with photomatix. CS3 for final adjustments.


Canon 10D IR Modified camera, Canon 28mm lens with Hoya R72 filter. 6 shot bracketted (-1/0/+1) pano stitched with panorama factory and tone mapped with photomatix. CS3 for final adjustments.


Canon 30D, Canon 20mm prime lens with Polarizer. 6 shot bracketted (-1/0/+1) pano stitched with panorama factory and tone mapped with photomatix. CS3 for final adjustments.



Canon 30D, Canon 28mm prime lens with "hand shade" lens hood ;-). 6 shot bracketted (-1/0/+1) pano stitched with panorama factory and tone mapped with photomatix. CS3 for final adjustments.



Canon 30D, Canon 20mm prime lens w/ Polarizer. 4 shot bracketted (-1/0/+1) pano stitched with panorama factory and tone mapped with photomatix. CS3 for final adjustments.


Canon 30D, Canon 20mm prime lens. 2 1/2 hours of 4 minutes exposures, ISO 400 F2.8. 1 Final exposure F8, 5 minutes, ISO 100. Merged using Photo Stacker. CS3 for final adjustments.


Canon 30D, Canon 28mm prime lens with Polarizer. single shot bracketted (-1/0/+1) tone mapped with photomatix. CS3 for final adjustments.

Cato

Sensory overload!

Such a beautiful, pristine place. Your captures are perfection... bow

cmkultradome

Beautiful!! #1 is my favorite, no I mean #2, no I mean #3, no I mean #4... you get the picture. I couldn't decide. Sounds like a great trip. Looking forward to seeing more and reading about your Journey.

Stephanie

Marc Muench

Looks like you have been busy great use of all the available photo tools

You have a great eye and ability to process what you seethumb

CatOne

Wow. Those are some very, very nice shots. Looks like an awesome trip!

dbd

There is only one constant at the Maroon Bells
Great images!

I travelled through that area in August and saw it without snow or autumn colors. Beautiful in different ways.

There is, however, one thing that seems constant on clear mornings at the Bells:

http://dbdimages.smugmug.com/photos/397975721_uZhYU-X3-1.jpg

Dale B. Dalrymple
http://dbdimages.com

jamesl

Cato wrote:

Sensory overload!

Such a beautiful, pristine place. Your captures are perfection... bow

Thanks Cato! Definately not perfection, but very fun to capture. It was amazing to see how much things changed in that area over just the span of a few days.

Thanks for your comments.

James

jamesl

cmkultradome wrote:

Beautiful!! #1 is my favorite, no I mean #2, no I mean #3, no I mean #4... you get the picture. I couldn't decide. Sounds like a great trip. Looking forward to seeing more and reading about your Journey.

Stephanie

Thanks Stephanie! I'm glad you liked them. I had a hard time choosing myself what was my favorite. he he.

James

JenGrace

These are just gorgeous!

Swartzy

OK....throwing mine away now. Absolutely beautiful!

jamesl

Marc Muench wrote:

Looks like you have been busy

Ha ha. Yeah, pretty busy. Pretty much any free time I've had between getting caught back up at work and spending time with my family has been spent processing.

Thanks for your comments. I did try to really push myself and capture images keeping in mind how I was planning on processing them. I was really wanting to try and emphasize differences in dramtic lighting, and depth. I'm not quite sure I achieved the depth aspect, and it is something I continuously struggle with in "seeing" my images as I prepare to shoot them. I was pretty happy overall with how they came out, though.

Thanks again,

James

jamesl

CatOne wrote:

Wow. Those are some very, very nice shots. Looks like an awesome trip!

Thanks! Everytime I pull up the pics it makes me want to head back that way.

James

jamesl

dbd wrote:

There is, however, one thing that seems constant on clear mornings at the Bells:

Ha ha! Yes, you are right on there. I think there were 30 or so other photographers there on the cloudy sunrise morning. I got there quite early to get setup, so got a pretty good spot. It is nice that the lake is so big, and has many nice places to shoot.

You have some great shots of the Bells in your gallery! I think that would be a beautiful place to visit at any time of the year.

Thanks for your comments,

James

jamesl

JenGrace wrote:

These are just gorgeous!

Thank you Jen! I appreciate it.

jamesl

Swartzy wrote:

OK....throwing mine away now. Absolutely beautiful!

You had better not! Your stuff was just as beautiful. Thanks for the looking.

James

kdog

Insanely gorgeous images.

Cheers,
-joel

schmoo

Hooooooly moly I thought your other thread was good, then I saw these cloud shots!

Absolutely amazing. Please keep going out, traveling, shooting, and sharing with us

jamesl

kdog wrote:

Insanely gorgeous images.

Cheers,
-joel

Thanks again Joel!

James

jamesl

schmoo wrote:

Hooooooly moly I thought your other thread was good, then I saw these cloud shots!

Absolutely amazing. Please keep going out, traveling, shooting, and sharing with us

Hi Schmoo! Thanks. I try to get out as often as possible, as budget and time allows. If you want, I'd be glad to setup a "Get James Out to Shoot" donation fund? I'd appreciate any contributions.

James

black mamba

Hi James,

This is some very, very good work. My compliments to you.

Tom

Awais Yaqub

jamesl

black mamba wrote:

Hi James,

This is some very, very good work. My compliments to you.

Tom

Thanks Tom. Glad you enjoyed checking them out.

James

jamesl

Awais Yaqub wrote:

:ivar



hee hee