Some turns in the Castle; Alta, Utah
Devil's Castle is a mountain side in the Alta area in Utah. There is no lift that gets you there and it's very large, so it's often a good place to look for powder.
It usually takes the ski patrol a day or so after a big storm to shoot avalanches in the Castle and get it open. When they do open it, a lot of people queue up to climb in.
Even so, there is lots of powder for all, even after a day or so:
My son and I climbed to the summit of East Castle one day last week. Just as we got there, the weather closed in.
The next day, we climbed into the steepest part of the Castle:
Not much distance but steep and a slog in the heavy snow. Took me about 20 minutes. Worth it, though:
Great virgin powder:
It usually takes the ski patrol a day or so after a big storm to shoot avalanches in the Castle and get it open. When they do open it, a lot of people queue up to climb in.
Even so, there is lots of powder for all, even after a day or so:
My son and I climbed to the summit of East Castle one day last week. Just as we got there, the weather closed in.
The next day, we climbed into the steepest part of the Castle:
Not much distance but steep and a slog in the heavy snow. Took me about 20 minutes. Worth it, though:
Great virgin powder:
If not now, when?
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WOW!!
I agree with Sid. Not only are these really nice shots, it looks like you've got the snow shooting gig down pat.
Loved the first shot, and the second shot and the third shot and the fifth shot.......
So did you and your boy do any skiing or did you risk a major coronary just to shoot some pitchas?......
Very, very nice,
Steve
Couple of PS questions:
Is that first shot a little flat?
Have you played with reducing the blue cast in the shadows? Not really eliminating it, just cutting back on it...
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Thanks guys.
David, let's see. I guess that first shot IS sort of flat. But not as flat as it started out:
The last of the storm was just lifting as I shot. I wanted a shot to show the whole place, but this was the best I had.
As to the blue shadows on the snow. This year it's how I like it. I spent a lot of time looking at that snow trying to figure out what color I really thought it was. Maybe I've spent too much time looking at recent commercial photography as well. Blue snow shadows are very in this year. What I do is balance on the snow in the sun in ACR. That makes the shadows blue. To push the shadows toward neutral would either require flattening the B curve or letting the snow in the sun get a little yellow. I've been known to do that, but this year, it's blue snow shadows. Even if you don't do LAB, it would be the same choice, just not achieved the same way.