There were scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon and more storm clouds were approaching well prior to the normal time we would go out for sunset shots, so we decided to go out early and try to get some shots before the storm arrived.
I went down the road to the small field of Columbines we had seen earlier in the day, arriving there shortly before the storm blew in. There had been sunlight, but by the time I arrive at my destination, clouds obscured the sun. I only had time to get a couple of shots before the wind and thunder convinced me that I should hasten back to the campground for cover from the storm.
Storm Clouds over Routt NF, CO Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 15mm, f/11, 1/125s, ISO 640.
Not long after getting back into the vehicle and zipping up the penthouse window covers, it began to rain, followed quickly by pebble size hail. As the rain and hail stopped, a double rainbow appeared to the east of the campground and there was light on the mountainsides to the east and south. It was still far from certain that the storm was completely past, so we hung around the vehicle until we were fairly sure the storm was over before going out again.
My son shot via his drone, launching it from the campground, while I went back to the field of Columbines. There were clouds and good sunset light with a beautiful sky, as there often is just after a storm.
After the Storm, Flattop Mountain, Routt National Forest, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm, f/8, 1/125s, ISO 2500.
It was still windy and I was trying to get the Columbines in the foreground, so I went to high ISO in the dimming light to get a high enough shutter speed to freeze the motion of the flowers. The high ISO shots in the dim light were noisy and I was not able to filter out the noise enough to make most of them presentable.
Flattop Mountains, Columbine Meadow, Routt National Forest, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm, f/10, 1/125s, ISO 320.
I was disappointed with many of my shots, which I think were good compositions, but those with Columbines in the near foreground were mostly too fuzzy due to wind induced motion of the wildflowers or noisy due to high ISO and/or failure to chose a better focus point. On the other hand, focusing on the close up wildflowers would have resulted in fuzzy distant objects. I only have three shots from this shoot that I thought presentable.
A previous post referred to the areas that we scouted during our second day at Cold Springs Campground, looking for potential places for more sunset and sunrise photo shoots. This post will present a few of the iPhone shots taken during that scouting with some comments.
A dead tree near Smith Lake Trail, Routt National Forest, Colorado. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
This striking looking dead tree trunk, spotted along the Smith Lake Trail, looks like a good photographic subject, but it was so tall one would have to have a really wide field of view of shoot upwards from near its base to fully capture it. We never got around to trying to shoot this properly.
A wilderness boundary marker along Smith Lake Trail. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Efex Pro 4.
This boundary marker has nothing to do with photography, I just thought it interesting to see this marker. Someone, wondering around in the forest, not hiking along a trail, would never know when entering or leaving a designated wilderness area.
Smith Lake in the Flat Tops Wilderness, Colorado. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
This view of a mountainside with Smith Lake in the foreground, suggested that early morning light would make this a good place for a sunrise shoot.
Smith Lake Panorama. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
A panoramic view of Smith Lake and the mountain in the background, suggests possible multiple compositional possibilities.
Columbines and fallen tree. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
I found this batch of Columbines down the slope from the roadway south of the campground. (Click on the photo to view on Flickr).
Approaching storm. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Looking up the hillside south of the campground, it was apparent that it was time to return to the camp before getting caught in a storm. However, after getting to the Sportsmobile, I did take a chance and try to shoot at a field of Columbines, but I had to beat a hasty retreat again as the storm came in.
Near the end of the storm. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
As the storm began to subside, a double rainbow appeared to the east of the campsite. The complete semicircle rainbow was visible at one time, but I could not get a shot of it with my iPhone. One can see sunlight from the west striking the mountainside in the lower left, so as long as the storm clouds, which were moving westward, did not obscure the sunset, we would get good after the storm light.
Possible good indication for sunset light after the storm. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
A fuller view of the sun lite mountainside south east of the campsite as the storm passed, gave us some hope of getting sunset light on the mountainside.
A subsequent post will cover the actual sunset shoot after the storm.
In the morning of July 13 we shot sunrise photos just east of the lake at Cold Springs Campground in Routt National Forest. We began shooting from a hillside just east of the lake.
An area adjacent to the Cold Springs Campground in Routt National Forest, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm, f/16, 2s, ISOAn area adjacent to the Cold Springs Campground in Routt National Forest, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm, f/16, 2s, ISO 64.
I thought that the weathered tree stump made an appropriate foreground object here.
The lake made a great mirror, reflecting the clouds in the sky and the trees along the edge of the campground. None of the other campers were up and about yet. We tried to be as quiet as we could so as not to disturb them.
A scene adjacent to the Cold Springs Campground in Routt National Forest, CO. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @24mm, f/16, 1.3s, ISO 64.
I put the weathered stump and a taller stump with slight side lighting at the edge of this photo.
After shooting on the hillside, we moved down into the meadow at the base of the cascade. There were lots of white and blue wildflowers in the meadow, especially around the cascade and stream. The area below the cascade was wet and marshy, which I had not anticipated and I was not wearing my water resistant hiking shoes. My shoes, socks and feet got soaked with cold water.
A mountain stream cascade in the area adjacent to Cold Springs Campground in Routt National Forest, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm, f/16, 1.6s, ISO 64.A mountain stream cascade in the area adjacent to Cold Springs Campground in Routt National Forest, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm, f/16, 0.8s, ISO 64.A mountain stream cascade in the area adjacent to Cold Springs Campground in Routt National Forest, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm, f/16, 0.8s, ISO 64.A mountain stream cascade in the area adjacent to Cold Springs Campground in Routt National Forest, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm, f/16, 0.8s, ISO 64.
As you can see, I got multiple compositions of the cascade with varying amounts of the surroundings. I used slow shutter speeds to get the silky effect of the flowing water. There was not much wind, but there was enough motion in the vegetation to keep from getting really sharp images of the wildflowers. I tried to make the images at times when the wind was most calm in hopes of getting sharper images. This works with only limited success.
After breakfast, I hiked to the marshy area above the cascade, where there were many wildflowers in another meadow around the stream. By the time I got there the clouds were mostly gone, the light harsh, still a little too much wind and many swarming mosquitoes. I tried a few shots anyway, but those were not presentable. Somewhere in there, I apparently lost my Rocket Blower, which I had just put into a pocket for convenience, rather than take it along in my backpack, which I left behind in the vehicle. (For non-photographers, a Rocket Blower is a device for blowing dust off of lenses, filters and camera sensors. This is an essential piece of gear, in my opinion, so I have since acquired another one. For the rest of this trip, I had to borrow my son’s whenever I needed it).
Later in the morning we walked 10 minutes down the road to Smith Lake Trailhead. Smith Lake Trail is only 0.7 miles, steep in a few places, mostly near the start, but mostly an easy trail. We hiked to Smith Lake and decided to return the next morning for sunrise photography.
On the way to Smith Lake Trailhead, we noted a small field of Columbines, which would possibly be good for foreground shots at sunset, assuming the clouds cleared by that time, as it had gotten much cloudier and rained lightly off and on during the day.
We also walked back to the reservoir, hiking a short distance along one of the two trails starting at the reservoir. We turned back as lightning and thunder got closer and more active. It only sprinkled lightly and we took time to explore more in the area south of the roadway, along the stream from the reservoir.
That is it for this post. Stay tuned for the sunset shoot results,
To avoid possible monotonous posts, I’ve decided to mix up things a bit. I still have a week’s worth of photos from a May visit to the northern area of the Bisti Wilderness, but since I’ve had many consecutive posts about Bisti, I will now intersperse posts about other areas with the Bisti posts. This means getting posts out of the heretofore chronological order. I hope this will keep followers from being overly bored and will not result in confusion due to the lack of timeline continuity. This is the first such out of chronological order post.
In July, 2019 I traveled to my oldest son’s place north of Denver, Colorado and we set out the following day for a week of camping and photography in the northwestern portion of the state.
Our first destination was Cold Springs Campground in the Routt National Forest adjacent to the Flat Tops Wilderness, named for the Flat Top Mountains of the Rocky Mountain Range.
When we arrived at the campground, there was only one spot left in the first come, first serve campground. Even though it was not the most sought after camping spot for most, it was actually a good spot for us and the Sportsmobile, since it was fairly level, easy to pull into and out of and had full sun exposure, which was perfect for utilizing the solar panels for maintaining the battery charge. The spot was closest to the roadway, so we got some dust from passing traffic, which tended to travel faster than the speed limit, but the dust was minimal and not a real problem.
The Sportsmobile in Cold Springs Campground July 2019. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Since all other campers or those looking for an empty spot had to pass our location on the way into and out of the campground, we had several people asking about our camping vehicle and taking photos of it. One couple even stopped beside us in their vehicle, as we hiked along the roadway towards the reservoir, after they had seen us around the Sportsmobile. They asked questions about the vehicle and seemed interested in looking into acquiring one, making a note of the Sportsmobile name.
The biggest problems at this campsite at this time of the year were the mosquitoes and other swarming insects, which swarmed us every time we were outside for any length of time. This is typical of forested mountain areas in the summer, especially those near water and there was a small lake adjacent to the campground fed by a mountain stream cascading into it on the north end of the campground. We used lots of insect repellant, still it was difficult to concentrate with so many mosquitos and/or other insects buzzing about. I also had to edit out a number of mosquitos from some images. There might be others hidden in the image details that I did not see, when editing.
There were fairly abundant wildflowers in the area, especially around the wetter areas near the streams.
Mountain Stream and Wildflowers. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 40mm, f/16, 1/15s, ISO 800Mountain Stream and Wildflowers. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 30mm, f/11, 1/15s, ISO 320
I tried to use higher ISO to get faster shutter speeds to freeze the flowers, but with limited success, since I still wanted to have a slow enough shutter speed to get a silky effect on the flowing water.
There is a small reservoir, maybe a half a mile up the road, where the roadway ends. We hiked to the reservoir to check it and the area to the south of the roadway, looking for suitable areas for photographic interest.
We also explored around the small lake adjacent to the campground, determining that we could do sunrise photos on the east side of the lake.
A Gnarly Tree Stump in the forest near Cold Springs Campground, Routt National Forest, Colorado. iPhone photo with edits in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
At sunset, we got good light, after the afternoon clouds opened, shooting south of the roadway.
One of the Flat Top Mountains in the Routt National Forest, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, f/11, 1/20s, ISO 64One of the Flat Top Mountains in the Routt National Forest, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, f/16, 1/50s, ISO 800One of the Flat Top Mountains in the Routt National Forest, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 31mm, f/8, 1/8s, ISO 400Routt NF, CO, Near Coldsprings Campground. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm at 38mm, f/11, 0.8s, ISO 400.
The bands of color in the sky of this photo are in the raw file. I thought this was not normal and would not have included this photo, but my son convinced me that this is not the abnormal banding sometimes seen in digital photos. He thinks there are just layers of clouds that are separating the colors in this manner and I can see some layering in the atmosphere. It just looks so unusual to me, so I am still not fully accepting that this is normal coloration.
Stay tuned for more about our Colorado experience and resulting photographs.
