We left Hotchkiss headed towards home, driving CO92 to US 50 on the first leg of this journey.
Don’t Fence Me In
This is a scenic drive following a creek and its canyon that feeds into the Gunnison River, then tracks near the Gunnison River as it flow towards the Blue Mesa Reservoir.
Canyon and SkyCanyon and WildflowersIndian Paint BrushWildflowers
At one of the large pull outs along this route, a group of motorcyclist pulled in. One of them asked me to take a group photo on one of their phones. Afterwards, I asked permission to get a group photo for my blog. I was assured that none of them were in a witness protection program or had ex-spouses searching for them.
Riders of the Western Range
It turned out that most of this group are from DFW, Texas and the young couple on the right are from Tupelo, Mississippi, with the female an alumni of my college (Ole Miss).
Their handles, from left to right, are: Jax, Bab, Blackout, Wheezy, Bronco, Sparky, Tinkle, Demon Dawg, and Helkat.
Thank you all for allowing me to include your group photo in my blog,
Dinner plans were complicated by a number of our choice restaurants being closed for various reasons, requiring some driving about looking for alternatives. As we drove between two local towns, I made mental notes of possible locations for sunset photography. After dinner in Hotchkiss, I returned to one of those location for sunset photography.
Mountains and CloudsClouds, Mountains and ValleyMountain Peaks at SunsetThe CloudColorado Sunset Clouds
As I returned to Hotchkiss, I noted an almost full, silvery moon rising above the clouds. The moonrise was hidden by the clouds, when I was shooting. It was too late to find a good vantage point from which to include the moon in my late day images. That was disappointing. If I had hung out at my sunset shooting location a few more minutes, maybe I would have had an opportunity to get the moon in my images. Never the less, I thought I had a good sunset photo session.
We spent a portion of our second day in the Ridgway area driving over Owl Creek Pass, making a loop over the pass from Ridgway, down to US 50, through Montrose and back to Ridgway for dinner.
I planned better today, going for an earlier dinner to allow time afterwards to drive along CO62 prior to sunset to shoot mountain scenes at sunset.
Serene EveningGolden MountainsDallas Divide Sunset Peaks
Back on Colorado 149, after departing Thirty Mile Campground, I stopped for a snack and to stretch my legs at a pull out along the Rio Grande. I remember this spot from other visits. I think I probably stopped here many years ago on my first drive along this route.
Rio Grand River, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, f/11, 1/250s, ISO 200, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.
There is a good view of a bend in the river and the cliffs along the river banks at this large pull out.
CO 149 intersects US 160 at South Fork. I headed west on US 160 towards Pagosa Springs. Along the way, I noted a viewpoint sign for Treasure Falls. There is a large parking lot for this attraction and there were many vehicles in the parking lot. It was a weekend day and maybe the crowd would be much smaller on a weekday. I actually drove a little past the official parking lot, pulling out at a wide pull out a little further down the highway. I walked back to the parking area to check out the area, taking a mask and just my camera with the 24-70mm lens.
There was no view of the falls from the parking area. There were information signs for the falls and two trails to the falls, the typical tourist type trail, which most of the folks were taking, and a primitive trail. Wanting to maintain a social distance from all those here, and because I wanted something more natural, I chose to take the primitive trail. I do not suggest this trail for anyone not in fairly good physical shape. It was, indeed primitive, steep with slippery muddy slopes, logs and rocks to scramble over; but there was not a crowd of people on it. However, I was behind a family that had to stop frequently to catch their breath (giving me a good excuse to stop for the same), so I waited at a distance for them to proceed. The primitive trail took longer than I had anticipated to get to the falls.
An information sign at the Treasure Falls parking lot.
Arriving at the falls, it took more effort to keep a distance from others and I made sure to wear my mask all the time in that area. There was a small viewing platform at the falls, which I avoided, electing to keep to the downstream area away from as many people as possible.
Since I did not bring a tripod on this hike, I hand held my camera, so I could not get a long exposure shot of the falls. I also did not have filters and the sky was bright and over exposed.
Treasure Falls, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm (before crop), f/8, 1/25s, ISO 200, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.
It was possible to hike to the base of the falls, but I decided not to try that on this visit.
Treasure Falls, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm (before crop), f/8, 1/60s, ISO 200, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.
I took the easy trail back to the parking lot. That trail was quite busy with folks coming up the trail, so I wore my mask and stepped away from those approaching. The trip on this trail back to the parking area only took a few minutes.
I went out just before sunrise to photograph along the Rio Grande in Thirty Mile Campground, getting wet by the early morning dew covered vegetation that I had to walk through to get to the river’s edge. It was a cool, but not really cold morning and it warmed up quickly, after the sun came up.
The Rio Grande in Thirty Mile Campground, Colorado. Nikon D90, 0.8s, f/11, ISO 200, Nikon 12-24mm @ 18mm.
I found a spot with boulders along the river bank that looked favorable, so I began shooting prior to sunrise, making a few tentative exposures with longish shutter speeds in the still dim light.
Wanting an even longer exposure, I added a darker neutral density filter to my setup, getting a 30 second shutter speed to smooth the river current. The neutral density filter also increases the color saturation. I probably had a circular polarizer mounted, too; but I really do not recall for sure, since it has been a couple of months since I made these images.
The Rio Grande in Thirty Mile Campground, Colorado. Nikon D90, 30s, f/11, ISO 200, Nikon 12-24mm @ 18mm.
Since I was in a valley, there was no golden hour light, as the sun had been up for a while before direct sun rays impinged upon the scene.
The Rio Grande in Thirty Mile Campground, Colorado. Nikon D90, 0.6s, f/11, ISO 200, Nikon 12-24mm @ 12mmRio Grande in Thirty Mile Campground. Nikon D90, 0.5s, f/11, ISO 200, Nikon 12-24mm @ 12mm.
I think the image below may be the best one that I got during this morning’s shoot; although, I do like the earlier 30s shot, which has a more serene appearance, as compared to the more dynamic later photographs.
The Rio Grande in Thirty Mile Campground, Colorado. Nikon D90, 1/10s, f/22, ISO100, Nikon 12-24mm at 12mm.
I favor the composition above, because it has more colorful vegetation, with wildflowers, along the river banks, prominent boulders, dynamic flow in the river current and those wonderful, early morning clouds in the sky and the river cutting diagonally across the image leading to the cloudy sky.
Having decided that there was not much variety to shoot at this location, I decided to move on to my next destination today, rather than trying to stay over another night here.
On my drive out of this area, I stopped along the river to shoot a few scenes, even though it was getting well into the morning with harsher light to deal with.
Adult and baby ducks swimming in the Rio Grand Reservoir, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm (before crop), f/8, 1/100s, ISO 200, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.
There were many ducks, adult and young ones, in the river. So I had to try to capture a few of those. Maybe I should have put on my 80-400mm lens to shoot the ducks, but I like to travel with the 24-70mm mounted on my camera, since it gives me more flexibility for wide to medium telephoto range landscape images.
Reflections in the Rio Grand Reservoir, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 29mm, f/11, 1/250s, ISO 200, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.
My destination today is Teal Campground north of Pagosa Springs, Colorado.
One of my regrets, during my travels, is not taking enough time to stop and photograph interesting things along my route from point A to point B. My reasons for this neglect are primarily related to a time schedule and that the light conditions are usually not optimal for landscape photography. This no doubt results in passing up opportunities that I may never get again to photograph some scenes.
Yet sometimes I do force myself to stop and try to get photographs of scenes that catch my eye in passing, in spite of conditions being poor for getting really impactful photographs. This post is dedicated to such images.
I traveled along US 50 between Montrose and Gunnison, Colorado on my way to Thirty Mile Campground in the Rio Grande National Forest in July, 2020. It was a mostly overcast morning and the clouds and ground fog were compelling enough for me to stop to try to get a few images along this route. Most of the resulting photographs were not what I strove to get, but a few I liked. Making one panoramic image with my iPhone, I noted an interesting effect. Fast moving vehicles, combined with my panning of the camera, resulted in a compression of the vehicles. Looking closely at the photo below, one will note that the lead vehicle’s front end and back end are the only portions in the image, with the center completely missing.
An iPhone pano of fast moving vehicles along US 50 in Colorado.
I have driven past the Blue Mesa Reservoir and Curecanti National Recreation Area numerous times and I have never before taken time to get even one photograph in this area. On this trip, I almost passed by again without stopping. The photo below makes me glad that I took time to stop.
Blue Mesa Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone Photograph.
From US 50 I headed south along CO 149, which is a scenic drive along the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River between Gunnison and Lake City. There were a number of convenient pull outs just a little north of Lake City with scenic views of the river. I initially passed each one, looking for an ideal spot to stop, finally turning around to stop at several of those pull outs. Unfortunately, it was difficult to get clear shots of the river without much clutter in the shots at most of the stops and the light conditions were harsh; but knowing I might never pass here when the light was optimum, I made a few iPhone images, anyway.
A view along the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River, Colorado. iPhone Photograph.
At one pull out there was a really large tree root running across the ground. I photographed that root from a number of view points, but none worked out well. However, I did find one feature on the root that made a nice close up image.
A large eye like feature on a large exposed tree root. iPhone Photograph.
At another stop there was a good view of the river framed by weathered and lichen covered rocks along the river bank. This location might be a good place for a sunset shot, if I ever have an opportunity to be here as such a time.
A portion of the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River. iPhone Photograph.
The last full day of our stay at Ridgway State Park, the weather report predicted a high chance of rain, so we decided it best to avoid the dirt 4WD roads and stick mostly to paved and/or well maintained gravel roads.
So from the city of Ridgeway, Colorado, we traveled CO 62 to CO 145 to CO 141, making a big loop back to US 50 near Delta, CO and back to US 550 at Montrose.
This route took us through some beautiful canyons along the San Miguel and Dolores Rivers.
We stopped for a picnic lunch at a newly made overlook of the Dolores River.
A lunch break overlooking the Dolores River, Colorado. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.A dizzying view down onto the Dolores River. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.An overlook view of the Dolores River along CO 141. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, f/11, 1/400s, ISO 200, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.An overlook along the Delores River, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, f/11, 1/500s, ISO 200, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.Colorado Wildlife. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm (before crop), f/11, 1/250s, ISO 200, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.
I spotted a number of small lizards scampering around the rocks along the overlook. One even got aggressive with my son, charging at him as he briefly looked away. I guess that lizard thought his personal space was being violated.
A small Colorado inhabitant. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm (before crop), f/11, 1/320s, ISO 200, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.A piece of weathered wood in a rock niche. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.
I’m always drawn to the twisted, weathered evergreen type trees that grow in these arid environments.
A weathered and twisted evergreen tree along CO 141. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, f/11, 1/250s, ISO 200, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.
A close up of the lower trunk details of the tree above:
A weathered and twisted evergreen tree along CO 141. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, f/11, 1/160s, ISO 200, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.
Below our lunch site we could see a marker type sign beside the dirt road on the opposite side of the river. After lunch, we decided to backtrack to find that dirt road and check it out.
During our July, 2020 stay in Ridgway State Park, Colorado, after our early morning photo shoots, my son drove us around the area, exploring 4WD roads and other Colorado State and County Roads.
I captured some of the local scenery with either my DSLR or my mobile phone camera. I will share a few of these photographs in several blog posts.
There are numerous 4WD roads and county roads that can be accessed from US 550, aka The Million Dollar Highway, which is a treat in itself to drive.
An abandoned mine site near Silverton, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, f/11, 1/320s, ISO 200, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.An abandoned mine site near Silverton, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 26mm, f/11, 1/320s, ISO 200, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.
This area is rich in minerals with many old, abandoned mine sites, as well as modern mining operations.
An old mine site near Silverton, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, f/11, 1/200s, ISO 200, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.
My son posed an interesting question while walking around the mine site shown in the images above, “Did the miners who worked here enjoy the beauty of this setting or were their lives so hard that they did not appreciate this scenery”?
I think some, at least, would have admired the local beauty, while maybe others just wanted to be drinking in a saloon and enjoying other delights of a more populous area.
Remnants of an old wheel at an abandoned mine site near Silverton, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 50mm, f/11, 1/80s, ISO 200, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.Abandoned mine site near Silverton, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 62mm, f/16, 1/250s, ISO 200, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.
We stopped to enjoy our picnic style lunch at the site of these last two images.
A lone tree on mine tailings near Silverton, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 45mm, f/16, 1/320s, ISO 200, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.
We were all immediately drawn to the lone evergreen tree standing near the top of a large mound of mine tailing. This image, was selected for Flickr’s Explore page, the day it was posted, much to my surprise, as I was not too keen on this photograph, waffling about whether to crop it more severely to remove some of the bottom, making the tree more prominent. After lunch, I even tried shooting this again with my phone camera, as I kept thinking none of my photographs were capturing this well and the story told by my photograph would not be clear.
On the mountainside across the road from our lunch site was a beautiful, long waterfall. We were too far away to get a photograph of that fall. Even my 400mm lens, if I had had it with me, would not have been sufficient to get a suitable close up shot of that waterfall and one might have to cross private property to approach that mountainside. I will try to remember that waterfall and maybe try to get nearer to it on a subsequent visit.
I did not plan to have a part 4 in this series of posts on photography in Yankee Boy Basin. However, one of my photos that I posted to Flickr was selected for Flickr’s Explore page. Consequently, that photo got lots of attention with over 4600 views and 160+ favorites within a very short time interval.
Screen shot of my Flickr image that was selected for Flickr’s Explore Page, showing stats as of Aug. 23, 2020.
I do not pretend to know how Flickr chooses photos for its Explore page. I know many of the photos on the Explore pages are very good photos, while many others that I see there have little interest for me; but I suppose that is just a matter of individual preference and one’s most preferred photographic genre. In my case, I prefer landscape photography, while others may prefer people, animals, insects, macro, etc.
I do not think that this image is the best one that I made in Yankee Boy Basin, during this visit. As I pointed out in an earlier post, I think this image is the best of all the photographs that I made here in July, 2020:
Sunset light in Yankee Boy Basin, July 2020. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm, f/11, 1/3s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 2.
Yet, this image has received much less attention than the one chosen for the Explore Page. This is understandable. While it is good to get the attention that a photo selected for Explore gets, I am concerned that there are so many other better photos that get less attention and that Flickr’s Explore photos might bias viewers opinion of such photos and the artistry of the photographers whose photos are selected. I also know that it is not possible for Flickr to add all of the great photos on Flickr to its Explore page nor it is it possible for a viewer to look through all of the photos posted to Flickr and select favorites from all of those. In the end, I hope that the photos chosen for the Explore page result in viewers deciding for themselves how well they like such images and whether the photographer is one that one wishes to follow and learn from.
Seeking more professional input on the image that I like best, I submitted it to a well known professional photographer, based in the northeast USA, who was offering a webinar for the purpose of suggesting compositional and editing advise on selected photos. He selected my photo along with a few others to critique. I had already recognized one of the items that he suggested, but for different reasons. He cropped the right hand side just to get the waterfall closer to the edge and remove some of the unnecessary portions of the image. I was concerned about the two little tree stumps on each side of the image, especially the one that protrudes from the lower right edge.
Additional editing notes.
I’ve cropped the re-edited image as shown by the outer blue rectangle. Initially, the critiquing photographer cropped the left edge similar to mine, but then restored that edge to its original, probably to keep more of the highlighted peaks and clouds on the left side.
The sky and the mountain peaks are the important items in this image. The professional photographer commented that the waterfall could not be seen completely. Unfortunately, there was no place that I could stand to get a full view of the waterfall without cutting out a significant portion of the stream, which is a critical leading line feature in my composition. The stream almost disappears between the bushes on the lower left and those on the opposite bank of the stream as it is. Tilting the camera down more would show more of the stream, where it runs off of the bottom edge, but would eliminate some of the sky, which I definitely wanted in the image. I was already at 14mm on my 14-24mm lens, so I had no more zoom out range to get a wider view.
He also lightened the stream and darkened the rocks and foliage along each side to make the stream more visible as a leading line. Additionally, he darkened the front most mountain side to emphasize the brightness of the upper part of the image. Then he reduced the temperature to cool the sky a little.
I’ve applied similar edits in my re-edited version, but I have been more conservative with my edits. So those edits may be so subtle as not to be readily noticeable, when comparing the two versions. In the end, I’m not sure that I see a significant difference, other than the cropping, between my initial edit and the re-edited image. I also tend to like warmer images over cooler images. Much in the editing of an image is based upon one’s preferences. I certainly see his point of bringing out the stream more. I have used that technique in edits to other images from this area, but maybe not to the extent that he might do.
Additionally, the professional photographer commented that making a grand scenic image presents problems of scale, which makes it difficult to simplify the image. He spent much less time critiquing my image and applying edits than he did for other images, which I take as an indication that my composition and initial editing was not too bad : >).
Here is my re-edited image:
I’ve cropped the original image and applied a few other subtle edits to this image.
Feedback from readers is always appreciated.
Best Wishes, Stay Well and Safe and Thanks for following,
I hope these post on photography in Yankee Boy Basin are not getting boring. Initially, I had only planned for two posts, but those got longer than I expected. This will be a short post with only a couple of photos to review.
These two images are from our last evening to shoot here. The weather report indicated a smallish chance for rain, so we thought we would get lucky and have a tremendously beautiful sky at sunset. It did not turn out that way. The sky was heavily overcast all around and it began to rain shortly after we got into position to shoot, so we cut our outing short.
An overcast evening in Yankee Boy Basin, Colorado.
The composition above, I thought at the time, was just a desperate attempt to get something, as it began to sprinkle, before we had to retreat. I had reservations about even spending time editing this image or showing it to anyone. After letting this one sit for awhile before editing it, I remembered why I made this image.
The tops of the yellowish-green vegetation, running diagonally from the bottom left corner, leads the eye to the dead, leaning tree trunk, which in turn points to the overcast, threatening sky, as if to say, “you better hurry and shoot now”. So, I think, this composition worked better than I expected, when I was hastily making this image.
Wildflowers, Mountains and Sky in an overcast evening in Yankee Boy Basin, Colorado.
This final image is again one that I still have reservations about. I’m trying to show the drama in the sky and soften it with the wildflowers in the foreground set below the rugged mountain peaks. The softness of the wildflowers is enhanced by motion, created by the wind and a slow shutter speed. This is usually not the kind of image I prefer. Often I would increase the ISO under these conditions to get a fast shutter speed to freeze the motion in the vegetation and in the clouds. If there had been some side lighting on the wildflowers this would have been a much more impactful image.
Please feel free to critique my images. Your feedback is always welcome.
