Tag: Rio Grande

Thirty Mile Campground, Colorado, July 2020

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 @ 12mm
Rio 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.

More later,

Ken

Thirty Mile Campground, Rio Grande National Forest, July 2020

An interim stopover on my journey from Ridgeway, Colorado to the southeastern corner of Colorado in July, 2020 was Thirty Mile Campground.  It is a long, slow drive on rough county/forest service roads to the campground.  This campground has sites that one can reserve and others that are on a first come first serve basis.    There were only a few sites available, when I made my reservations prior to my trip to Colorado.  I wanted to be sure that I had a place to stay at least one night, so reserving a site assured that I would not have to search for a free site in the forest.  I thought I might be able to get one of the free sites, if I decided to stay a second night; but the campsites were all full or reserved on the day that I arrived and there were no reserve sites available for a second night.  I would have to wait until the second day to find any available free sites, if I wanted to stay a second night.

My campsite in Thirty Mile Campground, Colorado, July 2020. iPhone Photograph.

Thirty Mile is a nice campground and my site was just inside the campground along the Rio Grande, where it was pleasant to hear the rushing water in the river.  After checking into my campsite, I took a walk along the river to check out possible locations for photography late in the day and/or early in the morning.

The river is pretty, but there seemed to be limited possibilities for photographic variations along the river.  This is a popular place for anglers and many of the people in the campground were there to fish for trout in the Rio Grande.

I watched a doe grazing on the opposite side of the river, shooting a number of photos and videos with my phone.  The doe did not seem to care that I was watching it.  One of the unedited videos can be seen here.

After my walk along the river, I drove along the road past the campground to check out the scenery along the Rio Grande Reservoir, which is a very long reservoir.  The road beside the reservoir is mostly a narrow one lane road with periodic pullouts, where vehicles can pass each other.  It was a rainy, overcast day, which created some photographic opportunities.

An iPhone shot through windshield on a rainy day along the Rio Grande Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone Photograph.

I drove almost to the very end of the reservoir before turning back.  Near the end, the water shallowed, revealing the trace of the river going into the reservoir.  In the upper end of the reservoir there was colorful vegetation and I got lucky when a break in the clouds allowed sunlight to highlight some of that vegetation.

Near the upper end of the Rio Grande Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone Photograph.

During my drive back towards the campground, I stopped to shoot with my iPhone at a few locations.

Wildflowers and Boulders beneath cloudy sky along the bank of the Rio Grande Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone Photograph.

There were a few scattered wildflowers and large colorful boulders, some covered with lichen, in various shapes between the roadway and the reservoir.

Boulders and a mountainside along side the Rio Grande Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone Photograph,
Sportsmobile framed by boulders with a mountainside in the background, along the Rio Grande Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone Photograph.
Pointy and flat top boulders along the bank of the Rio Grande Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone Photograph.
Wildflowers sheltered against a large boulder along the banks of the Rio Grande Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone Photograph.

The next post will have DSLR photos taken along the river and along the reservoir.

Stay well and safe,

Ken