I began my late day photography in the Rio Grande National Forest by walking briefly through the forest near my campsite before crossing FSR 380 into the forest on the opposite side of the roadway.
The first image here is a shot down FSR 380, just past my campsite. It is obvious from this image that there are some Aspens in peak fall color, while many others are just beginning to show signs of changing from green to yellow.
Aspens tend to grow straight and tall, self pruning as they gain height, but some grow in strange ways, such as this one on the right side in the image above, with the loop at top, where it turns sideways.
Aspen trunks have always fascinated me. They are usually tall, slender and grayish-white with hints of green and sometimes other colors, with smooth to rough trunks with dark black marks, where limbs have fallen off as the trees matures.
A forest is also a good place to get a starburst effect; but I think the one in the image above is too large and distracting. A smaller aperture would have given a smaller, sharper starburst.
Leaves and Trunks. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/200s, f/11, ISO 400.Signatures. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/100s, f/11, ISO 800.
I do not know what made the curved traces on the two trees in this image, but they are remarkably like data plots that I interpreted as a part of my work before my retirement. I posted this image on LinkedIn, where I knew others would see those traces as I did, and as of this writing it has received 15,275 views, 252 likes and 56 comments.
Under the Canopy. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/100s, f/11, ISO 800.
The small Aspens in full color beneath the much taller ones were eye-catching.
Under and Over. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/160s, f/11, ISO 800.Leaning into Fall. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 60mm, 1/200s, f/11, ISO 800.Aspen Sky. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 50mm, 1/500s, f/11, ISO 400.
A skyward view beneath the tall Aspens can be awesome, especially if the Aspens are in full fall color, with the yellow leaves set against a blue sky. There is a full range of color in the images here, since “peak” color is not yet here.
Even without the peak color, the aspen trunks with green and yellow foliage and scattered evergreens beneath them provide beautiful fall forest scenes.
After the creek and waterfall trek, I drove along FSR 243 towards FSR 380. There are several places that I had noted, via Google Earth, along FSR 243 as places of possible interest and possible campsites. When passing these locations previously, I was not impressed by the view that I had from the roadway. There had always been a number of campers in these areas and I had seen fly fishermen in the creek. As I passed by the primary location of interest today, there were no others anywhere around, so I decided to check it out.
A dirt road departed FSR 243 at a sharp angle and moderately downhill into a broad, open flat area with plenty of space for multiple unrestricted campsites. I drove to the end of the dirt road and got out to have a look around. Walking to the creek, I immediately saw a number of trout in the shallow water. The bank along the creek was mostly steep with loose soil, but I found a place to safely get down to the edge of the creek and then stepped over to the other side at a narrow place in the creek.
I shot a number of iPhone photos and made a couple of videos of the flowing creek.
Treasure Creek. iPhone photograph.
One can see in the photo above that it is getting very cloudy again.
After awkwardly stepping back across the creek and making my way back to my vehicle, I continued on to FSR 380 and headed westerly.
I stopped along FSR 380 at a place that I had previously spotted and near where I had shot another late day image, when returning from Del Norte.
It had sprinkled light rain sporadically and began again as I was shooting here. It was apparent from the heavy clouds that a storm was brewing over the mountains.
I continued along FSR 380 and it began to rain more heavily. The rain soon turned to slushy ice, then to pellet like snow. I was close to several campsites that I had been keeping an eye on. My coveted location had always had a truck camper in it, whenever I had previously passed by. Today I got lucky. The spot I liked was empty. There was an RV trailer nearby in the same camping area in a spot, which had always been available previously, and I had resolved myself to maybe having to use that space, if it was available today and the truck camper was still here.
Snowy Campsite. iPhone photograph.
After parking in the campsite, I got out to take a photo with the snow coming down. I then waited, hoping that the snow would end and I would be able to shoot photos from this location.
The snow continued long enough for the ground to be thinly covered, but it mostly melted away soon after the snow stopped. As sunset time approached, I walked into an open area with a good view of the valley and the mountains to the southwest.
After the Storm. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/25s, f/11, ISO 64.
With the cloud cover, I knew there was little chance of a golden hour sunset today.
The storm clouds made up for the lack of a golden hour sunset.
Mountain Peaks and Meadow. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 26mm, 1/125s, f/16, ISO 640.
When I first saw this location, I thought it would be best for a sunset shoot; but as I looked around today, consulting my photo app on my iPhone, I realized that this location was better for sunrise than sunset.
Mountain Meadow. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/80s, f/16, ISO 800.Late Day Light. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/40s, f/16, ISO 800.
I hung out here shooting until just after sunset.
Cloudy Sky. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 55mm, 0.4s, f/11, ISO 64.Late Day Sky. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 55mm, 0.4s, f/11, ISO 64.
I made a few sunset shots as the late day storm clouds blew past, as I was setting up for night shooting.
Dramatic Sky. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm, f/11, 1/80s, ISO 64, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Color Efex Pro 4.
The clouds in the sky were moving and changing quickly as they blew from northwest to southeast.
English Valley Sunset Sky. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm, f/11, 1/10s, ISO 64, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Color Efex Pro 4.
Just as the sun was setting, the sky to the northwest was clearing rapidly and we hoped that the clouds would clear out completely, as the weather forecast predicted, for our night images.
I used a few of my images to make a very short time-lapse movie, which can be seen here SE Colorado Sunset Sky.
We made final checks of our cameras, remote shutter release programs and put rain covers in place (there was still a slight chance of overnight rain), then hiked back to our vehicles.
Early the next morning we retrieved our cameras, then went to another location for sunrise photographs. Upon returning home, I processed the night images and this is the final product.
Star trails with moonlight landscape. A composite of 45 4 minute night exposures with the foreground illuminated by moonlight. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm, f/5.6, ISO 400. Edited in Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop and DxO Nik modules.
Normally, a dark sky is preferred for star photography, but there was a bright moon this night. Our cameras were programed for 4 minute exposures, during the interval when the landscape would be illuminated by moonlight. The light on the landscape and shadows changed throughout the shooting interval, with some images looking dull and other images looking almost like they were lighted by golden hour sunlight. I chose one of the images with what I considered the most attractive foreground light to make make this final composite of 45 images.
We returned to our vehicles, after our hike up to a saddle in a volcanic dike, to have dinner and prepare for sunset and set up for night photography. The weather was threatening with heavy clouds being blown in by strong winds from the northwest.
Late Day Storm iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
I’ve always liked the way the light changes just before a storm. We were a little concerned about the prospects for sunset and night photography, but the weather report showed decreasing chances of rain as the evening progressed and only a slight chance of overnight rain.
English Valley Campsite iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
The sky was mostly covered with thick clouds in all directions.
English Valley Campsite iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
After a modest dinner, we gathered our gear and hiked up onto the volcanic ridge to the south and picked our spots for sunset and night images. We used applications on our iPhones to determine when the moon would rise and set, so we that we could program our remote shutter releases to shoot in that time interval. We also knew where the moon would be in the sky, so we could decide which direction we wanted to shoot to take best advantage of the moon for lighting the landscape.
Night shooting setup iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
One can see that the cloud cover is still heavy, but it seems to be clearing, with the clouds blowing to the southeast.
Cloudy sky. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
The image above is to the south of my selected location.
Sunset sky view. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
Looking back to the northwest from my position, the clouds are much thinner now. Our vehicles are just visible in the center left of this image.
Anchored leg of tripod for extended night shooting. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
After a few sunset images, I finalized my night composition and made sure the tripod was stable and added a few rocks around one leg for additional security. One can see that the standing room is tight and requires care in moving around here.
That’s all for now. I will have the sunset and night image results in the next post.
After dinner my son and I hiked back up the volcanic ridge to the south of our campsite to set up for night photography.
I picked my view point, looking easterly from the ridge, making a few late day images and picking a final composition for the star photographs.
English Valley Sunset, Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 16mm (before crop), f/11, 1/25s, ISO 64
The moon was up and would not set until sometime after midnight. We did not want the moonlight to interfere with the dark sky photos, so we set our remote timers to begin shooting for sometime after the moonset.
After getting our final compositions, making sure our tripods were stable, securing our focus rings with gaffer tape, programing remotes, installing rain covers (there was a slight possibility of rain), we started the remote timers and retired to our vehicles for the night, returning in the early morning prior to sunrise to retrieve our cameras, hoping we had suitable images for star trails.
Here is my final product from all of this effort:
English Valley Star Trails. A composite of 99 30s exposures plus one late day shot for the foreground.
Much better images can be seen on Flickr by clicking on the images.
From La Garita Arch we drove to an area called “English Valley”. We parked at a turn around at the end of a sometimes barely discernible road at a high area overlooking a valley to the south.
The sun was rapidly sinking in the sky, so we quickly found spots to try to capture the late day sunset sky above the valley.
Sunset Scene, English Valley, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm, f/11, 0.5s, ISO 64.
We were fortunate to have good clouds to the south and we could see a little rain falling in the distance.
As the light changed, I moved to other locations and turned a little more to the east.
Sunset Scene, English Valley, Colorado.Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm (before crop), f/11, 0.5s, ISO 64.
The moon had risen early and became visible as the clouds moved around.
Sunset Scene, English Valley, Colorado. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm (before crop), f/11, 0.5s, ISO 64.
One can see how the light in the clouds migrated as the clouds themselves blew across the scene.
The last image in this post was chosen for Flickr’s Explore page, but I like the first image in this post better, although the light on the valley is better in the last image.
We thought about staying the night at this location, but decided to go to another area, where my son said we would have better chances of good sunrise subjects to shoot.
I returned to Teal Campground after my hike on the Williams Creek Trail and the clouds began to get denser as it got closer to sunset time. It rained heavily for awhile, leaving a temporary puddle of water around the Sportsmobile. I still held out hope that the storm would pass and I would have another spectacular sunset like the one that I missed the prior evening.
It was still heavily overcast and sprinkling lightly when I went out with my camera gear. I set up at one location near the reservoir and selected my first composition. Just as I got ready to take my first test shot, a motor boat loaded with a number of fishermen, returning from the far side of the lake, pulled right into my shot as they headed to the remnants of an old concrete dock. I still made test shots to check my camera settings and composition as I waited for the fishermen to unload their boat and walk past me.
I decided that I did not like that location with the old, unattractive, concrete dock and now part of a boat in the foreground. Since it was still very heavily overcast, I moved to another location, still hoping for thinning in the clouds.
I made a number of exposures at various locations, but most were not appealing .
The clouds did not thin much at all and this is the best image I made:
Sunset Clouds, Williams Creek Reservoir. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 35mm, f/11, 1.3s, ISO 64. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and Dxo modules.
I do not think this is a bad image, it is just not what I was looking forward to. Most of my shots did not even have a hint of light in the clouds. At least this one did.
The clouds were moving fairly quickly past the mountain tops and I made a couple of short time lapse videos, but they are much too short to present. In hindsight I wish I had stood in the cold wind with the sporadic sprinkling of rain drops and made longer time lapse videos, but I was afraid of getting caught in another downpour, gave up and retreated to the shelter of the Sportsmobile.
I will move on somewhere yet to be determined tomorrow.
During my second day at Teal, after reserving my site for another night, I drove further up the road to Cimarrona Campground.
Just past Teal Campground, I stopped to photograph an old ranch building in a valley below the mountain side to the east.
Scene adjacent to Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 1250, 80-400mm @ 80mm. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Modules.
Continuing to Cimarrona, I found this campground is significantly different than Teal. Here there were Aspen trees, rather than Ponderosa Pines, the campsites seemed to be closer together and the campground more confined by the Aspens. There were no good views from this campground, but I expect it would be quite nice in the fall, when the Aspens turn their golden yellow.
I continued on to Palisades (the horse campground) Campground at the end of forest service road 640. There is a parking area in this campground for Williams Creek Trailhead. Williams Creek trail goes far up into the mountains, eventually connecting to the Continental Divide Trail.
During my trip planning, I had noted the possibility of finding waterfalls along Williams Creek, which feeds into the Williams Creek Reservoir. In viewing the trail via Google Earth, I could see that, while I might see falls or cascades from the trail, the view would probably be from so far away, that it would be impossible to get good photos of falls or the creek from the trail. There appeared to be some possibility of walking along the creek for some distance; but eventually it looked impossible or difficult to follow the creek to the possible falls.
I decided to hike up the trail to check it out. I could tell from the map that the trail was fairly steep in some places and I did not want to carry a heavy load, so I did not take my DSLR and heavy camera gear. I did wear my Camelbak with a full water reservoir, a few snacks and items that would be useful in case of inclement weather or an unexpected event.
Gnarly Fallen Tree Trunk. iPhone Photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
This fallen tree trunk was so twisted that I had to take time to photograph it along the way up the trail.
A typical view along Williams Creek Trail. iPhone Photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
This is a typical view of the trail. It was much steeper in some places and flatter or downhill in others; but the trail was mostly uphill. I could hear the creek flowing in the distance much of the time, but not see it very often.
A view from Williams Creek Trail, Palisades Campground, Colorado. iPhone Photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
I finally got to a place where I could see one of the features that I had spotted via Google Earth. I was correct in surmising that the trail was so far above the creek that it would be impossible to get a good photo of the falls or cascades from the trail. In the photo above the little white areas in the lower left are cascades or small falls in the creek.
While at this point another hiker came down the trail and said this was the best view point for this feature. He said there was another view a short distance up the trail, but it was not as good. I hiked up to check out that view and found that he was correct. So I came back here and zoomed in on the creek with my iPhone.
Williams Creek as seen from far above on Williams Creek Trail. iPhone Photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
This is the result and not very satisfying. I cannot even judge the scale of these water features from this distance or this photo. This feature on the creek is not the best one that I spotted on Google Earth, but it was evident that it would not be possible to get to the better possible falls or even get a good view from this trail.
It had been cloudy all the time I was hiking and I could hear thunder far in the distance. The thunder finally got loud enough that I knew it was time to head back down the trail. Since it was mostly downhill on the way back, it took much less time to hike back to the parking lot in Palisades Campground than it did to hike up.
Approaching Storm. iPhone Photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
One can see the heavy clouds of the coming storm in the photo above. I made it back down to my vehicle and back to my campsite just before it began to rain lightly. I’m sure it was raining heavier in the higher elevations.
I’m still hoping to get good sunset light this evening at Teal Campground.
One of the best things about being able to shoot near one’s campsite, is not having to get up really early, since not much time is required to get to a shooting location.
I immediately headed to the area along the rail fence that I had scouted the previous day and I had two or three compositions already in mind.
I set up at my highest rated composition first and began making a few test shots as I waited in anticipation of good sunrise light.
Fence Line, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1s, f/16, ISO 200, 24-70mm at 29mm. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
It was still cloudy with heavy clouds in the east, which limited the early morning light that would already be partially blocked by the mountains to the east.
View the above photo on Flickr by clicking on it, then click on it again on Flickr and a deer can be seen just to the right of the post with the loops of barb wire hanging on it. The deer is warily watching me. Soon after taking this photo, the deer crossed the fence line and began to eye me again from the far right. I made a few photos of it with my iPhone, but those were of poor quality, especially when zoomed in enough to get a good view of the deer.
I made a series of shots at this location as the light slowly changed. The morning light was disappointing and I think would not even have been very good here even without the clouds on the eastern horizon.
Fence Line, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/.5s, f/11, ISO 200, 24-70mm at 29mm. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
The photo above is the best that I got here. There is just a little weak golden hour light on the mountain side in the upper left.
I moved to my secondary composition along the fence line, near that tree in the distance, where the fence line dipped across a low point.
The morning light was essentially totally blocked by clouds now.
As I stood here, I heard something like a thumping on the fence and observed a chipmunk scampering along on the lower rails. I nicknamed this the “Chipmunk Highway”.
Fence Line, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/125s, f/8, ISO 3200, 24-70mm at 29mm. Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
There were many wildflowers in the area just to the east of this fence line, so I decided to go have coffee and breakfast and return with another lens to shoot wildflowers. That will be the subject of the next post.
As sunset time approached during my first day at Teal Campground, I could see no breaks in the clouds in any direction and the clouds to the west were very thick and heavy. Light rain sprinkled intermittently. I decided there was no need to take my DSLR out this evening and to just check out more of the area for possible sunrise compositions.
I walked towards a rail fence line on the western edge of the campground, thinking that area and the mountains to the north and west might get good sunlight the next morning.
As I was taking a few iPhone shots of possible sunrise compositions, I began to notice just a hint of late day light begin to show up on the distant mountainsides, in spite of the 360 degree, very heavy cloud cover.
I thought about hastening back to my vehicle to get my DSLR gear, but I figured that any good light would be so fleeting that it would be gone before I could do so and it would be best to at least get a shot or two with my iPhone, rather than miss the sunset entirely.
So I waited and watched as the sunset light got better and better, moving across the mountainsides in the north and to the east.
Golden Hour in Teal Campground, Colorado. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.
Now it was definitely too late to get out the DSLR, but had I rushed back to my vehicle as soon as I saw the possibility of a golden hour, I would have had time to get a few images with a better camera.
Golden Hour in Teal Campground, Colorado. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.Golden Hour in Teal Campground, Colorado. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.
I know others have had this same experience and I this is not the first time this has happened to me. I always think, “Never again”, but it happens again, anyway.
After the golden hour, the clouds began to glow, too. The iPhone camera is just not good enough to handle the dynamic range of a glowing sky at sunset, but I made a few images and managed to salvage this one:
Sunset at Teal Campground, Colorado. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
Having missed this opportunity to shoot sunset here with my DSLR, I decided that I had to stay over another night and hope to get a good sunset again.
