Tag: Teal Campground

Williams Creek Reservoir, Colorado, Sunset Day 2, July 2020

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.

Thanks for following,

Ken

Canadian Geese, Williams Creek Reservoir, July 2020

After shooting wildflowers in the meadow adjacent to Teal Campground and Williams Creek Reservoir, I decided to try getting images of the Canadian Geese that were usually feeding and swimming around near the reservoir shoreline.

I do not often try to photograph wildlife, since I’m usually not prepared for that type photography, and when I see wildlife unexpectedly, I am usually too slow to respond.  The wild animals have scampered away and the birds fly or swim away before I can get a photo.

However, today I had my big lens (80-400mm) mounted already, so I was at least partly prepared.  Even though, I still could not get close enough with the big lens without frightening away the geese, I could at least crop the D850 images and still get a reasonably good image.

Goose, Williams Creek Reservoir, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/1250s, f/11, ISO 1250, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
Goose, Williams Creek Reservoir, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/1250s, f/11, ISO 1250, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
Goose, Teal Campground. Nikon D850, 1/640s, f/11, ISO 1250, 80-400mm @ 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Modules.

As I attempted to get closer, the geese did as they usually do and took to the water.

Geese in Williams Creek Reservoir. Nikon D850, 1/1600s, f/11, ISO 1250, 80-400mm @ 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Modules.

Please do not fly away, stay tuned for more at Teal Campground and Williams Creek Reservoir,

Ken

Teal Campground Wildflowers, July 2020

After my sunrise shoot and breakfast, I went back out with my 80-400mm lens mounted on my D850 to shoot wildflowers.  I shot handheld, so I used a fast shutter speed and continuous (burst) mode in an effort to get shots with the best focus, as the flowers moved in the breeze and my unsteady hands added to the movement.

Wildflower with Ant. Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/640s, f/5.6, ISO 640, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.

One of the interesting things about shooting this way, is that one never knows exactly what one will get as a result.  Later when reviewing and editing the photos one might discover some small details that were not obvious, when shooting from a distance with a big, non-macro, lens.  Wildflowers almost always have numerous insect in or on them.

I discovered a translucent spider in one of my shots, but it was not good enough to present.  Big disappointment, that spider looked really cool.

Fairy Trumpet Wildflower, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 400, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.

These red trumpet like flowers come out of a bud that is a contrasting purple with a deeper purple at its base.

Wildflower, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/640s, f/5.6, ISO 500, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
Wildflower, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 400, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.

There was a heavy dew this morning, but I found capturing the sunlight sparkling in the dew drops was quite difficult with my big lens.  But the flower above with the dew drops looks a bit like some creature with one drop looking like an eye.

Wildflower, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/250s, f/5.6, ISO 200, 80-400mm at 300mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.

Some flowers were obviously past their prime.

Leaves, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 800, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.

These curly, fuzzy, reddish leaves were on low growing plants and difficult to get a good close up of.  I had to crop in very closely to get this image.

Wildflower, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/6400s, f/5.6, ISO 640, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
Fairy Trumpet Wildflowers, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/640s, f/5.6, ISO 500, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
Wildflower, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/800s, f/6.3, ISO 1000, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.

I shot many images of the plant above, initially of those just coming out of the ground without the cone flower pod at the top of an eventually tall plant.  The leaves of these are very fuzzy, and with the many early morning dew drops, all of the images look out of focus; although, I’m sure not all of them could have been out of focus.  Nonetheless, I am refraining from posting most of those fuzzy looking images.  Those yellow bulb like features eventually develop into yellow flowers, but I did not get good images of those.

Wildflowers, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/500s, f/6.3, ISO 1000, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.

I really like these tall stalks with the many blue to purple flowers with the green to red stems.  It appears that ants like these, too.

Wildflowers, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/640s, f/6.3, ISO 1000, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
Spent Wildflower Trio, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/400s, f/5.6, ISO 400, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
Wildflowers, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 640, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
Thistle, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/800s, f/6.3, ISO 1250, 80-400mm at 400mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.

Thistles always make good subjects for wildflower photos with their long stems and variations in physical features as they develop beautiful purple flowers then fade away.

Thistles, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 1000, 80-400mm at 80mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
Thistle Progression, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/320s, f/5.6, ISO 400, 80-400mm at 220mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
Thistle Flower, Teal Campground, Colorado. Nikon D850, 1/320s, f/5.6, ISO 400, 80-400mm at 220mm (before crop). Edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.

The upside and downside to photographing wildflowers is that there are infinitely many ways to capture them and maybe posts on such subjects get a bit long and monotonous.

Note that I have not identified most of these flowers.  Not that I did not try for awhile.  It is just too frustrating to do so.  I’ve yet to find a good online wildflower reference that is easy to use.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy the images and you can ignore my blathering about them.

Ken

 

Teal Campground, Day 2, Sunrise

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.

Take care,

Ken

 

Teal Campground July 2020, Sunset Day 1

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.

Take care and stay safe,

Ken

 

 

Teal Campground, Colorado, July, 2020

Teal Campground, north of Pagosa Springs, Colorado is nestled among tall ponderosa pines on the west side of Williams Creek Reservoir.  The drive into the campground is long and, after the pavement ends, is on forest service roads, the conditions of which are highly variable.  During my visit, some sections were relatively good, while most sections were rocky, bouncy, pot holed and washboarded.

The setting for the campground is attractive with good views of mountains across the reservoir and in other directions.  The campsites are available on first come basis and a fee is required.  With my National Parks Senior Pass, I only paid $11/night.  A number of campers were already there, but I was fortunate to find a perfect site for my Sportsmobile.

Teal Campground Campsite. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.

There are a couple of other campsites just up the road and I was uncertain about whether I wanted to stay here or in one of the other two campgrounds.  Before I paid for my site, I walked around and found the camp host in his pickup truck talking to other campers.  He was very adamant that no smoking was allowed in any outdoors area nor in his “very clean” restrooms.  Fortunately, I am not a smoker and I did not want to use the restrooms during the pandemic anyway.  The host told me that the other campsites usually had vacancies, unless Teal was full, but one site, Palisades, at the end of the road, was only for those with horses.

I decided to stay at Teal for at least one night and check out the other sites and Williams Creek hiking trail from Palisades the next day.

After lunch, I set out to check out the area for possible photo locations, testing compositions with my iPhone.

Contours. Teal Campground, Colorado. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.

Some of the big pines had interesting features, but the one above is my favorite.

The Fallen. Teal Campground Colorado. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.

The ground under the pines was covered with fallen needles and pine cones.  I thought the stray section of old rusty barb wire among these made for an interesting photo.

Scouting Photograph, Williams Creek Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.

I found a number of boulders scattered around in the grassy area near the reservoir that might make good foreground objects at sunset.

Scouting Photograph, Williams Creek Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.

It was an increasingly cloudy afternoon and I began to think that there would be no golden hour at sunset today.

Scouting Photograph, Williams Creek Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.
Scouting Photograph, Williams Creek Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.
Scouting Photograph, Williams Creek Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.

I think I found some good possible compositions and the clouds will be great to have.  Now I just need to have golden hour light to make these better.

Scouting Photograph, Williams Creek Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.
Scouting Photograph, Williams Creek Reservoir, Colorado. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.

Aren’t those clouds magnificent?

Wildflowers in Teal Campground, Colorado. iPhone photograph, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Nik Modules.

There were numerous varieties of wildflowers around the open grassy area surrounding the campground, too.

Now I just need to have an early dinner, prepare my DSLR gear and wait for sunset.

Until then,

Ken