Plains Of Colorado
NIGHT 1
The snow-capped mountains of Colorado are a typical lure for a landscape photographer. Along with that, the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, the Garden Of The Gods, the Colorado Wildlife, the sunflower fields of DIA, and many other places are often a big target for a landscape photographer. It seems to me, the Plains can often be overlooked as a decent place to go photograph.
Unedited: Colorado Plains
On a recent outing, I had the pleasure of spending an evening with Mike Pach (FB) of 3 Peaks Photography & Design. We spent the evening planning for and anticipating the rise of the Galactic Center of the Milky Way. It did not disappoint!
Pre-Clean-Up: Colorado Plains
Here is the image from above with all of the edits complete minus cleaning up some of, what I consider, distractions.
Below is the final image with all of the edits along with “the distractions” removed.
Final: Colorado Plains
NIGHT 2
Ok. This should be a funny story. Well, it should be fun for everyone but me.
I decided that I was going to photograph a series of images and put them together into a time-lapse of the Milky Way passing overhead. As I was walking back to my vehicle, where I planned to sit out the time-lapse as it recorded, I told myself, “Self, make sure you put a fresh battery in your camera before you do start the time-lapse.” To this, I would have replied, “Got it,” but I don’t talk to myself. Well, ok, I do, but I do not answer myself. :-)
Arriving at my vehicle, I began working with my intervalometer in an effort to program in the timing of the shoot. With the intervalometer dialed in, I turned my attention to getting cozy as I planned on simply letting the camera run for an hour.
I tested the intervalometer, glancing up at the camera every now and then to ensure it was functioning as I intended. Everything looked great! Time to take a nap.
Well, the nap never really happened, but I did get an opportunity to get nice and warm and jam out to a bit of Pink Floyd. There were only about ten minutes left on my shoot. I began to get a bit anxious as I awaited the results from the shoot. Looking over at my intervalometer, I noticed that it seemed to be functioning fine, tho the camera did not seem to be responding in the manner that it had been earlier. Hmmm…
Walking out to my camera, I could see the LED on the remote shutter blinking away as normal. What I did not see was the proper response from the camera. Then, I realized it; I never replaced the camera’s battery! This would be a bad move on even the warmest of nights. Unfortunately, this was March…., in Colorado. It was anything but warm.
I managed to get a few shots in before I cozily drifted along with Pink Floyd as my camera sat here, in the cold and dark night simply chillin’. Literally. It was 21° out. Below is the rough time-lapse I put together with the few images that I managed to get before the camera’s battery died. I didn’t bother spending a lot of time editing. Maybe next time….
Just prior to shooting the failed time-lapse, I shot the Milky Way from the same vantage point. This image has been in my mind for a long time. It was nice to be able to finally take the image from my head and make an actual physical image out of it. Problem is, I can’t think of a name!
Social Distance (Prints Available)
Help me name it in the comments section below. I will send a FREE Limited Edition print to the individual who ends up coming up with the name that I eventually choose.
Thank you!
Night 3
On my third attempt to photograph the Milky Way from the plains of Colorado, I finally got clear skies! Check back for images! I am pretty excited about them and think they will turn out great! More to come….
IMAGES COMING SOON
Night 4
Each trip out to the plains has been so different. On this particular night, I couldn’t seem to get my images in focus at first. As hard as I tried, I simply seemed to be missing focus over and over. I finally decided there was mist in the air. This was something I was thinking when I first arrived on site but didn’t pay it much attention until later I had focusing apparent issues.
The Casual Observer
Eventually, the mist either evaporated or settled as the skies seemed to clear, at least above the horizon. In the above image, it is difficult to tell if there are mist problems as the intentional use of the light pollution makes the mist a moot point. Other images it was much easier to tell and, from what I heard from two other photographers in the area, they too had problems they’ve yet to I.D.
Night 5
This particular night found me back on the plains of Colorado. My goal was to take a few images out at the old homestead and then transition over to the Paint Mines. There was a storm building off to the West that seemed to be moving Northeast. The odds looked slim, but my hopes were high that the storm would pass behind the homestead and within my composition.
PreSunset On The Plains
As is often the case, Mother Nature didn’t really care about my plans. How rude. ;-)
While the clouds were moving quickly, offering a nice feel of time and motion in the images, they were also snuffing out any chances at a nice sunset image.
All Lit Up
To me, it is always fun to photograph an old structure that you know either hasn’t seen electricity in many many years or has never seen electricity. This offers up an opportunity to light up the interior of the structure as if it were still being occupied. Here, in the image above, is a composite image where individual rooms were lit up and offering up a sense of what life might have been like on this old homestead many years ago. Meanwhile, the storm rolls on…
The Storm Rolls Away
The storms, for better or for worse, quietly kept their distance. This was both a blessing and a curse. As a photographer, I’d loved to have caught super intense images of lightning strikes. As a human, often frail to the whims of nature, it was nice to watch the bolts of electricity from a safe distance. As the thundercloud rolled off towards Kansas, it was time to move to the second portion of the evening/morning.
Paint Mines Under The Night’s Sky
The remainder of the early morning found us, with permits in hand, photographing the night’s sky as seen from within the Paint Mines Interpretive Park. The hoodoos provided a nice foreground set in front of what was left of the night’s Milky Way view.
Looking forward to doing it again!
