Scene on Site | Take 2

On a recent, whirlwind trip through Telluride, I found a few moments between photographing weddings to capture some moments of the gorgeous autumn up there.  I feel so lucky to have lived in such a spectacular place!

Enjoy!

 

 

Painting with Light

Warning: These photographs aren't for everyone.
But if you're among the curious... I'd like to share!  There's something I find enormously compelling and peaceful about leaving the exposure open just long enough to "paint" the sensor with a swath of light dotted foliage.  Resulting streaks of color appear painterly, but are completely the result of photographic processes.  I'm going to include a few sets here from my favorite experiments with this method.  Enjoy!

Snow Falling on Spring Buds

There's a saying in Colorado, "If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes."

Yesterday I wore flip flops and walked (in short sleeves) to the Denver Botanic Gardens in 80 degrees of warm sunshine... even took off my shoes to enjoy the feel of warm soil between my toes for the first time this season.

Today... I photographed snow from my living room window.

Now, I did LOVE the sunshine and warmth of yesterday, but I'm not going to complain.  The smell of moisture in the air is a treasured gift in the wake of early season forest fires.  And on a more, perhaps, frivolous note, I can't deny loving a whirling snowfall such as this, and the backdrop of spring buds made for some fun, almost painterly compositions.

Celebrating Autumn's End in the Mountains...

Fall in the mountains carries quite a weight for us crazy photo types.   My eyes often suffer an exhaustion of consumption after a gorgeous day of shooting.  I remember some autumns past, when upon the last leaf's falling I would breath a sad but honest sigh of relief... the pressure to capture dramatic light on fleeting color was gone.

This autumn I have been so busy shooting real jobs (for which I am hugely grateful!) that I have not had as much time for fun landscape outings, but I did manage one trip up to the Maroon Bells, and thought I'd share just a few of my favorites.  Hope you are all having a lovely fall '10!

Bokeh Fun

I decided to go freeze my fingers for one more visit to the Denver Botanic Gardens on New Year's Eve. I wandered around shooting lights and people for over an hour, and had just put my camera back in the safety and warmth of the big 'ol bag when one last tightly wrapped tree caught my eye. It is amazing how often I put away the equipment, only to pull it out "one last time" for what ends up being the best shot of the day.

Honestly, when I saw this last tree, my fingers were sufficiently frozen to the point that I could no longer get them to set the tripod back up, so decided to shoot handheld, with my aperture wide open and play with depth of field. Deliberately focusing on different planes of the branches would force others out of focus, and I was immediately having a great time framing and refocusing.

I always enjoy a good "painting with light" shot, too, so some long exposure motion experimentation was in order as well.

Enjoy!

Just for Fun: Different kind of Light + Color

Gotta love Denver... We received 18+ inches of snow in 2 days, and a few days later we are soaking up sunshine and 60 degrees!  Amazingly, we STILL have leaves on the trees, post blizzard event!

This was the landscape just a few days ago...