Wildlife, landscape and weather photography
The setting moon at sunrise. A very pretty scene this past Saturday. As the sun rose in the east and cast its warming rays on the landscape, to the west, everything was aglow and a setting near-full moon dotted those beautiful blue skies. Taken at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.
A crazy cool scene this morning. Blue skies started things off and then this thick fog rolled in limiting visibility to 30 feet at times. It made for some pretty cool scenes to say the least. Here, it is thick enough that the sun looked like a pale circle on the horizon. Taken at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.
For a brief time Sunday morning, the sun made a much desired appearance in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. About an inch of the white stuff had fallen overnight and the cold was keeping visitors away. That was perfectly fine with me as I got to enjoy an amazingly quiet and peaceful morning taking in this scene.
As the sun crested the horizon it illuminated Mount Audubon (right) and the adjacent peaks with its golden light. Low clouds clung to the mountaintops and bits of that gorgeous Colorado blue sky appeared.
I had hoped there would be a very large mammal in those waters when I visited Sprague Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. That was not to be and while the sunrise wasn’t anything particularly extraordinary, it was pretty nonetheless.
Fans of Superman will get the reference there. 😉
As I mentioned yesterday, the last few days have seen our normally clear, blue Colorado skies obscured with smoke from wildfires in Oregon and Montana. Yesterday morning as I arrived at my photo destination right at sunrise, I couldn’t help but take note of the rather odd coloring of the sun.
The smoke gave it distinctive red coloring and the light was so filtered, I was able to shoot directly at it without any sort of filter. There were even a few sunspots easily visible. Kind of cool but also kind of eerie.
A lack of clouds typically doesn’t make for a nice sunrise but (for better and worse) smoke from wildfires in neighboring states helps. Below the 14,000 foot elevation I was at atop Mount Evans, Colorado, the smoke blanketed the landscape giving nice colors to the rising sun.
For these images I experimented with stacking three bracketed images for each one allowing for a wider dynamic range. This is my first attempt at doing this and think they didn’t come out too bad. Taken yesterday morning with my new Canon 6D Mark II.
Well, my photography this weekend didn’t work quite as planned. I had expected to have a healthy dose of moose but as it turns out, they were nowhere to be found. However, I did arrive at my destination yesterday morning in time to catch this glorious beginning to the day.
The colors were awesome, the sun’s crepuscular rays draw attention to the show and the reflection looked quite nice. Now if only there had been a moose walking in that water I would have been much happier with the capture. 😉
Heading into the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park a couple of weeks ago I was forced to make a fast stop as I saw this scene start to unfold. There had been a good bit of rain the previous evening so it was very moist which helped fog and low clouds develop at sunrise. That moisture in the atmosphere helped diffuse the light from the sun as it climbed over the mountains to the east. The golden orb shed its light on the landscape below creating this very beautiful, peaceful scene.
Looking to the east, sunrise this morning really wasn’t anything too extraordinary. Turning around though provided a rather pleasant view as the rising sun lit of the clouds in pastels. Below, the Rocky Mountains and a corn field. Taken in Boulder County.
I was pretty focused (pun intended) on critter photography on the morning this image was taken. However, as I headed toward my target area, the unfolding scene to the east commanded my attention. It was clear it was going to be a typical gorgeous show on the plains of Colorado so I quickly sought out a spot from which to capture it.
This particular location is one of my favorites for sunrises as it gives a nice view to the east plus some interesting objects in the foreground. For this image, I used a wide angle capturing not only the reflection on the water but also the trees to the sides and the grasses below. All of the elements created a nice, natural frame around that colorful view in the distance.
