April, 2010

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29
Apr 10

Springtime in the Rockies

Spring time brings idyllic visions of verdant meadows redolent with wildflowers and butterflies skipping along warm breezes while flutes and harps play in the background. It’s a nice image, but it isn’t springtime in the Rockies. In the high country spring resembles a battlefield between summer and winter with the pounding canon crescendo of the 1812 Overture hammering in the background.

Summer strikes a blow with a sunny 70 degree day. Winter retaliates during the night, sending temperatures plummeting to 20 degrees followed by 6 inches of snow that literally drop kicks summer into next week. That’s what happened last week while I was shooting the pasque flowers. Winter struck back with 8 inches of heavy, wet snow that sat on the flowers like concrete. The early bloomers were mashed flat. The few that found shelter under trees found themselves to be the only available browse for hungry deer.

The beginning of a 70 degree day in the foothills.

It's a good day to be a pasque flower.

Fear not, summer will strike back with its own blast of sunny warmth. Winter is doomed to lose this battle. And the pasque flowers, they’ll also be back. The early bloomers are lost, but those that sprout later will benefit from the moisture provided by the snow that crushed their over-anxious brethren.

This was the next day.

Winter is making another attempt to hold off summer a little longer today. But it is a much weaker effort—only a light dusting of snow that the sun quickly melted during a brief appearance before the clouds closed in again.

The high country is, by its very nature, dramatic. And the changing seasons match the landscape with their own drama. Whether you’re a photographer, artists, poet or just a nature lover, this is a glorious time to be in the high country.

Enjoy

Frank

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22
Apr 10

Happy Almost-Belated Earth Day

I have to hang my head in shame. The day is almost over and I had totally forgotten that it is Earth Day. A friend sent me an email gently reminding me of my oversight. (Thanks, Terri). Here is the best excuse I could come up with for my shamefully poor memory.

I was ‘celebrating’ Earth Day because I was too busy actually communing with the earth. I was rolling around on the newly rain-washed earth photographing the earth’s new crop of pasque flowers, not only in spite of, but because of the rain.  I wound up with some nice shots of water drops on pasque flowers. Between my excitement over the images I’d created and trying to dry out, I completely forgot it was Earth Day.

My deepest apologies to all of you and especially to Mother Earth. So here is my belated Earth Day to all of you from someone who was really getting down to earth.

Rain-jeweled pasque flower

 

Enjoy.

Frank

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21
Apr 10

Pasque Flowers on Mt. Falcon

Spring is slowly creeping into the high country. The snow is mostly melted and one of spring’s harbingers has made its appearance in the foothills west of Denver. The Pasque Flowers are beginning to bloom at Mt. Falcon Park. There are a lot of buds showing above the damp ground, but only a few are opening up, so far. As you can see in these shots that I took this morning, the blossoms aren’t fully opened, yet.

Pasque Flower and pine cone

The Pasque Flowers at Mt. Falcon don’t usually get as tall as some at lower elevations, so photographing them takes a little extra effort. I like to get very low, meaning that I was lying on my belly in the pine needles and mud to get down to their level. That makes it easier to throw the background out of focus.

I also like to use extension tubes to allow me to get in really close to the blossoms. Whatever lens you use, you will most likely want to get in as close as you can since these flowers are not very big.

Pasque Flower blossoms just starting to open

With the unsettled weather that we’re having this week, this is an excellent time to photograph wildflowers. The clouds and hazy light provide a nice, soft illumination that really brings out the subtle color variations in flower petals. If we’re lucky, we might even get some morning dew or a few raindrops to add a bit of sparkle to the flowers.

Enjoy.

Frank

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18
Apr 10

Casting a Long Shadow

The blue shadow of Mt. Evans is projected into the sky by the rising sun.

When conditions are just right, you can see more than just fuzzy pink to blue-gray line demarcating the earth’s shadow (see How Big Can A Shadow Be?, April 13, 2010). You need dry, clear air, a tall mountain peak with a lower elevation, clear horizon. This combination of conditions does exist in many places. One of the best places is along Colorado’s Front Range. In this particular photo just west of Denver, the mountain peak is 14,264-ft high Mt. Evans.  Twenty five crow-flying-miles directly to the east, the Great Plains wash up against the base of the Front Range at an elevation of less than 6,000 feet.

When the rising sun breaks the much lower eastern horizon, the curvature of the earth actually allows the sun to hit the peak before it hits the lower elevations to the east. The result is that the shadow of Mt. Evans is projected in to the western sky, while Denver, 25 miles to the east on the low-lying plains is still in darkness.

And if you look really, really close, and squint your eyes just right, you might even see my shadow on top Mt. Evans’ shadow way out there in the western sky.

Enjoy

Frank

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13
Apr 10

How big can a shadow be?

This is one of my favorite examples of the earth's shadow taken at a very dramatic location, Grand Teton National Park.

There’s an interesting phenomenon that most of us have seen, but probably didn’t realize what we were looking at. It happens right before sunrise (for the early birds) and right after sunset (for normal people). A band of pink, transitioning quickly into blue, appears above the opposite horizon. It can be very intense, but usually is fairly subtle. This transition from pink to blue is actually the edge of the earth’s shadow be projected through the atmosphere. The blue is in shadow while the pink is in sunlight.

The earth’s shadow is best seen when the skies are clear. Typically, photographers find clear sky sunrises and sunsets to be rather dull. Clouds make the sky much more interesting. In the arid west, clear skies are more the norm than the exception. So this earth’s shadow is one way to add a little drama to an otherwise uninspiring clear-sky sunrise/set.

Keep an eye out for the earth’s shadow the next time you watch a sunset—and impress your friends with a little natural trivia.

Next time I’ll show you an smaller, albeit unusual, shadow of the earth.

Enjoy

Frank

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5
Apr 10

Shooting into the Wind

If you haven’t noticed the 30-40 mph winds we’ve been having through much of Colorado, especially the Front Range, the past week or so, you really have been working too hard. As a nature photographer, I tend to dislike the wind. Everything is bouncing around, even your camera (beware your tripod doesn’t blow over). I like my trees, flowers and grasses to be still and sharp. But there’s another approach to photographing in the wind. Use the wind motion to create abstract images. Tim Fitzharris discusses this briefly in the April issue of Popular Photography magazine. It’s worth reading along with other points on making spectacular wildflower images.

American White Pelican

I’ve found another way to use the wind to my advantage—birds. They are heavily influenced by the wind, particularly the large soaring birds, like hawks, herons, pelicans, ravens, to name a few. I wouldn’t try it with small songbirds, but it can help with swallows flying at warp speed. I’ve found the marina at Cherry Creek State Park is good place to capture soaring birds. What wind does for you, is slow them down, provided that they’re flying into the wind. At times it can even hold them nearly motionless in the air. It gives you a little more time to compose and shoot some great shots. On the other hand, if they’re flying with the wind, they’re bullets.

Experiment a little and try shooting into the wind. You might be surprised at the results.

Enjoy,

Frank