Colorado Captures

A Harris Hawk scouts for prey during a HawkQuest members only field event.

This event featured volunteers carrying 6 Harris Hawks through the brush of Bear Creek Lake Park looking for prey.  When we located one, the hawks would then pursue the prey as a team.  It was an awesome event that we were lucky to be able to see.  These images were taken in Bear Creek Lake Park in Lakewood, Colorado.

A high mountain hairpin turn makes for a neat setting to shoot the starry night sky in winter.  Glow from Denver’s lights appears on the left (from 50 some miles away!) while the darker sky on the right reveals the Milky Way (woohoo!).  This long exposure image (102 seconds) was taken near the top of Berthoud Pass in Colorado.

Visible constellations include Orion “The Hunter”, Canis Major “Orion’s Big Dog“, Canis Minor, and Gemini and the star Sirus.   The mountain Colorado Mines Peak is visible on the bottom left.

Glowing Garden of the Gods provides a great foreground in this shot of Pikes Peak (14,110 feet).  Two of the park’s most prominent rock structures, North and South Gateway Rocks (and Pikes Peak) are shown here basking in the early morning alpenglow.  This image was taken after a short early morning hike in Garden of the Gods Park near Colorado Springs, Colorado.

North Clear Creek Falls normally carries lots of water over the edge, but stops moving in the cold winters of the Rocky Mountains. Actually, the water was still running slowly under the ice – although it’s not visible in this capture. This image was taken in the the late afternoon sun in the San Juan National Forest near Creede, Colorado.

Another one of the locations I scouted earlier this year was Balanced Rock at Garden Of The Gods near Colorado Springs, Colorado.  This morning sunrise gave me some bright colors to show behind the big rock – which worked out pretty well.  As it turned out, this cold morning gave me a pretty good test as well.  I’ve been shooting pictures in the dark and cold for a little while now, but changing batteries with numb fingers gave me some whole new challenges.  Fortunately, I didn’t lose the cool background lighting in the process.

Now that I’ve been able to scout a few locations at the Garden Of The Gods, I just have to be patient for the right lighting. This morning, I had planned on clearer skies and a hike, but the bright sunrise colors demanded a change in plan. This easy stop by the road gave a fantastic view of Cathedral Rock, Pulpit Rock, Cathedral Spires, Three Graces, Sleeping Giant, and Cheyene Mountain.  I really liked how the warm orange highlights that dominate the clouds at the top contrast with the cool blue shadows at the bottom.

I still think it’s amazing that I’ve lived in Colorado for 25 years and had never explored Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs. So with some friends having reminded me how pretty it can be, I decided it was time to start scouting for locations. So my first visit was met with a wonderful sunrise as shown in this capture of some of the park’s more prominent rocks.

I went up into the hills really early in the morning to see the Leonid Meteor Shower. I figured high up in the Rocky Mountains on Loveland Pass would be a good spot to get away from the lights of Denver and to see lots of sky. Unfortunately, the meteor show was pretty light. I saw a few, but didn’t capture any. So instead, I just went for a few night shots I had in mind.

I’ve always liked the starry night skies over snow covered peaks and this moonless night was spectacular. I wasn’t surprised at all to see several other nuts at the top watching the skies with me. Pretty crazy – considering it was winter, it was cold, and it was 4 am. Even with the challenges though, I was able to capture this long exposure shot (5 minutes) with a truck going over the top of the pass that really lit things up!

Ok, so it’s not really locked, but I’ve uploaded the best Colorado Captures to the photo gallery page at http://www.coloradocaptures.com/gallery. This flash-based slideshow is full-screen capable and shows off images in the categories including: Light, Landscapes, Wildlife, and Flowers. I hope you enjoy the show.

For a good sunrise shot at Dream Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, a lot of things have to go right.  Calm winds and clear skies are just a couple of keys…  On this morning, the winds were howling, but that didn’t matter because when I got to the lake before sunrise, I could see it had just frozen over.  Hmmm…  I thought the only thing worse than a frozen lake is a frozen lake with thin ice.

So having changed my game plan, I made the best of it and explored the south side of the lake.  I wasn’t happy with any of the foregrounds I saw but when the sun first hit Flattop Mountain (on the right), I knew I was in for something special.  This alpenglow was the brightest I’d ever seen.  It was really bright red.  I grew excited and clicked this shot knowing the best was yet to come.  The light crept down to the very top of Hallet’s Peak (on the left) and then…  and then…  it quickly disappeared!  In no time at all, it was gone.  Grrrrr!!

After all, this is the reason I got up so early and hiked in the dark.  Mother Nature can be such a tease!

So with the light having hidden behind a cloud, I packed up my gear and headed back toward the other side of the lake.  The light did reappear some 15 minutes later but I unfortunately missed the best of the alpenglow.  Just another case where the good shots take multiple trips – nothing out of the ordinary for me I guess.

I did get the icy glowing shot that follows, but I can already tell.  I’ll be going back.

Winter Mountain Dream