One of my favorite photos of the Undead Ballroom Dancers from the Haunted Mansion Sequence of the Boo To You Halloween Parade at Walt Disney World. The cast members who make up this group really play up their characters, making them a lot of fun to photograph.
Happy Halloween!
Fall color from a day trip to Gettysburg a couple of years ago. The purple wildflowers contrasted nicely with the reds and oranges of the fall foliage in the background.
This weekend, I’m attending the 2017 edition of the Cass Fall Photography Workshop. While there isn’t a photo charter component this year, I’m happy that the night photo shoot will occur again this year. The photo above is from the night session at last year’s workshop. I can’t wait to see what Walter and Clayton have in store for us this year.
With any luck, I’ll post the photos from last year’s workshop in the next month.
Another from the archives. This is one of those luck favors the prepared kind of moments. A couple of years ago, Dad and I took a weekend photo trip to Colonial Williamsburg. While we were there we stumbled into a video shoot for an upcoming TV commercial, allowing us to photograph part of Duke of Gloucester Street without any non-colonial inhabitants.
Continuing on from Part 2, the next stop was Maroon Bells for sunrise. Located in the Snowmass Wilderness, this is a very popular sunrise photo location. Unfortunately a storm was blowing through so I didn’t get the alpine glow sunrise that you typically see here. Instead I got a nice pre-dawn shot (above) with some stars visible between the clouds and a late morning shot when the sun came out and the wind stopped just long enough to get a decent reflection in the lake.
From there I traveled south over Independence Pass, stopping at a couple of spots to take photos of the spectacular landscape before heading to Great Sand Dunes National Park.
The Ghost Town of Independence:
Roaring Fork River:
Snow Squall:
Twin Lakes:
I arrived at Great Sand Dunes in a windstorm, so I didn’t spend much time on the dune field. Clouds over the park with clear skies to the west provided some nice storm light on the Dunes.
Dune field from the Entrance Road:
High Dune Hikers:
Dunefield Storm Light:
Look for Part 4 covering the two railroad photo charters this trip was centered around in a couple of weeks.
Maroon Bells is a popular location to photograph sunrise in Colorado, especially in the fall when the aspen trees on both sides of the lake turn gold. A storm was blowing through the morning I was there, so we didn’t have the typical alpine sunrise reflected in the lake. There was a short break in the clouds after sunrise that allowed the photographers assembled at the lake to get a couple of photos before the clouds closed in again.
I’ll post Part 3 of my Colorado Fall Trip Report on Tuesday, covering Maroon Bells, Independence Pass and Great Sand Dunes National Park.
Continuing where we left off in Part 1 of the trip report, after leaving Mesa Verde National Park, I drove North to Montrose Colorado to be in position for sunrise at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison became a National Park on October 21, 1999, encompasing 30,750 acres and is known for its incredibly steep cliffs and narrow canyon. At its narrowest point, Chasm View, the canyon is 1,100ft wide at the rim, 40ft wide at the river and 1,820ft deep! This unique steepness and narrowness is caused by the steep route the Gunnison River takes through the canyon. It averages 34ft of drop per mile which causes the river to cut deeper into the canyon faster than the walls can erode and widen the canyon.
Island Peaks:
Pulpit Rock:
Chasm View:
The canyon is difficult to photograph during the day due to the huge contrast between the shadows and the sunny side of the canyon. I think this park may be best captured in the pre-dawn and post sunset light. A second trip to better capture this park is definitely in order.
Part 3 of the trip report will cover Maroon Bells and Great Sand Dunes National Park.
Last fall I had the opportunity to attend two photo charters in Colorado, so I extended the trip to allow time to visit a couple of national parks. First up was Mesa Verde National Park. Created on June, 29th, 1906 by Theodore Roosevelt, Mesa Verde National Park was the first of it’s kind. All prior National Parks were created to preserve nature. Mesa Verde was established to preserve the works of man.
I only had one afternoon to visit Mesa Verde this time, but that was more than enough time to capture the two images I had in mind. First was sunset at Square Tower House:
Second was the Milky Way over Park Point:
As a bonus I got a post sunset shot of the old Knife Edge Road that served as the entrance to the park for many years. The went around the rock formation to the left in the image below, literally only one car width wide. Thankfully they’ve built a wider road to replace it:
After finishing with the milky way shots, I headed north to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. More on that in Part 2.
This is my favorite time of year for sunsets in the Mid-Atlantic region. We get this wonderful orange glow at the horizon that makes for some great photos.
Sometimes you’re in the right place at the right time. Last fall, I was on my way from Cass, WV to Great Smoky Mountains National Park and happened to drive by this Mail Pouch Barn on a beautiful foggy morning. The owner graciously allowed me to photograph the barn. These roadside treasures of America’s past are disappearing quickly. When you see one, make sure to stop and photograph it because it may not be there the next time.