Tag Archives: Travel

Trip Report – Colorado Fall Color 2016 Part 2

Posted on by
Reply

Devil's Lookout

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:
Island Peaks

Pulpit Rock:
Pulpit Rock

Chasm View:

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.

Through The Lens 76 – Painted Wall

Posted on by
Reply

As magma cools and solidifies, water becomes concentrated, making the remaining magma more fluid.  That last bit of magma to cool moves easily into the cracks in the surrounding rock before cooling and forming a type of granite called Pegmatite.  The light colored streaks at Painted Wall in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park are an impressive example of this phenomenon.  For reference, those are full size trees above the rim of the canyon.  At 2,250 feet high, Painted Wall is Colorado’s tallest cliff.

The patterns in the rock look great in black & white too.

Check back Tuesday for the long overdue Part 2 of my Colorado Fall Color Trip Report.

Through The Lens 74 – Wishes

Posted on by
Reply

In honor of Walt Disney World’s Wishes fireworks which ran its final show last night, I thought I’d share one of my favorite photos of the show.  The impressive amount of pyrotechnics, launched from the castle, the adjacent building roofs and the main launch site behind the Magic Kingdom made this show a favorite of mine. While the show was impressive from inside the park, watching it from across the lagoon really showed the scale of the show.

Through The Lens 73 – Cheat River Trains

Posted on by
Reply

Continuing on last week’s theme of trains in the rain, here’s one from Cass Railfan Weekend a couple of years ago. A special trip was run on the Durbin & Greenbriar Valley Railroad along the Cheat River and as was typical during Railfan Weekend, it rained.

Through The Lens 72 – Shay in the Rain

Posted on by
Reply

Taken a couple of years ago during a photo charter at the Cass Scenic Railroad, this shot of Shay #11 at the Bald Knob Wye has long been a favorite of mine.  The fog in the distance and the rain streaking through the shot create a great mood for the shot if it had simply been cloudy.

When the passenger train stopped to drop us off at this location, it was drizzling rain.  By the time we were in position under a dense canopy of spruce trees, the skies opened up and the rain started to pour down, which shows up nicely in this shot taken with a telephoto lens.  As soon as the runby was over the rain stopped again.  Couldn’t have worked out better if we planned it!

Through The Lens 70 – Vehicle Assembly Building

Posted on by
Reply

As a follow up to my previous post about the Space Shuttle Atlantis Exhibit, I thought I’d share another from that trip. The main reason for that particular visit to the Cape was to tour the Vehicle Assembly Building. While the building isn’t fancy architecture, as an architect I still appreciate the technical challenges of creating the largest single story building in the world. Topping out at 525ft 10in, the VAB encloses 129,428,000 cubic feet of space.

Photographing the VAB was a challenge because of the size of the building. To best show it’s vastness, I chose a wide angle lens and placed my camera on a table top tripod on the floor.

Through The Lens 69 – Shuttle Atlantis Visitor Center

Posted on by
2

Spacex’s successful launch of a reused vehicle reminded me that I haven’t shared my shots from my last visit to Kennedy Space Center.  The photo above is from the Space Shuttle Atlantis Exhibit. Seeing the shuttles in person is impressive but especially so at the Atlantis exhibit because of the way it is displayed. Instead of parking the shuttle on the ground, it is mounted at an angle at the 2nd floor level of the exhibit giving visitors the opportunity to see it at eye level and also from below.  Next time you’re in Florida, stop by and check it out.

Through The Lens 68 – Light City Abstract

Posted on by
Reply

LightWave - Baltimore's Beacon - Abstract

After capturing the “Lightwave – Baltimore’s Beacon” installation last year, I started playing around with zooming the lens with the shutter open to see what patterns I could capture.  The ones where I opened the shutter while zooming in seemed to work the best.

Trip Report – Colorado Fall Color 2016 Part 1

Posted on by
Reply

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:

Square Tower House Sunset

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.