Sunday, November 9, 2008

Recent Works

DA: Winter Approaches.... by =kkart

Winter Approaches....

Captured along Trailridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado...I believe looking towards Storm Mountain....(how fitting a mountain name, huh? )

At an elevation of close to 12,000 feet high when I shot this (as you can see I am actually above the tree line here) this scene was majestic, eerie, solemn, stoic, and downright ominous. It was cold, the wind whipping by me at over 40MPH at times, and basically with no surrounding shelter to cut the wind back, except the backside of my car, it was enough to make my eyes water something like a faucet! Now here is the eerie part....and I have never seen this outside of Colorado...

At times the wind would stop it's outflow from the approaching winter storm, and you would hear the rumble of thunder....this is an effect we call "Thunder Snows" here in Colorado, in essence, a thunderstorm but also a snow storm, and yes, lighting is a regular occurance, and all things considered, when THAT started happening, and I was teh tallest object on the Alpine Tundra, my keester got back in the car faster than you can say "BBQ'd Johnny at 12,000 feet! All you can eat!"

The Alpine Tundra is an incredible place, very fragile, and is frozen usually more than 8 months of the year. It is as though time stands still up here, but at the same time, in spite of it's beauty, it also carries a real danger with it!

Processed in HDR
Singh-Ray CPL
Hoya UV

http://kkart.deviantart.com/art/The-Dawn-of-Paradise-101989644
DA: The Dawn Of Paradise .... by kkart

The Dawn of Paradise

Shot yesterday morning at Lake Estes in Estes Park, Colorado....this was just quite a scene to behold! Sure, I froze my hands off (steel tripods aren't know to conduct heat real well lol ) and had to keep running back to the car to thaw out my fingers. But what a time! It has been awhile since I have done any real long exposure work, and I have been meaning to get back at it...on this I used an ND4 and my CPL, taken on my Minolta 18-70 DT lens. The light and color was changing ever so fast, it seemed like every passing second it was different...and this was the first shot out of about 75 I took, later the sky would turn totally orange along with the water,....those are yet to come. It was sheer serenity I tell ya!