Chase the Light Photography

Wildflowers, Cumberland Basin

2009-08-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

Here's an example of a lesson I taught while on our Wildflower Photography workshop in late July. The lesson is to compose wilds in the foreground, middle ground trees and background mountains. Use the proper aperture to control depth of field. Use a graduated neutral density filter to hold detail in the sky. What do you think?

Aspen Photography Workshop, Saturday, September 26, 2009

2009-08-21T08:22:00.000-07:00

Click here to see more Aspen photographs

Join us for a day of Aspen Photography lessons in the San Juan Mountains. We explore the west side of the Alpine loop near Dolores and Telluride. Learn how to make beautiful images of Aspens in their full glory. Email kit@kitfrost.com to register. Tuition $250. Expert instruction, field review of your work. Bring your tripod and essential photo gear, film or digital equipment. Lunch, snacks and beverages supplied. Meet us at the Absolute Bakery in Mancos at 8:30am.

Lightroom Library module

2009-07-28T12:50:00.000-07:00

Check out this Lightroom lesson on Adobe TV. Matt Kloskowski gives a really good explanation of importing and organizing your images. Pay special attention to the way he keeps his images organized in a single folder and adds metadata while importing, including copyright and location!

Wildflower Photo Workshop, July 25, 2009

2009-07-27T08:38:00.001-07:00

Workshop Photos, Lin Mattheis. La Plata Canyon to Kennebec Pass

Wildflower Photography Workshop, July 23, 2009

2009-07-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

We headed out of Durango at 7am and drove to the Silverton Rico trail, crossed the creek and spent time photographing the amazing display of Tall Chiming Bells, Larkspur, Wild Geraniums and Rosy Paintbrush. The morning lessons included the understanding of control of depth of field and how to use the depth of field preview button. We hit the trail at peak wildflowers today. I was at the same spot 5 days ago and it was not as prolific nor as stunning. The predominant flowers were the tall Larkspur and they rose up into the sky in some of our lessons. At 8:30 when we started photographing along the creek there was still plenty of dew so the flowers and leaves were sparkling.

The cumulus clouds came in and we hiked a short, steep bit of the Silverton Rico trail and practiced the near flower, far mountain arrangements. Students were challenged to pick a perfect bunch of flowers and put them in the foreground while choosing the appropriate aperture to achieve the depth of field they pre-visualized.

We gathered for lunch along the creek where we brought out the Wildflower books (no one book shows all our San Juan Mountains wilds!) and discussed the successes and challenges of the morning. I taught the use of the depth of field preview button to the group. Then we took off for our 2nd location chosen to explore the near/far relationship of depth of field. Some students took the opportunity to make images along the creek and to show the creek falls in their compositions.

Downside: Biting flies, hot and more sunny than cloudy at times. Next time: wear long sleeves and pants!

Tomorrow we continue with the workshop and head up to Kennebec pass!

Feedback from a student: He liked the day off between workshop days to recoup!

Wildflowers: Silverton-Rico Trail

2009-07-20T07:49:00.000-07:00

It looked like a field of wildflowers was cut apart by the trail. I spent the morning doing macro images of wild geraniums and sky pilots. Many, many larkspur and blue bells. A bit windy for photographing the blue bells. I dare you to get deep depth of field on a composition of blue bells! Further up the trail there was a lovely display of bitter cress along a creek crossing; I looked for columbine to fill the foreground. I spied a few parrys primrose along the next creek crossing (crossed on a log) and used fill flash to light up the interior of the primrose.

I forgot my rain gear so when the rain and hail started I headed back down trail. The rain and storm brought amazing color saturation, however, it also brought some damage to the flowers.

All along the road (a bit burly in places) there were wonderful compositions of near far, compression of space, flowers, middle ground, mountains!

We're going out for some more lessons on Thursday, July 23, Join us!

Wildflower Report, July 18

2009-07-20T07:48:00.000-07:00

Allison reports that the hike to Ice Lakes was "full" of wildflowers. She counted 33 varieties of wildflowers and 4-5 different colored paintbrush. Get out and stay out!

West Mancos Road Wildflowers

2009-07-10T07:30:00.000-07:00

I went up to the top of West Mancos Road (FS 561) on the west side of the La Platas yesterday. The cattle has done quite a job eating all the flowers along the road. There are a few, spotty sections of Columbine in the Aspen forests up high, but nothing to write home about. And the mosquitos are horrendous as usual (I wonder why?). I spent some time photographing the beautiful mountain scenes with Hesperus and Centennial so close I could touch them. The bugs were biting though so it wasn't too much fun.

Zazi and I hiked a bit of the Aspen Loop Trail at Windy Gap. We started at about 7pm so the light was wonderful. There were many bunches of blue bells and geraniums as well as a few pink paintbrush, fun to shoot; handheld shallow depth of field.

San Juan Wildflower Report

2009-07-09T10:53:00.000-07:00

Hi folks, Just back from scouting our upcoming Wildflower Photography Workshop. I checked out some of my favorite locations outside of Silverton, Colorado. Nada, nothing, zilch. We're probably 10 days - 2 weeks from prime wildflower photography in the San Juan Mountains. We've rescheduled this summer's workshop for July 25th and 26th. email kit@kitfrost.com to register. There is limited space left in the workshop.

I did see some brook cress along the creeks on the way from Durango to Silverton, at Lime Creek especially. And a friend reported that the lily ponds are blooming at the Spud Lake trailhead. If you've only got this weekend to go out and play then I'd choose the West side of the La Plata Mountains outside of Mancos.

By the way, the waterfalls are flowing beautifully. Check out Mineral and Ice Creeks just off Mineral Creek Road 2 miles north west of Silverton. Walk up creek and explore. Photographing creek falls requires a tripod and in my humble opinion a cloudy moment.

Waterfalls report, May 2009

2009-05-29T08:05:00.000-07:00

The spring runoff in Colorado is beautiful. We scouted the Waterfalls between Durango and Silverton and then northwest to Mineral Creek. All the waterfalls are clear of snow and flowing like crazy. Watch out for using too slow a shutter speed as the result will be "blown out" highlights. Adjust your ISO to get shutter speeds like 1/30 - 1/60 of a second; your water will have texture and movement. I love how the water "sprays" this time of year. Be careful and wear good hiking boots that will grip the slick trails around the falls. I'll be teaching Waterfall photography on June 20th. Join us for the day! Call 970-946-9727 to register, or email kit@kitfrost.com

Wildflower Report, May 2009

2009-05-26T12:07:00.000-07:00

I scouted the west side of the La Platas yesterday. It's early spring with a beautiful display of larkspur and dandelions. The purple and yellow look stunning together. As you go out and explore, put opposite colors in the composition: yellow and purple, blue and orange, red and green. I'm gonna chase some waterfalls this week too. I'll keep you informed. Please let me know when and where you are seeing wildflowers blooming. Our Wildflower Photography workshops begin July 11, 2009. Email kit@kitfrost.com to register.

Creating a Sun Star in your Photos

2008-10-06T07:42:00.001-07:00

When you're standing in the woods and the sun is low and shining through trees, it's a great opportunity to practice photographing "sun stars". Set your aperture to a small opening, say f22-32 and let the camera meter choose the shutter speed (use Aperture Priority Mode-AV). And, of course, a tripod is essential for composition and to give you shutter speed freedom (SSF)!

Autumn Snowfall in Mountains

2008-10-06T07:30:00.000-07:00

We were treated to an early snowfall in Southern Colorado; right when the aspens are in full bloom. One word of advice, actually two, Neutral Density. Use the ND filter (.6 or .9) to darken the intensity of the sky or snow on the mountains in relation to the aspens and spruce/fir in the foreground and middle ground. Digital cameras do a great job of metering difficult scenes, but you can help maintain detail in the clouds and snow with an ND. Be attentive to the sky even more so if the snow is lit by the sun.

Change your ISO to vary exposure

2008-10-02T09:29:00.001-07:00

In grand landscape we tend to photograph using aperture priority (AV) mode with deep depth of field as our prime consideration. We start with apertures of f32, f29, f25 in the hopes of gaining control of the image sharpness from foreground to background (say, foreground flowers, middle ground and mountains in the background). As long as we use a tripod, the shutter speeds that the camera meter picks will not be a problem, as long as there is no wind, motion, movement in the scene. Often this is not the case. One solution is to sacrifice depth of field, opening up the aperture to f22, 19, 16, 11. The results in the photograph will be that there is less sharpness (depth of area of sharpness) in the background.

Another solution is to adjust the ISO to get more flexibility of choices in aperture. We usually set our ISO for 80-100 in the field for grand landscape, hoping to enlarge the photo to 18x24 or larger. But if wind is an issue, try changing your ISO to 320 or 400. You can choose deep depth of field (f22-32) and get a faster shutter speed than at ISO 80-100. Try an experiment: Photograph a grand landscape, use your tripod, set your ISO to 100, set your mode to AV, choose an aperture that gives deep depth of field (f22,25, 29, 32), check the metadata or jot down the shutter speed the camera chose. Repeat the same framing, use your tripod, set your ISO to 400, set your mode to AV, choose the same aperture, check the metadata or jot down the shutter speed the camera chose. Compare the finished images at 100%.

Fall Photography

2008-10-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

Our Fall Chase the Light Adventure was last weekend, Sept, 25-27th in Ouray. We drove from my studio in Durango on the Alpine loop from Durango through Silverton, over Red Mountain Pass, and to Ouray.

Our photo locations included Molas Pass, Owl Creek Pass, Dallas Creek, Red Mountain Pass. The fall colors are mixed: Silverton is passing peak colors, Red Mountain (I give it an 11 on a scale of 1-10), Owl Creek Pass, grand views and intimate aspen forest scenes are "hot" (full of texture and golden aspen).

The weather was mixed, sunny, cumulus clouds, allowing us to photograph "cloud shadows" across the land. It rained on Dallas Creek Road, so we spent time learning to use "point and shoot digital cameras". We stayed at the St. Elmo Hotel in Ouray and reviewed photos on student laptops at the Hotel.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that East Dallas Creek and Dallas Divide were just beginning to change color. I suspect that peak fall colors will occur over the next 10 days. More to follow...

What's the name for rain that doesn't hit the ground?

2008-09-30T12:13:00.000-07:00

Virga is any form or precipitation that doesn't reach the ground. There could be rain verga or snow virga.

http://weathernotebook.org/transcripts/1998/02/20.html

Cloud shadows

2008-09-29T12:33:00.000-07:00

A cumulus cloud is a type of cloud with noticeable vertical development and clearly defined edges. Often described as "puffy" or "cotton-like" in appearance, cumulus clouds may appear alone, in lines, or in clusters. Cumulus clouds are often precursors of other types of clouds, such as cumulonimbus, when influenced by weather factors such as instability, moisture, and temperature gradient. Cumulonimbus clouds may be associated with phenomena such as landspouts, waterspouts and tornadoes. Cumulus means "heap" or "pile" in Latin.

Cumulus clouds, appearing as small- or medium-sized puffy shapes in the sky, often occur in times of fair weather.[4] However, cumulus clouds can grow into cumulonimbus clouds which may produce heavy rain, lightning, severe and strong winds, hail, and even tornadoes.[5] [6] Cumulus congestus clouds, which appear as relatively thin towers, will often grow into Cumulonimbus storm clouds.