Red Rocks Lake

It was raining again this morning in Longmont. We are having a lot of rain for living in an arid region. I decided that if I couldn’t ride my bike I was going to go on a road trip and take some pictures. We live at an elevation of 5,000 feet but the mountains are not far away. Thirty miles and an hour later I was up in the high country.

It is a little early for the fall colors even at elevation so I decided to concentrate on taking panoramas. I have taken a lot of panos with all of my cameras including my phone. Out of laziness I usually shoot them hand-held. I have watched a number of tutorials on taking panoramas so I knew I could do better. I decided today, to try to do things the “right” way.

My friend, Nick, gave me a rail to adjust the nodal point of the lens over the tripod. I have never used it as it was cumbersome. I also usually shot horizontally because it was not easy to operate my camera in the flopped over mode on the tripod. This week I ordered an “L” bracket for my Nikon D610 and a quick release clamp for my tripod. This makes it much easier to mount your camera body directly over the tripod.

With all of my gear in tow I headed for the high country and ended up at Brainard Lake. Brainard Lake is a beautiful National Forest Recreation Area with mountains surrounding the lake. It was windy and the lake was rough so I moved down the road to Red Rocks Lake. Below are the two pictures I took there.

Red Rocks Lake

This pano was shot with the camera mounted horizontally.

Red Rocks Lake

This pano was shot vertically.

I think vertical is the way to go. After images was stitched together in Photoshop the vertical pano was much less distorted than the vertical image. The vertical image had more vertical height and looked more natural. When I am serious about shooting panos I think I’ll stick to the vertical mode.

Chevrolet Touring Club

Antique Chevies plus one new Buick

After dinner last night my wife, Karen, and I spotted these antique Chevrolets parked at the local motel. We drove though and I was very impressed with the variety and condition of the old cars. I decided I needed a picture of five of them lined up in the parking lot. Of course the only camera I had with me was my iPhone so I made the best of it. As I was walking back to my car I noticed that one of the cars left. I thought this would make a good picture with our new car parked in the middle of the bunch. When I got home I worked up the picture in Photoshop and converting it to black and white with Nik Silver Effects Pro. I took out a few distracting objects in the background and came up with this shot.

I talked to one of the owners and she informed me that the group was in town until Friday and planned on touring the area in their old cars. All of the cars were street legal and were meant for driving.

Eagles

I live in Longmont, CO. Longmont is located on the plains about 10 miles northwest of Boulder, CO. I am in the shadow of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. It is an ideal location to ride a bicycle. As I ride my bike through the farm country between me and the mountains I am lucky to see all kinds of animals and wildlife. There is a family of eagle which nest on one of the roads I ride regularly. It is almost like visiting family as I see them often.

Rolf Evenson

This is my friend Rolf, at the Amante Coffee Shop in Boulder. We rode to Boulder this morning via Olde Stagecoach Rd and had a nice visit while resting up for the ride home.

The Stone Kitchen

John and I rode up to Lyons today and had lunch at the great place. The coffee was very good.

My Friend Don

Don in downtown Fort Myers

Chelsea

This is a picture I took of Chelsea at Starbucks yesterday.  I took this with my Sony Cybershot DCS-HX9V.  I used available light and the Super Intelligent mode on my camera.  The light was very harsh from the front windows behind her but the camera did a nice job of evening things out.

Always Carry Your Camera

I took this picture on my bike ride earlier this month.  I always carry a smaller point-and-shoot camera with me when I leave the house.  I know you have a camera on your cell phone but when you happen on a scene like this you need some with a little more power.  Get used to carrying your camera and you won’t miss opportunities like this.  

Dodd Reservoir

Vertical Panoramic

This image was made from seven images stitched together in Photoshop. What is unique about it is that five images were shot horizontal from right to left. Then I shot two more images of the middle vertically. Photoshop figured it all out and got everything in the right place. I didn’t crop the image as a rectangle because I like what Photoshop came up with. If you enjoy shooting panoramics, Be brave and experiment a little.

Sent from my iPad

Tip of the Day

Rachel Lever

Have you ever wanted to take a portrait but didn’t want to go to the studio or set up the lights, backdrop, tripod, and other gear?  Next time try using natural light.  Set your model near a north facing window which is not in the direct line of the sun.  Open the blinds, drapes or other window covering so it doesn’t add shadows to your subject and shoot away.  I took this picture of Rachel in my kitchen using this technique.  The only thing I added was a black towel held by my wife for a backdrop and a plain piece of white cardboard as a reflector.  The whole process took 5 minutes and was very easy to set up.  Only use this tip during the day as it doesn’t work very well at night.