MistyCastle

Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category

Wow…I got my first photo published!

I had submitted a short article and some photos of the Glenwood Springs Rallye to Classic Motorsports magazine back in July. The editor made a few comments like they might use it but I never saw anything in the next issue so I more or less forgot about it. Today I got the November issue in the mailbox AND an email from the editor asking for my mailing address so they could send me a check. I quickly flipped through the magazine and sure enough they used my story and one photo. WhoooHooo!

It will be interesting to see how much the check is for. I hadn’t really thought about getting paid for it but I suppose that’s how it works. [Follow up - I got the check but decided I had better keep my day job]

Mark one off the Bucket List. I’ve always wanted to participate in a road rally and last Friday we were car #52 and crossed the Start Line at 8:52am. The 59th Annual Rallye Glenwood Springs was underway. This was Time Speed Distance (TSD) Rally and Rhonda was the designated driver…I was the navigator. A little background may be in order.

A TSD rally consists of a set of instructions specifying a route to travel, and a speed at which to travel. A team, consisting of a driver and a navigator, attempt to travel the specified route at exactly the specified speeds. A TSD rally is not a race. Traveling too fast results in penalties as does traveling too slowly and no rally will ever require you to drive in a reckless or illegal fashion. Arriving too early at a checkpoint hurts your score, as does arriving too late. You are scored on how closely to the correct time you arrive. The rally route generally takes you over lightly traveled rural roads in the scenic countryside.

The weekend was a great experience and we had a really terrific time. The people were wonderful and the event was very well organized. The Rallye traversed a Westerly route out of Arvada, CO into the foothills and eventually connected to US-40 which took us up over Berthoud Pass (11,307 ft) and through Winter Park. It wasn’t too difficult to follow the route instructions but there were some tricky spots that messed us up and we lost time getting back on course. Somehow it just didn’t seem all that important given how much were enjoying the drive through the mountains with the top down on a beautiful Colorado morning.

We continued on US-40 till we made Kremmling where we stopped for lunch. We then headed South on Hwy-9 for a short ways before diverting Southwest onto the back roads eventually coming out and ending the event at I-70 and Dotsero. The latter part of the route tended to have slower speeds and made the drive a tad bit tedious but the scenery made up for it. We had varying scores…too early…too late…almost spot on, and in fact I’m not sure what our final tally was. They haven’t posted the results yet. If you want to read some more about the basics of Rallying look at this article: Rallying for Beginners…and others

The Tour on Saturday was actually more fun than the Rallye or at least I thought so. It is not a timed event but has a similar flavor to Rallye in that you have to follow a prescribed course (more or less) and find answers to the Tour “questions” along the way. For example; one question was “British Car owners would like this Ranch _____”. So when we drove by the “Spare Parts Ranch” we knew we had nailed that one and went on to the next Instruction…”Turn Left onto Surface Way Rd”. Typically, there were three or four questions to be answered in each of the small towns we went through. This created some amusing scenes of British Cars roaming back and forth through the town at very slow speeds while driver and navigator craned their necks looking for signs. This route went on a southern loop down around the Grand Mesa National Forest and back north along the west side of the Maroon Bells which were absolutely stunning.

Sunday was the Car Show in Two Rivers Park and the cars were parked right along the Colorado River on a beautiful, sunny Colorado morning. There were plenty of interesting cars including a 1936 Triumph Gloria Southern Cross which I had never seen before.

Next year will be the 60th Annual Glenwood Springs Rallye and the plans are underway to make it a very special event. Do mark your calendars for the second weekend in June 2012 and come out and join the fun. Here are some photos of the events:

The Slideshow thingy is not working …just click on the first picture then arrow through them.

This turned out a touch blurry so I got creative with it.

Waiting our turn to start the next leg at after a checkpoint.

Chilling out by a roaring stream.

Getting ready for a quick picnic lunch.

Some friends we met that own a Jaguar XK-150

A line up of MGs along the Colorado River

Coming down the mountain pass.

A little experiment with night photography.

Following a Porsche down the backroads.

The Azura Winery outside Paonia, CO. A stunning view for sure (the mountains). But the car is really cool too. That's a 1963 Porsche 356 by the way.

A 1936 Triumph Gloria Southern Cross.

Another creative attempt. I applied an edge process that makes it look a bit like an old magazine photo.

Cool 1971 TVR Vixon at the show.

On the Rallye...which way do we go?

Cattle Drive creates unexpected delays.

Here we are.

Just ahead of a new Morgan waiting to start the next leg.

Stop for 30 seconds at all RR Crossings.

Hobbies come and go and I am currently in transition. Sometime back around the 1st of October I ran across a startling opportunity to fulfill one of those once in a lifetime events that I’ve had in the back of my mind for some time now. You see, even though I live in close proximity to a 14,000 ft mountain, I’ve never lost my desire to make an extended road trip up through Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks continuing on to Banff in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

I guess this comes from a certain fascination with Vintage Rallies. We Americans don’t have much appreciation for this sport but the Brits do a marvelous job of planning these events.

Many years ago I got on the mailing list of a couple of British rally coordinators and from time to time I still get a brochure in the mail that sets the imagination running wild. Peking to Paris…..or how about… Read the rest of this entry »

It has been a year now since I made the switch from film to digital photography. Overall, I would have to say that it has been a very positive change. There have been many favorable elements and to be honest, I can’t think of one thing about film that I miss. The one downside to the digital world is the additional effort required to process your images before you print them. But, on the other hand that is where the flexibility lies too. You can fix things that did not quite work out. Adjusting the exposure after the fact, or the white balance, tweaking the color saturation a bit to make it look like it did in real life.

The end result is a lot better picture. Looks like it did when you were standing there taking the shot. I have found that some caution is necessary though because it is easy to push the color saturation a bit too much. Doing that can make for a striking photo but there tends to be a shade of unreality to it when you do that. The tools for manipulating the image are simply mind-boggling. The industry standard is Adobe’s Photoshop. I put off buying it for a very long time. Not only is it expensive but it’s so powerful and has so many features that the learning curve is quite high. I decided to go ahead and make the plunge last December while I still had my academic credentials which allowed me to buy the package at a deep discount. As I expected it is a challenging package to learn. In fact, I think it will be a life-long process.

One of the neatest features I’ve found so far is the ability to select a certain portion of the photo and lighten or darken just that section. That feature alone has allowed me to save a number of photos. One of the other big reasons for using Photoshop is simply because all the articles/tutorials/how-to’s for digital photography are inevitably written for Photoshop. So, I have started inching my way up the learning curve. Someday I’ll probably be an expert. Read the rest of this entry »

There have been several rally events this Spring with the Land Rovers where Ronda worked. The first one was an event sponsored for the clients and the second was for the employees. Both events centered around a 4WD trail named the China Wall over in the Tarryall Mountains. I volunteered to be the event photographer and had a good time burning up a bunch of film as the Land Rovers churned through the mud and up and down the rocks. The trail ends at the Tarryall river which is a terrific picnic spot and that is where we stopped for lunch.

I got a lot of exercise out of this deal as I was constantly hopping in and out of the vehicle and running back and forth snapping photos. I dedicated a page on the site to document the first event. You can look at the pictures (takes a little while to load) by going here. It was a lot of fun and Ronda got to drive one of the LR3s to find out first hand how well it handles the rough terrain.

Between the two events I spent an awful lot of money on film and developing which caused me to relook at the whole “digital” photography thing. I won’t bore you with all the detailed rationale but I ultimately decided to make the switch. I stayed with Canon so I could maintain my investment in lenses. I have not really had much opportunity to use the new gear yet so I’ll save that for another article.

School is out for the summer. Finished up my two classes last week. Now all that remains is my final project which I will do this fall and graduate in December. Speaking of school, Josh had been accepted to Colorado State University in Pueblo and he will be pursuing an engineering degree. He decided to jump right in and start taking classes this summer so he will be a full-time student now (classes started this week).

Kristina’s lease runs out on her apartment at the end of May and she is going to move back home for awhile while she figures out what’s next in her life.

Hoping to get out of town over Memorial Day weekend and get in some camping. Have not decided where to go just yet.

I recently had the opportunity to join National Geographic Traveler photographer Jim Richardson and the magazine’s senior photo editor Dan Westergren for a one-day seminar on how to make successful travel photos. The fundamental idea was to expand your awareness and skills beyond simply producing “pretty pictures,” and discover how to capture the spirit of a place by using a cultural documentary approach to your travel photography.

It was an extraordinary event and I came away from the seminar armed with a greater knowledge of how to engage myself in the photography process and not simply be a participant in a “drive-by shooting.” I gained an greater understanding of how to more effectively utilize the gear I own and identified several “holes” in my inventory. Jim Richardson used a series of photographs to explain the concepts he was presenting. This learning approach was very effective and I gained not only knowledge in the process but was inspired by the photography itself to ‘get out there” and take more pictures than I have in the past.

I can see where I will eventually have to make the plunge to digital but for now I am happy with the gear I have. Well, almost. I learned from the seminar that a wide angle lens can create some very dramatic effects. And since I almost never use my telephoto lens I decided to sell it and get a wide angle lens. I got the lens sold with no trouble at all but the wide angle lens I want is on backorder so am having to wait for it.

Ronda and I made weekend getaway up to Idaho Springs and stayed at a resort that has natural hot springs. On Saturday morning we headed off to give my snowshoes their maiden voyage. The winds had been pretty nasty the previous day and were not much improved in the morning. It took a while to convince myself that I really wanted to do this…but eventually we geared up and headed into the blowing snow. The first half mile or so was pretty miserable but then we got into the forest and it improved considerably. We were not the first ones up the trail so we had a path to follow which helped some. It was really fun stomping over drifts that ranged from two to six foot high.

The trail goes to Chinn’s Lake which is about four miles. At approximately the halfway point it intersects the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) which is where these pictures were taken. We had to turn around there and head back or we would have missed our reservation at the resort for the private geothermal pool. The hot springs made a perfect ending to this little adventure.

My Mom came out in September to help celebrate Kristina’s 21st birthday. While she was here, we had agreed Mom should have a bit of the Colorado ‘Fall flavor’ so our first stop was the REI store to fit her in Merrell brand ‘trail’ shoes. With Mom properly equipped, we headed west to Mueller State Park to do a little hiking and check out the brightly colored aspen trees. Mueller State Park is located on the picturesque west flank of Pikes Peak; a high mountain park with average elevation over 9,000 feet. We headed a half mile down Outlook Ridge Trail, turning south onto the Raven Ridge Trail which ends in scenic overlook.

Although the trail is wide and well tended, Mom quickly grew to appreciate the Merrell’s grip on the loose surface and exposed rock. The trail winds through the forest among the aspens, various pine, and fir trees. The smell of the forest is always present but varies depending on whether you are passing by cedar trees, pine trees, or walking in groves of aspen. Glade air freshener may have tried to bottle the forest fragrance in aerosol form but… trust me… it’s not quite right

Raven Ridge Trail descends a little more steeply for another 1/4 of mile while providing numerous glimpses of the surrounding mountain vistas. Eventually we made it to the overlook, found a few logs to sit on, and admired the view. In the surrounding mountains and valleys there were large patches of gold and orange aspens. In the distance, approximately 60 miles to the Southwest, stood the awe-inspiring snowcapped Sangre de Cristo mountains. We never tire of their breathtaking beauty!

I climbed down amongst some rocks in search of interesting formations to become part of my photo compositions. We belatedly realized we had left our snacks in the car and so decided to head back. On the return trip, the trail was mostly uphill but we maintained a steady pace and took numerous breaks to admire the scenery, before long we were back at the car. Overall it was a mile and half hike and Mom did a super job!

Click on a photo to enlarge