Feb 062011
I finally went on my first hike of the year last weekend – to Lost Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. I don’t usually like to hike on weekends due to the crowds, but my hiking companion and I got an early enough start to miss much of the hiker traffic and to get a decent parking spot at the usually very crowded trailhead. We brought our snowshoes but didn’t end up using them as the snow on the trail was nicely packed.
The scenery along the way was quite lovely.
The destination of this hike is Lost Lake, which isn’t actually very lost at all. It’s one of the most accessible of all destinations in the Indian Peaks Wilderness.
This is another one of those hikes that I’m going to have to do again in the summer.
To view additional photos from this hike, click HERE.
Nov 122010
Maybe I was expecting too much from our first couple of snowfalls, but really, it’s practically all gone already and I want more. Not that I really WANT to shovel my driveway, mind you, but I kind of want to NEED to shovel my driveway, if that makes sense. More snow please!
This one is from a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park last February. That’s Hallett Peak (left) and Flattop Mountain (right) with the Tyndall Glacier in between.
Nov 112010
We’ve had our first bit of snow this week in the Denver metro area and are expecting more today, so now I’m getting eager for my winter hiking season to commence. My poor, neglected and very dusty snowshoes will be so excited! This photo is from my snowshoe trek to Cub Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park in March of this year.
P.S. I just remembered that this was just a plain old “hike in the snow,” NOT a snowshoe trek. I do recall WISHING that I had brought the snowshoes, though. 
May 122010
Mar 242010
A mere two days ago, I wrote, “Now that I have spring fever, there’s no going back.” Scratch that.
Colorado was blessed with a major snow storm yesterday, starting in the afternoon with a thunderstorm that delivered a bit of hail and rain, which quickly developed into a great deal of heavy, wet snow. It looks like we got at least a foot of snow, and I’m waiting patiently for that “don’t come to work” phone call, or at the very least a “don’t come to work until later” phone call. I hope the call comes fairly soon so I can get out there and knock the snow off my trees and lilac bushes before branches start breaking under the weight of the snow.
P.S. The phone call was the “don’t come to work until later” variety, so I’m off to battle the snow.
Mar 212010
It’s official… we’re now a full day into spring here in the northern hemisphere. We had a big snowstorm in the Denver metro area on our last day of winter and I got a kick out of watching the robins huddled in the leafless trees. Don’t they have anywhere to go to get out of the elements? You’d think that they would somehow KNOW that the Denver area is not the ideal place to be this time of year.
The robin pictured below kept sliding off the slippery twig in his quest to reach the berries on the end.
Mar 162010
I saw my first American Robin of the year the other day in Rocky Mountain National Park. That’s supposed to be a harbinger of spring, right? Following is the 5-day forecast for the Denver area:
Yes, that says snow on Friday. (Thank goodness it’s not my every-other-Friday-off)! OK, it’s only mid-March. Wikipedia tells me that “March is Denver’s snowiest month, averaging 11.7 inches (29.7 cm) [!!!] of snow.” And then there’s April. Here’s some interesting info about Denver’s snow:
Denver Colorado decidedly tops the list as the US city typically having the earliest and latest substantive snowfalls of the season. It’s the only major city to get snow in September, averaging 1.6 inches for the month.
Denver normally receives another 1.6 inches of snow each May. Only Chicago, Cleveland and Milwaukee can also expect snow in May, but only a dusting amounting to 0.1 inches.
Altogether, Denver’s snow season is the longest of any major US city. It’s the only urban center to usually receive some fresh snow during nine months of the year. (http://www.currentresults.com/Weather-Extremes/US/snowiest-cities.php)
So there’s definitely more snow on the way for these parts. I don’t mind. I love snow, remember?
I took this photo in mid-April of last year.
Poor little guy.
Feb 262010
I’m going on one of my every-other-Friday excursions today so I thought I’d read up on snow photography and share that info with you.
Taking photographs of scenes where much of the view is covered in snow is a challenge for even the best photographers. The bright snow basically acts as a big ol’ secondary light source and can totally mess up the colors, white balance and overall exposure of your photographs.
Your camera’s exposure meter automatically assumes that pretty much every scene you shoot averages out to 18% gray (aka “medium gray”). Snow is much brighter than that so you can’t rely on your camera’s automatic metering to give you properly exposed photos. Here are a few things you can try to get better snow pics:
- Your camera just might have a Snow setting. Try that.
- If your camera has an exposure compensation button, bump that down by -1.3 to -2.0 or so.
- If you have a DSLR, use Center-weighted or Spot metering.
- If you have a DSLR, make sure your Highlights warning function is activated, keep an eye on it and make corrections as necessary.
- Set your White Balance appropriately depending on whether it’s cloudy or sunny. Don’t use Auto White Balance.
- If the scene you’re trying to shoot has both light and dark areas, you might just have to choose which area you want to be exposed correctly because you really can’t have it both ways.
- Try bracketing your shots (shooting the same scene at different exposures).
The trail to Dream Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park
Another important thing to remember when you’re shooting in a snowy environment is that your batteries don’t deal with cold well so keep your camera and your extra batteries as warm as possible. Try to keep yourself warm too.
Come back tomorrow to see how my latest batch of snow pics turns out!
Leaf sticking out of the snow in my backyard
For the rest of the week, I plan to present my Top 10 Photography Resolutions for 2010. I think I have 10 anyway… we’ll see how it plays out.
1. Take more pictures
What? MORE pictures? As I’ve mentioned, I took close to 30,000 pictures in 2009. That’s not enough, you ask?? You know, I don’t think I really mean take MORE pictures… more like take pictures more OFTEN, which isn’t exactly the same thing. I really need to take pictures every day. Practice makes perfect, right? And trying to make a decent picture out of seemingly ordinary, mundane subjects is what hones the skills, right? I think that’s how it goes anyway.
2. Take my camera with me everywhere I go
Man, how many great shots have I missed because I didn’t have my camera with me?? Just the other day at work, someone said, “Hey Laurie! Do you have your camera? There’s a hawk in the grass out behind the building eating something!” I know… gross. But still, those would’ve been some cool pictures IF ONLY I had brought my camera with me to work that day like I usually do. You just NEVER know what opportunities are going to pop up out of the blue.
Stop sign on the way home from work
