Archive for category Colorado
June 21, 2011 – Echo Lake
Posted by Dave in Colorado, Flowers, Mountains, Picture of the Day on June 21, 2011
Echo Lake
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1631
Yeah, I forgot to upload those pics again. Sigh.
So, instead, here’s a picture of Echo Lake, with Mt. Evans in the background. This is in Colorado. You can actually drive to the top of Mt. Evans, and it’s paved the whole way. That’s noteworthy, because you can *also* drive to the top of another sort-of nearby fourteener, Pikes Peak, but *that* road is *not* paved the whole way. Pikes Peak is right outside Colorado Springs, which is where I grew up. Now you know.
So, right, Mt. Evans is not Pikes Peak, so that’s the last mention Pikes Peak will get today. Mt. Evans is near Idaho Springs, which is a little ways up I-70, west of Denver. Echo Lake is on the way up, but it’s before the spot where you have to pay. Because yes, you have to pay to drive up Mt. Evans. It’s worth it though. If you’ve got an afternoon to kill, it’s a great way to get up into the high country. And you can get some really nice photos after only barely getting out of your car. My kind of place!
Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300mm VC lens. 1/60s, f/18.0, ISO 400. Focal length: 65mm.
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June 13, 2011 – Mayflower Gulch
Posted by Dave in Colorado, Mountains, Picture of the Day on June 13, 2011
Mayflower Gulch
Monday, June 13, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1046
Amazingly enough, I actually made it out to take a few pictures late last week and over the weekend. And no, this isn’t one of them. But I figured it’d be worth mentioning, so you can know what to expect once I finally get around to tossing them online. This weekend the weather appeared to finally be nice enough to allow the bugs to start coming out to play. So, I spent some time trying to take pictures of bees flying as they were either preparing to land on flowers, or just taking off from flowers. Turns out, it’s really hard. More on that later.
Also, late last week I went on an epic 14-hour adventure, chasing the northern lights. There was an aurora forecast that suggested that they should be visible from my latitude, so I went driving, hoping to find a location that was a) away from city lights, b) had a view of the northern sky, and c) wasn’t cloudy. I basically succeeded in those three after a lot of effort (I ended up at a location that, were you to drive straight there, would be just under 5 hours from where I live), but there were no northern lights to be found. BUT, I got some decent pics along the way, so you’ll see some of those eventually.
In the meantime, here’s a shot from Mayflower Gulch in Summit County, Colorado that I grabbed today just so that I’d have something to show you.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. 1/250s, f/6.3, ISO 100. Focal length: 39mm.
Popularity: 19%
June 7, 2011 – Hahn’s Peak Trail
Posted by Dave in Colorado, Picture of the Day on June 7, 2011
Hahn's Peak Trail
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1568
Man, I still haven’t gotten out to take a picture in just about forever now. The motivation just isn’t there, and on top of that the weather has been pretty much crap for as long as I can remember. So, I’m still just tossing out pics from the archive, random stuff from years past. Here’s one from near Steamboat Springs, Colorado, from the trail that goes to the top of Hahn’s Peak. Some nice yellow flowers I guess, as the trail approached treeline. A reasonable trail, if you find yourself in the area. If not, well, I guess you’ll just have to find another trail to hike.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300mm VC lens. 1/30s, f/10.0, ISO 200. Focal length: 30mm.
Popularity: 18%
May 9, 2011 – Maroon Bells and Maroon Lake
Posted by Dave in Colorado, Mountains, Picture of the Day on May 9, 2011
Maroon Bells and Maroon Lake
Monday, May 9, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=650
Hey everyone! This is the last post that you’ll see for a couple days, just so you know. So you’d better enjoy it. This is, of course, the Maroon Bells (and Maroon Lake), near Aspen, Colorado. You’ve all seen this before, so no reason to talk about it too much, right?
Okay then, have a great day!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, 18-55mm kit lens. 1/320s, f/5.6, ISO 100. Focal length: 55mm.
Popularity: 28%
April 21, 2011 – Elk
Posted by Dave in Animals, Colorado, Picture of the Day on April 21, 2011
Elk
Thursday, April 21, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1799
Hey look. There are some elk up on that hillside. Yawn.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300mm VC lens. 1/200s, f/18.0, ISO 200. Focal length: 300mm.
Popularity: 20%
March 8, 2011 – San Juan Mountains
Posted by Dave in Colorado, Flowers, Mountains, Picture of the Day on March 8, 2011
San Juan Mountains, Colorado
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=184
Hey again everybody, happy Monday Tuesday! Today’s picture is ridiculously old. It was taken with a 3.2 megapixel point and shoot, if that gives you any idea. I took it while I was on a road trip through southwestern Colorado, hanging out in the San Juans. That’s one of those places that I definitely need to spend more time getting to know. It’s *gorgeous* down there. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s gorgeous in a lot of places in Colorado, but especially down there. Unfortunately I only had a couple days, most of which I spent exploring little 4×4 roads in my decidedly non-rugged Subaru Legacy. I went a few places I probably shouldn’t have (and even got stuck once or twice), but it was awesome. (I had the awd, but I did NOT have the ground clearance, unfortunately. My newer Subaru, an Outback, does. Maybe I need to head back down there…) Anyway, this was from there. I don’t remember exactly where, sorry. Someplace with a few flowers and some big peaks nearby. Totally helpful, right?
On a completely unrelated note, I apologize if you previously had a login account on the blog, and now you don’t. Don’t get me wrong, there was never anything you could actually DO with an account, but the ability to make one was there. I figured there was no harm in leaving that enabled, and a few of you actually used it. But, I was getting a spate of spammy user accounts signing up (about 150 in the past couple days), so I ended up disabling accounts, and deleting all of them that had already been created. So if that bit you, uhh, sorry. Fortunately, you still have unfettered access to all of the uninspired content I have tossed up here in the past and will continue to toss up here in the future. Yay!
Notes: Canon PowerShot S230 (Point and shoot). 1/250s, ISO unknown.
Popularity: 25%
February 25, 2011 – Back Bowls and the Gore Range
Posted by Dave in Colorado, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on February 25, 2011
Vail's Back Bowls and the Gore Range
Friday, February 25, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=2421
Wow, I guess I should apologize to everyone, I’ve kind of dropped the ball these last couple weeks. And February was off to such a strong start, too. Although to be fair, with today’s post, I’ve already matched January’s output, with one more weekday to go.
As you probably guessed by the caption on today’s image (and, umm, the post title), this is a view from the Back Bowls at Vail Ski Resort in Colorado. Those peaks are part of the Gore Range I believe, and if you put it all together, and simmer for a few minutes, you end up with pure awesomesauce. Personally, I really like the shadows of those trees on all that fresh snow down there, it’s one of those sights that just makes me feel sublimely happy for some reason. But we’re not here to talk about me, so…
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Canon 55-250mm IS lens. 1/250s, f/13.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 84mm.
Popularity: 29%
February 8, 2011 – Vail Ski Resort
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Colorado, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on February 8, 2011
Vail Ski Resort
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=2413
So I was going to start off today’s post by mentioning how I went through some more of the pictures I got at Vail, and even though it wasn’t too long ago that I posted one, here was another one that I thought was nice.
Then I realized, I hadn’t posted one yet! Wow, whoops. So, right, yes, I was at Vail. For a day. I snuck up there with my buddy Trevor to get in some turns when we were out in Colorado to visit my parents over New Year’s. Trevor lives up in Summit County, and he’s got a Summit Pass or whatever, so he scored me a (relatively) cheap day pass. And the weather was pretty fantastic, so it was a great day. And I got a handful of nice shots. None of which you have seen yet. (Unless you’re a friend of mine on Facebook, in which case you may have seen me post this one late last night.)
It wasn’t a total oversight though, I did at least post ONE picture from that Colorado trip already – a shot of Garden of the Gods. And now, Vail too.
I think I took this from somewhere in the Back Bowls, but I’m not quite sure. We went back there for a couple runs, then headed over to Blue Sky Basin, just so I could say I had been there and seen it. (I haven’t made it back to Vail in more than 10 years, not since they had opened that area up.) Although, if your name is Heather and you’re reading this, we spent the entire day on the front side, on the groomers. I would never (Ever!) take your husband who was recovering from somewhat recent surgery on anything but groomers.
Have a great day, everyone!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Canon 55-250mm IS lens. 1/400s, f/18.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 250mm.
Popularity: 30%
February 4, 2011 – Loveland Pass
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Colorado, Fall Color, Mountains, Picture of the Day on February 4, 2011
Loveland Pass, Colorado
Friday, February 4, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=2237
Hello everyone, and welcome to Friday! It took awhile to get here, but hey, we’re here now, right? Today’s picture has kinda-sorta been posted before. Maybe you remember, maybe you don’t, but I posted a black and white version of this exact image just a couple months ago. At the time, I was saying how I normally don’t play around with things like black and white, because it’s kind of cheesy, and I’m not very good at it. (At knowing when is an appropriate time, when it’s just plain cheese, etc.) But I went ahead and did it on that (this) image because I thought it was a good illustration of the trick of using red-filtered black and white to make the scene slightly more dramatic, by emphasizing the clouds a bit more, stuff like that. (And I mentioned again how that was one of the tricks that Ansel Adams liked to use…)
Also, I talked a bit about how, even though I thought that it made a somewhat interesting black and white image, that the REAL colors in the REAL image were actually pretty striking. So I threatened to post the original image “soon”. Well, two months later may or may not qualify as “soon” in your book, but here it is. Obviously, it was autumn at the time (well, it was at the beginning of September, but that’s right at the height of fall in the high country in Colorado), so all of the grasses and such were this nice amber color, which contrasted nicely against the blue sky.
This was taken a little ways above Loveland Pass. Loveland Pass is in Summit County, Colorado. It used to be the primary way through these parts (good ole’ Highway 6), but then they built the Eisenhower tunnel along I-70 which was a much easier way to go. These ridgelines and stuff aren’t quite up to 14,000 feet, I think most of them are between 12k and 13k. Pretty high still. High enough, really. I had parked right at the pass, and started hiking up. I only had a couple hours to kill, so I couldn’t make it too far, but I did manage to make it up to the ridgeline. (You can see the trail up ahead as it snakes its way up there.) A really nice place to hike, I wish I had more time to explore.
Okay, see you next week!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens. 1/500s, f/7.1, ISO 100. Focal length: 12mm.
Popularity: 44%
January 12, 2011 – Maroon Bells and Maroon Lake
Posted by Dave in Colorado, Fall Color, Mountains, Picture of the Day on January 12, 2011
Maroon Bells and Maroon Lake
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=649
We’re reaching way back into the archives today. Although, oddly enough, this is the second picture in a row from Colorado. I just noticed that. Huh, oh well. This shot was, obviously, shot in the fall. The day that I took this was the only day I had in Aspen. We had stayed in town the night before, but shortly after this was taken, we started driving back to my parents’ house in Colorado Springs. (Notice a common theme here? Right, yes, the theme is: my parents live in Colorado Springs. Thus, I sometimes find myself in Colorado. On those occasions, I, um, take pictures.)
This was my second time at this viewpoint. Well, technically, it was my third, but for now, we’ll call it the second. The FIRST time I was there was a year or two earlier, right at the beginning of the summer. Or maybe it was even the beginning of May. Not that important. What WAS important was that I slept in my car in the parking lot (I was laid off, so I didn’t want to spend the money on a hotel), but right at sunrise, there was a super nice reflection from the lake, with the sun shining right up the valley, illuminating the peaks. It was great. So this time around, even though it was three months later in the year, I decided to try the same thing. So, I got up before sunrise and drove out there. Then, the sun came up. Then, I realized that the whole “sun shining right down the valley” thing had a lot to do with the fact that it was May. That in September, the sun rose at a different spot on the horizon, and thus, I’d have to wait a few hours for it to finally rise over the valley wall. Whoops. So I ended up hanging out for awhile waiting for it. Fortunately, I had a book.
But, that’s not when I took this picture. I took a lot of pictures then, yes, and I’ve even posted a few of them here already. But then I headed back to town, where my wife was asleep in the hotel room. Well, I mean, she was asleep when I left, but she was actually starting to get a bit worried, since I told her I’d be back in half an hour or so, and it was now approaching 5 hours since I had left. Whoops. I could have called, except that, right, I was in the mountains, and had no coverage.
So, that was fun. Eventually, we got some breakfast and such, and then we headed back out here. (Thus, my third time here.) By then, they had instituted the no-cars-allowed policy (for most of the day, the only option is to take a shuttle in), but that was fine. My wife and I rode on in, and I got another set of pictures from the viewpoint. The afternoon breezes had kicked up though, so there was no more nice still reflection like early in the morning. That’s okay though, it was a nice view in its own right.
Okay, that’s it for today. Also, that’s also probably it for this week, since I’m really busy at work the next couple days. I mean, sure, there’s a chance I’ll put something else up here, but I’m not planning on it. But hey, optimism is awesome, right?
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, 18-55mm kit lens. 1/200s, f/7.1, ISO 100. Focal length: 31mm.
Popularity: 41%
January 11, 2011 – Garden of the Gods
Posted by Dave in Colorado, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on January 11, 2011
Garden of the Gods
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=2317
Alright, here we go! Here’s a picture from Garden of the Gods, in Colorado Springs. As I mentioned, I was there over the holidays, visiting my parents, and I finally now got a chance to download all of the pictures I took (mostly pictures of my kid and my brother’s kid, honestly) off the camera. Sadly, a lot of the pictures that I was at least somewhat excited about from this little photo shoot didn’t come out quite as nicely as I wanted. As in, they looked great on the little camera screen, but at full size, they weren’t as sharp as I wanted. I’ll still post them here eventually, don’t you worry about that. But I’m a lot less excited about them now than I was then.
In other news, you may have noticed that I added a neat little “Related Posts” widget to the blog. It only shows up when you’re viewing the page for an individual post though, so there’s a really good chance that you won’t be able to see it on the page you’re looking at right now. (If you’re looking at the main page, it won’t be there. If you’re reading this via a feed reader or email, I don’t believe it’ll show up. And, if you’re not reading this at all, which is the vast majority of you (total # of readers / 7 billion total humans total approximately equals 0), umm, dot dot dot. But, it’s very exciting! It even shows thumbnails! I’m very happy about all this, if it wasn’t clear. Hopefully, you are too.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Canon 55-250mm IS lens. 1/200s, f/9.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 90mm.
Popularity: 25%
December 7, 2010 – Loveland Pass
Posted by Dave in Colorado, Mountains, Picture of the Day on December 7, 2010
Loveland Pass, Summit County, Colorado
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=2236
I busted out one of Ansel Adams’s dirty little tricks today: red-filtered black and white. Except that, you know, he sort of had to plan it out ahead of time before he took the shot. I just had to get a little funky and decide to use Picasa’s filtered black and white tool, and choose a nice deep red. Have I mentioned that I feel super cheeseball when I make black and white images? It just.. seems like cheating.
But, I thought this one was a good example to show the results of using a (simulated) color filter on a black and white shot. Or, at least, it would be, if I weren’t too lazy to also include the full-color version, or either an unfiltered black and white or a version filtered with a different color, for comparison. As it is, you just get this one today. Although I’ll be honest, I actually prefer the full-color version, since the colors are, quite frankly, really awesome. It’s actually fairly rude of me to be talking about that without actually showing it to you, but hey, that’s how it’s going to be. Maybe I’ll post it here later this week or next week though, since it really does look nice.
Anyway, a red filter on a black and white shot has a lot in common with a polarizer filter on a full-color shot. It really darkens the sky and pulls out the white fluffy clouds. It’s a decent way to get around that nasty, mid-day sunshine too. But, I dunno, I’m still not a black and white kind of guy.
What’s that? Where was this taken? Oh, right. This was taken near Loveland Pass, in Summit County, Colorado. Loveland Pass used to be the way through the mountains, until they built the Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70. Wikipedia knows ALL about it, if you were curious. WikiLeaks knows less about it, but hey, you might as well check there too.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens. 1/500s, f/7.1, ISO 100. Focal length: 12mm.
Popularity: 34%