Colorado Life Magazine cover: Maroon Bells fishing

One of my photos of a fisherman in Maroon Lake under the spectacular setting of the 14,000-ft Maroon Bells near Aspen has been chosen as the cover of the inaugural issue of Colorado Life Magazine. It’s an honor to be a part of the May/June issue of this new venture into the Centennial State by Nebraska Life Publishing, creators of Nebraska Life Magazine in our sister state to the northeast. This issue of Colorado Life also features stories about Estes Park elk, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, western slope wineries, Bent’s Old Fort and The Fort restaurant in Morrison. The issue contains a poetry department and a listing of some of Colorado’s most interesting events and festivals. Check out your local newsstand to get a copy. Colorado Life is available in all major supermarkets including King Soopers, City Market, Safeway and Albertsons as well as bookstores such as Barnes & Noble and Hudson News at Denver International Airport.

Colorado Life publishes six times a year. A yearly subscription is only $21. To subscribe to the magazine visit www.coloradolifemagazine.com!

Dinosaur National Monument Petroglyph

Sometimes when we are out in nature we encounter reminders that we are not the first people to have visited the place where we now stand. In an area of Dinosaur National Monument straddling the Utah and Colorado border I was lucky to find this petroglyph carved into a swath of desert varnish. I love seeing these signs of human presence. Much of American Indian rock art has been defaced or obstructed by modern-day graffiti. Finding carvings which appear like they have been untouched for hundreds of years is becoming rarer and rarer. These are moments that are worth taking time to enjoy.

The Bluebirds are back in Buena Vista, Colorado

Spring has arrived in the Colorado Rockies and the bluebirds are back. I found this couple of Mountain Bluebirds near the Collegiate Peaks of Buena Vista, Colorado early this month.  This beautiful pair posed for me for a few minutes before flying off to attend to their morning chores. Such brilliant, iridescent plumage!

Mummy Range Moon, Loveland, Colorado

Here’s an image taken from one of my favorite viewpoints in Loveland near where I went to elementary school. The rocky hill on the lower right is Mariana Butte (on the other side of the butte there is now a golf course) with Palisade Mountain on the upper right, Mummy Mountain, Hagues Peak and other peaks of RMNP’s Mummy Range in the center-left. This is a two-image blend. One shot was taken of the 99%-full moon and the mountains at about the same time as the sun was rising toward the east. The second shot was of the Canada geese flying by, though that occurred several minutes later after the moon had set behind the mountains. I would personally describe this as a composite or “photo art” because, even though I didn’t move the camera or recompose the shot, there was a long time period between the two different exposures used in the blend. I thought these two images worked well to combine together since I liked the moon and the color of the mountains of the first shot but the formation of geese in the later shot happened to nicely fill the large gap in the composition existing between moon and mountains.

Antelope Canyon Sunbeam

On February 14, 1912 Arizona became the 48th state in the union and this month I’m celebrating its Centennial. While Arizona is nicknamed the Grand Canyon State there are numerous other canyons, large and small, which can be experienced there. One of the most photogenic is Antelope Canyon, a tribal park in the Navajo reservation. The Navajo guide I was with did a great job of getting me there at the right time to experience the dynamic sunbeams which enter the canyon in the afternoon and managing the traffic of tourists who travel through there.

Las Trampas Mission, New Mexico

On January 6, 1912 New Mexico was admitted as the 47th state of the union. I’m celebrating the Centennial of the Land of Enchantment this month by posting a photo of Las Trampas Mission, one of the highlights of the High Road to Taos in New Mexico. The historic route between Santa Fe and Taos features several of the oldest, and most scenic, churches in the United States. I visited here on a chilly winter day three years ago. The dramatic clouds over the old mission made this photo a perfect candidate for a black and white conversion.

Wild sunrise under Gothic Mountain

The wildflower bloom was wonderful this year in Crested Butte, Colorado. While a deep snowpack persisted in the highest alpine areas well into the summer, preventing flowers from growing in some of the region’s most popular spots, many of the lower elevation meadows were blanketed with remarkable  amounts of colorful wildflowers instead. This image is my favorite shot from several days of photographing the area in late July. A rainstorm that had been raging since the previous evening dissipated leaving behind strings of clouds that glowed with the pink color of sunrise that morning. I was lucky to find a nice patch of arnica sunflowers under Gothic Mountain to create an interesting foreground.

Longs Peak Windscape

One thing you can usually count on during a mid-winter visit to Rocky Mountain National Park is wind. I used a blustery day to my advantage in February by taking telephoto shots of clouds and snow swirling around the peaks of the Continental Divide from an overlook above Beaver Meadows. I liked how Longs Peak was framed by Pagoda Peak and Mount Lady Washington from this view. The snow clouds above worked well to complete the circle around the Longs summit. This photo was taken at about 11am. The light was becoming very bright washing out many of the colors of the scene. A black and white conversion seemed like a good choice to accentuate the layered tones of the mountains instead.

Impressionistic Aspen

I wanted to try a few different photographic techniques during my yearly fall trip to the mountains of Colorado’s western slope. This is an example of several photos I took of aspen trees using in-camera blur. To create in-camera blur, set your camera for a slow shutter speed (usually you’ll also need a narrow aperture and slow ISO) and move the camera in a variety of motions while the shutter is open. No Photoshop filters are needed to create these dazzling effects which can resemble impressionist paintings. This photo is of an aspen stand along Crystal Lake near Red Mountain Pass and was taken at 1/1.3 second, at f/29 and ISO 100 (equivalent) while I was moving my camera lens in an upward motion.

Square Tower Tour

In September I had an unusual opportunity to tour Square Tower House in Mesa Verde National Park. This site has never been open to the public before and, normally, the only way to view it is from an overlook above. This year the Mesa Verde Museum Association sold special tickets for a series of ranger-led tours to Square Tower as well as other park sites not previously open to the public. I jumped at the chance to explore this site up close and take photos from angles not possible to see from the small overlook. Check out the crow’s nest construction in the upper right corner! I was lucky during my visit that there was nice reddish light reflecting off of the opposite canyon wall that lit up the tower nicely too.

Never Summer Range Moonset and Sunrise

Nothing seems to get me out of bed early in the morning like the occurrence of a full moon setting over a mountain range at the same time the sun is rising in the opposite direction. On this July day, I got up before dawn to drive Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park and witness the full moon setting behind this view of the Never Summer Range. A panoramic created by merging seven different shots was the ideal technique to capture the sweeping view as pink alpenglow started moving its way down the high, snow-covered peaks. I have to thank Stephen Trainor for creating some great software, TPE, which allowed me to calculate where the moon would be setting that morning and pre-visualize this shot.

Fall River Meandering

Judging from all of the snow in this photo you’d think it was taken in January or some other winter month. It was actually taken in late May. The Colorado mountains received a lot of the powdery white stuff this year that was slow to melt. I took this photo while hiking on Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. The road was still closed above Many Parks Curve at the time while crews were plowing above in an attempt to open the road by Memorial Day. The road didn’t actually open until early June because of late season storms. I loved this aerial-perspective of the abstract-looking, curvy meanders of the Fall River, the red brush on the riverbanks and the coating of white snow.

Twin Sisters Swirls

This was taken on the same day as the Fall River Meanders photo above. It was getting close to sunset and the light lit up Twin Sisters Peak nicely making it look more like one of the mighty Cascade volcanoes in the northwest than a small mountain in the Rockies. A dark, new snowstorm was quickly moving in behind me. The wind was picking up and blowing the snow in streaks across the frame making the photo look like it was made with brushstrokes – kind of a cool effect. I only had a couple of minutes to set up and get this shot before it got too foggy, the snow became too thick and the light was lost on the mountain.

Deep Blues

Some of the most enjoyable winter photography subjects are ice fracture abstracts. One of the more unusual formations I saw in February was from the popular Dream Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. The deep fracture to the left seemed to glow with an almost neon-like aqua color under the surface. There was a myriad of tiny air bubbles surrounding it and the other less-defined fractures as well. Photographing in the early morning shade added to the ice’s already frigid blue color.

Mueller Multicolor

One of the best Colorado state parks to see fall foliage is Mueller near the town of Divide on the west side of Pikes Peak. I stopped here for the final afternoon of my yearly fall trip and was fortunate to experience a fast-moving thunderstorm that provided some dynamic lighting conditions. After weathering a downpour that lasted around an hour, I was pleased to see the clouds break and a rainbow form over an aspen stand along the Elk Meadow Trail with the edges of the Pikes Peak Massif in the background. It was a fortunate close to my autumn travels.

Elk Eye Edge

I spotted this fellow on the edge of Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park early one morning. The sun was just beginning to rise over a mountain ridge to the left of the frame creating some sweet warm light that spotlighted the elk’s antlers and eye. The 14,000-ft. Longs Peak looming in the background added to the majesty of this moment. I’ve taken many images of elk in velvet antlers with fantastic tundra backdrops from Trail Ridge before, but none have been quite as dramatic as the situation I was treated to in this photo.

Remember to check out my book “Classic Colorado” to see more examples of landscape and wildlife photography from the Centennial State. It is just $14.95 and can be ordered on this site, on Amazon.com as well as from bookstores statewide!

Moraine Park under the stars, Rocky Mountain NP

This image is from a chilly night I spent at Moraine Park in Rocky Mountain National Park trying to capture the Leonid Meteor shower a couple of years ago. I didn’t happen to get many meteors in the frame but it was definitely a clear and star-filled night over the icy Big Thompson River. This photo can also be found in the Rocky Mountain Ranges Gallery on the Viewfinder Media website! Stay tuned for my favorite 10 photos of 2011, coming soon on the blog.

Golden ferns at McClure Pass, Colorado.

As the color begins to fade on the fall foliage of the Rocky Mountains, I’ve selected this image of ferns in seasonal golden hues below an aspen stand at the summit of McClure Pass, Colorado as the November Image of the Month. I took this photo just a few weeks ago during my annual autumn road trip through the region.  It’s hard to imagine that this location is probably covered in snow at the moment. The first storm of the year arrived only a few days after this photo was taken. Winter arrives fast at the high elevations, and hangs around for the majority of the year, so I’m glad I had the opportunity to enjoy the short window of fall splendor this year, even if it was only for a few days.

Bighorn Battle: Appearing at the Art in Nature show at The Center for Fine Art Photography Oct.21 - Nov. 26, 2011.

Bighorn Battle: A print of this image is appearing at the Art in Nature show at The Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colorado from Oct.21 – Nov. 26, 2011.  A color version of this photograph is also included in my book: Classic Colorado.

As a nature photographer who usually composes wide-angle color landscapes, this image is a departure from my usual work. However, opportunity knocked to make this photograph and I had to answer it. While driving home from a previous photo shoot I noticed several cars pulled over on the side of US Highway 34 in the Big Thompson Canyon west of Loveland, Colorado. Many people stopped to observe these Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis) displaying head-butting behavior, an unusual occurrence on this spring morning since males usually spar in autumn during their rut/mating season. Perhaps these youngsters were just playing or practicing for when the battles become more serious later in the year. The rams focused on their contests, indifferent to human onlookers as I pulled over, exited my vehicle and stood directly across the road from these two males. I watched and photographed different head-butts using a telephoto lens and a fast frame rate for about an hour. This image portrays one of those “decisive moments” as a loud, concussive collision was about to commence.