Just some leaves outside with some pretty light. Thought I would share.
Photography Date: 10-17-16
Writing Date: 2-28-18
Retrospective
Bad Boots and Vlogging
I'm fascinated by the potential of user-generated content. The ability to set out to make something and how achievable it is. My how website and journal is an example. No one is sponsoring me, and I'm making nothing from it, but I have the ability to set my mind to it and go. It's incredible. One area that still has me a bit perplexed is video. I enjoy working with video, but I haven't quite figured out what is right for me. A few years ago I set out to try and make my own vlog photo series. I didn't make many videos, but it was fun. I might take it up again, but who knows.
Photography Date: 10-15-16
Writing Date: 2-28-18
The Hunt for Ansel Adams
For my birthday, my buddy got me a few prints of Rocky Mountain National Park by Ansel Adams. These were prints were not some of his more famous pieces, but what seemed to be part of a more intimate look at the park and apart of a greater series. It didn't take long for us to get the idea to go and try and find the locations as close as possible to these photos.
The first photo I recognized the scene right away as I shot the same mountain on my first trip to RMNP, It's of a peak on the south side of the park called Emerald Mountain. The second photo was taken in front of a lake looking up into a valley, it took us some time to figure out where it was, but we ended up discovering it was in front of Sheep Lake.
On the day of our hunt we got blessed with fantastic weather, it was a little cold, but nearly perfect. We both brought our film cameras to try and connect a little closer to Mr. Adams. I brought my Mamiya 6x9 medium format camera. I used my digital camera for a light meter getting the settings just right. We went to where we thought the first spot was, but quickly realized we were too close and the perspective was off.
We then headed to a new area of the park we haven't explored yet. This park is so expansive; if you don't section it off when you're exploring, it will be easy to miss things. We ended up walking out into the Moraine and explored the first mile or so of the Fern Lake trail. We then found one of my favorite viewpoints of the park. It's a rock bluff off the path that you have to cross a river to get too. There is a logjam that acts as a bridge, but that might not hold for long.
We then got back to the hunt at hand, driving up over a ridge to get to Sheep Lake, when we realized that we found the perspective of Emerald Mountain! The only thing off for me was the focal length of my lens. It was so neat to be in the same space as this epic photographer. We then headed over to sheep lake to finish the day's adventure. Even though the photos we were referencing were not the most spectacular of Ansel Adams library, we were excited nonetheless to be in his footprints.
The black and white images at the end are my film images. I developed the film myself using New55 monobath.
Photography Date: 10-2-16
Writing Date: 2-27-18
A Time to be Present
For part of my birthday, we did a bit of glamping. It was a canvas tent with full amenities and a wood stove inside. I brought my camera and had made all sorts of plans to shoot on the ranch. When we go there, there was a forest fire nearby that made the air quite hazy, and I immediately started to stress out about getting all my shots. I grabbed my camera and went to work. About 10 minutes later I realized the point of the trip was to relax and destress. Things at work were hectic, and we both needed to chill. So I put my camera away and decided to be in the moment. I don't want to live in fear I'm not capturing a moment and end up missing it all together. There is a time to photograph, and there is a time to be present. It was a good trip.
Photography Date: 9-8-16
Writing Date: 2-27-18
A View From Above
For my birthday, Brittany got Jesse and myself a helicopter tour over Royal Gorge, Colorado. What a pleasant surprise, I would never even thought about asking for something like that. To be honest, I may have also been scared to do something like this.
Jesse came over bright and early as we need to get down south in time for our excursion. Neither of us had done anything remotely close to this, so we were excited to say the lease. We ended up getting there early and had to wait for our tour, so we putzed around taking pictures of neat things around the hanger. When it was finally our turn, we were shocked that we had to wear safety inflatable life jackets (in case we had to emergency land in a lake).
The tour was for an hour, and it felt like it took 6 1/2 minutes, the time went by so fast. We toured over all the nearby foothills, say into a giant open gold mine, saw a long-abandoned brothel, and flew over the gorge to name a few things. It's quite a hard experience to convey. All I know is that I would like to have more skills like that.
After the excursion was through, we made our way to the gorge to peer down inside for ourselves. Just up the road boasted one of the tallest suspension bridges in the world, but it was now a tourist trap, and we didn't feel like paying. To get a sense of depth, the photo taken from the ground of the bridge shows a blue eight-man rubber raft in the water below. This was one of my best birthdays.
Photography Date: 9-3-16
Writing Date: 2-26-18
