Colorado

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A couple shots from a road-weary traveller this evening. The first is from Monarch Pass looking NW, and it is an attempt at HDR in PSCS2 (still working the bugs out of HDR). The second is from Marshall Pass. I'm working from a laptop so please forgive the quality.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/mdwsr/shawanee.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/mdwsr/marshallPass.jpg

[SWPhotoImaging]

Beautiful country, and beautiful shots.
The last time I crossed Monarch pass, I was driving a 32ft motorhome and pulling a u-haul full of antiques, in the SNOW. I like it a lot better in your pictures.

[sparker1]

Good shots, Mike. I trust you went up on the tram at Monarch Pass. It provides a great view.

[tumb]

SWP - yes, Monarch can be a brake-eater, on either side. We were rushing around trying to get to just the right sunset spot and was just never quite in the right spot at the right time, but today should be better. Plus I got a solid 8 hours sleep last night so I feel much better now.

Stan - we drove up the old Marshall Pass trail and by the time we got back around to Monarch the lift was closed. Today it's up toward Buena Vista and back west around St Elmo. Looking outside it looks much clearer today too, yesterday was a little hazy. I also hear Denver is setting record high temps, hopefully this weather will break soon.

[tumb]

One more while I still have internet. Near Maroon Belles WA:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/mdwsr/1_MG_2201.jpg

[sparker1]

Love this last shot.

[tumb]

Thanks Stan, I'm finally getting the hang of exposing up here. Seems with a bright sky you either have to do lots of mountain and little sky, or auto bracket expose. I'll be working on these pictures through winter, but that's why I come up here every chance I get. Not sure what tomorrow brings, we were planning on camping up high somewhere but there was lots of rain here this evening and more forecast tomorrow.

[kenyc]

Great shots!
KAC

[marie]

beautiful country
love the last shot especially

[tumb]

Got home late last night with just under 600 images to process. This might take all year but what fun! Here's one more quick one that caught my eye, but for now I'm off to clean up and unpack after the trip.

From Lost Lake near Kebler Pass:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/mdwsr/_MG_2398.jpg

[cmM]

clear still waters make for great shot. Love the last one!

[quantabeh]

hello,
the 3rd and the 4th one are my favorite. Nice colors, well contrasted, well saturated.
The first one in my opinion, needs more background and less foreground. I think your position dictated the picture more than your camera positioning. It's still calm and beautiful.
thanks for sharing

[kenyc]

Love that lake picture, the best of the batch so far, IMO.

Looking forward to more...
KAC

[sparker1]

Mike, that's a beautiful shot of Lost Lake. I've been there twice now, and your shot is better than all I've taken. I love Kebler Pass, not only Lost Lake, but Lake Irwin and all the wildflowers and aspens...beautiful.

[tumb]

Thanks for the comments all. It's good in a way to be home if only to be able to use better equipment to process than I was able to carry on the road. I'm gonna work on that first pitiful image when I get time, there are just too many others to get to for now.

Stan - I had been through Kebler a couple times before but was always on a mission to some hiking or mountain bike trail and never had time to really look around. There's some impressive scenery in those 30 or so miles.

I know I said just one more earlier, but I did some tweaking on some Gothic Mountain images with HDR and kinda like how it came out. So this time, only one more since I am pegging out the bandwidth with this thread.

Gothic Mountain before the storms:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/mdwsr/GothicHDR.jpg

And a link to one I feel symbolizes the spirit of Crested Butte. All it needs to be perfect is a rusty old '72 Pinto sitting next to a new Lexus. I tried but this is as close as I could get. There are "community" bikes sitting all around town that anyone can use, all you do is ride it to where-ever you want to go and leave it in a city bike rack. The locals use them all the time. I assume someone goes around every morning and divides them up evenly around town, otherwise all the bikes would be at the taverns:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/mdwsr/_MG_2533.jpg

[sparker1]

Very nice, Mike. You need to make a trip across Kebler in the fall, when all those Aspen are golden. It's a great sight, for sure.

[kenyc]

Love the Gothic Mountain one!

KAC

[bogleric]

All the shots were great to look at. I am suddenly getting the urge for a long road trip! It has been almost 10 years since I was in that beautiful part of the country.

[tumb]

Thanks for the comments all, I finally have most of my images sorted and will post a gallery somewhere on the net as time permits. I have narrowed 590+/- images down to about 185 of my favorites. For the first time I truly understand the term "workflow" (and "The Bridge" is not quite as lame as I previously thought). Now if I could just open multiple raw's...

[marie]

edited
(only saw one last shot . missed the other when I was replying)

last two shots are gorgeous

the first is wonderful.. beautiful

and the second
the peaky mountain looks almost 3D against the clouds
lovely shades of dark and light in the shot

quote
"There are "community" bikes sitting all around town that anyone can use, all you do is ride it to where-ever you want to go and leave it in a city bike rack. The locals use them all the time. I assume someone goes around every morning and divides them up evenly around town, otherwise all the bikes would be at the taverns:

*
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...sr/_MG_2533.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/mdwsr/_MG_2533.jpg) "
__________________


* love the other shot shown in that url very much
what a great idea for having a quick bike ride
that really is thinking with a capitol T

:D

[Becca]

Got home late last night with just under 600 images to process. This might take all year but what fun! Here's one more quick one that caught my eye, but for now I'm off to clean up and unpack after the trip.

From Lost Lake near Kebler Pass:



My absolute favorite of a group of outstanding pictures! Terrific!