Colorado

Here is my Colorado page. I moved to Colorado in 2001 after graduating college and discovered the wonderful world of wilderness in the mountains. I already had experience of nature photography but here is where I decided to get into it and do exploring myself. I did lots of hiking and camping with a little bit of backpacking to capture the wonders. I even became friends with John Fielder who was a an awesome Nature photographer himself and I learned a lot from him. We did several hikes and camping trips as well. One backpacking trips with two Llamas even, to carry our heavy load for 4 nights. In the first 4 years in Colorado I used slide film exclusively because of the cost of digital cameras. In 2005 I got my first DSLR.

Aspen Leaves

Aspen leaves on the forest floor after a storm of some wind to blow the leaves down as well as some rain.

Maroon Bells near Aspen, CO

Early winter storm with a little fall color on some trees still. I went camping with a tiny bit of rain falling. Woke up to almost a foot of snow.

Boulder Falls

Early winter with the water flowing well but ice everywhere. Just outside the town of Boulder up into the foothills.

Paradise Divide, Central Mountains

A beautiful mountain pass near Crested Butte

Paradise Divide

Just outside Crested Butte on a one way 4wd mountain pass. So beautiful with fall colors in the fall and spring flowers in early summer.

Peanut Lake

Sunrise on a John Fielder workshop near Crested Butte in the Central Mountains

Ice Lake, just over 12,000 ft

Turquoise blue lake in the San Juan mountain in southwestern Colorado. Above treeline and the only water going into the lake is the ice melt directly above it.

Longs Peak Moonset

Longs peak in Rocky Mountain National Park. During full moon the sun rises almost exactly the same time the moon sets in the opposite side of the sky. Perfect timing ...planned in advance and good weather was luck.

Longs Peak Moonset

Here is the moon setting right behind Mt Meeker which is directly beside Longs. You have to line up in adcance so the moon is directly behind the peak itself....only problem comes when there is a cliff blocking the perfect location.

Colorado Columbine

The state flower of Colorado. The focus is on the bright yellow stamen in the center of the flower

Blue Spruce tree

The beautiful vibrant tree is young and very healthy compared to the pine trees behind it. A lot of pine trees in Colorado are dying because of a 'Pine Bark Beetle' Its devistating and thousands of trees are dying all across the state with no cure or anything to help whatsoever.

Francie's Cabin just outside Breckenridge

This cabin is in the forest a little ways out of the ski town. Very historic and quaint. Full times taking the photo outside of the night sky for for 2 hrs and 20 minutes. Someone turned on a light at 1:30am but thats fine. The moon was just rising at this time.

Cottonwood Pass

Camping near Cottonwood Pass in south central Colorado mountains. Pass is a little over 12,000 ft and only open in the summer and fall with great colors.

Cottonwood Pass

Beautiful sunset where I set up camp just in time to get this photo. Pretty sure I did it in a hurry.

Bald Eagle

I was floating down the Colorado River with my friend John Fielder and when we saw some eagles we pulled over and got some good photos with our long lenses and fairly good light at midday.

A random painter right in front of the Maroon Bells near Aspen, CO.

I took a photo and then told the painter I was just taking a couple photos so don't worry. He was cool with that. If you look closely at the painting you can see the mountain if you know the Colorado mountains at all.

Ice Lake, San Juan mountains

This beautiful lake sits a little over 12,000 ft a little south of Telluride.

Rock flour forms as things begin to warm and glaciers melt, filling up the basin with water. The finely ground rock is so light that it sits near the lake's surface where it reflects light back to our eyes, making the water appear both opaque and bright.

Ice Lake with more montains

This area has several 13,000 ft peaks surrounding it.

Rock flour forms as things begin to warm and glaciers melt, filling up the basin with water. The finely ground rock is so light that it sits near the lake's surface where it reflects light back to our eyes, making the water appear both opaque and bright.

A Moose

This is a moose in the Front Range on Guanella Pass. Very large it stands above the brush for clear visibility

A black bear just outside Breckenridge

I was heading from my car to a cabin and saw the bear crossing the dirt road so I went to the edge of parking lot and snapped a few photos. It just crossed the road to the other side so no worries

Wildflowers in the central mountains on a wildflower hike near Breckenridge

At an elevation of around 10,000 ft its not too bad compared to some others I have listed here.

Wildflower hike near Breckenridge

On a wildflower hike with my friend John Fielder. We are up in the mountains a little out of town with some puffy gray clouds to make it interesting.

Shrine Pass Star trails

This is a 12 minute photo in the mountains about 20 miles outside of Vail. The shadow inside the tent is me with my headlamp. I scouted out the area between my tent and the camera to make sure it was clear so I could get from the camera to my tent without a headlamp, Otherwise you would see me in the picture. Once I got into the tent I turned on my light to make the tent glow. Just a couple seconds inside with the lamp was good enough and then crawl back to camera.
Now I have a camera where I can use my phone to press the shutter release. I haven't bothered to figure that out since I haven't camped recently.

San Miguel River near Telluride

The San Miguel river starts below Mt Sneffels and heads through Telluride. This is in the San Juan Mountain in southwest Colorado

Rawah Wilderness

A magnificent sunrise in the wilderness where the lake has some sort of mist