Fun in the Moonshine

... or is that WITH moonshine

Just got back from a nice weekend in the San Juans with good friends. Mel Ladewig and I headed out from my place a little before 5pm and made it up to American basin around 10pm. The full moon was rising so we stayed up until 12:30am playing with the moonlight and a little foreground light painting.

Saturday we shot sunrise in American Basin, hit Stony pass, and met Darren Kilgore and Jimmy Gekas in Ridgeway that afternoon. After leaving Darrens vehicle at the Blue Lakes Trailhead, we made it around to Yankee Boy Basin in time to set up camp and make it almost to the YBB blue lakes trailhead in time for sunset. Remarkably, the road to the trailhead is blocked by snow the last 1/4 mile or so. I've never seen so much snow lingering this late in the season up there.

Sunday saw the boys heading into Blue Lakes. I opted out of the climb due to illness and spent the day in YBB.

Today was sunrise near the CR7 Blue Lakes TH, picking up Mel after hiking down, then heading home. Overall a great weekend.

Info on this pic:
Canon 20D, Tamron 28-73/f2.8@63mm, 304s@f/4. Minimal processing, no noise reduction

Another perspective of the same falls and stream

129s@f5.6

Last one. It's been a long time since I've done any night photography. This was fun. I didn't do much in terms of processing on these. I might take another crack at the processing if these are worth it.
More flowers from the trip sometime soon. See my report in the flower report thread for flower conditions.

122s@f5.6

I like the second image. The water looks really ghostly.

Very cool images Kalin! I really love the green in the first image, and the water in the second! Kinda fun playing that late at night, huh?

I talked to Jimmy this afternoon, sounds like they had a good hike. He said he was a little sore however. Not bad for a guy who just came form about 2 feet above sea level!

Jimmy sent this picture from his iPhone today, showing Darren, Mel and his massive pack and a local marmot giving them an earful!

When I first glanced at the title of this post, I thought that it said "Fun with Moonshine." I like the second shot, but I think that it would look alot better if the water was a little brighter. That kitchen sink in Mel's pack looks awfully heavy.

Really like your second shot, Kalin - sweet. Very dreamy and nice curves and lines.

Did Mel leave **ANYTHING** at home?? Heck, I wanna go backpacking with him, I bet I could hide my entire Nikon setup in that pack!

Pretty cool Kalin. #1 looks best to my eyes. I haven't even looked at my moonlit shots yet, but I know I'll be cloning out some hot pixels.

As for the pack, that's the price (63 pounds) of carting the 4X5 into the wilderness. Other than the 4X5 and a daypack for it, I was carrying the same items as Darren and Jimmy. I'll find out on Friday if it was worth the effort.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. It was fun to shoot these.

Mel, you need to post your loopy shot.

Found it. Please excuse the hot pixels. There were probably 200 hot pixels in this 10 minute exposure.

I really like the potential of that second shot, Kalin. I think its definitely worth the time and effort to improve upon it.

Very cool