Colorado Flowers

In addition to participating here less than I would like, it seems that despite my best intentions I haven't been able to get out and shoot much this summer. However, my family and I made our almost annual trek to northern New Mexico to visit my wife's family at the beginning of this month. I was able to spend one afternoon in the La Plata Mountains in southern Colorado, photographing the great flower display. I would love to have spent three or four days up there, playing with different lighting, but was appreciative of the time that I had.

This is the Cumberland Basin, with Cumberland Mountain in the center and Snowstorm Peak on the right. I used four photos to blend this, increasing the vertical field of view, depth of field, and especially dynamic range (I need to expand my GND selection!). For sport, I’ll post a similar shot with a different foreground in ESS.

Nikon D80
Nikon 12-24mm at 12mm
2-stop gnd
1/90, 1/250, 1/350, and 1/750 at f/16 and ISO 800

This looks like the place to be John.

David M. Cobb

A beautiful addition to your Gallery John. I love the composition of course and you have handled the exposures really well. Nice work!

As nice as your ESS post is, I like this about 10 times more! This is killer.

I agree with Todd--this beats your ESS post!

Very nice John! This is definitely better than the post on ESS. Great clarity, composition, and the contrast is better here too.....not quite as heavy in the FG blacks. The shadows and location of the clouds really help this composition.

I haven't seen the ESS post but I like this one. Makes me wish I where there!