Spent the night at Porphyry Basin, and the flowers were plentiful and in excellent condition for being a couple of weeks early.
I was only able to get one halfway decent image between the wind, rain/hail and some fool setting up a tent right at the base of the falls.
Still, the rain was so very welcome. We've been in a good monsoonal flow now for several days. Hope y'all can get into the high country down here in the next week or so.
3 image blend for optimal DOF.
Compression artifacts took their toll here.
Mmmmm... the word "verdant" immediately came to mind. Wonderful comp that puts me right in the scene - particularly the tall paintbrush bloom at the bottom. Agreed that compression is a factor in this version. I'd be tempted to post at smaller dimensions and higher quality. Downsizing to 1000 or 900 pixels wouldn't hurt the presentation, and the gains in quality might be worth it. Regardless, it's a wonderful scene and a dramatic contrast to the "Colorado is burning" images ubiquitous on the web.
Nice to see some color in the mountains. Hearing about the Monsoonal moisture gives me hope that we may have a nice display of flowers in two weeks in Ice Lakes.
John, I agree with Ricks comment about downsizing the image. I've decided to use the "View Large Photo" option to show an image in the 700-800 pixels area that doesn't challenge the compression limitations. The larger file the worse the compression. 500k is not much information.
I love the low field of view here and the focus stacking really makes a huge difference. I do wish there were a few paintbrush in the lower left corner.
The clarity, composition, and exposure are dead on for me. Sure hope this rain will improve whatever high country flowers are left to bloom. I may try to get into Indain Peaks Wildnerness next week.
Sweet. I have a feeling it's going to be an early wildflower year because of the lack of snowpack and the heat we've been having but if we get continued monsoonal moisture that would definitely help to prolong things. What a nice, healthy crop of paintbrush and arnica you found. Looks like Marti Gras colors!
Nice! That's encouraging! Reading the wildflower reports has prompted me to head over that way for an overnighter since I don't know when I'll be able to get out again. Still deciding where to spend the night. Porphyry Basin is still on my list, so maybe I'll check it out.
Thanks for sharing, John.
Sweet shot John. Love the comp. Boy that waterfall has a low flow. Hopefully, the monsoons will build it back up. Gonna try to get out there this weekend. Hopefully, there'll be some flowers left!
Discussion
21 repliesI was only able to get one halfway decent image between the wind, rain/hail and some fool setting up a tent right at the base of the falls.
Still, the rain was so very welcome. We've been in a good monsoonal flow now for several days. Hope y'all can get into the high country down here in the next week or so.
3 image blend for optimal DOF.
Compression artifacts took their toll here.
Joe Rogers
Glad you could get 3 shots off between the wind gusts.
Those look about as good as they were last year in the second week of August.
A big 'Thanks!' to Doug Koepsel for the heads up on the early conditions.
Nice to see some color in the mountains. Hearing about the Monsoonal moisture gives me hope that we may have a nice display of flowers in two weeks in Ice Lakes.
John, I agree with Ricks comment about downsizing the image. I've decided to use the "View Large Photo" option to show an image in the 700-800 pixels area that doesn't challenge the compression limitations. The larger file the worse the compression. 500k is not much information.
I love the low field of view here and the focus stacking really makes a huge difference. I do wish there were a few paintbrush in the lower left corner.
Nicely done!
Thanks for sharing, John.