Scott Bacon Photography

Calypso Cascades

2009-07-07T18:06:00.002-06:00

This is the popular Calypso Cascades just 1.8 miles up from the Wild Basin trailhead. The mid-day light was not optimal for rushing water images. But I found this image pleasing to my eye, so I thought I'd share.

Pine Grosbeak

2009-07-06T20:02:00.003-06:00

I ran into this colorful, fluffy, little guy along the Lion Lakes Trail (see previous post) just after sunrise. He was hopping around sipping dew off the bright green Whortleberry leaves and didn't seem to mind my company. This is the first Pine Grosbeak I've seen in all my years of hiking. So he had me guessing at his identification until I got home and looked him up in my bird guide. And yes, he is a "he." :-)

2009-07-05T18:36:00.002-06:00

I started my day very early this morning - waking at 2:15am and driving to the trailhead. I donned my pack and headlamp and left the trailhead just before 4:00am, headed for Lion Lake #1, approximately 6.5 miles into the beautiful Wild Basin area of Rocky Mountain National Park. This is a strenuous hike, and the trail was very wet with snowmelt and remnants of previous day's rains, so I was pleased with my pace. I arrived at the lake shortly before 7:00am - too late for sunrise, but the light was still pretty nice as it worked its way across Mount Alice and down the hillside to the various ponds and lakes. Storm clouds began brewing very early this morning and I watched them pour over the ridges as I grabbed a quick snack. This was mostly a scouting trip (I plan to return later in the summer), so I didn't spend too much time at the lake though the incredible beauty beckoned me to explore for hours.

Here's a shot of Mount Alice before it was enveloped in clouds...

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-04T07:54:00.001-06:00

Here's a shot from last night's fireworks after the Colorado Rockies game at Coors Field...

Rockies Game

2009-06-20T15:47:00.002-06:00

A few from last night's Colorado Rockies game. Big thanks to my friend Brent Doerzman for inviting me to share some great seats. :-) And just to be fair, my camera was being passed around and I'm pretty sure at least one of the following was taken by Brent Murphy.

Fern and Flowers

2009-06-18T18:35:00.003-06:00

It's a little hard to believe that green undergrowth like this is from Colorado. But the season has been extraordinarily wet and the Hanging Lake trail is a wet place.

Piney Lake False Hellebore

2009-06-17T16:49:00.004-06:00

I'd planned on photographing Piney Lake, north of Vail, CO, for sunset last Saturday, but clouds moved in, the ceiling lowered, rain started and the higher elevations were obviously getting snow. Luckily the drive in was not a total bust. The wet meadows were full of Marsh Marigolds, Corn Lily (or False Hellebore) and whatever those pretty little yellow flowers are (I couldn't find an ID for them).

By the way, apparently False Hellebore is quite toxic. So even though those leaves look perfect for your backcountry ceasar salad, definitely refrain from munching on them. ;-)

Butterfly

2009-06-16T19:26:00.002-06:00

I'm not much of a wildlife photographer, and certainly not a insect macro expert. But when the opportunity presents itself, I'll try to get some snapshots. Here's a butterfly that was hanging out on the wildflowers (penstemon?) along the trail to Hanging Lake. Can anyone help with the butterfly ID?

Sunset on Grizzly Peak

2009-06-15T19:06:00.003-06:00

Since he accused me of teasing with just one image from Hanging Lake, this one's for TC. ;-) Thanks for letting me borrow some of your clouds Saturday!

This is Grizzly Peak from the top of Loveland Pass.

More from Ute Pass, Hanging Lake and Loveland Pass on the way. Stay tuned!

Hanging Lake

2009-06-14T08:44:00.002-06:00

I was out and about yesterday hitting a couple new photo spots and an oldie but goodie, Hanging Lake. This is a very popular 1.2 mile hike in Glenwood Canyon, just outside Glenwood Springs, CO. I spent a few hours hanging out for the right conditions - some clouds, no wind, no people in the shot. Here's a quickie with not much processing and 2 out of 3 of the above. :-)

Dominguez Canyons Trip in GE

2009-05-23T09:13:00.003-06:00

Those who know me, know I'm a big Google Earth fan. I use it for planning photo trips and so much more.

I'm still working on my Dominguez Canyons trip report, but I have worked through my GPS tracks from the trip and imported them to Google Earth. Take a look!

Dominguez Canyons Trip in Google Earth

(You will need Google Earth installed on your computer)

One more Big Dominguez waterfall photo

2009-05-14T13:58:00.002-06:00

Here's another perspective of the large waterfall in Big Dominguez Canyon...

2009-05-12T18:02:00.002-06:00

We were lucky to have a powerful thunderstorm passed just North of our sunset photo location. Lucky that we could photograph the storm and even luckier that it didn't dump rain and hail on us!

No Man's Mesa Sunset

2009-05-10T08:28:00.005-06:00

A spectacular view was the reward for the difficult climb to this location above Little Dominguez Canyon.

Spring Green Cottonwood

2009-05-08T17:54:00.003-06:00

In early May, the Dominguez Canyon cottonwood trees leaf out in their perfect spring green colors. Frequent rain storms over the past few days saturated the colors even more.

Backpacking Dominguez Canyons

2009-05-07T20:26:00.003-06:00

I spent 3 days backpacking in the newly created Dominguez Canyons Wilderness, just South of Grand Junction, Colorado. My goals were to explore further into Little Dominguez and some of it's side canyons, and to get a better image of the large, unnamed waterfall in Big Dominguez. Both goals were accomplished!

We had uncommonly rainy weather, but it provided some dramatic skies and kept the temperatures cool. I'll be writing up a detailed trip report with some fun Google Earth gadgetry. But before I get to that, I'll post some images and comments here over the next week or so.

Here is one of my images of the Big Dominguez Waterfall - a three image vertical stitch...

Dominguez!

2009-04-23T15:20:00.002-06:00

I was happy to hear from the office of Colorado Congressman John Salazar requesting the use of one of my images for his April E-Newsletter. Congressman Salazar was a major proponent of the recently passed Omnibus Public Lands Act of 2009 and was at President Obama's side when the bill was signed into law. This bill included the creation of the Dominguez Canyons Wilderness and Congressman Salazar included one of my images from Big Dominguez Canyon in his April E-Newsletter.

I'm excited about the image use, but the creation of more wilderness lands pleases me even more.

A couple links:

Congressman Salazar's Website
More info on the Omnibus Public Lands Act of 2009.

Lightroom 2 Book

2009-04-04T15:55:00.003-06:00

I've been working my way through Nat Coalson's Lightroom 2: Streamlining your Digital Photography Process. I was quite familiar with Lightroom prior to purchasing the book, but I knew that Nat was a real expert and that I'd likely learn some new tricks and techniques. And how!

My rather large photo library is very organized. But tips from the book helped me better integrate 1000s of digitized 35mm, 645, and 4x5 transparencies with all my new digital images. Now my entire digital library is right at my fingertips - searchable and filter-able via Lightroom.

Another cool tip that I just learned is the use of the O key with the crop tool to change the overlay. There are a number of different overlays, all based on well known principles of design - the rule of thirds, golden ratio, diagonal lines, triangles, golden mean, and a grid. These can be very helpful in creating pleasing (cropped) compositions.

I'm only into Chapter 7, so I'll post more of these great tips as I happen upon them.

I highly recommend this book.

More Morning Snow

2009-04-03T14:06:00.002-06:00

Here's another from yesterday morning - same spot, slightly different composition. Fellow nature photographers seemed to like the horizontal better. I like both, for different reasons.

This version is nicely balanced and you can "see" the whole tree in the foreground. But I like the tight crop and foreground of the vertical version too.

Morning Snow

2009-04-02T09:19:00.004-06:00

Colorado has seen a series of recent spring snow storms. This morning I had Chautauqua Park and the Boulder Flatirons all to myself...

Canon 5D Mark II w/ 24-105mm f/4 L IS

New Coloraodo Wilderness

2009-03-31T11:22:00.003-06:00

Yesterday the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act was signed into law. This designates roughly 310,000 acres of new wilderness in Colorado and 2 million acres nationwide. The new wilderness areas in Colorado are the Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness (250,000 acres) and the Dominguez Canyons Wilderness (60,000 acres) which forms the heart of the new Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area (210,000 acres total).

As a nature photographer and wilderness fan, I am happy to see these lands protected for future generations.

In a few weeks, I will return to the Dominguez Canyons for a 3-day backpack trip to explore some areas of the newly designated wilderness. And I am really looking forward it!

Boulder Falls

2009-03-28T09:42:00.004-06:00

This is one of the first Canon 5D Mark II files I've done any significant work on. Its not anything spectacular, but I thought I'd post since the big 5D2 files are so nice to work with. This was taken during mid-day light, so I multi-processed 1 raw file into 4 exposures and blended them, did a little burn and dodge and boosted the contrast and saturation just a tad. With respect to the contrast and saturation of the 5D2 files, I'm really pleased with the way the files come straight out of the camera. Anyway, here is Boulder Falls outside of Boulder, CO.

For Sale

2009-03-12T14:55:00.003-06:00

Since I recently upgraded to the Canon 5D Mark II, I'm selling some of my previous gear. Follow the links for details.

Drop me a note or leave a comment if interested. :-)

Canon 5D Mark II Autofocus Microadjustments

2009-03-07T16:28:00.007-07:00

I ran through an interesting exercise today - evaluating the autofocus microadjustment with the Canon 5D Mark II and 2 of my lenses - the 24-105mm f/4 L IS and the 70-200mm f/4 L. I used the test chart and technique described by Jeffery Friedl. It took about an hour, most of it reading and set-up. Once I started taking and evaluating the test images, it went quite quickly using Adobe Lightroom. I tested each lens at several focal lengths - 24mm, 50mm, 70mm, 105mm, 150mm, and 200mm.

The results? The 24-105mm was spot on and did not require any microadjustment - nice! The 70-200mm was also very close. I ended up setting a -2 adjustment for this lens.

Now its time to get out and actually take some photos. :-)

Canon 5D Mark II First Impressions

2009-03-06T10:18:00.007-07:00

I took delivery of a Canon EOS 5D Mark II yesterday. Throughout the day, in between work and family, I played with the camera and read through the manual. Here are some first impressions, likes, and dislikes...

I'm pleased with the overall build and ergonomics. Much of the button, wheel, dial layout is familiar (coming from the 30D).
The viewfinder is large and bright and the LCD is quite nice.
The menu redesign is much improved.
Live view is cool (coming from large format) and the grid, info and histogram overlays are fantastic. But you can't shoot with mirror lock-up from live view? Bummer. Although, its easy enough to compose in live view, then switch off and shoot with mirror lock-up.
The customizable mode dial settings (C1, C2, C3) and "my menu" are great features that I will use a lot. It will be great to be able to jump from one type of shooting situation to another with the flick of the dial. Here's how I've configured them (for now)...
C1 - Landscape from tripod: Aperture priority starting @ f/16, ISO 100, mirror lock-up, 2 sec. self timer, etc. I'll likely often use live view with this setting.
C2 - Trail and Travel hand-held: Aperture priority starting @ f/11, Auto ISO, single shot
C3 - Wildlife and quick grab: Shutter priority startting @ 250th, Auto ISO, AIServo, multiple shot.
My Menu - Exposure bracketing, format card, mirror lock-up, date and time (I set this often to sync with GPS), long exposure noise reduction.
Image quality - wow! I haven't made any prints, yet. But on screen pixel peeping shows lots and lots of details. I post more on this after I do some printing.
Video - fun! I probably won't use the video for more than casual, documentary. But my kids thought it was cool that we shot video, plugged the camera directly into our HD TV and watched "movies."

I ventured out early this morning for a sunrise shoot. The light was less than stellar, in fact boring, and the few clouds did not light up. But I shot a few frames anyway and processed them in Lightroom. It will take a bit more practice to get the best out of the 5D II files, but here's a preview...