RMNP Day Four

Our fourth day at Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) was the most memorable one for me. I already told the full story of the day in my 365 post, so I won’t go into much detail here, but if interested be sure to click the link and check it out for even more pictures as well.

My family and I had decided to climb up Longs Peak on the fourth day since it looked like the weather would be the best then. I was nervous, but was intent on making it to the peak. However, altitude sickness got the best of me and I had to turn around right as the sun was beginning to come up. Luckily I was able to make it a ways up before sunrise so I was still able to get some sunrise picture. Although, I didn’t want to add any extra weight with my tripod so I had to hand hold everything (or rested my camera on a rock).

I don’t usually share personal pictures, but I thought I would share this one that I took of me and my mom on the hike back down just for fun.

While we were hiking up it was completely dark, and so although I could hear a bunch of waterfalls and streams I couldn’t see any. Turning around early ended up working out well for photographs though, because the light on all of the little streams was just perfect.

Once we got back to the parking lot we took some naps and read and just relaxed while waiting for the rest of our group to finish their hike. After a bit we decided to go on a short little hike to an old mining sight. There wasn’t much left there, but I did get some more pictures of streams and waterfalls of course.

When we got back we didn’t have long to wait before half of our group (one of my brothers and my sister) got back to the parking lot, so we chatted with them until my dad arrived to bring some of us back to the campsite. The storms were starting to roll in at that point, which created the usual amazing clouds. I couldn’t resist taking pictures so I stuck my camera out the window once again.

At the campsite I sat in my hammock reading and sleeping until my other brother and his wife came back with my mom. Since they made it to the peak they didn’t finish until 3:00pm or so. Once everyone was back we went in to town to shower for the first time all week, and eat a quick dinner since we were all too tired to make anything. On the drive back into the campsite there was a rainbow right over the valley, so I hopped out of the car to get some pictures, and was surprised by a second rainbow showing up. All I could think of was the double rainbow video, which if you haven’t seen it be sure to go check it out if you want to get a good laugh for the day.

I had been wanting to capture the mountains in the valley at sunset all week, and this was as close as I was going to get, which luckily ended up being pretty good timing.

And now I have finally shared all of the pictures from our stay at Rocky Mountain National Park; it only took me a couple of months. I hope you all enjoyed them!

Memory + An Update

It has been a bit since I have posted here on my blog. Partly because I have been busy, and partly because I have been putting it off. I am currently taking a photography class with the goal of getting a portfolio ready for grad school. However, I have struggled so much with trying to come up with a concept that I was really happy with and that I felt could really grow into something. The frustration that resulted from that struggle brought me to have a “crisis” of sorts with my photography. That combined with my very busy schedule make me question my 365.

So, I have come to the conclusion that I will no longer continue with my 365 at this point. Honestly, I am somewhat disappointed in myself, but I feel like it is hurting more than helping at this time, and that I need to be focusing on grad school related things and work. My 365 was just draining me, and although I was getting decent images I felt like it wasn’t pushing me in the right direction. My energy and attention needs to be spent on other things right now. I will still be taking photographs (obviously), and will still be posting as often as I can, but my 365 is on hold.

On a different note, I thought I would share one image that may become part of my project for this semester. I don’t want to give many details because I am still working a lot of things out about it, but at its core this project is about memory. This image is an in-camera, digital double exposure. The only editing I did was to boost the contrast a tiny bit, otherwise it is straight out of the camera.

And lastly, I just want to say thank you to everyone who has stuck with me, and all the support that you all have given me. I hope you guys stick around and bear with me as I figure out where to go from here!

109/365 – Ink

This is where I spent my night, and will be spending most of my weekend. Between printing stuff for critique and getting thing mats ready I will be in studio almost constantly over the weekend, and pictures for this project may suffer because of it.

108/365 – Train Station

In hopes of finding some sort of grand inspiration for my project for the semester I went out driving this morning. I ended up in Paris, Kentucky for a little bit, and found this abandoned train station. At least that is what I assumed it was.

I didn’t really figure out anything in terms of a concept for my project, but I got some good, non-conceptual pictures which is better than nothing I suppose.

107/365 – Clear

The title of this is somewhat ironic for me right now, since not much is clear at the moment. With my critique coming up in less than a week I decided tonight that I am scrapping my originally idea and starting from nothing. I have no clue what to do for my project, and it has been wearing down on me all day. Which is why I have yet another simple, night-time candle shot. Tomorrow I am getting up early to drive around and just shoot in hopes of finding inspiration, so at the very least I will have something different for my 365.

 

106/365 – Melt

Today was a such a long day. I was pretty much running from one thing to the next, and so I am just now having time to deal with my 365. And the scary thing is that every day this week is going to be like this and worse. My 365 may be lacking creativity and effort for the next week because of it, so bear with.

RMNP Day Three

On our third day at Rocky Mountain National Park we decided to take it easy, since we were going to be climbing Longs Peak the next day. We woke up and took our time getting ready for our hike more than we usually do, so I had time to grab some pictures of the flowers around our campsite with the morning dew and sun.

Our easy hike for the day ended up being to Bierstadt Lake. The hike was a pretty steep one, and we were mostly in the woods so there wasn’t much of a view except for a few times.

When we arrived at the lake I was in awe. It was absolutely stunning there, like a dream. We spent the afternoon sitting by the lake, reading, with my feet in the water. It couldn’t have been much more perfect.

The water was so incredibly clear, and it was surprisingly warm for being a mountain lake. It was perfect for dangling my feet in while I read.

For those of you who have been following my blog, you may remember that my 365 for this day was a duck. We were sitting there relaxing and this duck swam up and just hung around us for a while. So of course I took a ton of pictures.

Then the afternoon storms started to roll in. We wanted to get down to our car before it started to rain, but my brother and dad had gone off to hike to another lake so while we waited around for them I got some more pictures of the incredibly scenery and the clouds that were moving in.

My brother started skipping rocks then, which I couldn’t avoid taking a picture of, so I went with it.

And lastly, I couldn’t leave the lake without showing some love to my analogue sunrise decorated nalgene.

 

105/365 – White

This is not my best splash picture, but it had been a while and I had some ideas I wanted to try out. I still need to perfect a few things before sharing those though, so for now, something a little plain and mundane. And I had no clue what to title it, the title is plain and mundane as well.

RMNP Day Two

The second day of our stay in Rocky Mountain National Park was yet another amazing day. As I mentioned in my 365 from that day, we drove up Trail Ridge Road and had stunning views the entire way.

I will start things off with some pictures from the drive. We stopped at one point at a pull off to take in the views. There was a trail that led up to the top of that particular mountain, and we were surrounded by tundra, clouds, and more mountains. It was absolutely amazing, and I was left in awe of it all. The pictures don’t do it justice.

There were a bunch of little lakes tucked in the mountains, was yet another thing that made me fall in love with the area. It would have been amazing to be able to hike to some of them. If you look close in this photograph you can see one.

Besides the amazing, grand view, there were some tiny little details that had me in awe. I fell in love with all the little tundra flowers that were growing up there. They were so incredibly small, but have to be so strong and resilient.

After our brief stop we continued driving. I took a crazy amount of pictures out of the window while on our way, but I will only share a few. This first one I really wish the trees weren’t there, but I still love the rest of the scene so I thought I would share it anyways.

After weaving through the mountains on the country’s highest paved roads we arrived at the trailhead for the Lulu City hike and started on our way. The Lulu City was an old mining city, but all that was left of the “city” was one, barely noticeable cabin that was rotting away; only the bottom few logs were left. The hike itself didn’t have the best views but it was still a really nice hike through a drastically different type of landscape than the day before. That is one thing I loved about the Rocky Mountains, the huge range of landscapes that you come across in just one day’s hike even.

We had to cross a crazy amount of streams on our hike. There were some bridges that broke during the flooding from the snow melt that spring so it made things a little more exciting. Most were just tiny little streams though, but they added something special to the hike none the less.

And of course more flowers. I absolutely loved all the wildflowers blooming out there.

The trail ended up at the Colorado river, where we stopped to rest and eat lunch. Talk about a great spot for a picnic!

On the drive back we stopped at the Alpine Visitor Center, which had some amazing views. When we got there a huge cloud had moved in and you could hardly see anything, but luckily it moved out pretty quick and then the clouds were pretty amazing.

These two images were are very similar, but they showed off some different things and I just couldn’t decide between them.

We also stopped at a lake on the way back, since it was just a short little walk to it.

And, just like on the way to the hike, I had my camera stuck out the window for most of the drive back.

 

 

104/365 – Night Lights