Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: MattBurt on May 22, 2017, 01:03:51 pm

Title: Late snow
Post by: MattBurt on May 22, 2017, 01:03:51 pm

American Basin is in the San Juan range of the Colorado Rockies near Lake City. It's a popular summer destination for the spectacular views, numerous waterfalls, abundant wildlife, and seemingly endless wildflowers. The Hinsdale County road crew gets the road, Cinnamon Pass, plowed to the top in mid to late May every spring. At that time there is still usually 5-10' of snow at the high point at about 11,000'.
This early plowing is a gift to backcountry skiers and fortunately for me it always comes around my birthday.
I took Friday off work to go up there and spend the day ski touring with a couple of friends. The night before they got 8-12" of new snow that skied like it was still winter in the the morning.
It was Ullr's birthday gift to me and it was indeed a happy birthday.
I hope skiers in my landscape pics are acceptable here! :)

Climbing up for the warm-up lap.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4186/33980907583_207dc8e29a_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/TLM2WX)IMGP1862-Edit (https://flic.kr/p/TLM2WX) by Matt Burt (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattbnet/), on Flickr

Just off the 14,058' peak of Handies
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4269/34724560116_1159e5fbcf_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/UUurWm)IMGP1955-Edit (https://flic.kr/p/UUurWm) by Matt Burt (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattbnet/), on Flickr

Feeling small
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4248/33982634244_4e7c4dd602_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/TLVTdY)IMGP1963 (https://flic.kr/p/TLVTdY) by Matt Burt (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattbnet/), on Flickr

Title: Re: Late snow
Post by: RSL on May 22, 2017, 02:21:33 pm

Fine stuff, Matt.

Title: Re: Late snow
Post by: BobDavid on May 22, 2017, 05:48:03 pm

Love the first one...

Title: Re: Late snow
Post by: luxborealis on May 22, 2017, 06:07:05 pm

Spectacular conditions and photos, Matt.

Title: Re: Late snow
Post by: MattBurt on May 22, 2017, 06:16:34 pm

Thanks!
It's always challenging to get good photos on these trips because I already have a lot of things to keep track of for survival and I'm at my cardio maximum for much of the day between climbing, skiing, and the altitude (lowest was about 11k that day, highest just over 14,000').

I've found a user preset with the right settings (ISO 400, AF-C, f/10, +1ev, Av mode) helps a ton. I can just compose and fire away and know I'll most likely be stopping the action with a reasonable exposure.

Title: Re: Late snow
Post by: HSakols on May 22, 2017, 06:31:05 pm

Ohhh Bliss!  I'm looking forward for our pass to open so I can put on my boards. Wish I were there!

Title: Re: Late snow
Post by: John R on May 22, 2017, 10:28:51 pm

Excellent images, especially the BW.

JR

Title: Re: Late snow
Post by: Chairman Bill on May 23, 2017, 04:11:39 am

Some great stuff there, and pretty much all monochromatic