Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Getting High in Colorado


Nooooo, not that kind of high. Even though it is legal now in Colorado no wacky weed was used in making these photos.


The kind of high I'm talking about is the way up there kind, as in elevation.

We found this small snow melt lake at 13,000 feet. I don't think I've ever seen water so clear. Now I know why the beer tastes so good!

Even with the ice floating in the water I was wishing I had my underwater housing with me because I saw more than a few split shots I would have loved to have taken. 

If you are out of shape like I am, working this high for any period of time is pretty tough. At 13,000 feet your body only absorbs about half the amount of oxygen it normally does at see level. After being above the 10,000 foot level for about four hours I was exhausted and everyone else in the car was light headed, dizzy and having headaches. I was the only one climbing around the mountain like a goat trying to get photos. I think everyone else was thinking "what an idiot" but I couldn't help myself, I've been locked away at work for too long.

I plan on going back again in the fall and I will be renting an oxygen tank when I go. I could spend all day above 10,000 feet just because of all of the photo opportunities up that high.


This last shot was taken with the fisheye lens and then I took the bend/curve out of it using photoshop.

5 comments:

  1. glorious! god's country, indeed.

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  2. Wonderful images. I know about that dizzy feeling in the mountains. Whenever I return from such a trip I'm very sleepy :)

    Mersad
    Mersad Donko Photography

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  3. Sometime we have work little harder for the money shot! But, sometime I forgot about my age vs. the elements. I guess when I get to your age I will understand why things moving slower than it looks. LOL.

    These are very very nice shot! Could you provide the location of this shot, and did you use the LEE filters?

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    1. Q, these were taken on Mt. Evans about an hour oustside of Denver and we were right at 13,000 feet. If you head up there you can't miss it but you have to go between Memorial Day and Labor day because during the winter they close the mountain due to the huge amount of snow it gets.

      The fishey and vertical shots were taken without a filter and the first shot I used a .9 ND grad filter on and took a five shot bracketed series and stacked them.

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  4. Guess that's the Colorado Rocky Mountain High John Denver was singing about... And the sky is a much richer blue at that elevation too!

    Very nice pictures, I especially like the way that first picture came out!

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