Messin’ with Perspective

During our trip to Great Sand Dunes National Park at the end of the summer, I continued playing with perspective in my shots.  The new camera I got last year has a tilt-out screen allowing me to see what I’m shooting even if I can’t shoehorn my body into position behind the viewfinder – a handy feature to have as I get older and I get a little less nimble!  What I discovered during this trip is that this new little trick can really mess with your head when it comes to perspective in a picture.  Naturally, that’s made it my new favorite toy to play with!

I started experimenting with this new technique on our first morning hike on the dunefield.  The low angle on the old, weathered tree stump made it a touch more interesting than just the simple straight-on shot.

Next up was some greenery.  That’s when things started getting interesting… judging from the picture, is this a 4-inch tall weed or a 3-foot high bush?

Believe it or not, that’s just a random weed on the dunefield that’s only a few inches tall!  Looking at the shot on the camera after I took it, I was pleased with it.  It wasn’t until post-processing where I realized that the super-low angle really messes with how to interpret this picture.  Kinda fun!

The next morning, the sun was out in all of its glory, making for better photography conditions.  That’s when we stumbled on this sand… cliff or ridge?

It doesn’t look it, but that’s really only a 6- or 8-inch ridge of sand left from Medano Creek earlier in the season.  When I looked at the picture when we got home, I couldn’t believe how tall the ridge looked!  It reminded me of the cliffs you see along some of the Pacific coast beaches.

Last-up, I tried applying this technique to the ripples in the sand created by the wind on the dunes themselves.  I don’t think it warps the perspective quite as much as the weed or sand ridge, but it lent itself to grabbing detail and playing with depth of focus in the shot.

I’ll certainly be doing more of these shots down the road.  Can’t wait to see what I can come up with to turn a mundane shot into something really special!!

– JC

Hidden Gem

One of the bonuses of my husband’s job in conservation is that some of the conferences he attends include “sessions” that involve hikes and other outdoor activities in and around the host city.  (For those of us who are stuck in dimly lit hotel ballroom/dining room settings on uncomfortable chairs for hours on end for conferences, it seems like a dream!  So jealous!)  This year’s Colorado Open Space Association annual meeting in Estes Park did just that.

One of his “sessions” (and I can’t make the air quotes big enough online!) was a hike in some Larimer County open space called Hermit Park just outside of Estes Park.  Turns out we’d driven by the entrance a few times going to/from Rocky Mountain National Park, but we’d never turned in since we were aiming for “the big park”.  Boy, were we missing something good!  Even though it was cloudy and crappy the day my husband’s conference took him up there, he saw enough that he knew he’d be taking me back there.

And so he did.  A few weeks later we went for a jaunt up to the highest point in Hermit Park and it was stunning!  Since you’re sitting slightly south and just east of Rocky, the views are phenomenal!  These shots are just a sampling of the visual goodies we found that day, shot on my phone since it was a “test run” of sorts.

I’m sure we’ll get back here down the road and I can’t wait!

 

– JC

Foggy Drama

(Originally posted November 5, 2012)

Foggy Morning – Valley Forge NHP

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry… and that was certainly the case on this steamy August morning when I grabbed this shot at Valley Forge National Historic Park!

Things were lining up perfectly for a foggy, sticky sunrise shoot on an early August morning, so I made a last-minute call the night before to go for it.  The day started with a 4:30am wake-up to get myself and the gear together so I could arrive at the park, find my location, and get setup by 5:30 or so to catch the first rays of sunlight as they split through the trees and the valley.  The nearly-full moon was going to be setting within an hour of the sunrise too!  Sounds like a recipe for some good pictures, right?  Well, life had some different thoughts on the matter.

I dragged my sleepy body, cup of coffee, and my camera gear into the car.  Then I turned the key in the ignition – nothing.  Absolutely nothing from the car.  No lights, no turning of the engine, no clicking.  Just silence.  Not good.

Thinking of ditching the shoot and just heading back to bed was certainly an option, but my husband let me borrow his car for the morning so I could get on with my day.  Wonderful – problem solved, and quite easily.  After a quick switch of vehicles, I was frustrated and wondering what was up with my car, but I put that in the back of my mind and headed off to the park.

As I arrived at the park entrance in the darkness and thick fog, the gates were still closed with nary a sign of life that they would be opening anytime soon.  Dang it!  I’ve gotten sunrise shots in the park before during the winter without problems – I just needed to figure out how to get in for today’s shoot.  With nowhere to put the car, I headed down the street to the local casino (of all places) knowing that I could park there in a well-lit area and do some research on my phone.  That’s when I remembered that the park doesn’t open until 7am – not at dawn.  Double dang it!!  Clearly, the fog wasn’t only outside of the car because it seems I needed more coffee or more sleep.

After this latest blip, I was determined to get some kind of session in because the fog was making the scenery really eerie and that couldn’t be passed up.  The park is big, with some main state roads going through it, so I figured there had to be a way in.  I drove around a bit more and managed to find a parking area along one of the main public drags that would suffice, so off I trekked to see if I could find something good.

It wasn’t long after I setup that I came upon this scene behind the Maurice Stephens house.  The tree and the fog in the valley certainly play a big part in the scene, though I think the thing I like most about this shot is the little optical illusion I was able to create.  On a quick glance, some may think that the structure next to the tree is a small house or a cottage.  It’s not – it’s a chicken coop or some kind of colonial shed structure!  The way it was positioned next to the tree made the building look smaller than it was (or the tree look bigger than it actually is).  Quite a lovely surprise!

So, with this shot and a few others tucked away, I returned home to start working on my car troubles.  It turns out it was – thankfully – just a dead battery.  It was so dead that the first time we jumped it, it only kept the car running for about 500 feet before it lost power again and we had to get it towed to our mechanic!  After a bumpy start to the day, it all worked out with a couple of fantastic summer shots in Valley Forge and a minor car repair bill.  Phew!!

– JC

PS – We were extremely fortunate and only sustained a little minor damage during Hurricane Sandy, so our lives returned to normal quite quickly.  Others were far, far less fortunate, and we here at Alpha Pup Photography are sending out our thoughts and prayers to everyone – both along the coastlines and in the mountains that were pummeled with snow – who have lost so much and face a long road to recovery.