Colorado Car Camping

One of my favorite things to do when the wildflowers are blooming in Colorado is to explore the rugged San Juan Mountains near Ouray and Telluride. ... more

by Mike Berenson

Title

Colorado Car Camping

Artist

Mike Berenson

Medium

Photograph

Description

One of my favorite things to do when the wildflowers are blooming in Colorado is to explore the rugged San Juan Mountains near Ouray and Telluride. Sometimes, I like to go for a hike and other times, I let my vehicle do the work. Here I'm car camping near the 4WD high point in Governor Basin below some beautiful Colorado Columbine and rugged Saint Sophia Ridge.

As it turned out though, I wasn't alone... I had a friendly deer to help keep me company. This image was captured at sunset from high up in Governor Basin near Ouray, Colorado.

How I Got The Shot
From the moment I stopped at the spot for the night, I knew I wanted an interesting perspective that included the pretty blooming Columbine. And with the rugged ridgeline above, it made for an interesting stretched vertical perspective.

I went for a little hike to check out the area a little more and decided this perspective would work well. When the skies started to light up, I made sure I was ready. I didn't do anything fancy in shooting, just a little exposing to the right. This helped to make sure my image looked good with lots of good details from the Columbine in the foreground to clouds up top.

The creative side of me liked the results even more when I looked at it with Topaz Simplify so I decided to run with the oil painting effect.

Photo Gear
• Camera Body - Nikon D800 Digital SLR Camera
• Camera Lens - Bower 35mm f/1.4 Lens for Nikon
• Tripod Head - Acratech GV2 Ball Head / Gimbal Head with Lever Clamp & Acratech Large Leveling Base
• Tripod Legs - FEISOL Elite CT-3472 Rapid Tripod Legs
• L Bracket - Kirk BL-D800 L-Bracket for Nikon D800, D800E and D810

Exposure Settings - Single Exposure
• ISO:100
• Aperture: f/16
• Shutter Speed: 4 seconds

Uploaded

November 16th, 2015