p.1 #1 · Wildflowers of Colorado and Cottonwood pass
Last weekend I was camping at the San Juan mountains hoping to shoot wildflowers and stars, but the weather was pretty much cloudy/overcast/rainy most of the time I was there. On the second of my camp sky opened up little bit and gave that moody sky and I really liked that in the given conditions there. On the way back I drove through the newly paved Cottonwood pass (last image in this set), this newly paved mountain pass is finally open (before this wasn't paved most of the west side of the pass) and it's marked double lane all the way! Elevation at the summit is 12119 feet, this is the second highest paved continuous road in US, first place belongs to Trail Ridge road at 12183 ft. This is a very scenic road and a quick one for Crested Butte travelers from Denver area. Absolutely love this highway, drive to Crested Butte area makes much more fun!
p.1 #6 · Wildflowers of Colorado and Cottonwood pass
Tuan Le wrote:
Very nice series. I really like the compositions on 1 and 2 but the uneven focus stacking is a little jarring to me, particularly on 2.
Yes, it was extremely difficult to align the images because of the movements from wind between stacked images. In these I stacked only two images, that caused some area soft. Still looking for a better technique to deal this issue. Thanks for the comment.
p.1 #13 · Wildflowers of Colorado and Cottonwood pass
Shibu,
Unfortunately I will not make it to Colorado this year for the fall .. i'll be back east in the The Adirondacks and Acadia NP + some great local locations Harriman State park & Ricketts Glen. Have a great fall , stay safe and I will look forward to seeing all the wonderful shots.
Reagrds,
Dean
p.1 #14 · Wildflowers of Colorado and Cottonwood pass
shibutg wrote:
Yes, it was extremely difficult to align the images because of the movements from wind between stacked images. In these I stacked only two images, that caused some area soft. Still looking for a better technique to deal this issue. Thanks for the comment.
In situations like this, where wind is moving the flowers around, I personally would shoot at a small aperture like F16 and bump up the ISO as much as needed to get a fast enough shutter speed. Then denoise it in post and sharpen to mitigate diffraction. This can be your backup frame. Then take multiple photos at something like F8 with different focal points. Waiting for lulls in the wind helps. Usually 3 to 5 frames works for me for images like this. I hand blend the results in photoshop, with masking. It can be a pain in the tushie to do this, when the flowers are in different positions in the frames due to wind movement. You can even select the flower in the sharp frame and warp it to fit. If it is too complex you can resort to your backup high ISO frame.....
