Sand Dunes and San Luis Lakes State Park, Alamosa, Colorado - Part 2.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Canon EOS 5D Mark II

ISO - 800

Shutter -1/250 sec.

F/stop - 16

Lens - 70/200 zoom

LOCATION.

1. Great Sand Dune National Park is a four hour drive from Denver.

2. San Luis Lakes State Park is 15 minutes west of the dunes.

3. There is camping or lodging is available in Alamosa, half hour south.

4. Spring is a good time to visit the dunes, the sand is not real hot yet but Medano Creek is flowing. 

THE CHALLENGE.

Arriving at The Great Sand Dunes National Park, the weather was nice but very windy. So the problem was to get good images with out damaging my gear from the blowing sand.

SOLUTION.

I decided to stay off the dunes and use longer glass. I could have put everything in plastic bags and climbed up into the dunes, but would still have to remove the bags to shoot. I'm not going to take a chance with my rear, this sand can be very damaging.

NOTE - This is part two of my shoot, part one was posted April 23,2012.

OTHER SHOT FROM THE DUNES AND SAN LUIS PARK

ALL PHOTOS ARE FOR SALE, CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW

kenpapaleo@highcountrycoloring,com

Ken Papaleo

Colorado Landscape Photographer

303-674-0615

Weekend Flash Back, Crested Butte, Colorado, 11/2/2008.

"X Marks the Shot" information.

Camera - Nikon D2H

ISO - 200

Shutter - 1/2000 sec.

F/stop - 5.6

Lens - 70/200 zoom

Ken Papaleo

Colorado Photographer

kenpapaleo@highcountrycoloring.com

303-674-0615

Sand Dunes and San Luis Lakes State Park, Alamosa, Colorado-Part 1.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Canon EOS 5D Mark II

ISO - 400

Shutter - 1/250 sec.

F/stop - 16

Lens - 70/200 zoom

LOCATION.

1. Great Sand Dune National Park is a four hour drive from Denver.

2. San Luis Lakes State Park is 15 minutes west of the dunes.

3. There is camping or lodging is available in Alamosa, half hour south.

4. Spring is a good time to visit the dunes, the sand is not real hot yet but Medano Creek is flowing. 

THE CHALLENGE.

Arriving at The Great Sand Dunes National Park, the weather was nice but very windy. So the problem was to get good images with out damaging my gear from the blowing sand.

SOLUTION.

I decided to stay off the dunes and use longer glass. I could have put everything in plastic bags and climbed up into the dunes, but would still have to remove the bags to shoot. I'm not going to take a chance with my rear, this sand can be very damaging.

NOTE - This is part one of my shoot, part two will be next Monday, 4/30/2012.

OTHER SHOT FROM THE DUNES AND SAN LUIS PARK

ALL PHOTOS ARE FOR SALE, CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW.

kenpapaleo@highcountrycoloring.com

Ken Papaleo

Colorado Landscape Photographer

303-674-0615

Weekend Flash Back - Aspen, Colorado, 6/13/2008.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Canon EOS-1D Mark II

ISO - 200

Shutter - 1/1000 sec.

F/stop - 5.6

Lens - 70/200 zoom

Ken Papaleo

Colorado Photographer

kenpapaleo@highcountrycoloring.com

303-674-0615

Union Station, Denver Colorado.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Canon EOS 5D Mark II

ISO - 400

Shutter - 1/125 sec.

F/stop - 22

Lens - 16/35 zoom

THE CHALLENGE.

First thing, I had a client that wanted a black and white photo of Denver's Union Station for his office.  To get black and white images, I will still shoot color and then convert the images needed, in photoshop. This way any photo has the option of going color or b & w. 

The real challenge of this shoot came when I arrived at the station, it was undergoing remodeling.  There was a 10 foot fence around it, with heavy duty equipment in use.

THE SOLUTION.

Getting there pretty early saved this shoot. The sun was just rising, leaving a shadow on the lower section of the building, including the construction area.  By using a light reading from the sun lit section of the building, the shadowed area would almost go black.  I also did some creative cropping with wide angle lenses, up close. Back at my computer I did a little burning on the shadowed area.

OTHER UNION STATION IMAGES.

ALL PHOTOS ARE FOR SALE, CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW.

kenpapaleo@highcountrycoloring.com

Ken Papaleo

Colorado Photographer.

Weekend Flash Back - Aspen, Colorado, 6/13/2008.

"X Shot" information.

ISO - 200

Shutter - 1/250 - sec.

F/stop - 11

Lens - 70/200 zoom

Kenneth Papaleo

Colorado Photographer

kenpapaleo@highcountrycoloring.com

303-674-0615

Easter family get together, Arvada, Colorado.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Canon EOS 5D Mark II

ISO - 250

Shutter - 1/80 sec.

F/stop - 6.3

Lens - 24/70 zoom

With the Easter Holiday, I took a break from my normal blog posting and spent time with my family.This was my favorite image from the weekend.

Ken Papaleo

Colorado Photographer

kenpapaleo@highcountrycoloring.com

303-675-0615

Weekend Flash Back - Evergreen, Colorado, 5/13/2008.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Canon EOS-1D Mark II

ISO - 50

Shutter - 1/250

F/stop - 5/6

Lens - 24/70 zoom

Note - off camera strobe was used to light the flowers.

Ken Papaleo

Colorado Photographer

kenpapaleo@highcountrycoloring.com

303-674-0615

Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge - Monte Vista, Colorado.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Canon EOS 5D Mark II

ISO - 500

Shutter - 1/1000 sec.

F/stop - 8

Lens - 500 mm

LOCATION.

1. Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge, Monte Vista, Colorado.

2. Drive time form Denver is about 4 hours.

3. Cranes are gone, think about going next March.

THE CHALLENGE.

I think this was the 20th time photographing the cranes and I always came out of there with something

new. With so many birds and the changing weather, its almost impossible to come up empty.  Therefor  

there really isn't any challenge, just plan on spending a lot of time with the birds to see all of their activities.  

SOLUTION.

When covering something that provides shooting possibilities that last all day, you want to avoid having  your images looking similar. The best way to do this is by using all your lenses. Don't get caught only using big glass. For fun I would decide on using a certain lens and stick with it until I got something good.

Note - An earlier blog was dedicated to the "Dance of the Cranes", posted March 19th, 2012 and this

           is the second blog devoted to Monte Vista Wildlife Refuge, first posted last week, 3/36/12.

OTHER WILDLIFE REFUGE PHOTOS.

ALL PHOTOS ARE FOR SALE, CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW.

kenpapaleo@highcountrycoloring.com

Ken Papaleo

Colorado Wildlife Photographer

303-674-0615