Ken Papaleo: X Marks the Shot: October 2012

Elk in the fall, Evergreen, Colorado.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Canon EOS 5D Mark II

ISO - 400

Shutter - 1/2500 sec

F/stop - 4.5

Lens - 70/200 zoom

LOCATION.

1. Evergreen Lake is 20 minutes south on the Evergreen Parkway, off I-70.

2. This location is usually good for some kind of photo, wildlife, boating, fishing, ice skating and ice

fishing are some of the activities that go on here, depending on the time of year.

CHALLENGE.

With this activity real close to my house, I go there often for a shoot. In the mornings and evenings your chances of seeing wildlife are pretty good. I knew a big herd of elk where in this area for the last couple of days so I went to check it out one late afternoon. Now, I have photographed elk in Evergreen area for a long time so my challenge ever-time, is to find something I haven't seen before. So that was the challenge again this time.

SOLUTION.

I found the herd as soon as I reached Evergreen Lake. They were messing up traffic while crossing hwy 74. After photographing for awhile, two things of interest caught my eye. First was that they swim, I have never seen that before and the second was after swimming to the other side of the stream, they shook like dogs and water went everywhere. It was pretty easy to get images of them swimming and I liked the shots. To show them shaking water, I would have to get in a back-lit situation. By doing this, the water would be very bright and stand out nicely. Using a very high shutter speed would stop any movement. Now the exposure would be tricky. First thing was to find a spot where I could be shooting in the shade, this would stop lens-flare. Nothing worked so I took off my Loveland Ski Area ball cap and held it out in front of my lens, finding the spot where the cap would cast it's shadow on my lens. I took my reading off the glowing water in the stream, then waited for the shaking begin. Most of the time, my challenge with shooting elk falls short or doesn't happen at all. But today I got two new images that I haven't shot before.

OTHER PHOTOS FROM THIS SHOOT.

ALL PHOTOS ARE FOR SALE, CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW.

kenpapaleo@highcountrycoloring.com

Ken Papaleo

Colorado Wild Life Photographer

303-674-0615

Weekend Flash Back - Moffat, Colorado, 4/19/2005.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Nikon D2H

ISO - 200

Shutter - 1/100 sec.

F/stop - 22

Lens - 70/200 zoom

Ken Papaleo

Colorado Photographer

kenpapaleo@highcountrycoloring.com

303-674-0615

Fall Photos from Evergreen and foothills area, Colorado.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Canon EOS 5D Mark II

ISO - 400

Shutter - 1/200 sec.

F/stop - 16

Lens - 70/200 zoom

CHALLENGE.

This was my 300th post and I decided to do a fall shoot in my home town of Evergreen and the near by foothills. There aren't to many mountain scenic areas in Evergreen, most everything is below the tree line. I would have to find a great color location that could be strong enough to carry the image with out the help of nice mountains.

SOLUTION.

I found my shot early in the morning at Lair of the Bear Park, east of Evergreen. The section had great color with a black background of shadows. The light was real low and backlit. By using some leaves in the foreground (top right) as a shield from the low in coming sun, I was able to get a nice clean look at my subject. Exposing for the high lights only, this photo was shot.

OTHER PHOTOS FROM THIS FALL SHOOT.

ALL PHOTOS ARE FOR SALE, CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW.

kenpapaleo@highcountrycoloring.com

Ken Papaleo

Colorado Landscape Photographer.

303-674-0615

Weekend Flash Back - Denver, Colorado, 10/19/2005.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Nikon D2H

ISO - 500

Shutter - 1/200 sec.

F/stop - 13

Lens - 16/35 zoom

Ken Papaleo

Colorado Photographer

kenpapaleo@highcountrycoloring.com

303-674-0615

Aspen shoot in Ashcroft, Colorado.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Canon EOS 5D Mark II

ISO - 400

Shutter - 1/1000

F/stop - 5.6

Lens - 500 mm

NOTE - A mono-pod was used for this shot.

LOCATION.

1. Ashcroft is about a 4 hour drive from Denver.

2. The Ashcroft road is right next to the Maroon Bell road in Aspen Colorado.

3. Being next door to the Bells, this area is hardly ever crowded.

4. These photos were shot 3 weeks ago, I'm sure that most of the color is gone by this time.

CHALLENGE.

This was my third location on this aspen shoot. The weather hasn't been great, but you work with whats there. My "X Shots" from the Maroon Bells and Basalt shoots were landscapes with mountains and aspens so this time I wanted something different.

SOLUTION.

I forced myself to take a closer look at what was in front of me. Seeing a nice sections of trees off in the distance, I decided to use my 500 mm lens, to bring them in close. The trees were close to each other but had different colors, which made it much more interesting.

OTHER PHOTOS FROM MY ASHCROFT SHOOT.