"X-Shot" Information
ISO - 400
Camera - Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III
Shutter - 1/160
F/stop - 22
Lens - 70/200 zoom
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My goal was to visit the Walden area to photograph moose. By the third morning the moose were located and I made my shots. During the rest of the time, I photographed the beautiful sunrises and sunsets. I decided to use these in this week's blog and run the moose and other wildlife next week. The key to getting good photos was the clouds that were around all day. In the morning they turned beautiful colors but were black and stormy in the evening. I had not seen so many sun rays breaking through the clouds as I did on this trip and that's where my "X-Shot" came from. Shooting a sun ray picture presented a couple of problems. First, you have to get an accurate reading of the rays and this was done by using a large lens to get a reading from the bright sun rays. Then that reading was used with my zoom lens. The second problem was I didn't know how far away the sun rays were from the mountains in the background. Using an f/stop of 22 would give me the best chance of getting everything in focus. The real key to this photo was that I didn't get locked into just looking for and shooting moose. I kept my mind open and shot everything that looked good to me. So if I hadn't found any moose, I wouldn't go home empty handed.
"X-Shot" Information
1. Drive time from Denver is about 3 hours.
2. If you want to be at a shooting location by sunrise, it comes up about
5:30 AM. For sunset pictures, it goes down around 8:30 PM.
3. Good shooting locations cane be found going east out of Walden on
County Road 12A and all of the roads breaking off of it. Be sure to read all
signs in this area. Some roads are private but most are county roads with
private land on both sides. You will see signs saying "Private" but there
will also be signs telling you that you can travel on these county roads,
but you can't leave them. Many great shoots can be taken from the
roads.
Ken Papaleo
Colorado Nature Photographer
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