Anatomy of a Composition - Dallas Divide
Colorado’s summer has become progressively hotter and drier, interspersed with a few days of intense rain. This is good and bad, as the benefits of warmer nights mean crops can grow, but the oppressive heat drags on the patience of nature and humans alike, leaving each more vulnerable to idiosyncrasies and minor annoyances alike.
This image was captured on a Sunday evening, after a day of exploring different locations around Telluride, looking for specific waterfalls and new vistas to photograph once autumn arrives. Both of these tasks were completed, and the waterfall will be posted soon here in the pages, and as I think forward to what autumn will offer I’m really looking forward to seeing the changing colors that I missed last year. This photograph represented closure on a mid-July trip through the San Juans, one I was so grateful to get to complete, that took me to some of my favorite locations.
Even though it was only four nights, the Asters, Fireweed, Corn Lily, Lupine, Blue-Bells, Old-Man-of-the-Mountain, Columbine, and Paintbrushes - all were in abundance and absolutely breathtaking, yet each location seemed to favor a particular set of flowers. The American Basin showed the greatest variety, with Paintbrushes dominating Stony Pass, the Asters were alive all over Last Dollar Road, and Fireweed and Old-Man-of-the-Mountain concentrated around Crested Butte.
The low, green plateau in the immediate foreground leads back to Mt. Sneffels Wilderness, and area fed by only a few county roads ensuring that it misses a lot of the pressure that more popular places receive. But this little rest area off the highway offers the most photogenic composition of the mountain range, and I was happy to wait out the sunset as the clouds and light put on their simple show.
If you would like to see some of my work in person, I was able to put up more images at Banded Oak Brewing, in downtown Denver. Banded Oak is one of Denver’s finest micro-breweries. I has won Gold Medal at the Great American Beer Festival and is most known for their barrel-age technique. They have renovated the brewing area to accommodate more seating, and the amble wall space offers great natural light for viewing the different pieces of art. The tap-house is open 7-days a week, and is located at: 470 North Broadway, Denver CO
Follow the Banded Oak Web-Gallery link to view the work that is on display, and even though this image is not hanging at the gallery, I would be happy to create a custom, 40x60 panorama for you.
A total of 22 images were used to create the panorama - images were shot in a single row from left to right. Final image size is close to 70MB. Edits and stitching were made both in Photoshop and Lightroom.
July, 2021 - As always, thank you for the support and for joining me on this adventure.
For more thoughts on some of these images, head over to www.wordpress.com/alma175w
ISO 100 | F/8 | 1/400 sec. - 50mm - Sony a7riii & Sony FE 50G - 22 vertical images stitched together to create this sunset panorama over the Mt. Sneffels Wildeness area, with Mt. Sneffels, Mears Peak and the North Pole Peak standing out as prominent features.