Morning photo: Winter faves

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Spring is coming …

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A fragile structure of inch-long hoar frost crystals grow in a shady spot along the shoreline of Dillon Reservoir on the north side of the Frisco Peninsula.

FRISCO —There may not be any wildflowers during winter in Summit County, but there’s no shortage of spectacular colors and textures, from gleaming ice to the warm tones of winter sunset and moonrise. With the impending change of seasons, I thought it was a good time to look back and choose a few of the all-time best winter landscapes. If you like what you see, visit our Summit County gallery online at FineArt America, where you can buy high quality prints or greeting cards. They make great gifts, and it’s one of the best ways to support our independent online journalism project.

A December full moon rises over the Continental Divide.

A December full moon rises over the Continental Divide.

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Filed under: Morning photo, photography, seasons, Snow and weather, Summit County Colorado, Summit County snow and weather | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Morning photo: The hand of man

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Not all natural …

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Buffalo Mountain from the Frisco Nordic Center at dawn.

FRISCO — As it started to get light Thursday morning I glanced out the kitchen window and noticed a thick layer of low-lying fog over part of Frisco Bay. That seemed a bit unusual since the reservoir has been frozen over for a few weeks, and the fog generally stops forming after the ice thickens up. So after getting my son off to school, I jumped in the car and headed up Highway 9 toward Breckenridge. It didn’t take long to discover the source of the fog. The snow-making machines at the Frisco Nordic Center and tubing hill were going all out, and with an atmospheric inversion in place, the frozen mists from the nozzles were being pushed down and out across the Reservoir. (more…)

Filed under: climate and weather, Colorado, Environment, Morning photo, photography, Snow and weather | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Morning photo: Meditation

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Seeking balance …

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A frozen beaver pond along the Snake River and the surrounding snowbanks show an astonishing variety of blue tones.

FRISCO — During the past few weeks photographing along the Snake River, I found myself thinking a lot about the balance between light and shadow, and even more, trying to balance the brilliant winter sunlight with the cool green and blue shadows of the forest. In part, it’s a question of timing; setting up in the right spot when there’s just enough half-light filtering in to show some detail. In other shots, I tried to play the light against the dark, creating drama and interest from the contrasts. Some shots work, some don’t but it’s always worth the effort.

This was the scene that really crystallized the idea of light and dark as the yin and yang of a photographic meditation.

This was the scene that really crystallized the idea of light and dark as the yin and yang of a photographic meditation.

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The iPhone Instagram app helped add more contrast to this view.

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A bit too much light on the foreground, with some of the details burned out, but the half-light on the shadowed creek has great depth.

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Light-play.

 

 

 

 

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Morning photo: Forest light

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Sun and shadow …

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The first few rays of sun shine into the dark reaches of the Snake River Canyon.

FRISCO — I headed up to the Snake River between Keystone and Montezuma again Thursday morning for a quick photo session, once again trying to find the perfect balance between the bright light on the snow and the cool blue shadows of the forest. It’s not an easy thing to photograph — what the eye takes in, the lens has a hard time capturing. I’ve found that it’s best to look for the half-light, in between the full sun and the shadows, where the blues are partially displaced by the warmer hues of the rising sun, or to go for the strong contrast, like sunlit trees against a dark forest or a shadow background. When I first started shooting and processing these images, I was always tempted to lighten up the shadows, but even with Photoshop, it just doesn’t look right. In this set, I decided to go with the deep blues, which add an element of mystery.

Many of the photos in Summit Voice photo essays are available in our Fine Art America online gallery, and there’s also Summit County gallery at our ImageKind website. You can also order images by contacting me at bberwyn@comcast.net. It’s a great way to support independent online journalism. (more…)

Filed under: Colorado, Morning photo, photography, seasons, Summit County Colorado | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Morning photo: Solstice!

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

First day of winter

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Early morning rays illuminate an icescape along the Snake River.

FRISCO — To get some good solstice images, I headed back to the Snake River valley, between Keystone and Montezuma, knowing that the sun would rise almost directly above the water. The cold temps of the last few nights have helped build up intricate new ice terraces and ice dams and the rays slanting through the trees helped give the canyon a wintry glow. I took my iPhone, too, because the sensor on the little camera phone actually does a better job of picking up shadow details in a backlit scene. See if you can tell which of these pics was taken with the iPhone, and which ones with the D80.

Many of the images in Summit Voice photo essays are available in our Fine Art America online gallery, and there’s also Summit County gallery at our ImageKind website. You can also order images by contacting me directly at bberwyn@comcast.net. It’s a great way to support independent online journalism! (more…)

Filed under: climate and weather, Morning photo, photography, seasons, Snow and weather, Summit County snow and weather | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Morning photo: Second look

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Snake River revisited

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Shadow and light.

FRISCO — Last night I went back to clean out a couple of weeks worth of pictures from the archive because if I don’t do it on a regular basis, it becomes a daunting chore. I knew I had a bunch of good shots from two recent early morning shooting sessions along the Snake River, but I also new that some of those images were candidates for deletion. A few others were in between, and those are the images I tried to “rescue” with a big of post-processing. (more…)

Filed under: climate and weather, Colorado, Morning photo, photography, seasons | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Morning photo: Along the Snake

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Frosty morning …

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Made it to the river in time to set up for this shot — a pale winter sun finally climbing over the ridgetop just before 9 a.m.

FRISCO — Most of the valleys in our part of the Rockies trend north-south, which means that sun sets and rises behind mountains to the east and west. But the Snake River Valley trends generally east-west, and that means that the morning sunlight flows into the canyon rather dramatically, filtering through the tall pines and glinting off the snow and ice along the river. On a recent frost-hunting excursion, I stopped at a few spots along the stream, looking for exactly the right angles to capture the sunrise drama. (more…)

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Morning photo: Hues of autumn

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Shimmering colors …

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Standing out on what used to be an island in Dillon Reservoir is a great place look back to the west and see the first rays of sunrise illuminate the Gore Range. This picture was taken with a DSLR, but then I sent it to my iPhone and ran it through an Instagram filter to enhance the dramatic light. Finally, i sent it back to my computer to sharpen the image.

FRISCO — I sometimes think of November as a drab, gray month, possibly because I grew up in central Germany, where November generally was drab and gray. Sometimes, in past years, I’ve dropped the ball on photography in November, at least until it snowed, just because of the general expectation that there wouldn’t be much out there. But this year, I intentionally went out looking to make the best images I could, revisiting spots that had yielded good shots in other seasons, like along the frosty Snake River (it has to be just the right conditions for the thick crystals to form and up to Old Dillon Reservoir, which offers a wide open panorama that’s good at sunrise and sunset.

Many of the images in this slide show are available in our Fine Art America online gallery, and there’s also Summit County gallery at our ImageKind website. You can also order images by contacting me directly at bberwyn@comcast.net.

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Ephemeral frost crystals along the Snake River, near Keystone, Colorado.

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Filed under: climate and weather, Colorado, Morning photo, photography, seasons, Snow and weather | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Morning photo: Fire and ice

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Early in the morning …

Frost crystals grow along the Snake River in Summit County, Colorado.

FRISCO — You know what they say about the early bird, right? Well, the same holds true for photography. Sometimes you have to get up early to get the good shots, like the delicate frost crystals that bloom as water evaporating from the river turns directly to ice, without ever going through a liquid stage, or being in just the right spot when the sunrise glow illuminates the clouds from below. (more…)

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Morning photo: Icy flows

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Luminosity …

Icy flows in the Snake River.

SUMMIT COUNTY … Still fascinated by the light, textures and flows in the freezing rivers of early winter. It’s a challenging photography environment; wet, chilly and not much level ground for a tripod, but the resulting images are rewarding to me, full of life and vibrant color. You have to choose the right time of day. If it’s too bright, you can’t use long exposures to smooth out the water, at least not without a neutral density filter. If it’s too dark, the images end up murky. But when you get it just right, it can be pure magic.

Tricky light, with bright sun, highly reflective ice and deep shadows, makes this a challenging scene to photograph. I’m going to go back and try it at a different time of the day, but I don’t think it will work in full daylight. This image is post-processed, which you can see in the tone, but I like the contrast between the cold blues and the warm daylight above.

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Filed under: Colorado, Morning photo, photography, seasons, Summit County snow and weather | Tagged: , , , , , | 3 Comments »

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