50mm Denver Abstracts

These were all taken with the plastic fantastic 50mm f1.8 lens. I should keep this lens on my camera more often. it was really fun to play with focal points and depth of field at f1.8.

HDR Panorama 9/14 near Altus OK.

I put this one together the other day usung Photomatix for the HDR and Stiched using CS3. This image constists of 5 frames with 3 shots for each frame bracketed at -2, 0, +2 EV. The autostitch feature in CS3 is simply outstanding. My next project is to create giant photo-composites with perhaps as many as 20 to 30 shots per image.

10/13/07 Kansas Night Chase

We started the day in Denver with little hope that the cap would break by sundown. Stopped in Great Bend for dinner and just fineshed when storms fired north of Dodge City around 8 p.m. We were treated to an awesome lightning show and some decent storm structure. Our chase ended around 1 a.m. near Wakeeney, where we bunked down for the night. Notice how the lightning is casting shadows upwards in the last two shots. I havent seen this in my lightning shots before.

Chasing Saturday and Sunday

A really nice autmn severe weather episode appears to be in store for parts of Kansas tommorow. Unlike last week, the forecast models have remained consistant in depicting a really nice severe weather day. The cap will be an issue tommorow but we will be positioning our selves on the nose of a dry punch where airmasses are colliding. A 60-80 kt upper jet will begin to enter the area around 0z and hopefully will provide some decent forcing. Based on the latest NAM model guidance, I am inclined to target near Oakley Kansas. The Merage family and myself will be on the road by 11:00 a.m. tommorow morning. Jon Merage and I will also be staying out for sunday's potential setup in central KS or south central NE. Finally a decent chase opportunity!!!

If the cap breaks, this will be the most likely area for tornadoes Surface based Cape approaches 2500 J/Kg

Fall Colors. 50mm fun

I wasent able to make it up to the mountains for the fall colors but had some free time today to check things out near the South Platte river. These are all taken with my plastic fantastic 50mm f/1.8 lens. Going chasing this weekend so expect pictures from that by teusday.

Avalanche Burgundy VS White Game

It was a great day indeed. The start of the 2007-2008 NHL season is only days away and this game was a great taste of what we have to look forward to for the upcoming season as well as the future. The tiny Air Force Cadet arena has a maximum capacity of only 2800 and lets hockey fans get up close and personal with their favorite players. As a rabid Avs fan, I spent most of the game taking pictures and evaluating our new players. Several rookie prospects took part in the game including Chris Stewart, T.J. Hensick, and J.D. Corbin(DU). Chris Stewart and T.J. Hensick clearly are the top rookie prospects. Stewart was surprisingly quiet during the game but T.J. Hensick lit it up with 2 goals and 2 assists as well as a shootout goal. Current high scoring players included Milan Hejduk, with two goals and Ian Laperriere, with a goal and two assists. Overall, the team is looking amazing. With good goaltending and a healthy defence, this team can go deep into the playoffs and compete for the Stanley Cup. The Avs play at Phoenix Monday and will be at home to take on the L.A. Kings on Wednesday. I will be attending the L.A. game and will offer updates shortly thereafter.

Mark Rycroft had several scoring chances but couldnt finish. Injured, Jose Theodore, Brad Richardson, and Cody McCormick can be seen behind the glass in this shot.
Goaltender Tyler Weiman, shuts down one of Hensick's many scoring attempts.

Ian Laperriere threads a puck by the glove of goaltender Michael Wall.

T.J. Hensick leads the rush out of the defensive zone.

Defensemen Jeff Finger and Scott Hannan prevent crafty Tyler Arnason from getting a shot on the net.

Michael Wall stops defenseman Johnny Boychuk on a shorthanded breakaway.

Your 2007-2008 #1 scoring line- Joe Sakic, Andrew Brunette, and Ryan Smyth.

GO AVS!!!!

9/14/07 Avalanche training camp day 1

Got up early to go see this. The shots were pretty good but noisy ass hell at 1600 ISO. Regardless, Im stoked for Avalanche hockey and you all should be as well. GO AVS!!!
Marek Svatos


Ryan Smyth and Joe Sakic

Paul Stastny and Kurt Saur

Peter Budaj makes a save

Again

And again....

Avalanche training camp tommorow!!!

I will be shooting the Colorado Avalanche training camp tommorow at 9:00 am. I dont know If I will be allowed to shoot next to the glass. If I do manage to get next to the glass, expect some great shots of your 07-08 Colorado Avalanche.

Random Waterfall Gellery (HDR)

I figured since I havent posted in awhile, I would add some shots. This is also to take my mind off the fact that I cant chase tommorow while there are tornadoes going down in Nebraska. I will be keeping my eyes on a possible storm chase early next week.


This is on Old Fall River road in Rocky Mountain National Park. RMNP

RMNP

Mt. Evans, below Echo Lake

Somewhere east of Breckenridge

8/14 Kinda crappy lightning

Storm just north of Castle Rock. I was soo happy just shooting away getting all kinds of crazy lightning shots. I checked the lcd screen to see if the shots were in focus and they appeared to be. I got home and cursed the gods when I saw that only 2 out of 85 shots were in focus. Even these shots are kinda soft and have been only slightly cropped so they dont look bad. I need to get that 40D with the 3 inch lcd display.

8/23 Chase pix

We intercepted a supercell near the Pawnee Butte Grasslands on the Wyoming border. The storm was at its strongest as we were approaching from the east. It displayed several wall clouds before it began to die as we closed in. A fantastic sunset spoiled us and I attempted to make use of assorted objects to render the shots slightly more interesting. These are all HDR and assembled using the Photomatix software. The first shot is over done, I know, but the others are pretty close to what I experianced.


Some old farming equipment made for an interesting shot.
Farming equipment and a dying meso.

Wallcloud in the distance.

Sunset at Two Butte Pasture.

7/19 Lightning

Just got back from shooting some local lightning. Got a few good shots. No decent chasing for awhile, will update as needed.

I went to the Avalanche rookie camp today to check out some of our up and coming hockey players. It was my first time shooting hockey and I quickly realized the need to use ISO 800 to freeze the action. The pix came out a tad grainy but not too bad. Tommorow and the next day look good for supercells south and east of Denver. This is a pretty nice setup for July and I look forward to chasing it. Here are the hockey pix and will update for the chase tommorow. By the way, #26 is Paul Stastny.

Chasing today/tommorow

Jon Merage and I will head out of Denver on I-76 in hopes of bagging a good storm in the upslope flow regime. There is some tornado potential with the forecast helicities and instability. We will head to Valentine Nebraska after that to get into position for tommorow's potentially significant setup. Valentine will leave us along the SD/NE border and we will likely only have to go east a little ways to be in position. It is kinda hilly up there so that will be a concern. More updates to come.

4/23 Protection Kansas Tornado footage

This is the long awaited Protection Kansas tornado footage that Jon Merage and I got during our most sucessful chase of the year.

5/29 Colorado Chase Report

Got pretty much what we expected today. A decent rotating storm before becoming outflow dominant. Started the day in Denver and ended in Denver so thats nice for a change. It wasnt a very productive day for photography as most of my shots were out of focus but I managed to get a few keepers. Woke up to a 5% tornado risk and drove to Limon. A storm went up east of Castle Rock and quickly became tornado warned. We pulled up just as the warning came out and observed a weak wall cloud and decent storm structure. The storm chased us east and quickly crapped out but not before producing an awesome striated shelf cloud. Im looking forward to more Colorado upslope action in the coming months.


A quick HDR shot (I know, I still need to purchase the software but im broke) HDR does wonders for stormscapes but can also make them look fake, this is the original.

The same storm near Simla, just north of Highway 24

Photogenic outflow crap near Genoa

Ditto