Partly Cloudy With Chance of Cows
Looking toward the Collegiate Range and the Continental Divide on a long and lonely dirt road
Looking toward the Collegiate Range and the Continental Divide on a long and lonely dirt road
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Jul, 2022Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
Taken in central Colorado, this is looking west towards the Continental Divide where the Rocky Mountains rear up out of the flat eastern plains. I had been riding the Colorado Backcountry Discovery Route that goes north to south from New Mexico, across Colorado to Wyoming when I took a small side trip down this long, lonely road. It's outside Buena Vista by the entrance to the Collegiate Peaks and many ghost towns. I love long, straight roads as the can lead both me and my eye into adventure!Time
I had spotted this place before and I wanted to be there in early afternoon so that there would be clouds billowing over the mountains as they condensed and rose into the particularly blue Colorado sky, but before the sun had dipped below the mountain skyline.Lighting
As you can see by the shadows, the motorcycle is backlit and was an interesting exercise in exposure as most of the motorcycle is black, and in shadow while I had white clouds in the sky and miles of yellow grass everywhere. I exposed for the rear panniers the bike and then bumped the exposure down 1/3. I knew that I could recover any details in the shadows easier than blown out highlights in the clouds.Equipment
This was shot on my reliable Canon 5D sr with my travel lens, the Canon 24-105mm f/4 L lens as it's never let me down. The lens was pulled to 24mm, so I centered the motorcycle as best as I could to avoid most of the distortion at that focal length. You can see my Manfroto tripod is still strapped the panniers on the motorcycle! That's the only tripod I know that can take the abuse of being on a motorcycle while traveling down dirt roads.Inspiration
I had spotted this road on a previous trip to photograph the ghost town of St. Elmo, which is not far away. I returned a few days later and waited for the clouds to start building from the heat of the day. I found the sign advising that this was open range and that to expect cows along the way a funny thought as I rode along wondering where all the cows could be! I love straight roads contrasting against the rugged and ragged mountains skyline. The straight line leading directly into the heart of the Rocky Mountains speaks of adventure ahead and the great unknown.Editing
i took the photo into Lightroom Classic and as I had already decided that black and white was the pallet I wanted to display this image on, I increased the luminance of the blues in the skies before converting to black and white. I boosted the midtones and contrast a bit while watching carefully for halos around parts of the darker elements where they met lighter elements. I took the shadows down just a bit to bring out the detail in the black motorcycle without overexposing the rest of the image. The highlights in the clouds were brought down a bit so they didn't look blown out and to give them a bit of shape. The image was then brought into Photoshop CC for a quick unsharp mask and resizing.In my camera bag
While on my adventure motorcycle I need just the basics; my Canon 5D sr body, my Canon 24-105mm f/4 L lens with polarizing filter, a Manfroto tripod with ball head and a Canon Speedlite. When I have an image in my head that I am traveling to try to capture, I will have my Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 L lens with me.Feedback
The contrast between the plains and the mountains in Colorado is really best seen in this area between Salida and Leadville with amazing views like this right outside of Buena Vista. I'm always looking at maps and topographic maps to find this lands of contrast and beauty. The time spent looking at paper maps and Google Earth will always pay off with a great image!
