A skiff of snow overnight and a very frosty autumn morning near Dallas Divide in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.
This is an image from my last road trip through the American West. I had hoped to just catch the fall’s last colors in the Rockies, after most of the other photographers had gone, believing the peak had passed.
I spent a freezing night and next morning the sun didn’t show. Instead the light was a sort of overcast glow, great for details and colors in either macro or intimate landscapes, but with a sky very unfriendly to larger landscape images.
Besides very high contrasts, the relatively featureless sky was a problem. As I drove down out of the Mt Sneffels Range trying to avoid being stuck in the snow, it turned to rain. So I just stopped and admired the beautiful tones and detail in the landscape, and the great fencing in that country, decorated with frost.
I decided to throw on a parka, protect my camera from the cold rain and make an attempt at capturing some images. I was sure none would end up to be award-winners, but that wasn’t stopping me with this fairly unique color palette in front of me.
Now I know that just broke my promise of avoiding giving you a boring blow-by-blow account of image capture in this blog. But I just wrote that because this is one of those images I could never have made with this point and shoot camera I’ve been using ever since my DSLR died a painful death.
Too much detail and depth would have been lost, and the colors would not have been rendered quite as faithfully by the little zoom lens. And besides, you really need a decent DSLR, one with good dynamic range, to handle these contrasts. Even using a graduated ND filter is virtually impossible with a point and shoot camera.
And there are countless other images that I’ve made that would never have been possible without a certain minimum in quality of camera and lens. Starscapes, for example, are impossible.
In other words, this little snapshot camera can only go so far before it stymies me. It won’t work. I simply cannot remain a serious photographer this way. I can’t pursue my short and long-term goals, can’t chase the dream.
This long exposure starscape from the Grand Canyon would of course had been impossible without my full-size camera.
Last week I started a crowdfunding campaign in order to replace the lost camera gear. Although I’ve gotten some contributions, for which I am so grateful, it needs to ramp up in speed. I’m working on some other (local non-tech-based) ways to advertise the campaign, but I definitely need more online help as well. There is no problem with the campaign. The goals I have are both realistic and designed to make a difference. And in exchange for contributions I am giving away high-resolution, high-quality images, plus my knowledge. But more eyes need to see it.
I can be persistent, almost to an extreme. I will keep at this until I succeed. I have real faith that my vision and the way I see this beautiful world will garner enough genuine appreciation among people to be worth continuing and doing something useful with.
And so, please, when you have a few minutes, check out the write-up and sample gallery. It is on a crowdfunding site called Indiegogo, and here is the link: My Campaign. If you decide you can afford a contribution, you will not only have my heartfelt thanks, you’ll have some of my images for your wall too!
But I have another request. Equally important to contributions is getting the word out to a wider audience. You all are a pretty darn loyal and sincere bunch. In fact, you’re what has kept me blogging! So I have faith you can help me to spread the word. Share that link, talk to your friends, have them take a look at my website (though there is a good sampling of images also on the campaign’s page).
I hope you don’t mind if I remind you by including a simple blurb and link in succeeding blog posts. It’s very important to me. Thanks for reading and have a fantastic weekend!
One of my favorite sunset images, classic Oregon Coast. The metaphor is too tempting: I don’t want the sun to set on my photography.
