Indian Peaks Southern Loop

I always enjoy your writeups & pics. Especially like all your timed self-portraits.

Glad that you're enjoying them, Michael. The timed self-portraits can be a lot of fun to do, if frustrating at times. For me, the trick is getting into the exact position so that the composition works at the exact moment that the shutter trips while at the same time trying to look natural. I've taken lots of silly-looking photos proving that I'm not always successful. ;-)

Fantastic trip report and photography as always! Thanks for sharing.

Have you ever written a blog post on your photography setup? I haven't been able to find that on your blog. I would definitely be interested to learn what all you carry to support your photography.

Thanks!

Wow.. great pictures. Do you use a (D)SLR or just a point and shoot?

I like stormy weather. Must have been beautiful, I can understand your sense of well being despite the conditions.

Going to have to check out Colorado real soon now..

Thanks.

Very nice Dondo. Great pics and descriptions as always. You make us Colorado guys look good!

Thanks for all the comments, guys.

Trevor, I've never written anything about my photo setup, but that's a good idea. Keep an eye on Dondo Outdoors. I'll have something up within the next couple of weeks.

Scott, it's great to hear from someone else who enjoys storms. Photos posted on my blog in 2009 and early 2010 were taken with a "serious compact" type p&s. Later photos were made with a DSLR.

Peter,yeah, we're pretty lucky to have Colorado as our home base.

Thanks! I'll be looking forward to it for sure.

Trevor, I finally got time to post something about my photo gear. There’s not a lot of detail, so if you have questions, just post back here or on my blog.

Nice!

Thanks Dondo! Very well said! I agree that that the key component behind a fantastic picture is the nut standing behind it.

I have the same camera and have found it to be a great entry level camera and also very good for backpacking.

I noticed you use Lightroom. Do you typically shoot your photos in RAW? I've tried (very briefly) to use the trial version of Photoshop Elements but haven't spent enough time with it.

I have never tried to use an ND filter. Do you find it significantly improves your landscape photography?

Thanks again!

Man you do those reports right every time! Thanks for sharing your wanderings.

As always, an excellent trip report Dondo. Truly great pics as well. Thank you.

Trevor, yeah, I always shoot in RAW. A friend who's a pro gave me a copy of Lightroom and promised that I'd like it. She was right. After the learning curve, I'm finding it to be fairly intuitive and a lot of fun. So far, I haven't tried Elements.

For my style of shooting, I'm finding the ND filters to be very useful. For the most part, I try to get everything right in the field, so the graduated ND filter is invaluable in bringing everything within the dynamic range of the camera. The other ND filter is used when I'm doing long exposures on flowing water.

Jay, Eugene, and Nick, thanks for the comments. I'm happy to have you as readers.

Dondo,
Great trip report as usual. I love getting a new perspective on places I've hiked. I actually did that exact loop as an overnighter in late July this year. The weather cooperated a lot better for me than you. No rain or wind to speak of, which surprised me for July. The photo over there <— is from my campsite just south of Devil's Thumb lake.

Keep 'em coming!

Chris

Thanks Dondo!

Dondo,
As usual,…great photos, but even better attitude. That's waht it's all about, isn't it? You did a nice job capturing the subtle color that those alpine plants turn this time of year.

Thanks for sharing!

Tom