Storm Clouds On The Mountain

The latest storm is blowing threw the area and bringing us some rain, though I would prefer snow or at least snow up on the mountains. Hopefully later today it will switch to snow up higher and give the resorts some needed snow. Last night liking the way the clouds were looking on the mountains I decided to take a quick walk up on a small hill top near here to take some photos across the valley. Mt. Rose is looking nice with a little snow on the runs giving some contrast to the dark mountain.

Hiking Mt. Rose

I think every year we do a hike or two in the fall and ask ourselves why we don't get out and hike more during the warmer months as we live so close to many different scenic areas. This fall I did get the kids out on a few hikes to enjoy our area, although they are guaranteed to be forced on a few hikes to go exploring for fall colors to photograph.

These photos are from a hike I took the kids on up on Mt. Rose in October. The trail we were on will take you all the way up on top of Mt. Rose Summit and we made it.....well....not very far as they got a little chilly where the trail goes threw the shaded areas. The portion of the trail we did hike had some nice views of the valleys below and the kids had fun climbing on the rocks and doing some exploring.

I think we did more hiking this year and hopefully next year we will do even more.

Galena Creek

These were all taken in the Galena Creek area last week before the storm hit.

Software And More Software

Adobe released their latest version of Lightroom yesterday and though I don't have any previous versions of it I downloaded the trial version to get a better feel for it. Currently I use a different setup for processing files (view NX2 and Capture NX2) and for the most part it works for me but like any program after awhile you like to see them bring out a new version of the program with new and improved features. With the programs I am currently using they have released the typical updates over time however have not released a new version in around 3 years now.
Both Capture NX2 and Lightroom 4 have features I wish the other had. I think overall Lightroom 4 is a nice program and I like the way it works slightly more than Capture NX2. Just not sure if it is enough to justify the cost when I do have a system I use in place already. The nice thing Adobe did though is the Cost of LR4 is about half the cost of what LR3 was when it was released originally.

The above image is one from last fall that I pulled into LR4 to play around with and get a feel for the program. Still figuring out the best way to do stuff in this program so we will see how I feel after the 30 day trial is up.

Steep Mountain Canyon

This is a view up the canyon in the Desatoya Mountains that Beth and I hiked a few weeks back. It was a very scenic canyon With Aspen trees in areas, a creek running down it and these steep rocky outcroppings. We would like to go back sometime and hike further up into the area. There is also another trail just south of this one that we would like to check out more.

Eastern Oregon

We recently took a trip up to Eastern Oregon to do some camping and fishing with family in the Logan Valley area. I love the area up there as there is a lot of scenic views and wildlife. We did some fly fishing on a couple of the creeks in the area, catching some Brook and Rainbow Trout that made a nice breakfast for everyone. This area also gave me some opportunities to practice some photography. Because of the wet winter and spring it was still really green up there and I like the way the green vegetation looked next to the full creeks. I would have liked to get some more wildlife images but for the most part the wildlife did not want to cooperate with that. Overall we had a great time.

My Head Must Be In The Clouds

Looks like we have another storm stacking up on the mountains today. As I was looking out towards the mountains I liked how the clouds were looking so I figured I would try to get a couple shots. Then when I turned around I took one of the broken up clouds in the opposite direction. Then converted them all to black and white so the darks and lights would be more of the focus.

Urban Decay In Fall

This location is just outside of Virgina City and I am not totally sure what it used to be but I would guess they are some structures that used to be used in mining that are now decaying away over time. I was there with Bryan who was shooting a short film project at this location and I like how the changing colors of fall were looking against the old concrete structures.

Leaves

One thing I like to do when I am taking fall color pictures is to find other ways to photograph things besides the overall view of the trees (which I also like). I will end up taking a lot of different photos from the leaves close up to a shot that shows a lot of leaves scattered about. I will usually just see something with in a setting that catches my eye and take anywhere from a few shots to several shots, recomposing and looking for the best angle or way to frame the shot, much like I do for any landscape shots. In the end I will usually get several photographs like these that I really like. These are just a few of the ones I took in this way last week up on HWY 88.

Fall colors are on the way

I took the kids up to Crystal Mine yesterday to do some digging around and along the way several of the groves of trees are starting to turn yellow. On the way out we pulled over and walked around one set of trees for a few minutes so I could get my first few fall photos of the season. This is just the start of the fall season when the leaves are making their color change so hopefully I will have a lot more fall photos over the next month.
After we left we headed over to Truckee taking the dirt road that comes out by Stampede reservoir. As we were driving along I liked the way the light was on this mountain and took a few shots from different points along the road. This shot I also cropped down to give it the panoramic look.