Ships passing in the night

The International Space Station and Space Shuttle Atlantis create streaks of light in the sky as they pass over Byers Canyon on Wednesday evening while traveling at more than 17,000-miles per hour and more than 200 miles above the Earth in this 30-second exposure.  The shuttle had undocked from the space station earlier in the day, which created the two separate streaks.


I was incredibly fortunate this evening as I was able to capture the International Space Station and Space Shuttle Atlantis as they passed over Byers Canyon.  Adding to the image was the fact that the shuttle had undocked from the ISS earlier in the day, but was still in the same orbit, thus creating the two individual light trails.

I had been planning to shoot something like this for some time, but the ISS never seemed to cooperate--whenever I thought about shooting it, it would only be visible along the horizon if at all.  So I happened to check its upcoming orbits last week and, sure enough, there were going to be several days with evening orbits over Grand County.  I used Heavens Above to figure out where and when the ISS would be --it is a great site to determine when the ISS or other satellites are going to be passing over your location.

Now that I knew it would be very visible, I just needed to decided where to shoot from.  My first thought was to set up and shoot from a hill just outside of Granby, but the more I thought about it, that wasn't going to be as interesting a photo as it could be.

My next thought was to go somewhere around Lake Granby, but I still thought there was something better.  Then I remembered I had been trying to come up with something different to photograph in Byers Canyon, west of Hot Sulphur Springs.  This was the perfect opportunity.

Armed with my photo gear and my printout with all of the pertinent details from Heavens Above, I headed out to find a location in the canyon where I could show the amazing rock features with the light trails from the spacecraft.  My first pass through the canyon yielded three or four possibilities.  I soon realized there was a problem however--with the way the canyon winds, I had no reference as to where exactly the ISS would be coming from.

Fortunately, as it grew darker, I could start to make out some of the stars that I could use as reference points from the sky chart I had.  But I was still worried about where exactly the light trails would be in relation to the canyon.  I stopped and started to set up in the location that I thought would work, but the more I looked at it, the more uneasy I became that it wouldn't yield a good photo.

So I moved on to another location, pondered, then moved on to one last location.  At this point I had less than 15 minutes before the ISS would be passing over, so I decided to make the best of this spot.  My plan was to try and shoot with two cameras to double my chances of getting a useable image.  I set both up, tinkered with how I had each framed, then waited.

Suddenly I noticed a faint light crossing the sky about 30 to 45 degrees to the east of where I thought I should be seeing a light.  I basically freaked out and tried to get the cameras moved to catch it before it went out of view.  My tripod fell over, I reset the cameras and tried to click off a frame.  I was frazzled and was letting loose with quite a string of curses.

What had gone wrong?  Was I really that far off on my set up?  Frustrated and cold, I decided to start packing up.  Glancing once more to the sky, I noticed a very bright point of light appearing above the canyon wall, then shortly after that, a second bright light.  I hadn't missed them, it was some other satellite I had seen!  I scrambled to get my gear out of the car and get it reset before the space station and shuttle were out of site.  I was able to get one 30-second shot off, which is shown above, before they were gone.

It was well worth the effort and difficulties.

goo, goo g'joob

Two of my favorite images from over the weekend

The incredible colors of Saturday's sunset:


These mugs were hanging up at the Grand Lake Brewing Company and picking up the colors from the television:

All alone in Rocky Mountain NP

I went up to Rocky Mountain National Park this morning in hopes of finding an image for the front page. I did see a bull elk in the trees, but couldn't a good photo of him. I was able to get a shot of this coyote before he scampered back into the woods.



Aside from a couple of workers doing some work in a campground, I think I was the only person in this part of the park. Despite the tire tracks in the snow on the roadway, I never saw another person.

A frosty cold Coors. . .Field

On Sunday I shot my first Rockies game since the deciding game against the Phillies in the 2007 NLDS. It was nice to be recognized by several of the security folks and ushers after a two-year absence from Coors Field. I spent nearly two and a half years covering the Rockies from May 2005 to October 2007 and knew many of these people by name. It was always a pleasure to show up at the ballpark and chat with them even if it was for just a short time. I can't say the same for the stick-in-the-mud types over at Invesco Field. Take a hint folks, if I've made it through the five security checkpoints between the media entrance and the field, I'm probably supposed to be there. But I digress.

The story of the night was the weather, so the storytelling image would be something showing the players dealing with the bitter cold. I wasn't seeing what I was hoping to see, that is until the Philadelphia Phillies began to come out for batting practice. As pitcher Pedro Martinez walked through the dugout I knew I had an image I liked.

I should also mention that it's always good to see my photographer friends from Denver. I don't miss all of the driving I used to do when I was covering the Rockies, Broncos, Avalanche, etc., on a regular basis, but I do miss the camaraderie with my fellow photographers.

I love this time of year

Autumn in Colorado has to be just about the best time of year--warm days, cool nights...at least most of the time. And then there are the phenomenal fall colors as the aspen begin to change.



goo, goo g'joob
t- 136

My new favorite camera

I've been in the market for an additional camera body for the past few months, but was doing my homework before I decided on which one to get. For the past few years I have been using Canon digital bodies, but have been intrigued by Nikon's D700. I still have all of my Nikon lenses, so going with the D700 wouldn't cause any problems. In talking to several other photographers and looking at samples of photos from the camera, I was impressed by the D700's performance in low light. And because I shoot a lot of high school sports in bad gyms and at dark football fields made me think this might be the right choice.

I ordered the camera last Monday, it arrived on Wednesday. I spent the next couple of days getting used to the controls and doing some test shots. But what I was really waiting for was Friday and a chance to shoot it at a high school football game.

The lighting at the football field at West Grand High School in Kremmling isn't great--with my Canon 1D Mark IIN I could get an exposure of 1/250 @ 2.8, 1600 ISO, but there was also a lot of noise. As you can see in the image above, I was able get an exposure that could stop the action and even shooting at an ISO of 5000, the noise was more of what I was seeing with my other cameras at 800 ISO--if even that much. Getting images like this, under the lighting conditions I was up against, was beyond what I could imagine before last week. What a great tool to have in my arsenal.

goo, goo g'joob
t- 138

Last day of summer, first snow in Granby

I awoke this morning to the first snowfall in Granby on the last day of summer. There was at least an inch of accumulation before the temperature warmed up enough to melt the early snow and any further snowfall. As the clouds lifted, you could see that the mountains had a nice frosting of snow. I had to turn my furnace on--the temperature in the house had dropped below 60 degrees.