My sincere apology

Well, since I am a Photographer, with a capital P I might add, of course I took a bazillion pictures when I went to Colorado. THEY HAD SO MANY COOL ROCKS AND MOUNTAINS THAT TEXAS JUST DOESNT HAVE! I obviously could not decide what pictures to choose to put on the blog post, so I decided to put all of my favorites. I'm not really sure if they're actually any good, but they are appealing to me. sorry there are so many.

ISO 100

f/7/1

1/200

These two are the same photo, but the first is in black and white. I think I like the black and white photo better because of the contrast between the rock and the shadows. It's a simple photo, and I wasn't exactly sure how to crop it, so I just didn't. I'm still not sure if it needs it or not, but it can always be fixed. 

ISO 100
f/5.6
1/640
This is a photo of a log that was out on the cliffs at Canyonlands. I guess I like it. The detail in the wood is pretty cool. I'm not really sure about how I feel about it being like a quarter of the log in frame, but I didn't like any of the shots I tool with more or less of the wood in the frame. Settings were a giver: ISO 100, Aperture wide open. Maybe I'd like it more if the top of the wood wasn't cut off. I think thats my problem actually, and i just realized it while typing. Either way, the photo itself is really important because I'm 97% positive that there was a rattle snake hiding at the other end of the log but I didn't give myself time to find out. I could've died for this stupid photo of a stupid log that I don't like for a somewhat unknown reason. 

ISO 100
f/4
1/1250
 This was the train from the COG Railway. It took the Vaughns and I up to Pikes Peak (Elevation: 14,115 ft). view from the top of the mountain was gorgeous, and it was pretty awesome because the temperature was at an extremely refreshing 50 degrees in the middle of summer. They also had a cool store that served donuts THAT WERE MADE 14 THOUSAND FEET IN THE AIR! How cool is that? Actually, not that cool because they were kind of disgusting and didn't actually taste like donuts at all, but hey at least they tried. Anyway, the train was so red and inviting, how could I not take a picture of it? Oh, also, the tour guide of said train was an extremely attractive college aged male that earned a soft spot in my heart (yes, someone actually earned a place in my heart) by telling cheesy jokes for the hour and a half ride both ways. GET THIS!! He told my go to joke. The one about the seagulls and the bagels. I'm sure I've had the same joke since I heard it in third grade (I remember the exact moment I heard it for the first time, but that story is for another day). Any who, This guy told the joke. MY JOKE. At first I was a little offended, because he just told a whole train full of people my joke, but then I realized that it wasn't his fault and that he didn't know it was my joke, so then I fell hopelessly and madly in love with him. Just kidding, I don't remember his name, but he did tell my joke so that was cool because I'm not the only one. 

ISO 100

f/4

1/2000

 This is from one of the sights on the train ride up to Pikes Peak. As much as I want to talk about Joke Guy, I won't. I will, however, talk about the excruciating pain I went through on this train. We were riding at a whopping 9 miles per hour, and if that wasn't enough, most if my view was covered up by rock walls that were 9 inches from my window. One of the few moments of freedom that my eyes received was a view of these mountains. I don't love this picture, but it will have to do. I couldn't stand or get a better angle or hang my body out the window without Joke Guy yelling at me, so This is the best that I got. I do really like that the clouds were making shadows on the mountains at the time because I love that and I wasn't able to get a picture of it any other time during the trip. I also like that theres a body of water, however man made it may be, in the photo. I think it adds to it, making it more than just a snap of some mountains, for some reason. Joke Guy told us that If we looked far enough into the nothingness we could see Kansas hehehe jokes

ISO 100

f/4

1/200

This is more of my entertainment on the way up to Pikes Peak. How artsy is that window reflection shot?

ISO 400

f/4

1/500

I don't know I guess this was just a cool looking plant flower. I like that it's yellow and that it pops. I wish I would've taken the macro to shoot all up close and personal with the plants that I found. I also don't really know why I put this picture on my like list or need to blog about list because it isn't anything special. For what it's worth, this was taken at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. 

ISO 400

f/4

1/200

ISO 640

f/6.3

1/80

These flowers were so frustrating. I really have no idea why because it's just a stupid flower. Its so interesting though. I just couldn't get the flower to look as pretty as it did in real life through my lens, so I don't know what the problem was. Maybe this is another situation that i needed the macro in.

ISO 400

f/4

1/1600

I don't know, I guess I think this is cute. It isn't exactly exposed correctly, but I still kind of like the mood it gives off. The sky that day was 100% this color. I took this photo on a whim, so I didn't have time to really play with my settings too much. I think it looks like these two are almost defeated, but they're still celebrating. It's rule of thirds to the right and I think that makes it at least a little more interesting. I was shooting with the 24-105, but I needed the 70-200 to get a better photo out of this. 

ISO 640

f/5.6

1/80

I really like this photo in both color and black and white. It isn't spectacular, but i like the leading lines that the branches create and the creaminess of the photo. Maybe I have a creamy heart?

ISO 160

f/7.1

1/200

I really don't know what this is, but it was vibrantly colored and growing on a rock in Canyonlands so  I thought It could make a cool picture. I think I was right. It looks so crisp and yellow. I will say though, that there just isn't much point in this picture. It's really just some crap growing on a rock, but I still like it.

Pest of a Butterfly

ISO 400

Aperture f/6.3

1/100

I'd like to say that I was able to use my amazing butterfly wrangling ninja skills to sneak up on this butterfly that was cruising around my yard, but that isn't the case. I think it may have been injured or something, because It was failing at fluttering around outside my garage. I decided to make the best of the situation and try to snap some pictures of this little guy because he's just so pretty. When I say he was failing at fluttering, I mean he was giving his all. With that being said, I didn't get many chances with him just sitting on the ground so these are really the only two that I got. I'm happy with them for the most part. Although it was sunny outside, I was actually laying on my garage floor and the butterfly was right inside the shadow the building was leaving, so my lighting circumstances were pretty alright. My mom said that the second photo reminded her of a little girl picking flowers, but I'm not sure I get that from it. I'm in love with the fab creamy background (and foreground, for that matter) of the first photo. I'm not quite sure how I feel about the actual butterfly, but I think I like it because it's an image that works with the subject in the dead center. GOSH I HATE CREAMY FOOD BUT I LOVE CREAMY BACKGROUNDS. Except for mashed potatoes hay hay 

Vacation Panoramas

I guess these are cool. I desperately wanted to be able to capture the beauty of all of the wonderful places I explored while I was on vacation this summer, and the only way I could think of to do that in these particular areas was to create a panorama. I had no idea how to do it, but I figured there was some way to create one in photoshop, so with a steady hand I put my camera into drive mode and held the shutter down while sweeping (spraying) all of what I wanted to be in the photo, hoping that I would find a way to piece it into a pano later. When I finally got the laptop from Savannah, I remembered that I had taken these shots, and with a little help from google, I believe that I successfully created a few panoramas. I think these turned out okay, the top photo is my favorite because the sky is so pretty. Of course, the real view was breathtaking, but i think that these photos represent the real thing at least a little better than a plain old photograph would do. I wish i would've tried this with more of the things I saw. Of all the national parks I visited, I only took shots for a pano in Canyonlands. I should have taken some at arches as well, but to get to the breathtaking views there, I had to hike a ways and lets face it by the time I hiked all the way up to see an arch, the camera that should've been placed in my hand was booted out by a water bottle. Gotta stay hydrated to continue living, right? otherwise, I could've accidentally died and never gotten to put these panoramas into action so I think I did the right thing. But meh it would've been really nice to have a pano of arches..

Anyway, the settings I chose to take these photographs were fairly simple. I was outside in the middle of the day, so my ISO was somewhere around 100. My aperture wasn't seer too wide, since I was shooting a landscape photo and I wanted most of it to be in focus (foreground and background), and my shutter speed needed to be somewhat fast so that there wouldn't be any motion blur from me turning the camera while holding the shutter down. Really, this was a very simple process. All I had to do was find out how to put it together in photoshop, which was also fairly simple. All you have to do is open all of the images you want to merge in photoshop, then go to File>Automate>Photomerge, then select auto for the layout and select add open files and click ok and it does the rest of the work for you. 

WOOHOO PANORAMIC GENIUS