This has been a great year to photograph. We were able to revisit some favorite places (Moab, Olympic National Park, southwest Colorado) and explore some new territory (Whidbey Island, Glacier National Park). I began this year with the realization that, while I still love the nature photography that I’ve been doing for years, I also need something more. This led to exploration of new subjects (Fort Casey, Garnet Ghost Town, city-scapes) and new treatments (more black & white, HDR, painterly effects). It has also been fun to continue to push the envelope of my own creativity with montages and other creative techniques in Photoshop. I’ve posted a selection of 20 of my favorite images from this year’s adventures – click here to visit the gallery. Some of these images have been the subject of blog posts and you can read more about them in the blog entries.

The image above is of Upper McDonald Creek Falls in Glacier NP. It is an HDR image made before sunrise and processed using Photomatix’s exposure fusion module. It was finished in Photoshop and has a painterly effect reminiscent of an old-time oil painting. (Yes, the water really was that color. It’s from rock that has been finely ground by the glaciers – known as glacial flour.)

Merry Christmas and a Happy and Peaceful New Year!

Each year Union Station, the Denver City and County Building and other Denver landmarks are illuminated for the holidays. These displays attract thousands of people each year. This year, while photographing Union Station, I had the opportunity to chat with people from the Denver area as well as visitors from around the world who had come to view – and photograph – the lights.

This is the view from the Gustavson House in Animas Forks, CO, a ghost town in the San Juan mountains near Silverton. Details of Animas Forks’ history vary depending on the source; the version on Wikipedia is widely quoted.

This photograph was originally conceived as an HDR image but the large difference in brightness between the inside and outside caused light to spill over into the interior on the longer exposures. This resulted in the area around the window looking washed out and blurry and I put the image aside. Early last week I decided to try again, this time using just two exposures – one for the interior and one for the scenery – instead of HDR.  After optimizing each individually, I combined them using layers and masks in Photoshop and then used some minor adjustments to blend them seamlessly.