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Best of 2009 – Introduction

Dec
26
2009
December 26, 2009
By 4 Comments

Well, I’m not even a quarter of a way into selecting the best of 2009. Lots of pictures and almost no time, but I’ll get there :)

For now, enjoy these two picks at 1920×1200 resolution for widescreen monitors. If you have a lower resolution widescreen monitor, the picture should scale back to fit your screen. If you have a square monitor, then you are out of luck :) Let me know if it a problem and I can make an attempt to go back and crop it.

Grand Canyon BW

1) Grand Canyon 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

Antelope Canyon

2) Antelope Canyon 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

To save the images to your computer, right-click the above links and then select “Save Target As” or “Save Link As”.

Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

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Death Valley – Part 2

Dec
5
2009
December 5, 2009
By 4 Comments

As promised, this is Part 2 of the trip. The first part of the Death Valley trip is covered right here.

As I later found out, apparently, having water in Badwater Basin is a rare occasion. Although there were only a few spots with water in them, I still got off the car and took some pictures:

Badwater Textures #1

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Death Valley – Part 1

Dec
3
2009
December 3, 2009
By 9 Comments

I won’t go too much into what Death Valley is, since you can read all about it right here. This was my first time in Death Valley and I absolutely loved it! It was only a single day trip, but definitely a full and busy one :)

I got there late at night and stayed at the Amargosa Opera House in Death Valley Junction, which is also a hotel. Man, the place was spooky!

Amargosa Opera House #1

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My favorite raptor photo of the year

Nov
29
2009
November 29, 2009
By 10 Comments

This image of the Harris’s Hawk is so far my favorite raptor picture of the year. It is very challenging to take pictures of birds in flight and this one actually came out pretty well – the eyes are sharp and fully directed at me, which I really like in the photograph. There is one more image that is better than this one in terms of position of wings, but one of the wings got cut off from the frame (I was shooting hand-held) and it ruined the picture :(

Harris's Hawk in Flight

The above image was captured with a Nikon D300 and Nikon 300mm f/4.0 AF-S lens.

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Sand Dune Panoramas

Nov
23
2009
November 23, 2009
By 5 Comments

After many hours of stitching and tweaking panoramas, I’m finally able to post some of the best ones from the Great Sand Dunes National Park. I had to resize and cut the below images, because some of the panoramas were too long.

Once the thumbnails fully load, click on the first image and it will bring up a separate window with a full version of the panorama. Then click on the next button on the right hand side of the image to view the rest of the panoramas. The images are 1200 pixels wide and they might not fit on your monitor – in that case, you can scroll left and right using your scroll-bar on the bottom of your browser.

I captured this first panorama on a small stream that was running alongside the dunes. The stream was very shallow and I simply stood on it, capturing the stream, the dunes and the mountains in the back:

Sand Dune Panorama #1

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Great Sand Dunes

Nov
16
2009
November 16, 2009
By 5 Comments

I have finally finished sorting through the photographs of the Great Sand Dunes National Park that Sergey and I visited a couple of weeks ago. Although it was very windy and rather cold, the weather was just perfect for photography with the beautiful cloud patches in the sky and rapidly changing light.

I have a very nicely stitched panoramic version of the below shot that I will upload for your viewing pleasure later. This was one of those “accidental” point and shoot shots that I didn’t even think would make it to the website. I got out of the car, shot one horizontal and 9-10 vertical shots for panorama and left the location. Once I got home and stitched the panorama, I wished that I had stayed a little longer :)

Great Sand Dunes #1

We then found a parking spot and decided to hike for a few miles up the sand dunes. While crossing a very shallow stream, I stood right in the middle and took a couple of shots of the mountains, the sand and the water:

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Hawk eating a mouse

Oct
20
2009
October 20, 2009
By 5 Comments

While driving with my kids to a local park for birding, I saw this hawk flying around very low. I was slowly making a turn and continued watching the bird to see what happens next. All of a sudden, the hawk dove into the ground and I knew he was going to have a catch. Then he flew up and I clearly saw some sort of a rodent in his claws. I quickly grabbed my camera and drove towards a pole where he sat to first kill the rodent, then to consume it.

Click “read more” only if you are OK with seeing some gruesome details of a hawk consuming a mouse. Although there is no blood in the animation, some people might feel sick watching this, so I’m just warning you :)

Hawk with a mouse

Hawk with a mouse

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Fall colors right outside

Oct
7
2009
October 7, 2009
By 1 Comment

Went for a walk with the kids around our block the other day and captured these images. Now it is too snowy and cold outside. I will scout the location once again later tomorrow to see if there are any other opportunities. Hope you enjoy these!

Fall colors #2

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Sunrise at Maroon Bells

Oct
6
2009
October 6, 2009
By 2 Comments

I once saw an image of Maroon Bells, where the entire scene was red in color, due to sunrise. After I saw that shot, I have been dreaming of taking a similar (or better) picture. During our last trip, we went to the spot twice with Sergey. We woke up at 5 AM the first morning in Glenwood Springs and arrived to Aspen at 5:50 AM, right before the sunrise. We were amazed to see hundreds of photographers lined up with their tripods, hoping to get a good picture of the place. We waited and waited and the sun never showed up on the mountains, since it was a cloudy day and it wouldn’t want to clear up for our shots. Even when some sky opened up for a few minutes, the clouds would again take over the whole sky, leaving no opportunities for good photographers. Here is a shot from the first day:

Maroon Bells - First Day

Maroon Bells - First Day

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Colorado Fall 2009

Oct
2
2009
October 2, 2009
By 2 Comments

So many pictures, so little time. I will post some more pics tomorrow.

Colorado Fall 2009

Colorado Fall 2009

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