A landscape photographer's tour
Aspen - Steamboat

Keith's travels in Colorado - April-May 2006

Steamboat Springs

In 2004 I took my then fairly new Canon 1Ds camera on a driving tour round the Rockies in the USA. This photo-diary covers my second driving trip around Colorado in April/May 2006. This collection of photography and comments has been re-written to make it easier to follow than the original (big) web page. On my return to the UK, I wrote a more technical article about the photographic aspects as a follow up to my original "Keith's first all digital visit to the Rockies"

Interstate 70, heading west from Denver passes trough some spectacular scenery as it cuts through the Rockies.

Leaving I-70 at junction 133 is a road (to Burns) that follows the Colorado River. This is just east of the deep Glenwood canyon cut by the river. According to my map, I could take this small road on the way to Steamboat Springs.

Converted to BW with 'Convert to BW Pro'. Selective (masked) application of a curves adjustment layer allowed me to emphasise some of the tonal variations in the foreground, which otherwise looked a bit plain.

A bit further up the river, the cottonwoods are just coming into leaf

Straight conversion from raw. On a larger version of the print I'd look to emphasise some of the lines that lead the eye through the image. Mostly these are quite subtle variations - ideally they should not be directly visible.

The railway also follows the river, and I spotted this train heading the other way

It was a long train, taking several minutes to pass by.

Just for my friends interested in such things, I've got a detailed view of the seven power units

Not far after that, the tarmac runs out. Just how good was this road going to be? particularly given I'm not in a 4WD car.

Fortunately there were some people working on the road who confirmed that it did go where the map said, and it was in good condition.

So to Steamboat. I spent a few days here on my last trip, so I'm staying at the Alpiner Lodge (lots of places here try to give that 'Alpine' feel :-)

Not quite the cosmopolitan air of Aspen, but it's a great place to buy a stetson...

This is the slack time of the year for places like this, and I had the Metropolitan Mudd Coffee Co. to myself...

For those of us from the UK, gas (petrol) prices over here still seem quite reasonable.

Cheap at half the price...

Next day >>