Category Archives: nature photography

The Perfect Rig

Photography Rig by the Pristine Waters of the South Platte River

I’ve been working for some time now to assemble the perfect rig for gaining access to the back country for landscape and wildlife photography. I don’t know whether it’s really the perfect rig or not, but it suits me perfectly and I was dying to try it all out together! I wanted the Tamrac Anvil 23 for it’s size and rugged construction, big and deep enough for all my gear and including a camera with battery grip and long lens. It also has straps on the center back strong enough to carry a heavy duty tripod comfortably. Then of course a carbon fiber tripod with a good video head, I decided upon the Manfrotto 502A for it’s rugged build plus it’s capability to operate effectively in the harsh Colorado winter. And of course the bike, which luckily I was able to find pre-owned and in like new condition, a Nishika Colorado 21 speed mountain bike with shock absorbers on the front forks 🙂

My idea was that Waterton Canyon was going to be considerably warmer and the best

Pristine Waters of the South Platte River in the Colorado Rocky Mountain Winter

place to try it all out! However the weatherman was forecasting a cold gloomy morning and I was pretty sure that the sheep were not going to come down 😦 I felt kind of guilty driving 100 miles just to go on a bike ride so I was going to back out, but I called my favorite camera store Englewood Camera, and they just happened to have a good deal on a 4 stop ND filter that I’ve been wanting so I thought what the heck… I’ll stop in at the camera store and maybe I’ll even be able to try it out on my favorite part of the river. Years ago back in the film days I had captured a great image of the river and I’ve tried repeatedly through the years without success to duplicate it with the awesome new technology at our disposal these days so that I could have it for sale on my stock portfolio!

It was still cold and gloomy in the canyon by the time I got there at about 10:00 a.m. so I bundled up and hoped for the best. Indeed I did not see a single bighorn sheep in my entire ride to the top of the dirt road. Modifications I

Pristine Waters of the South Platte River in the Colorado Rocky Mountain Winter

had recently made to my bike, including seat, hand grips and pedals proved worth the investment as I rode hard all the way to the turnaround without having to dismount a single time 🙂 On the way up I identified the very spot that I captured my favorite image so many years ago and on the way back down I stopped there for pictures and video. The other time was autumn so I knew I would not have the beautiful colors, but I have always wanted to try the image in winter as well. I spent a good amount of time there using wide angle and long lenses, the polarizer and a plain skylight filter. The water wasn’t flowing sufficiently to need the new ND, but I’ll try that out over at Eleven Mile pretty soon.

All in all I think I am satisfied with my winter images and I got a great workout on my mountain bike in the fresh mountain air of the Pike National Forest. As always these images and more are available for purchase on my website as wall art on glossy metal or acrylic sheets, stretched canvas, and traditional matting and framing! Also I have no sponsorship or compensation of any kind from any of these products. I have purchased them with my own funds because I found them most suitable to my needs.

Gathering Storm

Approaching Storm on the Sangre de Cristo

As I looked out the window down the valley this morning it quickly became apparent that a change in the weather is afoot. The first evidence of an approaching storm often shows itself on the high peaks of the majestic Sangre de Cristo Mountain range to the southwest.

So of course I grabbed my camera and headed for higher ground in hopes of capturing the show before the mountains were completely obscured. My efforts paid off as I caught the action at it’s most dramatic point 🙂 The days ahead will tell whether the storm works it’s way north or if the massive block fault range stops it in it’s tracks.

As always these pictures and more are available for purchase on my website as wall art on glossy metal or acrylic sheets ready for hanging, stretched canvas and traditional matting and framing. Cool gift items including coffee mugs, t-shirts, phone cases and much much more are also available!

Approaching Storm on the Sangre de Cristo

Plan B or Maybe C for 2020

Things definitely not going to plan for 2020 so far. Took vacation from work for the first couple of weeks of the year to get a head start on winter photography, maybe a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, a couple excursions to Waterton Canyon for mountain bike rides to see the bighorn sheep and perhaps a snowshoe trek at the Denny Creek Trail, something I’ve been wanting to do for years. And my local trail into the mountain back country is supposed to be reopening as well. Unfortunately on my first day off my truck has decided to start acting up and is in the truck hospital as of this morning. Hopefully it won’t be anything too serious and I will quickly be back in action!

Stunning Sangre de Cristo Range

Not wanting to completely waste a day yesterday, I decided that since I might be without wheels for a few days maybe I’d  better give my mountain bike a little tune up to coincide with my New Year’s Resolution to get  back in shape! My last ride up Waterton Canyon was a struggle at  best, far more difficult than I thought it should be, worrying me that I have spent far too much time watching Youtube videos about mountain biking instead of actually mountain biking 😦 However the tune up proved to be quite successful especially the saddle adjustment that I completed. Turns out the seat was way too far back making it extremely uncomfortable in addition to placing my legs completely out of the power leverage angle. A short test ride with the new placement proved two things, one, I’m not in as poor of physical shape as I feared… and two, I’m going to need to be in a lot better shape than I am in order to do the things I have planned for this year!

So plan B today was going to be a mountain bike ride to my local trailhead for a ride up the new road they have built to the summit. At first I wasn’t too pleased to see the improvements, knowing that all the more people will be invading my sanctuary but now I’m thinking that with mountain biking as my new preferred form of exercise, the road may come in handy 🙂

But it only took one step out the door this morning to see a problem with plan B… it is unexpectedly frigid out today! It’s cold and grey and there is a wicked wind blowing out of the north 😦 Perhaps it will warm up a bit later today making for better riding conditions… or perhaps plan C will be enacted to spend just one more day working out with my weights inside and a little bit of time at the computer before beginning in earnest the work towards my New Year’s Resolution!

Another Stellar Mountain Morning

Not much to say other than stunning… I feel so blessed to live in view of the jaw dropping

Stunning Sangre de Cristo Rangesplendor of the  Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range. One time I drove all the way down to Westcliffe to try to get a better view but it turns out that in this case, closer is not better! Of course many days the view is obscured by smoke and haze but most of the time the rugged range is putting on a pretty good show. For this image I used my my Canon 100-400L glass with circular polarizer on full effect to achieve this crystal clear scene. I love the clouds hanging over the range like a halo and almost a mirror image of the snow on the foothills below!

Now the view is gone as our next winter storm moves in, I can’t see the mountains at all. But there is a silver lining, there will be another amazing show after the snow is done falling 🙂

Anyway, this is my favorite one of the day, hope you enjoy it! Feel free to follow my #swkrull instagram page to see the rest of the ones I got processed today, along with a few more of the bighorn sheep from Christmas Day 🙂

As always, this image is available on my website for purchase as wall art on glossy metal or acrylic sheets, stretched canvas and traditional matting and framing, just click the link to explore!

Merry Christmas from Colorado

Stunning Sangre de Cristo Range

Every morning I look down the valley at the magnificent Sangre de Cristo Range to see how my day in photography is going to shape up. Most days there is enough haze to pretty much obscure the view and prevent any decent mountain photography. Today however, the view was stunning! So I grabbed my camera and headed to my favorite vantage point 🙂

So anyway not much else to say about it,  I just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas from this beautiful Christmas Eve Day with a stunning view of the Colorado Rocky Mountains!

As always, these images and more are available on my website for purchase as wall art on glossy metal or acrylic sheets ready for hanging, stretched canvas and traditional matting and framing!

Stunning Sangre de Cristo Range

Winter Solstice 2019

Winter Sunset on the Sangre de Cristo Mountains

Today marks the day when the sun has reached it’s southern destination at the Tropic of Capricorn and consequently the shortest day of the year for those of us living in the northern hemisphere. According to the Farmers Almanac, “Alban Arthan, Welsh for “Light of Winter,” is a universal festival, which has been (and still is) celebrated by many people and is probably the oldest seasonal festival of humankind. “. To me, it’s simply the true start of a new year as well as the day when these blasted long nights start getting shorter, if only a few seconds per day at first. I’m a daytime person, for a nature and landscape photographer not much can be done without light and longer days mean longer light!

Well anyway, 2019 was a pretty good year photographically speaking… Winter on my mountain was magnificent with plenty of good snow shoeing, some amazing weather phenomenon during the seasons change and some great photo trips to Eleven Mile Canyon, Waterton Canyon, Rocky Mountain National Park, Mount Evans and much more!

I also started shooting some video footage this year for the first time in my career! I had

Autumn on the South Platte River

my canon 70D for 4 years before bothering to learn how to use it’s video capability 🙂 The impetus to do so came at Eleven Mile Canyon. As I was sitting along the waters edge photographing the beautiful whitewater of the South Platte River I was thinking, dang, it’s a shame my subscribers can’t hear the power of the water as it roars out of the mountains on it’s journey through Colorado and Nebraska to the Mighty Missouri! Then I thought, wait… they can! If I can just figure out how to do it! Eventually that day I did figure it out and got some footage with great audio!

Bighorn Sheep In Waterton Canyon

Again, in Rocky Mountain National Park upon hearing the bugling of the bulls I thought it would be a shame not to capture the sounds to go along with the sights. Then there was the bighorn rams scuffling in Waterton Canyon to video. All in all it was quite a memorable year so I have added to my YouTube channel this video of my favorite video clips and photographs all from 2019. It’s about 15 minutes long, set to inspiring music and I hope you enjoy it!

Also the still images are available on my website for purchase as wall art on glossy metal or acrylic sheets, stretched canvas and traditional framing and matting. Tons of cool gift items, stationary, apparel, tech items, coffee mugs, household items and much more, all with a beautiful mountain scene from S.W. Krull Imaging!

Also please subscribe to my YouTube channel if you enjoyed the video! I’m just getting started with this new avenue and big plans for the future!

 

Sangre Mountain Sunset

After a pretty gloomy day in the high country I was thinking it looked like conditions were right for a spectacular sunset. As the sun descended towards the high peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range, an hour before sunset there was already some beautiful golden color showing in the clouds just above the mountains. So I readied my camera gear and made my way to a suitable vantage point to await the show.

Herd of Mule Deer in the Colorado Wintertime

And it was a pretty nice sunset, not that great but not really good enough to miss the golden hour for wildlife photography so I pressed on hoping for some sunset deer pictures. Soon I spotted a buck mule deer with some does so I stopped for a bit to see if I could capture an image of them. The buck was off minding his own business but much to my delight three cute curious looking does were gathered together to peer out from the golden mountain grass at me to see what I was up to. I got a couple closeups of them and as I moved around to the east I could see that I was  getting the Sangre de Cristos and some remnants of the sunset in the background as well 🙂

Winter Sunset on the Sangre de Cristo Mountains

The deer finally wandered off and I moved on to a better spot for the sunset finale that was shaping up to the west. And what a show it was, there was just enough space between the mountains and the clouds to allow the beautiful evening sunlight to pour through and light the clouds from below.

These are my favorite images of this spectacular evening, I hope you like them! And as always, these images and more are available on my website for purchase as wall art on glossy metal or acrylic sheets, stretched canvas and traditional framing and matting. Tons of cool gift items are also available including coffee mugs, apparel, bedding, stationary and much more, all with a beautiful Colorado Rocky Mountain scene!

Herd of Mule Deer in the Colorado Wintertime

Herd of Mule Deer in the Colorado Wintertime