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Ouray is about six hours from Denver, so I had been thinking that I might as well stay home over the weekend. However, I'd been hearing stories about Yankee Boy Basin. That people pay to attend photography workshops there. That the flowers this time of year are practically guaranteed to be spectacular. And that children tell their parents "This is what heaven must is like". A flower-photography workshop in heaven? What more could I possibly want?
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Columbine
and Hoodoos
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I anticipated using three lenses there: A wide-angle, for the obligatory hyperfocal flowers-in-the-foreground shot; a telephoto, for wildlife photography; and a macro, which - combined with a diffuser - would permit me to shoot those little alpine tundra flowers during midday when the sun would be too bright for much else. As it was, I forgot the diffuser, and so I never pulled out the macro (though there was certainly enough to shoot with it).
Seven hours out from Denver, and I found a campsite in the last possible designated area before entering Yankee Boy Basin (which is apparently the private property of a mining interest). And I arrived not a moment too soon . . . the afternoon rain had started, just moments after setting up the tent. With the campsite secure - and the rain kicking in - I set out up the basin.
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Hoodoos on the Hill
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I wasn't alone. There were others, notably some open-top "Jeep Tour" vehicles going up the basin, their relunctant-looking victims in handy yellow rain gear. Normally, I wouldn't want to be very near this kind of crowd, but the idea of going alone up a steep, rain-soaked 4WD road past timberline in unknown territory didn't thrill me, either. I followed them beyond the trees: Up into the fascinating landscape of alpine tundra, interrupted only by the occasional scars of antique mining activity. Eventually I parked at an interesting-looking trailhead: The trail that leads to Wright's Lake, which sits just below 12,200'. I walk the trail, sans camera gear, as it's still raining.
So, this is another of my little quirks (and I have a few): I've found that I rather like walking in the rain . . . above timberline. . . by myself. . . the threatening weather insuring my solitude. That's because no one else in their right mind would be up there. Unless perhaps they are Polynesian: They could be doing a faka `uha, or "walking in the rain". True, statistics have proved that island people are usually found near sea-level, and yes, ...it's usually about 80°F in those circumstances. But one should be ready for anything: Perhaps I'd come across a beautiful Polynesian girl who would be impressed with my cross-cultural sensitivity. As she approached, though, I'd be found out: I am not soaked to the skin in true walking-in-the-rain fashion. I am wearing Gore-tex shoes and coat, and - as I learned - some pretty-water resistant pants from REI. So the rain wasn't bugging me, but the lightning was beginning to get on my nerves. Even the yellow-jackets were gone, now. The random encounters with foreign women would have to wait.
Back down about a thousand feet finds you near timberline again. At this altitude, not only do the trees find it possible to survive, the flowers do too, and they are prolific. The rain had now slowed considerably. With the cloud cover, the light was about perfect for photography. And there were few people around: The weather took care of that.
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Falls near Governor Basin
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I took the shot to the left ("Falls near Governor Basin") and practiced my hyperfocal technique. The idea here, in case you haven't heard this term before, is to maximize your depth of field. To get this shot, for example, I didn't focus on the waterfall. If I had done so, the depth-of-field that would have its maximum distance "cut-off" at infinity. By setting your lens at a large f-stop, and focusing at the hyperfocal distance, you use all of the depth-of-field. In this case, the focal length of the lens I was using was 17mm, and the aperture was f/22, so I would set the lens to focus at 1.9 feet to get everything from 0.95 feet to infinity in focus (yes, this apparently includes the 1.6 "digital" conversion factor of the Canon D60 I was using).
Now, I can't really tell where I'm bloody focusing: I wing it. But this shot seemed to work: The flowers in the foreground, which are quite small, are pretty clear, as are the trees on the horizon. Good enough for a web site, and - if I'm lucky - the focus is good enough for a 13x19" print, too. Incidentally, at f/22 the shutter speed was 1/2 second . . . enough to nicely blur the waterfall. That slow a shutter requires a tripod, though: Standard equipment for hyperfocal work.
The same seat-of-the-pants attempt at guessing the hyperfocal distance failed on this sunflower shot; it was also shot at f/22, but the larger image shows that the mountains are a bit outside the maximum range of the depth-of-field. I remember focusing on the furthest petal out; it apparently wasn't far enough.
The telephoto was kind of fun. I liked experimenting with the way it "compresses" distance at 400 mm, as shown in the image on the left ("Framed by Flowers"). I disliked that it weighs about 4 lbs. This shot taken at f/5.6 at 1/125 second.
I've begun shooting Canon's "raw" mode - that is, not jpeg - when I'm attempting to try "art" shots. I'm doing this because I can set the white-balance later, and as you've undoubtedly read elsewhere, it's a lossless file format. Unfortunately, I can get only about 135 shots on my 1 GB microdrive (which is serving me well, incidentally). If I shoot jpeg, I can get about 400 shots on the drive. If I continue shooting raw, it may be time to invest in another 1 GB memory; and a laptop to dump to - and view the pictures - while on the road.
So I never did use the macro lens. I guess this trip was mostly reconnaissance: I could probably spend about a week or two here, entering "the zone" of taking the time to take the most perfect shots possible: Wait for the cloud, check. Wait for the breeze to stop, check. Wait for the woman to get out of your frame, say what? Friday in the rain was fun; Saturday with the crowds...well, that was fun too. But if you are going to do Yankee Boy Basin, I'd recommend the week-days.
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