Gunnison County

• Salvador Dali.

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Today's photo is one of the most iconic scenes of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. This is the famous Crystal Mill which also goes by the name Old Mill and is an abandoned wooden power mill built in 1892. The mill is located on an outcrop over a waterfall on the Crystal River. As fall peaks, this mill provides visiting photographers with one of the most iconic scenes of America’s western mountains.

While this is a famous location and we visited during the popular fall season, due to the remoteness of the location we were actually the only people here for about 2 hours and on our way back we met another couple who were hiking to the mill. So, its safe to say that it's not a tourist haunt like the Maroon Bells. By the time we reached the mills, the sun was out in full force but thanks to the location being in a Canyon and this being Colorado, there was no shortage of clouds that came in to block out the sun so that I could make my long exposure shot of the waterfall.

Technically this was a challenging location to shoot as being an iconic location finding unique compositions I almost an impossible task. Another difficulty is caused by the fact that the owner of the property has installed fences to discourage people from taking shots by the edge of the cliffs making limiting many compositions. Then comes the need to prioritize the various aspects in the scene regarding lighting, generally fall colors look better under diffused lighting while waterfall look better in the shade and dark wooden structures don’t look good in shade. So, I had to wait for the correct lighting and manage the rest with my filters. As you can see even after my best efforts, the mill is still in its own shadows which were something that I could not avoid due to the time of the day. But I paid special attention not to overblow the waterfall and still get good light on the fall colors.

Barn and field of wildflowers at sunrise in Crested Butte Colorado. One of many great locations visited on recent roadmap with Kevin Benedict. But...

• Dalai Lama.

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One more shot of my favorite location in Colorado, the crystal mill. For this particular shot, it was a constant battle with the sunlight streaking out from behind the clouds. As the shot was made during mid-day, the sun was pretty harsh and was giving me a lot of casting due to the fact that I was using a 10 stop ND filter and polarizing filter. So I had to actually wait for moving clouds to hide the sun so I get a decent cast and flare free image with decent long shutter speed.

Eventually, after a couple of misfires, a large cloud moved in between mountains and completely blocked the sun for me to get my shot ready. Thankfully I was able to get everything correct and was able to get back to our vehicle for the hour long trip back to civilization.

• Theodore Roosevelt.

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When we planned our fall road trip to Colorado, one of the key spots I wanted to see was the beautiful Crystal Mill along the Crystal Creek near Marble. I spend countless hours looking at various 4-wheel trail drive videos to assess whether I would be able to self-drive the trail to the mill in our new Subaru. But thankfully we decided on a jeep tour that took us to the mill and in a couple of hours. The tour took about two hours to drive the 10 miles out an back trail and was pretty good moreover, they explained the history of the various abandoned cabins that we found on the way and the geographical history of the trail itself. But we soon realized that the amazing scenery deserved to be photographed for its own beauty. We decided that the next time we visited, we should hike the trail and take as many photos as we can on the way.

While we were on the jeep tour, we took a break at one point near a small pond on our way back and I had an opportunity to take a shot of this beautiful scenery along the road which had some interesting light and some beautiful reflections of the nearby hills.

For this shot, I used a two stop ND grad filter to balance the light in the sky and the foreground. The difference in light at this scene is so great that if I didn’t use the ND grad filter and expose for the bright sky as conventional wisdom demands the whole foreground will be in the dark. So, my only choice here is to bracket the image and make an HDR image or use an ND grad filter to balance the bright and dark sections of the image perfectly. This also allowed me to get the leaves and grass blades in the foreground with crisp details. I also focused this scene by focusing at the hyperfocal distance making sure that the whole scene is in sharp focus. I didn’t use a polarizing filter as that would have cut into the reflection and since there is not much foliage in the scene to accentuate using the polarizer. I love how the reflections of the sky and the surrounding hills came about in this shot as well as the leafless aspens on the hillside. Hope you will all enjoy the read about this shot as much as I did making it.

• Winston Churchill.

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The last day on our stay at Ridgway we decided to visit the cool little town of Marble and take a jeep tour to one of the most famous landmarks of Colorado, the Crystal Mill. The trip is about 4 miles drive through a bone jarring mountain road. It takes almost 1 hour to cover the four miles and get to the mill but it's totally worth it.

This shot is a 4 shot panorama with an 18mm lens and a Singh-Ray warming polarizer. It was quite challenging to maintain the horizon on level while perched on a ledge. Hopefully I can return here when fall is in full swing again.

• E. F. Schumacher | facebook | 500px | ferpectshotz | Took this shot on our way back from Crystal Mill location near marble, Colorado. I actually noted this lake on our way up and knew that if all goes according to plan we will be back around the area just in time to get a late afternoon or sunset shot here. Thankfully our trip went without any incidents and we were back late afternoon just before sunset at the shore of a calm Beaver Lake just as the sun was beautifully lighting up some of the surrounding hills. To add to the scene wind came to a standstill and gave us a clear reflection of the mountains and the rustic cabins that dotted the nearby area. To go into some technical details regarding the shot, this was challenging due to the sheer dynamic range contained in the scene. We had a bright sky and lake and mountains covered in shade. So I used a 2 stop ND grad for balancing light and a warming polarizer to get the fall leaves to pop a bit.