Trabuco Outdoors Blog

Leadville, Colorado

If you enjoy photography and old west history, you'll want to spend some time in Leadville, Colorado. Leadville was a boomtown during the late 19th century with the silver strikes of 1877 and 1878. The glory years ended by the end of the century although the town was occasionally boosted by mining operations of lesser metals including zinc and lead, and Leadville was little more than a hardscrabble town by the second half of the 20th century.

In any case, there is still a goldmine of photographic opportunities in the town. I wandered around town for a couple of hours in 2010 and then again in 2011 and just shot whatever caught my eye.

Blakely Smale Dry Goods Company

Delaware Block

Boarded building

The Tabor Opera House is the most famous building in town. Built by Horace Tabor in 1879, performers included Oscar Wilde, John Philip Sousa and Harry Houdini. Tabor became wealthy not by discovering silver, but by grub staking. David May started the May Company department store in Leadville in the late 1870s. The legendary Unsinkable Molly Brown who survived the sinking of the Titanic was another famous Leadville resident.

This photo is from one of central Colorado's other historic boomtowns: Central City.

The Pelicans

Photo by Carl Garrard

Carl got the best shot of the day last Sunday in my opinion. I hope he doesn't mind me posting the photo.

A wonderful bird is the pelican,

His bill will hold more than his belican,

He can take in his beak

Enough food for a week

But I'm damned if I can see how the helican!

Dixon Lanier Merritt

Going retro in Newport

Photographer buddy Carl Garrard and I headed out to the Balboa Peninsula Sunday morning to shoot some photos. Our mission was to use a couple of old cameras we picked up on ebay for about $25. In my case, I bought a 4MP Canon S45 which was a state-of-the-art point & shoot from about 10 years ago.

Sine it was early morning, I shot mostly at iso 400, the maximum for that camera.

While Carl stayed true to the mission and used only the two old cameras he brought with him, I cheated and got the shots below with my 5DmkII (below).

 

 

Once in a blue moon...we get a red moon

Here's a shot of the lunar eclipse from Crystal Cove early yesterday morning. This shot was taken at 6:08am, 36 minutes before sunrise. Normally, taking a photo of the full moon in a single exposure one-half hour before sunrise would be impossible unless you were willing to give up detail in the moon. The difference in brightness between the moon and the landscape is just too great and exceeds the dynamic range of the camera's sensor (the range of light it can capture in one exposure). I was able to get just two shots of the moon before the light from the sunrise overpowered the moon's diminishing moonlight from the full eclipse.

Of course I had to hang around Crystal Cove and get a few shots of the beach and the old cottages before I left.

 

 

 

And one from Laguna Beach on the way back home.

 

Laguna again

Roll your own

Here's a few more visual anthropology shots (aka street photography) from Laguna Beach.

Prayer circle at Main Beach

Chess game

Morning joe

 

 

What the heck is Los Rios and why are we going there?

It usually starts something like that. Fellow photographar Carl Garrard will have an idea of where we can go to practice our photography. Last Sunday morning it was the Los Rios neighborhood in the historical district of San Juan Capistrano. We went down there to practice low-light hand held (no tripod) photography using only one prime (not zoom) lens, in Los Rios and the adjacent train station. If you are into photography, it's a great exercise. Find an unfamiliar location and restrict your equipment to get out of your comfort zone.

 

 

 

A few more photos fom the Santa Rosa Plateau

I made it out to the SRP a few weeks ago and was fortunate enough to hit it during an early morning storm. The Adobe Loop Trail, which was closed for research the last couple of times I've been to the plateau, is now open.

 

 

Irvine Conservancy Photo hike

 


The Irvine Conservancy sponsors hikes and other activities on Irvine Company land (and now on former Irvine Ranch land which was recently deeded to the County of Orange). Fortunately, one or two of these hikes per month are specifically designed for photographers including the hike I went on last Friday. We hiked up Hicks Haul Road east of the 241 Tollway. Although it was a bit hazy, there was a nice buidup of cumulous clouds around us. These programs are docent-led and open to the public. You can signup online at the Irvine Conservancy web site.

 

 

View of 241 tollway after sunset on the hike back.

4th of July at RSM lake

The days of just walking up to RSM the lake and throwing down a blanket anywhere you want at 8:45PM on the 4th to watch the fireworks is long gone. In its place is much more interesting people-watching.

From a photography standpoint, low-light people photography is challenging. Even with a large aperture and high ISO (in this case I used a 50mm f/1.8 lens at a 1600 ISO) the shutter speed is still low and any movement will produce a blurred subject. Instead of fighting it or using flash, I just decided to go with the flow and see what happens.

 

More RSM photos

Here's a few more photos from around the RSM lake. These are in roughly chronological order with the new photos at the top. Sometimes it's amusing to lay out your photos taken in a particular location over the years and see how (if) your style changes. In my case, the newer photos are much more likely to have people in the composition. Also, I seem to have less of a need for dramatic color in my more recent photos. I'm sure my style will evolve into something diffent in another few years.