AUGUST VACATION PHOTOS

I just got back from a camping trip to the Ouray, Colorado area.  The weather was perfect-maybe too perfect!  How so, you ask?  Well, I went there to visit Yankee Boy Basin, Mineral Basin, and Molas Lake in Silverton to shoot some landscapes with my Nikon D5100.  For the most part, I was very pleased with the images I obtained, but was hoping for at least some clouds at sunset to color up after sundown.  Unfortunately, there were no clouds!

I did manage to get some good shots at Molas Lake regardless, such as this one with just the Grenadier Mountains lit up in the background and wildflowers in the foreground that I flashed.

While in the Silverton area, I visited Maggie Gulch northeast of town and took some photos of a waterfall cascading off a mountain. Here's a closeup I took of the lower falls. (I liked the colors in the rock):

One of my goals this trip was to experiment with starscape photography.  I've never tried this before and learned a lot about the procedure.  Of course, this requires a tripod and a long exposure.  I took the following image pointing the camera skyward between some pine trees and used my flash to light the tree branches to add some light and depth to the image.  I set the ISO to 1000 and exposed on bulb for about 45 seconds. I also set my camera to noise reduction for high ISO.  (Click on all images for a larger view)