The Year’s Best - 2011
I wanted to put together a little collection of my favorite images of 2011. They’re in a slideshow format, so there isn’t a big write up of commentary and technical details with each one—just what you see in the captions. So take a look, most of them should be familiar to you but there are some there that may not!
“2011 was a year in which I grew immensely in photography.” That’s something I say every year, except with 2009, 2010, etc. at the beginning. I think that for the rest of my life, I’ll probably be saying the same thing too. That is the great thing about photography, you’ve always got to be evolving, changing and adapting and that suits me very well.
This year I had the great fortune of traveling to some great new places, shooting some great new perspectives of old haunts and even getting in some portrait work. I’ve me some amazing people along the way and loved every bit of it.
I had a tough time trimming the list down, but my blog helped out by limiting the number of images I could include in the slide show :-)
A Colorado Scenic
(Click through to view in High-Res on 500px)
Setting up this scene took a little longer than usual. With everything I love about Colorado in it; red Earth, mountains, vegetation, blue sky and fluffy clouds; I had to take a moment to just drink it all in.
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©2011 Zach Frailey, please do not use without permission.
‘The High Road’
There was something about these red dirt and gravel roads that wind around the mountains in Colorado Springs, Colorado that just made me itch to drive. Unfortunately, I flew out there and left my Jeep at home in North Carolina. I’m sure the rental car company would not appreciate the condition that I would bring their vehicle back in! Well, at least the roads made for some nice photography.
©2011 Zach Frailey, please do not use photos without permission.
Chasing Ansel Adams (Part 1)
When in the Western part of the United States, it’s hard to not feel inspired by the work of Ansel Adams. This happened to me when I spent some time in Colorado in May. As I am getting ready to shoot a scene, I normally picture the final image in my mind before pressing the shutter. Normally, I picture a brightly colored HDR image. However, when framing my scenes in the rugged countryside of Colorado, I found myself seeing scenes in black and white. I blame this on Ansel Adams.
From the Summit of Pikes Peak | Elevation- 14,110 Feet
During a recent trip to Colorado, I had the good fortune of taking in two sights that were on my “must visit (aka must photograph)” list. No, I don’t really have a list per say, but I do have a mental compilation of several places that I really, really want to travel to. During this trip I was able to put a virtual check mark beside the Garden of the Gods and the summit of Pikes Peak, both in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Now, aside from the Appalachian Mountains in Central Pennsylvania, I have never seen mountains. When I laid my eyes on the Rockies, complete with their snowy peaks I was in awe and absolutely could not put my camera down.
On the day of our trip up the slope of Pikes Peak via the Cog Railway, I scoffed at warnings of the thin air at the top. However, as I reached the summit a pretty harsh headache set in. I’m not sure if I’m ready to blame it on the altitude, but it may have been because of just that. I snapped a few frames while at the top, pushing my total for the short trip to near 2,000 photos. As we descended the mountain and almost immediately left for the airport, dreams of editing and processing the HDR images danced in my head. We arrived back in North Carolina in the wee-hours of the morning and I went straight to bed. This was the first image I edited when I awoke. Hope you enjoy!
©2011 Zach Frailey
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