Cold Night Ramble - a photo on Flickriver

Cold Night Ramble

            The dark, clear February sky shines with a million pinpricks of starlight over the gleaming, snow-clad Flatiron Formation south of Eldorado Springs, Colorado. The familiar pattern of Orion is clearly visible toward the left of the image.

As my hiking buddy and I climbed into the car to drive to the trailhead, we noticed that the external temperature sensor read a balmy 7˚F. I suddenly felt more justified that I chose to wear my shell pants with fleece pants underneath. We made our way into the South Boulder Creek drainage, and unfortunately, drainages being what they are with respect to temperature stratification, we found ourselves in even colder 5˚F air when we arrived at the trailhead. 

We strapped micro spikes to our boots and began to walk quickly up Doudy Draw through the snow, in order to generate a modicum of body heat. My eye sockets felt cold, and there was a crinkly feeling in the outer spaces of my nose every time I inhaled: nose hairs briefly freezing. There was no moon, and I was surprised at the amount of light the open spaces away from the trees were able to reflect from the nearby cities and the stars. 

When I stopped briefly to make this photo, I was forced to remove my mittens for several minutes. Worse, the metal legs of my tripod were physically painful to the touch, and I did not have the requisite dexterity to break it down while wearing the mittens. As such, I dedicated very little time to optimizing my composition and exposure before it was time to re-sling the gear onto my back and keep moving down the trail.

Technical notes: Single 25s exposure, developed with two masks in Photoshop CC, one for the sky and one for the foreground landscape; I used an additional curves layer with the sky mask to enhance contrast. I also manually adjusted the white balance in Lightroom because I find the camera struggles to assess reasonable white balances at night.

Taken in: United States / Colorado / Eldorado Springs (show map)

Taken on: February 24, 2022

Tags:

Boulder

Boulder County

Colorado

Colorado Rockies

Doudy Draw

Flatiron formation

Flatirons

Flatirons Vista

Landscape

Open Space

Orion

Rocky Mountains

Winter

cold

dark skies

long exposure

mountains

night

nightscape

nocturnal

snow

snowscape

stars

United States « less

Sets appears in: • Colorado • Front Range more » • Mountains and Sky • Nocturnal « less

Groups appears in: • Colorado! • Mountains more » • Night Photography • Astronomy • Landscape photography • Nature Photography • No-Flash Night Shots • Landscape Exploration • The Nature Conservancy • Nocturnes - Night Photography • Geotagged: Colorado • Snowscapes • Rocky Mountains Landscape & Wildlife Photos • Landscape Beauty ! • Un-enhanced American West • ☯ la quinta essenza ☯ • CIELOS Y NUBES, SKIES AND CLOUDS • My favourite Photographers • ☆The Power of Now / Die Kraft der Gegenwart ☆ « less

Camera: Nikon Z 6, f/8.0, 25 sec, 16.5mm (=16mm), ISO 3200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon Z 6
Lens:	NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S
Aperture:	f/8.0
Exposure Time:	25
Focal Length:	16.5mm (35mm equivalent: 16mm)
ISO:	3200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Manual
Gain Control:	High gain up
Saturation:	High
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 11.2 (Macintosh)
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