Blue Mesa Reservoir

Blue Mesa Reservoir

This panoramic was not taken at a national park, state park, or even a public attraction. Welcome to Colorado.

The wife and I were traveling toward the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Those pictures have not been posted yet. I think the wife spent more time watching to make sure I kept my eyes on the road than she did looking at the views. Every once in a while I would get smacked for looking out the side windows instead of straight in front of the car. This was merely a view out the car window while travelling to the park. It is somewhat near a city called Sapinero. The water in the picture is the Blue Mesa Reservoir. The name of the cliffs are currently unknown to me. The view was free.

It was absolutely stunning to be standing there and taking this site in. If you want a scale of size, if you look very closely at the water you can spot a single sailboat. (Since posting this picture and looking at it in the public view, the sailboat is nothing more than pixel on the screen. One can’t even spot it without being able to zoom in. Oh well.)

Tripod
Nikon D300
Lens: 18-200mm (VR on – Windy)
ISO: 200
Aperture: F/5.6
Focal Length: 65mm ( all 3 pictures of panoramic – manual focus to achieve this)
Shutter Speed: 5 exposure HDR ranging from 1/640s to 1/80s for all 3 pictures that make up this panoramic.
Gitzo 3-way pan/tilt head
Both tripod and 3-way pan/tilt head completely leveled prior to HDR panoramic pictures being taken.
White Balance: Taken in Raw with automatic; but switched to cloudy to knock down some of the blue in the haze.

Tools Used:
Photomatix Version 3.2.3 – HDR Processing – Close to natural setting
Roxio Easy Media Creator 10 Suite – 3 picture stitching
Corel’s Paint Shop Pro Ultimate X2 – Brightness, Levels, Curves, and Sharpening
Noise Ninja Version 2.0 – Noise reduction

Blue Mesa Reservoir belongs to the following groups:

All About Your Best Work, American Southwest , AMERICAS NATURAL WONDERS, Beautiful Colorado, Canon Vs Nikon (1 per day!), Colorful Colorado, Digital Photography, Fine Art of Landscape Photography, HDR Photography (3 Photos per 24hr-day), Landscape and Abstract Photography, Landscape Photography, Made By Nature - {2 a day} - {challenge theme only!}, Panoramas 3:1 Ratio Minimum, Top Shelf Wildlife & Nature Art and Wildlife, Landscape, and Nature Photography Online Magazine Available for sale as

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