Colin Gough

I’m not entirely sure what the name of this plant is, but they pop up pretty frequently in Crested Butte… similar to corn stalks, just a more unique foreground element and not as edible…

A blue hour blend of Zion Canyon’s overlook point from last fall. This is a five-shot composite - two shots for focus stacking of foreground, two for light trails, and one for the sky. I always underestimate how much windier it is at higher elevations in the mountains, and this was no exception 😅 it made for a surprisingly cold morning. Fortunately, despite the popularity of this spot, we were the only ones there while the stars were out.

The standard 4x5 Instagram crop does an excellent job of cutting off the closest peaks that provide any sort of sense of depth. The full image is shown in the second slide.

Sunrise on O’ahu’s coast ☀️

It’s tough to take a bad picture in Hawaii. The biggest challenge is grappling with the low clouds that come in over the mountains and threaten to take away any direct light. I got lucky this morning back in November of 2022 when sunlight pierced through the clouds for only a couple minutes (during what otherwise was a total dud of a sunrise) to light up the east side of Koko Crater.

From the Narrows in Utah last fall… there are infinite photo possibilities here! A little bit of generative fill on the sides to fit the IG crop. Full shot on second slide

A 2-minute exposure of a sunrise at the Tidal Basin from the fall of 2021. I remember sitting in the cold thinking that some clouds lower on the horizon would block the sun as it came up, but they moved out of the way just as the sun rose to make for a worthwhile outing ☀️

We don’t exactly get fall colors in Phoenix, so went a little north 🍂

Not a bad spot for hopscotch ~ I’ve gotten in the habit of backing up all my photos before each of my moves, and I found this one in a forgotten folder from NYC last May. It’s a skyline shot from the Jersey side, and while by no means is it a clinic on camera technique (no tripod, no focus stacking, etc.), I thought it was an ok-ish result for setting out that morning without a plan or composition in mind.

This is obviously not the greatest composition in the world… the overhead highway signs do a great job of dividing the photo in two 🤣 But I’ve spent some time trying to refine my editing style to achieve the “painterly” look and color separation that artists like .eye do so well, and this is the closest I’ve gotten. Hope everyone is having a relaxing Sunday morning!

Blended sunset/blue hour shot taken from near the falls 💧

Some snow over downtown. I took this shot with full intent to pair it with a song like “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” (an Instagram algorithm classic), but this edit turned out slightly more… apocalyptic… than I initially intended and doesn’t really fit a cheery vibe anymore 🤷🏼‍♂️

some trees and rocks

One from an Arizona sunrise in August with and in frame. Always loved small person/big landscape shots because of how well they convey sense of scale.

One of the best sunsets I’ve seen since I moved to Minneapolis 🌇

The Sculpture Garden from Saturday’s sunrise.

32-image stack of the Milky Way in Arizona. IG crop doesn’t show it very well, but soon after dark the brightest part of the Milky Way was oriented to look like it was coming out of the central mountain - a starry volcano of sorts. With no light pollution nearby, you could easily see the Milky Way arc overhead from horizon to horizon.

Focus stack of Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse in Maine. Most shots on Google of this lighthouse are taken from one rock in the ocean that is furthest from the shore. You have to jump and climb some other rocks to get out there, and there’s only space for one person. By the time I showed up for sunset, the spot was already taken, so I ended up climbing down to some lower rocks. I settled on a spot that was pretty cramped (crouched with my knees against my chest for ~1 hour) due to a rock behind me, and I got hit with some waves, but I think I’m happier with this shot than I would have been if I had followed the wide landscape view typically seen online. To me, the composition works better due to the foreground/midground rocks pointing toward the lighthouse. I blended in a longer exposure of wave streaks that were also pointing in that direction to try and balance how right-heavy the image was.

Dramatic skies over downtown ⛅️

Sunset and blue hour blended shot of the Minneapolis skyline. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these blends, but I really wanted to do one for this shot in particular because of the phenomenal sky - the way the clouds were lit up made Capella Tower look like it was on fire 🔥

Last cherry blossom shot for a while… the Jefferson Memorial

Another cherry blossom shot from last weekend. Had the sun peak through the clouds for only about 30 seconds and was in the middle of switching lenses so had to settle with what was in front of me. Not a huge fan of this composition but lighting was pretty cool

Cherry blossoms & lit up Washington Monument at blue hour. Didn’t get much color at sunrise because of the clouds but low wind made reflection shots pretty straightforward 🌸

Snow on the ground has me missing LA. Shot at 160mm from the Griffith Observatory 🔭

4pm in Malibu

3.5 minute exposure of a DC sunrise 🌇

Moody skies over Midtown ☁️

Moon and sunset over Chicago 🏙

Olympic Rings and a view uptown… my other shots from this angle have birds filling the frame as they attacked the drone 🙂

Sunset over midtown from last April 🌇

Walking in a winter wonderland… another one from last weekend’s snow ❄️