Category Archives: Travel

Hiking Long’s Peak: Redux

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Hiking Long’s Peak:

A slideshow

So, I made a slideshow for the Long’s Peak hike, which I blogged about in laborious detail here: https://jletookthis.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/longs-peak-my-first-fourteener/

I know some people appreciated the timelapse-slideshow I made of my Europe trip, so I decided to do the same to all the photos from the hike.  You can watch the video in HD on Vimeo, or in the embedded video below.

Long’s Peak: My First Fourteener from Justin Le on Vimeo.

In August of 2011, some friends and I attempted to hike Long’s Peak – one of the more well-known fourteeners in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. The journey is grueling, and reportedly perilous. Would we make it? Watch the video to find out!

I blogged and posted some photos of the hike a couple months ago (https://jletookthis.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/longs-peak-my-first-fourteener/), but then I decided I’d put together a timelapse-style slideshow of the hike with all the photos I took. These photos were shot in raw, and were taken straight out of camera with no editing or cropping, and batch exported to jpeg.

Gear: Nikon D700, Nikon 20mm f/2.8, Sigma 24-60mm f/2.8

Song: Arcade Fire – Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

http://vimeo.com/34117404

International Travel: jletookthis Trip to Europe 2011: Poland, France, & England

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My first real trip to Europe, consisted of 5 days in Warsaw, Poland, 3 days in Paris, France, and 5 days in Cambridge, England.

Eurotrip 2011: Poland, France, England from Justin Le on Vimeo.
(Watch it on Vimeo for the HD version…)

I left Detroit, MI on 10/28/11 and returned on 11/11/11. Midway through my trip, as I was scrolling through my pictures on the LCD of my D700, the thought occurred to me that it could be neat to make slideshow out of all the photos. This way, I don’t have to spend hours, days, or weeks going through my photos before I feel like I can show them to people, and can share them immediately.

Obviously, for my fragile ego’s sake, I have to mention these are all un-edited and unprocessed. Therefore, I make no guarantees as to the actual quality or content of these photos individually, but together, it seemed pretty nice. These are all the photos from my memory cards. 1511 photos, which was about 20 GB of space, all crammed into 8 minutes. I imported these photos into Adobe Lightroom 3, converting from .NEF to .DNG, with a basic preset which slightly adjusts the clarity and the tone curve. Once imported, I did a batch export to .jpeg, resizing the image height to 720px (maintaining the 3:2 aspect ratio), and then brought them into Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 as numbered stills. Added title screen and credit screen, slowed the speed to 12%, and added music. Song selection was based on what I was listening to on my iPhone while traveling, and has no real relevant meaning, aside from any subconscious reasons that I’m unaware of.

As this was my first time doing anything of this sort, and using Premiere Pro even, please forgive the basic-ness of this vid.

Things you’ll see in this video:

Poland (Warsaw):

– Tenderheart Care Bear, Shark Attack, & Waldo (aka Wally in Europe).  Halloween isn’t celebrated in Europe like it is in the States, so the Americans in Poland celebrated it twice.
– Assistant Coach Katz
– Old Town Market Place
– All Saints Day at the Cemetary

France (Paris):

– The Opera
– St. Germain des Pres area (I guess the French love the rapper, Jermaine Dupree)
– Eiffel Tower (La Tour Eiffel)
– The Champs-Elysees Avenue
– Arc de Triomphe
–  National Residence of the Invalids (Hotel Des Invalides)
– Moulin Rouge
– The Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Le Sacre-Coeur MontMartre)
– Place de la Concorde (including the Fontaines de la Concorde & the Obelisque de Louxor)
– Jardin des Tuileries
–  Love Locks on Pont des Arts
–  Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel
– The Louvre
– The Notre Dame

England (Cambridge):

– Thien & Stephen’s new pad
– Jesus Green
– King’s College
– Clare College
– Saint Catharine’s College
– Great St. Mary’s Church
– Our Lady & The English Martyrs Curch
Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoyed it.

Camera Gear: Nikon D700, Nikon 20mm f/2.8, Nikon 50 mm f/1.4D, Nikon 85mm f/1.4D, Sigma 24-60mm f/2.8. Video created on my Dell XPS 15.

Any other questions, let me know. Thanks!

The Smith Avenue Bridge…

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…At least, that’s what I assume it’s called. After leaving my friends’, Andrew & Carrie’s, wedding in Saint Paul, MN, I went straight instead of taking a left turn. I ended up going under this bridge, and started to turn around right after the bridge. I thought the lights on the bridge looked cool, so I decided to stop for a few photos of the bridge. Unfortunately, the old UV filter I have on the wide angle lens I like to use (the Nikon 20mm f/2.8) that came with the lens when I bought it used, was actually literally, old.  Anyway, the old “haze” filter left some haziness in the flare of the lights, so those didn’t turn out so great. But, here are a few others which turned out pretty good, I think, anyway.  Let me know what you think.

Meanwhile, I’ll probably start browsing for a new multicoat UV filter for my lens, or remember to remove it for those kind of shots.

Long’s Peak: My First Fourteener

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Just over a month ago, I, and 6 of my friends, embarked upon a journey. A journey of modestly epic proportions. A journey that many have done before, but none of those people were us. We were going to hike Long’s Peak.

We had all traveled to Estes Park to celebrate, our friends, Rob and Julie’s wedding, and after the wedding, we took a week to enjoy Colorado.  During the week leading up to our hike, we had been discussing whether or not we would attempt Long’s Peak.  If you don’t know about Long’s Peak, it is the only fourteener (where the summit is above 14,000 ft above sea level) in Rocky Mountain National Park.  I’ll let wikipedia describe the Keyhole route for you.

The hike from the trailhead to the summit is 8 miles (13 km) each way. Most hikers begin before dawn in order to reach the summit and return below the tree line before frequent afternoon thunderstorms bring a risk of lightning strikes. The most difficult portion of the hike begins at the Boulder Field, 6.4 miles (10 km) into the hike. After scrambling over the boulders, hikers reach the Keyhole at 6.7 miles (10.5 km).

The following quarter of a mile involves a scramble along narrow ledges, many of which may have nearly sheer cliffs of 1,000 feet (305 m) or more just off the edge. The next portion of the hike includes climbing over 600 vertical feet (183 m) up the Trough before reaching the most exposed section of the hike, the Narrows. Just beyond the Narrows, the Notch signifies the beginning of the Homestretch, a steep climb to the football field-sized, flat summit. It is possible to camp out overnight in the Boulder Field (permit required) which makes for a less arduous two day hike, although this is fairly exposed to the elements. 57 people have died climbing or hiking Longs Peak. According to the National Park Service, 2 people, on average, die every year attempting to climb the mountain. In the summer of 2005 a Japanese climber was blown off a ledge after reaching the summit. On September 3, 2006 a man fell 800 feet (244 m) to his death when some rocks let go while he was descending the Loft route. Less experienced mountaineers are encouraged to use a guide for this summit to mitigate risk and increase the probability of a summit.

-From Wikipedia

CAUTION! ACHTUNG, BABY!  This is a very photo heavy post.  Click at your own risk.  There are dozens of photos in this post, so those on a 56k modem should probably join us in the 21st century and get some hi-speed internet! (j/k but, you know, seriously, it might take a while to load.)
Continue reading →

Rob & Julie’s Wedding in Rocky Mountain National Park

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A few weeks back, I attended the wedding of some very close friends, Rob and Julie. They had their wedding at the amphitheater at Morraine Park in the Rocky Mountains National Park. Since it was a small wedding with just family and close friends, they asked me to do some photos for them as they were looking for a pretty low-cost, low-maintenance wedding. Wedding photography isn’t my thing, but I rarely turn down a friend when in need (and when the favor is something that interests me anyway). Continue reading →