Regensburger Photography

Author: Derek Regensburger

  • East Inlet Trail Rocky Mountain National Park

    East Inlet Trail Rocky Mountain National Park

    I finally got a reservation to backpack the East Inlet Trail of Rocky Mountain National Park. Highlights include Adams Falls and a chain of five lakes. I made it to four of the lakes. My favorite was Spirit Lake. I also caught multiple brook trout in Lake Verna and Spirit Lake.

    Trail Description

    The trail starts out very easy. Adams Falls is accessed after about 1/3 mile on a short spur trail. It is a large cascade type waterfall. The trail continues east as it skirts the north side of a large meadow for about 2 miles. The trail here is nice and level but don’t be deceived. A steep trek awaits. About the 2.5 mile mark, you will pass the Lower East Inlet backcountry campsite. From here the trail begins to ascend steeply. Over the next mile you will learn to dread rock stairs because there are a ton of them. At the 3 mile mark, you will reach a large rock outcropping with a commanding view of Grand Lake to the west.

    The trail descends about 200 feet to join up with East Inlet Creek. The trail then mellows out for the next .5 mile or so until reaching Cat’s Lair campsite. Once again the trail climbs steeply through the forest and some fine cascades can be seen along the trail. At the 5.5 mile mark, you will reach Lone Pine Lake–the first in a chain of the five lakes. If you are not a strong backpacker, it is recommended to try and reserve one of the sites near this lake for the first night on the trail.

    After passing the lake, the trail once again ascends steeply through the granite slick rock face above the lake. There is a pretty waterfall shortly after passing the lake. The trail then ascends the steep cliff face on a long bench. This half mile is very steep. At the top of this stretch, you are rewarded with a commanding view of Lone Pine Lake, now about 500 feet below. The trail now follows the creek along a relatively flat street as it makes it way to Lake Verna. You will pass a small lake first that has been formed from a large rock fall damming the creek. At the 7 mile mark, you will reach Lake Verna. Here the maintained trail ends and you will have to follow the social trail to the next three lakes.

    Getting up the trail is challenging as many pines have been blown over and require constant scrambling and route finding. It is best to stay along the shore of lakes and by East Inlet Creek. Spirit Lake is next up and is located about .5 mile form the east shoreline of Lake Verna. Be sure to take in the afternoon sun on the nice beach on the east short of Verna first. The views begin to open up even more as you reach Spirit Lake. This is indeed a crown jewel of this chain. I hiked up to Fourth Lake but frankly it wasn’t;t worth the effort. It is a small marshy lake that is not as interesting. If you intend to reach Fifth Lake, you have to hike through more downed timber for the next 1/2 mile before reaching the open valley where Fifth Lake is located. It looked amazing up there but I was too tired by this point to head up.

    Trailhead Parking

    To access the East Inlet Trail, follow the main road into

  • Graduation Portraits

    Graduation Portraits

    Graduation portraits are a great way to remember one of the most iconic moments in your son or daughter’s life. It marks the passing from childhood to the next phase in their lives. And what better time to take a portrait when they’re all dressed upend looking their best?

    I also like capturing candid moments of the graduate as they meet friends and and family before the ceremony. It adds a unique flavor to the portrait session. And as always, I use a little flash to make the portraits pop.

    I charge $125.00 to do a graduation portrait session. You’ll get a mixture of great portrait images and fun candids. You can even order a memory mate book to commemorate the occasion. Call 303 478 7586 to book your graduation portrait session today.

  • CHSAA 5A Boy’s Soccer Final 2020

    Fairview took on Cherry Creek in the CHSAA 5A boy’s soccer final at the new Weidner Field in Colorado Springs Saturday. Fairview defeated Cherry Creek 2-0 to take home the trophy. It was a scoreless first half but Fairview’s Sebastien Mazur put a long kick past Cherry Creek goalie Knox Quarles to open the scoring. Fairview added a late goal to seal the win. This was the first athletic event to have full fan capacity at a CHSAA sponsored event since the Corona virus pandemic began.

  • 2021 Holy Family Volleyball Tournament

    2021 Holy Family Volleyball Tournament

    I photographed the Holy Family high school volleyball tournament yesterday held at Holy Family High school. It featured teams from around northern Colorado including Berthoud and Windsor. Since the weather was chilly outside, a spring volleyball tournament was a perfect diversion. Ordinarily scheduled for the fall, high school volleyball is being during season C during the spring of 2021. The matches were closely fought but Windsor came out on top defeating both Holy Family and Berthoud. The tournament gave me a chance to photograph in the auxiliary gym which is lit by LEDs and skylights in addition to the normal sodium vapor lights. It is insanely bright which made for some cool photos you ordinarily don’t get. The one drawback of the smaller gym is that I could not get above the net. I had to shoot from the floor.

  • St George Spring Trip 2021

    St George Spring Trip 2021

    My family and I took a trip to St George, UT for spring break. We stopped at Snow Canyon State Park, Pioneer Park, the Santa Clara River Preserve and Yant Flat while in St. George. We then traveled through Zion on our way to Bryce Canyon National Park.

    Snow Canyon

    Snow Canyon State Park is one of my favorite places to visit while in St. George. It has petrified dunes, a lava flow, and sand dunes to explore. There are lots of interesting plants like yucca to help frame photographs as well. We took the lava trail and the Petrified Dunes trail. I tried using some of the contrasting elements like black lava rocks or yucca spires to frame some of my photos with black and white conversions in mind.

    Yant Flat

    Yant Flat near Leeds, UT has been on my radar to visit for over a year now. It contains some crazy striped rock formations reminiscent of the more famous Wave formation. The 1.5 mile trail takes you along the flat through juniper forest before ascending a small sandy rise to a viewpoint of Hurricane and Zion. To reach the more interesting rock formations, scramble down some steep slickrock to reach the candy-cane like swirls in the rock below. To find the trailhead, take exit 23 (or 22 if coming from St George) at Leeds. Turn left onto Silver Leaf Road and follow it for 1.2 miles until it turns into a dirt road (Oak Grove Road). Continue down the road for 2 miles as it bends to the left into the forest. Stay left at the Y toward St. George. Set your odometer to 0 and travel 7 miles until you see a small parking area on the left. There will be a trail to the left guarded by a large boulder on either side of it. Head south down the trail until hitting deep sand as the trail veers to the west.

    Pioneer Park

    A municipal park ordinarily does not sound like a prime photography destination but Pioneer Park in St. George is an exception. The park contains a desert garden and then several trails to some interesting bedrock formations. Many of the rocks contains alcoves which make for some fun photography. I even found a couple of arches inside one. Pioneer Park has an overlook trail leading from the gardens. Follow it up the wash a short distance and then ascend the slick rock for a view of St. George. An interesting arch can be found on the opposite side of the wash.

    Santa Clara River Preserve

    The Santa Clara River Preserve in nearby Santa Clara is a fun place to go due to the presence of a large number of petroglyphs. The plateau also provides some outstanding views of Snow Canyon and the surrounding area. The petroglyphs are found at the top of a large hill. The hillside contains a collection of large boulders which the Anasazi found to be good canvasses for their artwork. The reserve is found just west of the town of Santa Clara. Follow the dirt road a short distance until parking at the sign for the preserve. To reach the petroglyphs, take the dirt trail leading from the parking lot. It is well-graded and relatively free of rocks. After about 1.3 miles, you will arrive at the summit. The petroglyphs are located amongst the boulders, most of the them about 15 feet down from the rim. There is also the remains of an Anasazi farm village a short distance away.

  • 2021 CHSAA Hockey Finals

    2021 CHSAA Hockey Finals

    I photographed the CHSAA 4A and 5A hockey finals this week held at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland. All the contests were close. Valor Christian defeated #1 seeded Fort Collins 4-3 in the 5A contest while Battle Mountain staged a comeback in the 3rd period to edge edge #1 seeded Crested Butte 5-4 in overtime in the 4A affair.

  • Arches Black and White

    Arches Black and White

    I took a trip out to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks recently. While I was there, I focused on subjects that might make for some interesting black and white compositions. I always look for dead trees, interesting lines, or areas of stark contrast. These often make great black and white images. I also like shooting black and whites outside the golden hours since the sky tends to turn a dark blue and will render as black. Arches National Park and the area surrounding Moab, UT is a great place to find such subjects.

    The Windows area in Arches has plenty of good subject matter. Arches, dead trees, and other natural features abound. I also spent some time hiking the Corona Arch trail and the area around Aztec Butte in Canyonlands National Park.

  • Arches and Moab

    Arches and Moab

    I took a quick jaunt to the Moab area this past weekend. Out here in the West, March comes in like a lamb and goes out like a lion so the first week of March is a perfect time to camp and do some hiking in the redrock country of Utah. I visited Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. I also took a quick hike through Kane Creek near the Colorado River behind Moab.

    I took in the sunrise at Broken Arch in Arches and was treated to a beautiful show. The arch glows a lovely golden color at sunrise. I then took the quick side trip to Sand Dune Arch. It is a cool arch but hard to photograph well given the towering sandstone fins surrounding it.

    I then hiked over to Landscape Arch and Pine Tree Arch in the nearby Devil’s Garden area. Pine Tree Arch lakes for a cool shot in the morning as the light hits the pine trees growing inside of it.

    In the afternoon, I hiked to Corona Arch which is located just outside the park along the Potash Road. It is a short 1.5 mile hike to a very large almost free-standing arch. I always like this hike since you get to climb a rope ladder and scurry along a steel cable to get up to the arch. I stopped and photographed Bowtie Arch which is a cool pothole arch just before reaching Corona Arch itself.

    I ended the day with a quick hike to Poison Spider Mesa. I had never been to this area before and it looks like it would be worth returning to the area. It is full of huge petrified dunes or large sandstone knobs that would make for some interesting compositions. There is also a great view of the LaSal Mountains and the Behind the Rocks area. Although it is a rough road that is frequented by ATVers (all too common in Moab now), the hike is a steep but pleasant enough one up the road. It is about 1.5-2 miles to the mesa.

    The last day of the trip I spent in Canyonlands National Park. I went to Aztec Butte and checked out the ruins up along the cliffs of the buttes. It was worth the steep hike up the side of the butte. The view from atop the butte is stunning. The ruins are cool but unfortunately the famous one behind a little arch has fallen down and been remade into a boring wall. I ended the afternoon with a trip to Grand View Point to check out the view at sunset.

    Sony 12-24 f2.8 Lens

    I rented a Sony 12-24 f2.8 lens for the trip and it performed spectacularly well. There often aren’t uses for 12mm lenses outside of the realm of architectural photography, so it was fun to put this lens to the test underneath a few giant arches. The lens is extremely sharp and only shows signs of decreasing sharpness in the extreme corners. It is a heavy lens but is lighter than the monstrous Canon 11-24 f 4 lens and is 1 stop brighter. The Sony lens shows little chromatic aberration and is a very good lens for astrophotography and landscape photography. It does suffer from some flaring even without the sun in the frame so I had to be careful at certain angles. Overall, this lens performed very admirably and is something that should make it into many Sony photographers’ bags.

  • Lutheran Prospect Ridge Academy Basketball 21

    Lutheran Prospect Ridge Academy Basketball 21

    Every game top basketball recruit Baye Fall plays is worth the watch. Tuesday night against Prospect Ridge Academy, the Lutheran sophomore put on a show. The 6′-10″ Fall dominated the interior and had 9 dunks in helping his team rout the Miners in Broomfield.

  • Broomfield Boulder basketball 21

    Broomfield Boulder basketball 21

    It was great to see high school basketball being played again in Colorado. I covered the game between Broomfield and Boulder Friday night. I was treated to a great game as Boulder eked out a victory, 51-50, on a free throw to break the tie with 8 seconds left. I’m sure the players don’t find it easy to play in masks and without fans, but the game was still enjoyable nonetheless. I can’t wait to cover more basketball games this winter.

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