Two Seasons of Grass

Early and late summer versions of grass.

In Hot Water

Dragonfly in hot spring in Yellowstone National Park

Chimney at Sunset

Kodachrome Basin State Park, Utah - a chimney of rock, aka sand pipe. The park many such chimneys. They are believed to be solidified sediment that filled ancient springs or geyser left standing after the softer surrounding Entrada sandstone rock eroded away.

Be sure to visit Sky Watch Fridays!

Bright Trees, Dark Canyon

One of my favorite hikes while in Zion National park was up the "Narrows" of the Virgin River to Wall Street. Much of the hike involves sloshing through the river at the bottom of a deep, narrow canyon. This photo shows a group of trees growing on a sandy bank in the canyon.

I shot a lot of photos in the canyon, but most of them did not turn out so well. I'd love to spend some more time in canyons like this to learn how to shot in this type of environment.

Prickly

This beautiful specimen is a Prickly Poppy (Argemone pleicantha? - There are a lot of similar varieties of Argemone).

I find it very interesting to look at due to the juxtaposition of the delicate papery petals and the prickly appearance of the rest of the plant. But, the sight of all that pollen is almost enough to make my eyes water and nose itch.

Be sure to visit other Mellow Yellow site.

Alas poor Yoric!

I found this rodent skull sitting on a huge rock along side a small stream running though a tiny, tightly packed little canyon. I'm really curious how it came to be here. No sign of the skeleton nearby. Perhaps it's a warning against trespass from a band of pictsies.

Cruising

Male and female Blue-Winged Teal at Old Bent's Fort National Historic Site near La Junta, Co.

Original photo had flat grey, hazy sky. I replaced it with a sky with some interesting clouds.

I like the feeling that the viewer is flying along with the Teals.

Be sure fly on over to Camera Critters.

Old Photos

O is for Old Photo of old memories. This is a slide that I took back in 1997 or, was it 1998?? It was during a trip to visit my friend Cerine out in North Carolina. We traveled the whole state from Cape Hatteras to the Blue Ridge Mountains. I had a great time. This photo is of a living history museum.

I took a number of old slides into a local processor to have the slides scanned. I wanted to give locals my business first. However, I can't say that I'm all that happy with the results. Out of 10 slides, only a couple are usable. So, I'll now try the same slides with someone else. Anybody out there have any recommendations?

Be sure to check out the other great photos from ABC Wednesday.

Juniper and Red Rocks

According to Wikipedia, there are over 70 canyons in the United States with the name "Red Canyon". This photo was taken in Red Canyon Park near Canon City, Colorado. It's a beautiful little town, and a beautiful park. The 500-acre park has lots of picnic grounds scattered around as well as hiking trails. Apparently, it's also a popular place to climb.

Click over to Monochrome Maniacs for other great B&W photos.

Flyby

We've been having a lot of spring snow storms lately. Sunday, the weather broke and it was warm and sunny. So, I took the opportunity to take a little road trip. This photo is of a Blue-Winged Teal flying over the cattail marshes near the highway entrance to Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site. The fort is located in southeast Colorado near the town of La Junta. The area draws lots of waterbirds due to the reservoirs and cattail complexes along the Arkansas river. In addition to this Blue-Winged Teal, I saw (and heard) large numbers of Red-Winged Blackbirds, Canada Geese, Buffleheads, Cinnamon Teal, American Coot and various unidentified species.

I look forward to returning to this area to see the Mississippi Kite and the Colorado Black Rails.

If you're interested in any of these birds, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a great resource.

This is part of my world. To see others from around the globe, visit My World Tuesday.

Sunrise at the Garden

I left the house before the sun came up this morning. It was -8 C and there was not a cloud in the sky. My objective: to get a shot of Pikes Peak lit by the rising sun. I did get a few shots like that. I'll post one later. This shot is of the gorgeous morning light on some of the rock formations in the Garden of the Gods park.

Butterflies

It's been awhile since I've posted. What can I say, its been really busy. Anyway, we went to the Butterfly Pavilion in Denver to see the butterflies. One Tuesday a month, the allow photographers with tripods in at 7:30AM. Besides seeing the butterflies, I wanted to see if it was worth taking a day off and coming for that event.

It's a nice place and worth a visit.

Most of the shots I took were unremarkable. A few were ok - here's one.

The Incline

My friend Nolen and I hiked up the Incline near Manitou Springs, Co. The incline is the remains of an old cable car. It a climb of about 2000 feet. The steepest section has a grade of about 68%.

We got to the incline early enough to catch the rays of the sunrise on the upper slopes.

HooDoo?

We do - Kelly and I visited the Paint Mines Park out in the praries east of Colorado Springs, near Calhan, Co. This park contains colorful clays in crazy shapes and sandstone capped HooDoos. Trails wind through the gullies and out in the exposed prarie. While I puttered around taking photos, Kelly ran around the park 3 times.

Lunch time walk

For lunch, I took a walk around Garden of the Gods. For those of you not from Colorado, Garden of the Gods is an awesome local city park full of colorful rock formations. Its a great place to walk, run or bike (if you can avoid the tourists in the road) Luckily, its just a few miles from home.

Muir Woods

I visited Muir Woods yesterday for a bit of sight seeing and hiking.  I wore my flip-flops while driving there and planned to change into hiking shoes.  However, I forgot my socks!  I did the hiking anyway.  I wouldn't recommend it - my feet were not happy after a day of hiking.

The Muir Woods are a very challenging place to shoot pictures at.  The contrast is very high, the ground is cluttered, its a very chaotic environment.  I found that the best shots used silhouettes.  Here's one example.  It's not purely silhouette-y, but close.  I think it gives a good sense of how dense this grove of young redwoods is.

Lost and Found

I was looking thru a couple of old flash cards, and I came across one that still had a bunch of pictures on it, including this one of Pike's Peak and the Garden of the Gods. It was taken back in November 2002. Can't wait to get back there...

Pecos Wilderness

Here's a shot from a backpack trip Kelly and I did in the Pecos Wilderness in New Mexico that we did in June.

Although the weather looks good in the picture, we got a huge amount of rain.

Which is ironic because we originally planned on a trip to the Grand Tetons National park. We changed our plans because the Tetons were snowed in.