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Milky-way from Horseshoe

OMD E-M Mark 3, 7mm, f2.8, ISO 8000, 13 sec.

On my last trip to Estes I had one night to try to capture the Milky-way. It was the first night there. The other nights were too cloudy and the moon was waxing too. I dragged my buddy Tom with with me to experience the stars in the darkness.

Later I tried Live Composite in camera, stacking in Photoshop and just processing in Lightroom. This is from Lightroom. The others were no better.

It was a nice night- clear, comfortable temps, no wind. A pack of coyotes were howling in the meadow, they were having a good time too.

Frozen Bubble

Olympus E-M1iii, 30mm macro, f8, 1/100, fill flash pushed +1.

It’s been super cold and I saw a recipe to make frozen soap bubble so I thought I’d give it a shot. (get it?, sorry) I learned a few things-

  1. Don’t let them freeze all the way. They get cloudy and then collapse.
  2. It can be too cold. When the bubble mix gets cold bubbles pop too easily. Around -4 is good.
  3. No wind. I worked on the porch.
  4. Get light on them for good contrast.
  5. Work fast, it gets cold.

Bubble mix recipe:

    1 cup water
    4 Tbs dish soap
    3 TBS glycerine
    2 TBS sugar

15 February, 2021

Ice Climbing

OMD-E M1.3

In the Wild Basin area of RMNP we took a horse trail I hadn’t been on before. Got a great opportunity to watch and photo my son making a few runs up the ice. Not gonna lie, there were a lot more chunks of ice flying around than I expected. Glad I brought my helmet.

February 10, 2021

Bryce Canyon

Oly EM1.2, 7mm, f8

We had visited the North Rim, Bryce Canyon and Arches with in 4 days. While they were all amazing, we both thought Bryce was the best. We took a short hike 2 miles down into the canyon to get a feel for the depth of the canyon and fully experience the wonder of this place.

Nov. 7, 2020

Edge of Time

Edge of Time

In May, I went up to Jurassic Park to scout a location for star photos. A storm rolled in so the night shoot was cancelled but I did get this photo of my son on top of the Edge of Time.

(OMD E-M1 m2, 21mm, f16, 1/2500sec)

Finally

I had the idea for this photo several years ago but always had barriers to putting it together- too busy, creek too low/too high, poor weather, etc. Well, thanks to COVID-19 I have lots of time. So it finally happened. Just how I had pre-visioned it. Finally.

Early Spring Day

So much of what I shoot is “make the best of what you have.” E.g. An elk is in the meadow but the light is poor or the animal is too far away, etc. In this case I saw the rocks across the creek and saw in my head what I wanted. I was able to place myself and my grand-daughter where I wanted.

It’s pretty satisfying to be able to see the vision become reality.

Suprise Elk

I was snowshoeing the Cub Lake trail. It was not a great day because the wind was really strong, blowing stinging snow. I had my head down waiting for the wind to let up, just watching my feet. When I looked up a big elk was grazing just off the trail. I stopped and got a few shots off before the cold killed my battery.

I backed off around the corner of a big rock to get out of the wind to swap batteries and switch to a long lens, Panasonic 100-400. I thought I’d move off the trail into the meadow to get a better angle. When I got back the elk was joined by two others- even better!

It was tough shooting at 400 because the sun was in my eyes and I had to hold the camera one-handed and use the other hand to block the sun. But I had a blast shooting as best I could and watching these magnificent animals.

Colorado Mustangs

I had the opportunity to visit the Great Escape Mustang Sanctuary (https://greatescapesanctuary.org/) and photograph these beautiful animals. While we had snow a week earlier, there was great weather for this sunset photo op.

I highly recommend this place- great staff, very accommodating and we came home not only with great photos but a greater knowledge about the wild mustangs from the Sand Wash Basin of Colorado and their rescue.