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Bears! Oh my!

Bear sightings are rare in Rocky Mountain National Park. I got lucky this day as I saw a bunch of cars pulled over and people looking at a small bluff about 75 yards away. At first I thought elk or maybe sheep but when we heard it was a bear I was all about it.

Olympus OM-1, 400mm, iso 2000, f8, 1/60

Angels Landing

Click on image to enlarge.

The early morning of March 23 at Zion National Park started with a record snowfall. We had been lucky to get a lottery spot for Angels Landing. With the effort to get there and the money spent there was nothing to do but try to see how far we could get. Clouds and snow came and went but we made it to the top. My reward was some great pics.

Olympus Tough, different settings, mostly on automatic.

Lake Haiyaha

Olympus EM1-Mark III, ISO 800, 12mm. f7.1, 1/500

In June of 2022, there was a massive rockfall off Hallett Peak. The rocks grinding together made a fine mineral flour that does not settle quickly. It was this flour that gave Haiyaha this milky aquamarine color. This was taken in October and the lake still had much of that color.

Ride the Flare

Olympus E-M1 mark3- 12mm, 800, f9, 1/1250, +.3

Second time I’ve tried this. Learned to pick time of day and my place to shoot. Sun was so bright it was hard to use the view finder so I knew what I wanted but couldn’t tell if I got it until I came down off the mountain. Sometimes I get lucky.

Two Fun Ones

400mm, f6.3,120 sec.
120mm, f4.5, 400 sec

In Estes I get pics of elk all the time but bobcats and coyotes are rare.

My brother in-law has good eyes and spotted the coyote across Horseshoe Park. The coyote was hunting but came up empty handed for the 20 minutes we watched him.

My wife whispered, “there’s a bobcat in the yard.” I had about a minute to grab a few shots from the kitchen window before he was out of range. The tricky part was getting him away from the septic tank cover. Somehow that ruins wildlife shots.

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