Leave it to my brother to take us to some under the viaduct sort of place...
OK, how about under the drawbridge, with a cool night time view of Port Everglades... A good inspiration to try a little night photography, one of those things on my 'list' of things I'd like to do more of someday...
Could there be morning gal hiding inside crazy night owl?
Sadly this was my last weekend at Bear Lake... We helped Clare close down her cabin for winter this weekend. I feel pretty blessed to have been able to spend so much time there this summer. Morning gal? Night Owl? Maybe just Lucky Gal!
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Solitary thoughts Shall I keep hanging around? Or let go and fall? |
Three things you may or may not know about me...
I am NOT a morning person.
I am a nature lover.
I love to take pictures
This of course means that I love to take pictures of nature. Problem being, one of the best times for viewing wildlife, as well capturing nature in glorious light, is very early in the morning, not exactly my favorite time of day. Luckily for me I have early birds in my life who will roust me out bed for an adventure now and then. As much as my natural night owl hates to admit it, after a wee bit of coffee clears cobwebs from my head, I end up enjoying the early morning hours, as that time of day often offers up amazing experiences.
A week ago for instance, we decided to return from Bear Lake in the morning before work, which being about a 2.5 hour drive meant leaving at the crack of dawn. We left Clare's cabin just as the suns rays began to paint the wildfire smoke filled skies in shades of pink. A good sized animal scurried across the dirt road before us. It dropped over the road edge out of site as we discussed what it might be. A racoon? A large marmot? Neither seemed right, but as though he wanted to answer our question his(her's?) head popped back over the road into the spotlight of our headlights. He took a step, then stood up and looked at us as though he was just as curious about us as we were about him. We had a staring contest for a minute then he turned tail and ambled back down the hill. A badger!!! I've always wanted to see one, and he was my first. Squeeee! If only my camera was not in the back of the car. *sigh*, it was probably too dark anyway. As we pulled away, in the shadows some deer moved alongside the road, and we headed off along the pink framed lake then up out of the valley and onto the open range where we were greeted by a beautiful Wyoming sunrise, and along the way saw some Sandhill Cranes, more deer, and even a few antelope in the distance.
Maybe this early morning thing is not so bad....
A fun northern Utah adventure... a trip to the Spiral Jetty, a rather famous 1970's land art installation. I'd been there a few years ago, back when the Great Salt Lake was much higher and the Jetty nearly under water, but now after years of drought the entire jetty is exposed, making it totally different experience.
We found lots of baby jettys on the shore.
While we were there we hiked the hill for the aerial view... and while we were there did a cheeseburger summit!
Having taken this adventure with my nerdy birdy friend April, we had to enjoy all the bird sitings along the way. I wish I had gotten a good shot of all the Long Billed Curlew we saw, but birds are so hard photograph with my meager 200mm lens. I was however pretty happy with shot of this great clutch of burrowing owls! Pretty cool eh?
After a hot springs soak we decide to a sunset spin through the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge would be fun. It was getting a little dark for bird pictures, but sunset is always spectacular there.
My photo question of the day... Which of these do you like better? I sure can't decide!
Fall has come to a favorite spot of mine, Willow Lake. Since discovering this little gem of a hike a few years ago, I have been determined to make it up here with my camera when the leaves were changing, but have been sidelined by a bad knee or unlucky enough to miss-timed when to expect the colors. I had reason to believe this was 'the week', but I had spent the week recovering from surgery and by the weekend, as I began to feel better, instead of hiking weather we had a dreary weekend of rain predicted, making me afraid I might once again miss my opportunity. But when a window of blue sky opened up Sunday on this otherwise very rainy weekend I suggested to my friend, "Let's go!", and he resoundingly said "Yes!" and off we went. Apparently this was my lucky year!
As frequently happens I've had a hard time deciding which pictures to post, so here is my indecisive collection of similar, yet different shots.
I wrote a little haiku to go along some of these pictures...
Autumn reflections
Leaves of green fade to yellow
Summer slips away
This is a bit out of order for me, as I still need to post a northern adventure story and I have some southern adventures to add as well, but last night was the 4th of July, and I decided to see what my new camera lens could with fireworks. I'm a lucky gal when I remodeled my house many years ago we added a deck which gives us some nice valley views, so we can see lots of fireworks off in the distance on 4th, and on a year when the the country club does fireworks, a nice display right on the edge of my neighborhood. Last night I decided to set up the tripod and try some bulb exposures and see what I could do. Fireworks are tricky, as you don't know what they will look like as they launch, and they are so ephemeral that hitting the shutter at the right moment is a bit of crap shoot. Using bulb exposure is just a guess... a 1 second exposure? More, less, who knows? My camera is slow to process dark shots, so I would often miss a chance for a good shot while waiting for the camera to finish. I took a bunch of lousy pictures, had a few OK shots, but it sure is nice to get a shot that stands out screaming "I'm the one", as this one did!!!
A quick trip up to Yellowstone National Park.... These are all pictures from one of my favorite spots, Norris Geyer Basin. Obviously, as usual, I had trouble picking only a few of my phots to share, what a beautiful place. The dramatic storm clouds, wind blown steam and time of day (nice light!) made for a fun photo opportunity, so I clicked and clicked....
