My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, coffee life, spirituality and the mystery of it all.
Okay, it’s Friday and here’s another self-portrait. I don’t know if you can call this a project but as a photographer I’m kinda getting into the swing of it. From the smirk on the models face you can tell he’s getting into it also. I really am not working on any specific projects even though I have a list. So maybe self-portraits could be one. They do offer a challenge to come up with new ideas, poses, compositions and post processing stuff. I took this last night while a slight drizzle was falling on both me and the camera. After I came inside the rain came down hard so what I had was going to be what I post. They even had some mud and rock slides up the Poudre Canyon as the two fires wiped out most of the vegetation to hold the soil in place.
I like the expression on my face with this image as there is a bit of smirk on the handsome dudes face. I head back out today for another 4-day trip. I hope everyone has a good Friday and a great weekend.
We are seeing more color changing in town. Some hardwoods are turning red and there are plenty of yellows. The other evening I grabbed the camera and just walked around the parking lot of my complex to find these leaves. I like how they start around the edges. Earlier in the afternoon I rode my bicycle to the Old Town area and did some writing at a local coffee shop called Mugs. While sitting at the table a leaf fluttered down on my table. Luckily I had my camera so I could show everyone. 🙂
Chambers Lake is a 254 acre lake used for supplying water to eastern Colorado and offering plenty of recreation for the fisherman. It is known for its cutthroat and rainbow trout, Kokanee, Mackinaw and Splake. I visited the lake on the short camping trip last week and almost camped at the lake. It may have been quieter since the lake is locate off the highway. While on an early morning drive looking for aspens I noticed this couple fishing along the shoreline. Loved the colors and feel of this scene so stopped to take a half dozen shots. Wonder if they caught anything. I’m also posting another aspen shot. Found these aspens about two miles from where I took the image of the lake.
I had to laugh when I saw these boots. Nothing could be more embarrassing than to be the fly fisherman who left his boots. I stop and parked the car as I wanted to walk part of a trail along the Poudre River. I noticed them when I returned to the car . Hope his fishing day is going well and I wonder what the spouse is going to say, “You lost your what?” 🙂
The itch to go camping after a 5 year hiatus caused a couple of oops on my part and the indulgence in a piece of blueberry pie. Let me explain.
The first oops was the purchase of a new sleeping pad. The self-inflating Thermarest sleeping pad I used a few years ago when motorcycle touring was only 1 inch thick. I had decided this older body could use a bit more padding and insulation than what that pad supplied. A sleepless night is not conducive to a productive day at anything. And, I was also younger then. They now make them in 2.5 and 3.5 inches thickness so I invested in the 2.5 inch size. Now the purchase is not the problem, the problem was not checking it out until after the tent is up and I’m over 60 miles from the store. The itch for camping was intense enough to eliminate even a small amount of forethought. When I opened the valve and saw the pad inflate only on one side, and only to about a 1 inch thickness, I threw out a couple of words not normally heard in my vocabulary. With one side not inflating I found myself falling out of bed throughout the night. I’m thankful I did not have far to fall and will exchange the pad.
The second oops was selecting campsite number 12. It was too close to the latrines so every once in while the sweet fragrance of the sage and pines would be tinted with an unpleasant odor, all depending on the wind. I’d wrinkle my nose and wishfully preferred a road-killed skunk somewhere off in the distance. Site number 12 was also found to be too close the the highway. Way too much late night traffic and most of that was large trucks hauling lumber and other supplies. I didn’t mind it too much as it was different than listening to the hum of a refrigerator or having camping neighbors in the campsite singing “99 Bottles of Beer” at midnight. Site number 4 would have worked better. Maybe.
I’d forgotten how dirty camping is. Everything gets dirty. Felt like a kid and loved it. Go ahead and sit on the ground, let those Columbia pants take on a bit of grim. Any nitty-gritty photographer is used to that. It felt good to shower when I returned and allowed me to appreciate those showers we so often take for granted.
Friday morning was a typical fall morning. Temperature was an invigorating 37 degrees. Unzipping a warm sleeping bag and crawling out to put on cold pants, a cold shirt and cold socks is definitely invigorating. It’s surprising how quickly a person is able to put on those clothes. Once dressed I made a quick dash to the latrine to relieve myself and faced another wakeup call: taking in the fragrance of that latrine. I quickly took care of business and with no appetite for breakfast jumped in the car to go shooting.
My camp was around 8,000 feet and the aspens I had scouted the evening before were around 10,000 feet, a twenty-five minute drive. I had an idea of where I wanted to be when the sun crested the mountains. After parking the car I walked up the road a ways then climbed up a small slope above the road and shot across the Joe Wright Creek and into the distance mountains known as the Rawah Wilderness Area, the top image. The ridge of mountains contains a large grouping of aspens in all stages of colors. I was a bit disappointed in the images I brought back. I have always had difficulty in capturing reds, oranges and yellows. I find too much bleeding and a loss of details. If anyone has some tips to pass along, I greatly appreciate them. The other issue I had was the smoky haze drifting over Colorado as the state of Idaho burns. They have over 15 actively listed fires with the three largest totaling over 650,000 acres. 🙁
Even though the apens were my focus I needed to look all around me. Gotta be present to the moment. It’s also important for me to walk lightly and make sure I do as little damage to any plants in my effort to find a location to setup. And, when I look down it is easy to see the other ecosystem at ground level.
My meals consisted of freeze dried foods. Actually the Tomato Chipolte Pasta with Chicken was not to bad. On my way back home there is a small lodge and RV park located at Glenn Echo. The restaurant in the lodge is known for their homemade pies. Without hesitation I pulled over and ordered the blueberry pie. After eating freeze dried food, the pie tasted even awesomer!
Man did I enjoy myself! I need to go back after exchanging the sleeping pad.
A sudden itch to go camping came upon me on Wednesday afternoon. So, I packed up the car and hit the road. Headed in the general direction of the Poudre Canyon looking for an open campsite in the high country. With the fall colors beginning I thought a Thursday and Friday night venture would not be as crowded. I was right on that but surprised to find very few people up there. With no one up there I pretty much had the pick of my choice. I settled on Sleeping Elephant campsite which has about 15 sites, all of them open. I selected number 12, paid my $13 and setup my tent. The birds and chipmunks were immediately talking about the intruder into their space, Not to be unfriendly I starting up a conversation with them. I told them I came up for some quiet and would do my best not to bother them. Seemed to work. The first image is my campsite and the second is an image of Elephant mountain from which they got the name for the campground.
Made it up the Poudre Canyon yesterday and loved what I saw. The high country trees are turning colors and all around me leaves are fluttering to the ground. While enjoying it up there I realized I have not been camping in over 5 years. I think it’s about time. I checked on a couple of campgrounds and noticed they will closing on September 30th so I’m heading up there today for a couple nights of camping. The weather is suppose to be nice. See ya in a few.
A comment made by fellow photographer Bob Dein on an image a few days ago had me revisit the above image and play around with it. He mentioned how the tree was his focus of interest, as well as mine, and “Perhaps a slight crop from the bottom to get the horizon into a lower, more pleasing position” would work better. So, here is the same image only cropped. It sure does change the feel of the image. Whaddya think?
