This a pre-dawn shot of the Arapaho Bend Natural Area where nature gifted us with a palette of pastel colors before the sun rises. Hope you have a tranquil and serene day!
Pre-dawn Colors
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Clouds fascinate me
Clouds fascinate me I know little about clouds but find enjoyment watching how they form and constantly transform. Some people see scenes in them, a person, an angel or an animal. I see them as a gift. I see them as art. I see them as mystery. I spend time with them. Sadly, some people simply never see them.
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Trees on the Horizon
Trees on the Horizon I’m making a road trip to Denver this morning with a couple of friends for a meeting. We are coming back early afternoon then I’m meeting up with a friend late afternoon. So it will be a social day which always seem to drain me. Pretty sure I will want to be out in nature after today for some quiet time. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
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Visiting Four Friends
One of my four friends I drove out to County Road 15 to visit my four tree friends I hadn’t seen in several months and I was hoping to watch a sunset with them. My ulterior motive was because I needed to get out of town and listen to some quiet. With very little wind made for even more quiet to take in. Some friends or the trees, Meadowlarks, were putting on a beautiful concert for us and filled me with some of that joyful stuff and giving me goose bumps. My four friends sit along the road in an unplowed field. One is right along the road and the others sit off a short distance. Along with them are a couple of large clumps of bushes. I need to find out what kind they are.
I’m not sure who told them I was out there but I was blessed with more visitors than just the trees and Meadowlarks. Two large formations of honking Canada Geese flew over and added to the concert. A Red-tailed Hawk stopped by, perched its self on a telephone pole and kept an eye on me. Using my binoculars I watched a great Horned owl fly from one of the trees to a telephone pole before taking off to the north. It must have been dinner time for those guys (gals). A white-tailed deer stopped as she crossed the road to check me out then bounded over the fence. I assume she went to tell someone about the strange dude. Fifteen minutes after the sun set behind the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains the sky began to take on slightly orange glow then pink and then turned bright red. We had our colorful Colorado sunset.
Front Range Sunset It was a good evening. I enjoyed seeing my four friends. I enjoyed the concert. I enjoyed the sunset and felt it was all well worth my time and money. I’m glad I left when I did because as I drove away the fragrance of skunk began to drift in my window. Those were visitors I did not want to encounter. 🙂
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I Like That Feeling
In this busy and high paced world finding quiet and solitude takes some effort. I find Nature is a place to find that solitude and quiet. A strange feeling came over me as I stood there looking at the tree. I like that feeling. I hear no cars or sirens. I hear and feel the wind as it blows against my back. The clouds slowly move eastward. The tree stands alone. I like that feeling.
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Dreaming
Oregon Coast Sunset Looking back over the archives is an interesting way to see where I’ve grown as a person as well as a photographer, or not, and remember the places I’ve visited. But as I wander back in memory I’m sure I would not experience this coastal sunset the same way as I did in 2003. At this time in my life I would spend more time listening to the waves, smelling the salty air and maybe never need to take a shot. However it now has me dreaming about a trip to the coast.
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Standing Tall
Standing Tall If any of you follow my blog then you have seen images of this tree before. It is located east of Fort Collins along a dirt country road. It stands alone in an open field. The farmer leaves it there as a watchtower of the field. I would like to think he intimately knows this tree. Anyway, this tree has been on my mind the last few days as it’s been a while since I made a visit. And, as a photographer sharing life on this earth it’s important to revisit some of our subjects in nature to check up on them. Trees have so much to offer us in sustaining this earth.
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A Way of Life
Along the Horizon “As far as I am concerned, taking photographs is a means of understanding which cannot be separated from other means of visual expression. It is a way of shouting, of freeing oneself, not of proving or asserting ones originality. It is a way of life.”
Henri Cartier-BressonThe move to Denver has again allowed me to wander the country roads of the Colorado plains. I find my eyes are scanning for a solitary tree or groups of trees, isolated farms or old homesteads, windmills, the distant horizons, all forms and textures of rolling clouds and of course the Rocky Mountains. While out here I’m free of the noisy city. I can listen to the wind make music with the trees along a creek. I can listen to prairie dogs bark their warning calls. I can enjoy the joyful song of the meadow lark. In the heat of the day I can hear the hypnotic sound of the cicadas. I like being here. I like having my camera with me. This is a way of life.
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Storm Clouds
Storm Clouds The disappearance of a major natural unit of vegetation from the face of the earth is an event worthy of causing pause and consideration by any nation. Yet so gradually has the prairie been conquered by the breaking plow, the tractor, and the overcrowded herds of man…that scant attention has been given to the significance of this endless grassland or the course of its destruction. Civilized man is destroying a masterpiece of nature without recording for posterity that which he has destroyed.
John Ernest Weaver, North American Prairie (1954)
