My online journal sharing interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
I’ve been playing more with the HDR software to see what I can do with it. This is one image of three exposures, metered and plus and minus one stop. It is only the layered image then back to Lightroom and a tweaking of contrast and tone. One aspect of this is finding the detail in the moon. Hope everyone had a good Christmas season and ate as much as I did. 🙂
I’d walked farther than I thought so it was taking me longer to get back to the car than I expected. Looking at my watch, I had about 15 minutes before they closed the gate to the refuge. But, just as I climbed up the slope to the car I saw the moon just starting to rise above the lake. There was no way I could let this opportunity pass. So, within five minutes I took a few images of the moonrise, while a doe stood off to my left and a raccoon scurried along the waters edge and I made it before they closed the gate.
This image was taken in the early afternoon at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. The moon had risen about an hour earlier and the sun is just setting behind me. Even though the deer within the refuge are protected and accepting to us visitors, they always seem to keep a wary eye on us. If we were to study animals more we would see how adaptive they are to the world around them while man seems bent on changing the world around him.
Our 30% chance of rain/snow for this afternoon was mostly sunny skies. 🙂 So with scattered gray skies I grabbed my camera stuff and headed for the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. I didn’t get very far before I remembered they’re closed on Mondays. So, being the resourceful guy I am, my alternate plan was to make a u-turn and drive east about five miles on a road I’d never been on. As all alternate plans go, I found a river bottom area with plenty of trees and an autumn moon. A few deer in the field behind me watched with approval as I setup my tripod and started working. I didn’t work too long as it felt colder than 34 degree with the wind blowing. By the time I got back in the car my hands and ears were cold. Another reminder my age is moving me more towards being a fair weather photographer.
“Those who find beauty in a landscape do so because it touches a place of beauty already within themselves.” – Courtney Milne
I find I’m in this phase of looking for those wide open spaces. It may be because of the amount of solitude I’ve been taking over the past few years and reflecting where I am in my personal life. It may also be do to the time spent in the Ohio Valley where wide open spaces were not as prevalent. It may be because of my fascination with clouds. Whatever, here are two more from the eastern prairie, taken the same evening about an hour apart. I apologize if I’m posting too many of these landscapes and I’m giving you fair warning more are coming. 🙂
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”
Albert Einstein
For anyone who is interested their is a wonderful blog about a husband and wife who enjoy hiking the Appalachian Trail. They just finished a 4-day hike and have written about their experiences here.
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See yonder fire! It is the moon
Slow rising o’er the eastern hill.
It glimmers on the forest tips,
And thought the dewy foliage drips
In little rivulets of light,
And makes the heart in love with night.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Â