• clouds,  Humor,  landscape,  natural areas,  Plants,  quotes,  sunsets,  trees

    Pork and Beans

    December 8, 2021

    The bicycle is the most efficient machine ever created. Converting calories into gas, a bicycle gets the equivalent of three thousand miles per gallon.

    Bill Strickland

    This image was taken near one of the parking lots along the bike path that follows the Poudre River. Most of this path is paved and is widely used by the residents of Fort Collins for walking and bicycling. It matters not what time of the day, there is always someone riding the path. The city of Fort Collins is bike friendly and is committed to them. We see a lot of commuters and being a college town it is also used a lot by students. This path also connects to the Poudre Trail Corridor that goes all the way into Weld county. It also now connects the cities of Loveland and Fort Collins. Something within me knows I need to be on a bicycle more than I am. If the above quote is correct, I could eat more pork and beans, maybe moving that number up to 3,500 miles per gallon. Just saying!

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  • landscape,  natural areas,  Plants,  quotes,  sunsets

    The Process of Photography

    November 27, 2021
    [ngg src=”galleries” ids=”82″ display=”basic_slideshow”]

    Some of my photographs have always been a mystery to me in terms of how I arrived at them. Even with the technical ability to produce fine prints, I am hard put to know how it happens, yet unless technique and materials are seriously investigated and experienced, I see that moving statements are seldom made. The process of photography ever invites me. I hope never to lose this feeling. At times I make photographs for the sheer magic of its process, and the good feeling about the very stuff needed: light, chemical combinations, some imperceptible forces at work behind the scene. I am part of the drama which takes the guise of photography.

    Paul Caponigro

    I shoot very few vertical images, but with all these wide open spaces, shooting horizontal may be the preferred format. Maybe I need to look at that, take more time before pressing the shutter. Anyway, here’s a slideshow of a few vertical images over the past 18 years, all cropped to 8 x 10.

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  • Avian

    Photobombed

    November 23, 2021

    My brother-in-law has a new hummingbird feeder. As the morning sun rose I stepped over to catch a starburst breaking the roofline along with the feeder and got photobombed.

    My sister and I arrived home about 6:45 pm last night. I had a wonderful time with family, filled with laughter and way too much food. But isn’t that what normally happens during the Thanksgiving holiday. Once again reminded of how much dislike I have for air travel. Have a great Tuesday!

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  • Art,  natural areas,  quotes,  Sculpture

    Gifts Given

    November 16, 2021

    When gifts are given to me through my camera, I accept them graciously.

    Minor White

    At Reservoir Ridge Natural Area they have a picnic table that I sometimes sit at and eat something I’ve brought and/or journal. Just behind the picnic table is a sculpture called “Ghost Kitchen.” As I sat there I noticed the sculpture, the animals within it and it’s strange name. It then dawned on me to stand behind the sculpture and try to get a starburst through the bird’s eye. So, I graciously accepted the gift given. And, the sandwich was good.

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  • landscape,  mountains,  quotes,  sunsets

    Had to be one ….

    November 7, 2021

    “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
    “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

    J.R.R. Tolkien

    Took this image last Thursday evening on Larimer County Rd. 19. Needed to get out of the condo so I decided to spend my time given to me by being open for a sunset image. I just knew there had to be one…

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  • fall season,  leaves,  Plants,  seasons,  trees

    Song of Autumn

    October 23, 2021

    Couple images taking on my walk yesterday afternoon
    …and a poem by Mary Oliver called Song of Autumn

    In the deep fall
    don’t you imagine the leaves think how
    comfortable it will be to touch
    the earth instead of the
    nothingness of air and the endless
    freshets of wind? And don’t you think
    the trees themselves, especially those with mossy,
    warm caves, begin to think

    of the birds that will come — six, a dozen — to sleep
    inside their bodies? And don’t you hear
    the goldenrod whispering goodbye,
    the everlasting being crowned with the first
    tuffets of snow? The pond
    vanishes, and the white field over which
    the fox runs so quickly brings out
    its blue shadows. And the wind pumps its
    bellows. And at evening especially,
    the piled firewood shifts a little,
    longing to be on its way.

    Mary Oliver
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  • architecture,  landscape,  sunrises,  window,  writing/reading

    Blogging

    October 16, 2021

    What honest bloggers receive in return for their blogging is what every creative person hungers for—companionship, friendship, kindness, generosity, and words of blessed encouragement.

    David J. Rogers

    The above quote is from this blog post by a writer named David J. Rogers. Not sure how I found this post but I resonate with him. My reasons are the same: companionship, friendship, kindness, generosity, and words of blessed encouragement. I’ll probably keep it up.

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  • clouds,  fall season,  landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  quotes,  seasons,  sunrises

    Alive Within Mystery

    October 11, 2021

    “I see that the life of this place is always emerging beyond expectation or prediction or typicality, that it is unique, given to the world minute by minute, only once, never to be repeated. And this is when I see that this life is a miracle, absolutely worth having, absolutely worth saving. We are alive within mystery, by miracle.”

    Wendell Berry
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  • landscape,  leaves,  Plants,  sunrises

    Go figure…

    October 3, 2021

    I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.

    Joseph Campbell

    I probably drive 4 miles 4-5 mornings a week to be closer to nature, or at least distant from the noise of the city, and greet the morning sun. I usually take some photo as part of this morning routine. But one morning this past week I didn’t. However, when I got back to my condo I saw the sun peaking through the branches of this maple tree. I shot 5 images of the sun coming through the branches and 6 of the group of leaves that have already fallen. Interesting that the images as part of my morning routine were within 50 feet of my front door. Go figure.

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