Heavy Metal

Had a visitor to town this past weekend - one of the few still flying B17 bombers from World War II. The Madras Maiden. An awesome aircraft, and kept up in very good shape.

This plane was built in 1944. That makes it 73 years old this year! It never saw combat duty, but was used as a trainer mostly. With less glamorous work after the war, eventually bought and restored to the current condition you see today. If it had been shot up a lot during the war, it probably would have been scrapped or at least not be airworthy like most other surviving B17s.

A head on shot. Would be better without all the people in the way, but that's pretty hard to avoid. Lots of people want to see these old warbirds.

A shot of the nose art on the plane. That is one shiny plane. 

Another shot from the back. It's big, but inside the crew didn't really have a lot of room. 

Took a fisheye shot of the front. From this perspective it looks a bit like a giant bug!

The business end of the tail turret, called the Cheyenne turret. Because it was built and installed here in Cheyenne. The planes were built by Boeing in Washington state, then flown to Cheyenne for the rear turret installation and further testing, before continuing on their way to war duty.

If you notice the big building behind the plane in the first two photos, that was supposedly THE hangar where the turret was installed in B17s. Over 70 years ago. It's a homecoming trip!

I didn't get a chance to climb through the plane - when I was going to they were clearing it out before a flight. Which cost $450. I skipped it, but sure would be awesome to take that ride.

However, you can watch this YouTube video from a local radio station- it was shot of this plane's visit to town, and has some flight footage along with some other interesting video -  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PSQX7ypBEo

I did get a little video of them starting up the engines before the flight. (Has a lot of wind noise. Thanks to it being Wyoming, and a camera that doesn't have any way to block wind noise)

And then they flew away...

Off they go, into the wild blue yonder. Zoomed way in for this shot. A very interesting visit from a very pretty Maiden! Safe travels!

The Light Fantastic

Took a Christmas holiday trip. Managed to make it without any weather difficulties. Other than when I was there. More on that later. Did get some interesting travel photos. And played around with some creative Christmas light shots as well.

Start of the trip early in the morning. Some clouds on the horizon gave a interesting start to the day.

Christmas tree lights. Always fun to play with, photographically. I took a lot of different shots, this is just one example of time exposure fun while moving the camera.

Another shot, but closer and purposely out of focus to create a fuzzier color streaked look. Turned out pretty good I'd say.

Now, don't get scared. But, you might see a ghost! (of Christmas present? Past? not sure...)

This is my favorite shot. I think it looks kind of ghostly. This was from a color-changing lighted angel figure. But the overall look here to me is a little ghostly, and quite interesting. 

But enough of that. It's winter! And what good is winter without a blizzard? Luckily enough, we had one! Yay! On Christmas eve and Christmas Day. Not sure how much snow we had, but it was very windy and also drifted in like mad.

It was several feet deep when it was over. Took a good chunk of the day to clear out, with several people on shovels and 2 snowblowers. The engine of my car was pretty full of snow. Cleared most of it off, then ran it to melt the rest.

A little later on, and it was time to return. And, snap a few photos along the way.

Sun is just about to disappear under the horizon as I get close to home again. After a long, all day drive. At least the weather stayed nice, and gave me some good sunset shots!

One last colorful shot as the daylight fades.

Santa Says

Ho Ho Ho! What do you know? It's time for the Christmas parade again.

Which means hard to get lit up moving subjects at night, and cold temperatures. Both came through! It was chilly, not cold. Low 30s and almost no wind. But parade lasted over an hour, and after standing around that long, it's COLD!

Starting off the parade was a thoroughly restored and tricked out old military Kaiser Jeep truck. With all kinds of modern upgrades. It was being raffled off for charity. I bought a ticket, but didn't win!

The National Guard always brings out this mini KC130 plane that's always lit up. Looks pretty good.

An old tow truck, just kind of different from many of the other entries in the parade.

A old Thunderbird with lots of lights. As always, getting a good shot of anything at night like this is tough because they are almost always moving. I had so many pictures that didn't turn out because they were a little too blurry.

One of the snowplows from the highway department. They always have blades that have been painted up by kids in the local schools with different scenes. This one turned out the best.

Wrapping up with a closeup of the ball they drop at the local news years celebration. A idea they got from the New York celebration I suspect.

All in all it was interesting. Lots of people, the weather was cool but not bad. Despite pushing the camera farther to get better pictures at night, I guess I still need to go farther! Eventually I'll get it. A newer camera would probably make it easier!

Electricity! That's the Ticket!

As in maybe I should get an electric assist mountain bike. I went out again, and took the MTB. Back to the same place I was hiking last week, and cycling at a month ago. Today I rode some, but not all of the trails I hiked last week.

First off, it has changed A LOT! Had some cold and very windy days this past week. Which are really good - for removing leaves from trees in the fall. And they did. Many of the bright and colorful areas a week ago are now nearly bare of leaves. I'm glad I got to see them when I did.

No wildlife sightings either. Bugger!

And I'm on the bike again. Same results as before. I can negotiate the trails (most of the time). Traverse the downhills, flats and small hills. But the big hills leave me wheezing for air. And wishing for an electric bike to drive me up the hills! It's fun, I can cover a lot more ground, but MAN does it get tiring after a while. Especially later in the day.

OK, enough whining. How about a few photos?

A small cluster of trees that still held on to its leaves. They were coming down today as I traveled around. But got a shot of the bike and the fall colors. That's got to be good for something. The color spots were a lot fewer and far between. So I got a lot fewer photos of it.

Recognize this? Look several posts back, about a month ago. Back then, there were a couple trees that were turning, and a bunch of green ones. Now, as you can see, it's pretty much all gone. How brief the season is...

Finishing off with another spot revisited. This is the third time I've shot this spot this season. Previously it was colorful, though had lost some leaves. Now its pretty much bare. Sigh. The fall color season for this year is pretty much over here. Guess it's time to find something else to take photos of! Hope you enjoyed the fall color photos at any rate.

Where the Wild Things Are...

Back for another weekend of hiking and photography. And, as it turns out, I got quite a bit more than just colorful trees today!

Just a squirrel. Nothing too special about that. Other than it was an indication of the day to come. The wildlife is about to get...bigger.

But you didn't think I'd forget about fall colors did you? Of course not! Here's a tall tree, lit up nicely with the sun shining through it. About as bright as the yellow can get!

Walked a trail I haven't been on in a while, but has lots of leafy trees. And lots of colorful spots. And this is the time of year to see them at their best. This is a 3 shot panorama, capturing some more beauty of the season. There's still tons of colorful spots, but there are more bare spots where leaves have all come down. So peak color may have just passed maybe this past week.

Now things are getting interesting. Walking along I never even noticed these deer until I was pretty close. But instead of running off they just sort of stood there looking at me. Considering it is hunting season, I figured they'd be a lot more skittish.

As interesting as the deer were, a couple hundred yards along the trail and I came upon something even more interesting...

A dark shape appeared ahead, I slowed down. And found a young moose in a little beaver pond. Another hiker with a dog was watching it also. I guess it got spooked, as it took off into the trees. But it went the way I was going. So I moved along quietly, and soon came upon -

The whole family! Two young moose (on the left being shy), Mom in the middle behind the tree, and Big Daddy behind her! Wow! That's the most moose I've ever seen out here. And I've never seen a whole family of them. They were a little ways away and watching me. But not too concerned. I watched for a little bit, snapped a few photos, then left them to their day. Pretty neat if I do say so myself!

How about a brightly colored cluster of leaves against a bright blue fall sky? I thought you'd like it!

All in all a fun day. The weather was pretty warm, the colors were still good, and the wildlife surprises were the best part of the day. Next weekend- I may go out. Depends on weather this time of year. Maybe I'll try the bike again.

Side note - yesterday was the Worldwide Photowalk event. Which I WON last year at my location (but didn't win in the main competition. I was robbed!) But there wasn't one this year in my city. So I went out on this hike instead. And considering how good the day was, I think I did better in my Photohike than any Photowalk!