You Did What?

Went for a hike! Yeah, really! In early March! Since its been a month since we last had snow, and we've had quite a bit of warm weather, things have dried out a lot. And with temps into the 60s, I decided to try something I generally NEVER do - go for a winter hike. It was a success, but with a few difficulties. I hit both of the places I hike the most during the summer/fall. Just to try them out.

The first place was great. Though the roads in were closed, the trails were quite good. In places, there was snow packed, drifted spots. But by and large the ground was mostly clear! Hiking here was really easy, much easier than I expected. I thought I might be impassible in spots - I was wrong!

What sort of creature is this? Kind of looks like the shadow of an alien or creature to me. But its really just water from melting snow running across a big slab of granite.

The sky - partly cloudy was nice. Though a lot of the day, it was totally overcast. With a mild breeze it felt a tad chilly when the sun wasn't out.

At the second place I went, it was the opposite. Only 10 or so miles away, but the snow was solid everywhere. In the winter this area has groomed trails for cross country skiing, snowshoeing, etc. But even in the trees off the trail, EVERYWHERE was packed solid with snow. How the terrain can be so different in such a short distance, I don't know.

This is normally the trail I hike into this area. Under that snow somewhere. The snow was pretty hard so I was able to walk on top of it. But just a little soft on the surface. I didn't hike here a lot, but the hike was very tiring very quickly. Must have been due to the semi-firm snow, my legs got real tired hiking on this snow where they didn't at all hiking the other area.

A log fence on my way out. You can just see the snow in the edge. It was clear to the right, and solid snow to the left. Where I was hiking. I was just glad to get out and take a break!

Update From The Road

Just a few shots from a recent holiday trip. Nothing too holiday themed I promise! These were all actually from December, but I just got around to posting them now.

The sunrise of an early morning drive. Where's my coffee? Nice sunrise though!

Now this looks pretty 'cool'. A frosty trail the day after a heavy fog made everything white and frosty.

What is it? Unusual. A fence maybe? Actually its a decorative lamp in a hospital waiting room, where I spent too much of this trip due to a sick family member. But it all worked out OK. Long story.

Not Quite...

Just a quick update, post Photowalk contest.

The Grand Prize and 10 Runner-Up prizes were picked. Unfortunately, mine was not among them. Here's a link to the page with the winners, (for as long as it works) and the reasoning behind their wins, per Scott Kelby who runs the whole thing and makes the final call on judging.
http://scottkelby.com/announcing-the-winners-from-my-8th-annual-worldwide-photo-walk/

A day later they also announced a follow up with Honorable Mentions. This was good - there were over 30 picks here. All shots he really liked, but didn't win any prizes.
http://scottkelby.com/honorable-mentions-from-my-8th-annual-worldwide-photo-walk-2/ 

You may notice, I am not in this set either. Bummer. So all together, there were about 45 winners selected from the group of over 900. Has to be a tough thing to judge. I can't say I like or agree with all his choices of winners, but anything like this is extremely subjective to whatever the judge likes/dislikes at this moment in time. I think I had a pretty good entry, but I guess I shall have to try again!

Photowalkin, Part III

After taking several years off, this year I decided to have another go at the Worldwide Photowalk on October 3rd. I did the walk previously in 2011 and 2009. Skipped several years due to bad weather or just general lack of interest in the selected location.

This year it was at the Terry Bison Ranch just south of town on the WY/CO border. It's main claim to fame is, not surprisingly, a herd of bison. They take you on a little train tour through the bison, if you want. It also has an assortment of other animals - camels, llamas, horses, donkeys, ostrich, peacock and other critters. Kind of a mini zoo, along with some old westy stuff, a large campground, etc. Basically, its a touristy place.

But since I've always just gone past it, never to it I figured I'd go. The weather was - ok. After a long very warm fall, we had a couple pretty chilly days, normal for October. But a big change. Temps were in 40s, mostly cloudy. Day before was foggy and misty rain most of the day, that would have been tough to do much outside photography without all your equipment getting wet.

21 people signed up, I'd guess maybe 15 or so showed up to wander around taking photos for several hours. Quite honestly, I didn't capture much that I thought was very good. Though working on them later, a few came to life once I mixed a little Photoshop in. Let's get started...

This was one of my first shots. They have this little homemade 'suspension' bridge, over a marshy spot. It was kinda bland, against a gray cloudy sky. But the sun was trying to peek through. So I went heavy on the contrast and color, made it into kind of a dark, 'moody blue' scene. Just playing around.

There's a number of pieces of old horse-drawn farm and construction equipment on the grounds. This is a detail shot of one - an old Case. Didn't have to do much Photoshop work on this image.

The hood emblem on an old International schoolbus that was converted to a tour bus, and later became a chicken coop on wheels. There's a number of free-range yardbirds (chickens) on the grounds, and this bus is their home. Another image I didn't have to do very much to.

 A horsehead hitching post on a fence. Tie up yer horse, head on inta the saloon, pardner! I did a little more on this image - saturated the whole thing, then desaturated all the background but not totally. Just trying to make the horse stand out from the background a little more.

An old Adams Leaning Wheel Grader. It would be slow going grading a road with one of these, but I'm sure it did the job, eventually. This image is by far the most Photoshopped. Besides giving it the antiqued look, I had to remove a lot of things - a stop sign, a fence, an asphalt road and railing along the interstate, which is actually at the line of the ground and the sky. After all that it looks like an old photo of a discarded piece of machinery rusting away in a field. Or at least I think it does.

Finally, we come to my entry in the Photowalk competition. This was really bland looking at first, and I figured it was a throwaway. But once I started playing with it in Photoshop it surprised me and really came to life. Funny how that happens sometimes. It's the inside of a metal pipe used as a slide in a big homemade playground setup in the campground. All I had to do besides make the colors and textures pop was clean up a few small distractions, rotate and center it. And for this location, this is what I consider my 'best' photo! I like the changing colors, the texture and the spiral swirl in the pipe. Uniquely abstract!

Only 3 people entered the contest in our walk. Kinda surprised me, with ~15 people there weren't more. Here's the link to the photowalk page, for as long as it is active-
http://kelbyone.com/photowalk/walk/cheyenne-wy-united-states/

The winner for each location is entered in the worldwide competition. I'd say I have a pretty good chance this year (I didn't win either of the other prior walks I entered. Which I can go on in detail about...)

*** UPDATE***
My entry WON the Photowalk for my location. So I am entered in the worldwide competition! That's cool. According to the website there were 999 walks worldwide. So that means there should be 999 entries in the competition. For 1 Grand Prize, 10 Runner Up Prizes and 1 People's Choice prize. So the odds are slim. And they always pick winners from around the world, only a couple from the US. So if my photo wins, it will have managed quite a feat! More to come soon...

Bad Moon on the Rise?

Went out last night to take photos of the big lunar eclipse.

It was both a Supermoon eclipse, as the moon was about as close to the Earth as it gets, and also the 4th 'Blood Moon' in a recent series of blood moons.

There's all sorts of religious, mythical and other attachments to such events. Whether they really mean anything I'm not sure. That's up to everyone to decide, and time itself. Anyway, on to a couple photos!

The night started with a awesome sunset. God beams on the horizon under the clouds. Wait - clouds? They'll obscure the eclipse! Fortunately, that didn't happen. The clouds broke up and mostly drifted away. They did get in the way briefly during the eclipse but for the most part it was totally clear! Unusual - the weather rarely seems to cooperate during such events.

I took a series of photos, made a collage as most people do showing the eclipse coming and going.

These were all with my smaller camera, and the exposures were off a bit, a little too overexposed on many. But it still made a good series all together.

There were a number of people out watching the eclipse when I was. Though everyone left by the time it was in full 'blood moon' eclipse. I was the only person watching the eclipse end.

Glad the weather cooperated. If I shoot one of these again I'm going to use my DSLR with long zoom lens so I can get closer and control the exposures a little more.