Birds of Waterton Canyon

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Waterton Canyon is a nearby attraction for me (southwest of Denver, Colorado), and it’s both scenic and peaceful — so it’s just a shame that I don’t get there very often. The canyon was carved by the Platte River, and has an incredibly gentle trail to hike (repurposed from its original genesis as a railroad bed), so I don’t even have difficulty as an excuse.

Regardless, I went on a hike there recently along with other members of a local photography group — we were primarily there to see bighorn sheep, but ran across some interesting birds in the process.

Let’s start with the Spotted Towhee:

Spotted Towhee

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Impromptu airshow

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It’s been years since I’ve had the opportunity to attend a local airshow. But then a few weeks back I realized that during football season, people in the Denver area are given a free mini airshow before each Broncos (NFL) home game. There’s usually a military aircraft flyover for home game kickoffs and the pilots fly laps for about an hour to get the timing right for their flyover — and best of all for me, I live a short drive from where they circle.

Throw in a bit of help from the ADS-B Exchange, and it’s pretty easy to get lined up for some good shots (weather permitting).

All the photos in this post were taken with an OM-1 II camera and M.Zuiko 150-400mm + TC1.25x lens (at full zoom, so 1000mm in 35mm terms). Unfortunately, I had to crop all these shots due to distance; next time, I’ll remember to bring a teleconverter. And now that I’ve spotted some patterns in their flight path (it’s broadly similar from game to game, but shifts around by a few miles each time), I should be able to start getting closer. FWIW, these two aircraft are U. S. Navy EA-18Gs, the electronic warfare versions of F-18s.


At the northeast corner of the timing loop; a bit over 4 miles from me.
EXIF: ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/640 sec Continue reading →

At the altar

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The altar of the cathedral in Lima, Peru (officially, Basílica Catedral Metropolitana de Lima y Primada del Perú).
At the altar
This (third) Cathedral of Lima was built between 1602 and 1797 — the altar was made in 1799 by Matías Maestro. This image is an HDR stack of 3 photos made with an OM System OM-1 camera and M.Zuiko 8-25mm f/4.0 lens.

Unlikely guardians

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A pair of Peruvian thick-knees keep an eye on the ruins of Pachacamac (near Lima), Peru.

Unlikely guardians

These little guys normally live in shrubland and grassland, so it’s impressive how prevalent they are in Pachacamac — it’s about as dry a desert area as you’ll find (no shrubs or grass), although it’s relatively close to grassy areas by the Pacific coast.

EXIF:
OM System OM-1 camera, M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 lens
40mm, ISO 200, f/11, 1/320 sec

Bright Nights at Four Mile

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So filed under the category of “How did I only now hear about this” is an excellent local (Denver, Colorado) event — “Bright Nights at Four Mile.” It’s a collaboration between Denver’s Four Mile Historic Park and Tianyu Arts & Culture, Inc., the largest producer of Chinese lantern festivals in North America. The result is a wide array of larger-than-life lit sculptures spread out over 12 acres. Great for photographers, fun for visitors of all ages, I just can’t praise it enough!

Cotton Candy Museum

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This is the Botanic Museum at the Lund University Botanic Gardens in Lund, Sweden:

Cotton Candy Museum

Or at least, the above is a view of the museum through a 665 nm infrared filter (with a red / blue color channel swap and other tweaking).

Using less processing on the same photograph results in a view that’s (to my eye at least) a bit more sinister in appearance:

The Botanic Museum at the Lund University Botanic Gardens; Lund, Sweden. Seen through a 665 nm IR filter.

In regular visible light, it looks more like this:

One of the nice things about photographing in infrared is that it works well in bright mid-day sunlight (which tends to be less flattering for other uses). The flip side of this coin is that when you’re visiting places like Scandinavia, you may not get bright mid-day sunlight all that often.

Purple Mountains Majesty

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We recently went camping in the White River National Forest, here in Colorado. The camping areas are adjacent to the Flat Tops Wilderness, so we enjoy being able to dip into the wilderness on some quick hikes. Here’s a 2-frame panoramic view across Anderson Lake (near Trapper’s Lake), looking south from the Wall Lake Trail in 590nm infrared, with a few color tweaks — click to enlarge it:

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