Category Archives: Blog

Dude, I’m dragon…

Posted on by

So a few weeks back, when we went to the 10th annual Denver Dragon Boat festival, I made a point of lingering along the path the dragon would take during the opening festivities. Very colorful, not something you see every day — I thought it’d present some interesting photographic opportunities.

Dude, I'm dragon...

So after firing away, taking pictures of the dragon’s passage, I was more than a little surprised myself that I’d captured this shot. One of the dragon’s carriers definitely isn’t too enthused about the whole affair…

An odd looking thing…

Posted on by

On a recent weekend jaunt to the mountains, we wandered through the Yampa River Botanic Garden in Steamboat Springs. Quite a few things were in bloom, including this unusual item:

An odd looking thing...

It’s Alpine Sea Holly (Eryngium alpinum); never seen one of these before…

Honest Abe

Posted on by

This is a pretty simple, staple shot inside the Lincoln Memorial at night. That said, it’s a surprisingly tough shot to get…

Honest Abe

You’re not allowed to use a tripod inside the Memorial (some say it’s because the tripod legs damage the floor, others that tripods are a tripping hazard when the place is crowded). Meanwhile, the lighting is… subdued, to say the least.

I took this shot at ISO 1000 with an aperture of f/2.0 — and still, it required a one second exposure (and some noise cleanup with Topaz Denoise afterwards). Curious how to take a decent one second exposure without a tripod? It turns out that while tripods are banned in most Washington D.C. museums, monopods aren’t — not even ones with little pop-out tripod feet.

Go figure…

Milkweed

Posted on by

On the way home from our trip to Glacier N.P. and the Canadian Rockies, it so happened that we spent a night in Great Falls, Montana. Before we left the next morning, we stopped off to check out the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center — great displays, lots of hands-on stuff for the little one to play with. Oh, and all the landscape plants around the building are historically accurate — just what the Lewis & Clark expedition would have encountered on their way through.

Milkweed

Like these milkweed blossoms.

Technicolor greenery

Posted on by

On our recent Rocky Mtn. road trip, we spent one night in Great Falls, Montana — just to break up the long drive home. I don’t know about you, but I never would have expected to find a scene like this in Great Falls:

Technicolor greenery

This casino’s parking lot display is lined up along the side of the interstate that cuts through town, in the middle of a cluster of cheap hotels. Big hit with the interstate trucking crowd.

Technicolor greenery, redux

Sun on a cloudy day

Posted on by

Seen in front of the lodge in East Glacier, Montana:

Sun on a cloudy day

On our Glacier National Park trip, we drove out to East Glacier to check out the storied lodge there — and were fortunate enough to actually have sporadic sunlight for our visit.

OK, we had sporadic rain too. And sporadic 40 mph gusts of wind…

But with such good scenery, we were happy to deal with the occasional annoying weather.

Keeping an eye on the neighbors

Posted on by

Looking down-canyon from Tower Point in Hovenweep National Monument:

Keeping an eye on the neighbors

We’re fortunate to have some good friends down in the four corners region, so occasionally when we drive down to visit them, we all take a side-trip to see some of the ancient ruins in the “neighborhood.” Hovenweep is one of the more off-the-beaten-path groupings, but once you drive there you’ve got some nice hikes waiting for you. Most of the sites are on a 2 mile self-guided trail that loops around Little Ruin Canyon — lots of great views, but make sure you take water!