Life’s been a bit busy for us lately, but we managed to run off into the mountains for a little R&R over the July 4th extended weekend. Â One of our stops was the neat little ghost town of Ashcroft, near Aspen. Â On our way through the sights, my daughter alerted me to this little hummingbird perched on an old bit of wood.
Fortunately for me, this little guy was very patient on his perch — alert and watchful, but never startling or making any apparent move to fly off.
A white tiger at the 2013 Colorado Renaissance Festival in Larkspur, Colorado:
Admittedly, white tigers are eye-catching, and maybe their presence at shows like this somehow supports or encourages conservation. Â But the reality is that white tigers are Bengal tiger mutants not normally found in nature — and they’re only still around thanks to generations of human-induced inbreeding. Â They are often used by zoos and other shows (most famously, Siegfried & Roy in Las Vegas) to draw in visitors — but the breeding of white tigers has been banned by the American Zoological Association (AZA) since June of 2011.
One of the particularly nice things about Austin’s River Walk is that if you catch a boat taxi, you can just sit as it carries you past all sorts of beautiful and photogenic scenery — take this view, for example:
Of course, you’d better have your wits about you. Â Things come up fast, and you can miss a number of interesting sights in the time it takes to swap lenses.
Brought to you from the Natural Bridge Caverns, near San Antonio, Texas — it’s the King’s Throne:
Honestly, I’m not sure where they got the “throne” part of this — looks more like a geological Cthulhu to me. Just the same, it’s an impressive formation.
The Natural Bridge Caverns are in the heart of Texas’ “hill country,” essentially an old limestone plateau since shaped into hilly scrublands by underground erosion and subsequent collapse (much like what happened in the northern Yucatán peninsula). These caverns were formed when the water table lowered, and an eroded underground space gradually was decorated by stalactites and stalagmites formed when water percolated through the surviving limestone overhead, carrying minerals (largely calcite) into their new home.
Seen at the Denver Zoo:
The Blue-breasted Kingfisher (Halcyon malimbica) is a tropical bird, and hunts insects along the edges of rivers and streams in the rainforests of western Africa.
A little alcove off the “Big Room” at Carlsbad Caverns, the “Dolls Theater” does not lack in detail or depth. Â Should you visit, make sure to take a (small) tripod and cable release — this image was taken at f/18 with a 3.2 second exposure / ISO 400:
I’ll admit there’s nothing of great societal import in this shot — just a beautiful sunset, taken along I-25 in northern New Mexico.
I grew up not too far from where I took this shot — one thing I miss about New Mexico is the sunsets.
A.k.a Pohe Haole (Tropaeolum majus), brought to you by the Limahuli Garden & Preserve (part of the National Tropical Botanical Garden system) on Kaui, Hawaii:
The Limahuli Garden and Preserve is a neat little place to stop by should you ever find yourself up on the north end of Kauai (get to Hanalei, then continue west until the road ends).  Beautiful views, lots of great plants and flowers to see and shoot, and you get a bit of history in the mix as well.  Nasturtium was introduced to Hawaii in the 1800s, so this was shot in the “Plantation era” part of  the garden.
A good demonstration of the color of light, courtesy of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico:
This is one of the “marquis” attractions at Carlsbad Caverns, but really doesn’t look this colorful in person (Journey to the Center of the Earth not withstanding). Â But it’s lit by spotlights of slightly different color temperature — so if you grab a picture on your visit, and attempt to pick some feature for your white balance, you’ll wind up with this slightly gaudy view in your photo.
An aerial shot of waterfalls above Waimea:
Some payoff for the usual rainy day trade-off — hazy air for active waterfalls. Â Shot from a helicopter over Kauai, Hawaii.