Beautiful Morning

I slept in this morning until eight o'clock. Ah, Saturdays! When I checked outside there was a break in the weather and a beautiful view to the fog shrouded Redwoods below. By the time I went downstairs grabbed my camera and back up the stairs the fog was rapidly closing in. Afterwards I grabbed a bird feeder and went out into the backyard. I set up a perch with a milo (Sorghum) seed head. Every year some pops up and grows in almost the same exact spot next to our patio from fallen bird seed. Milo brings me back some good memories from my childhood of seeing large fields of it growing on the prairies east of the front range of the Rocky Mountains. It was grown for cattle as there were many dairies and the large stockyard in Greeley, Colorado which was close to twenty miles to the east of where I lived in Loveland. You could always tell if there was an east wind due to the smell! After setting up the perch I settled into the photoblind and waited for the birds. There were a lot of Juncos and Hermit Thrushes. They both loved the milo but I only got some images of the Dark Eyed Juncos. When I was finished I stopped on the way back into the house and photographed hummingbirds for about ten minutes. What a beautiful morning. Merry Christmas to all, chris All images created with a Canon 7D and Tamron 150-600mm F5-6.3 Di VC US lens with a Manfrotto 190 XPROB tripod with a Bogen ballhead. #TeamCanon

Good bye Wyoming Hello Prairie Dogs

I paid my respects to the silhouetted cowboy and his dog as I left Wyoming at the Colorado border. I don't know who the artist is but it makes for a wonderful image early in the morning. This was day 13 of my trip and I was headed south on I25 to Loveland, Colorado and then on to Denver for my trip home in NorCal the following day. I was up way before the crack of dawn as is the norm for any kind of a photography expedition. My first major stop was to the Prairie Dog Colony on the east side of Loveland. Sadly this colony may not be there very much longer as the property is up for sale. Who knows what will become of them once the property is developed? I photographed some great behaviors of the eating and greeting. I even got an image of one barking out it's warning out to the rest of the colony. When you see one getting ready to bark you have to leave plenty of room at the top of the frame for them to leap up to. From there I stopped by for short visit to my brother and sister in laws and then I drove past my old house and photographed Barnes Ditch where I spent many a day fishing,swimming, tubing and ice skating in my youth. I'm sure that in this current day of lawsuits and safety none of that is allowed now. My final stop in Loveland was to visit my second Mom, Joanne Burke. Check out her artwork it is fantastic. I call her my second Mom because I was always over at her house when I was growing up. From there I drove with my friend Dan and his girlfriend Julie back to Denver where I got another chance to photograph Zack Julies dog. Dog images are a lot of fun to make especially when you have a great dog like Zack t work with. Such a handsome fellow! God's love and blessings to all, chrisAll images created with a Canon 7D and a Canon 100-400 IS lens. Settings and exposures varied.

Visiting Home

Day 6: Leaving the Denver area I traveled north on I-25 along the Front Range to my boyhood town of Loveland, Colorado. It's funny how things feel so familiar and yet are entirely different. When I left here back in the dark ages Loveland was home to about 17,000 people. Now the population has swelled to over 72,000. Visiting here brought back a lot of pleasant memories. Everywhere I turned something came to my mind. I love to visit but I know that I no longer belong here. It is similar to the German feeling of Sehnsucht. Longing for a place that can never be yet it still home.I stayed with my brother Eric and his wonderful wife Sue at her Mom's house. They are temporarily displaced while their new house is being built up in the Rockies. What a beautiful place it's going to be. It has a great view and it is easy to get to Rocky Mountain National Park from where the house is being built. Eric was awesome because he set up a blind and a bird feeder for me to use in the backyard. I really wanted to photograph a Blue Jay because I've never photographed one before. There weren't any Blue Jays in Loveland when I grew up there as a kid. But they are there now and I really wanted an image of one. Luckily for me the Jays obliged. After I finished photographing photographing Jays Eric took me out to photograph some of the local Prairie Dogs and then we headed up to North Park next to Loveland High School to photograph Canadian Geese and Fox Squirrels. I watched one squirrel insulating its nest with bark in preparation for the upcoming winter. We got home just in time to BBQ some chicken for dinner. Early Fall evenings in Colorado are spectacular. What a wonderful and fantastic day I had. Thank you Lord for the experience. God's love to all, chris

Hogback

It was a rainy day for most of the day yesterday. I spent a lot of time looking through images and playing a little bit with some table top photography. In the afternoon I ended up going to care for my Mom in a medical emergency. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with her. So some prayers would be helpful. They are holding her over in the hospital tonight for observation. This evening I was looking through images from my Colorado/Wyoming trip and I found an image of a hogback west of Loveland, Colorado that I really like. Hogbacks are made of uplifted red sandstone and they look gorgeous in early morning light. I love this one. God's precious light and love to all, chris