Adapting to City Life

After coming out of the Rockies down to the plains below I had to adapt to driving in city traffic. The traffic in Denver is really bad! For my good friend Dan's wedding I stayed at one of the major Hotels right off the 470 freeway. It was in Centennial one of the suburbs of Denver on the far south side. Coming out of the hotel one morning I looked up at the flags flying in the early morning breeze. Wow! That looks cool. Then I had an immediate flashback of coloring a Colorado flag when I was probably in third or fourth grade. You know the time when kids all over the United states learn about the state they are growing up in. I stood there lost in thought when my mind popped back to reality when I realized that there were two birds of prey flying around above me in the updraft of the breeze hitting the front of the hotel. One was a young Redtailed Hawk and the other was an immature male Kestrel. It was great they were using the building to hunt the grass along the shoulder of the freeway. The Kestrel wasn't too happy about the Redtail getting too close and he made a few dives at it. The Redtail circled a few times and then went into a stoop towards something in the grass but came up empty handed. By then it was too far away to be photographed but I was really happy to watch it unfold. God's love and blessings upon your weekend, chris All of these images were created with a Canon 7DmkII and a damaged handheld Tamron 150-600mm lens. Exposures varied.

Rocky Mountain Rainbows

In early September I was privileged to go on a photo tour with my brother. He works in Estes Park, Colorado for a company that does photo Jeep tours out of Estes Park. We met the clients, a young couple at the tour office at about five thirty in the morning. We were on the road before a quarter to six. As we drove along my brother pointed out various points of interest and gave a running narrative of facts about founding of Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park and the various wildlife found there. He was really good at it! Just after entering the north entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park we stopped and watched two bull elk sparring in the meadow. There was barely enough light to photograph them but was a wonderful sight to see. Further on we saw four coyotes playing together way out in the meadow too far away to photograph as well as some wild turkeys. We turned off onto Fall River Road and began the slow climb up to Trail Ridge Road. I was really glad to have the front seat when it started to sprinkle. Luckily the tour company provides heavy blankets for the people in the back of the Jeep. On the way up we were treated several times to rainbows ahead of us. We took a stop at the visitors center up on the top of Trail Ridge Road. It was gusty and cold and we didn't spot any Pikas or Marmots out. They were smart and stayed underground. We did however see another glorious rainbow with the rockies as a backdrop! On the way down we spotted some cow elk beside the road and one moose and a bear far off in the distance. It was a great morning and I really enjoyed getting to watch my brother at work. God's love and blessings upon yours, chris Most images were created with a Canon 7D mkII and a damaged Tamron 150-600mm lens. One rainbow image was taken with a Canon 10-22mm lens. #TeamCanon