Fall is coming

Fall is coming!! It's getting down into the low 30's in the morning here. And the leaves are starting to turn. We went for a hike into the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and got these shots. The aspens are starting to turn. I drove to Lake City yesterday and they are really turning up there. This weekend we will be camping west of Crested Butte near Lake Irwin. If it's not too cold or rainy. We got rained out last weekend. Either way, I plan to go "leaf peeping." For my Texas family and friends where the foliage goes straight from spring green to summer brown & crispy, leaf peeping is looking for fall color. Hopefully I'll get some good shots.

Wildflower photography

I finally invested in a new lens for my Nikon D40. I bought a macro 70mm to 300mm zoom by Tamron. Living in a small town, most of my purchases like this come from EBay. So I had bid on several before I got this one. Good news is that I got a good deal on it from a member who had bought it only a couple of months earlier and then received a Nikon zoom for Father's Day. So it is in perfect condition and I couldn't tell that it had ever been used.

Nothing like a new toy to get you going again! My first experiments were with the macro function. The first photograph above is an extreme zoom on a dandelion head. The second is on a wildflower in a field near Taylor Park, Colorado. The first rule in using a strong zoom, is use a tripod. The second, third, and fourth rules are use a tripod, use a tripod, and use a tripod. The zoom not only magnifies the subject, but also any movement. The constant wind also made getting a clear shot a challenge.

We drove over to Crested Butte to get more wildflower shots and came across a herd of horses just north of town. They were in a valley below us, with some nice wildflowers on the slope between us. I was able to use my new zoom to get a couple of more good shots, again using my tripod!

Check out my website for more of my outdoor photography of Arizona and Colorado.
http://www.mountainsandcanyons.com/

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