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.

The Old West

The rodeo was in town. Cattlemen's Days in Gunnison draws visitors from all over the world. We had tourists from Germany, Japan, and Switzerland. Not to mention those from nearby Connecticut and Vermont. When we would take vacations in Arizona during the American vacation offseason of May or October, we would hear a lot of European vacationers at the Grand Canyon. Especially German and Japanese travellers. It seems like people from all over the world are fascinated with the American west.

Wigwam Motel

I am about to have one of my photographs published in a newsletter published by the Arizona Office of Tourism. Their manager of creative services found my photograph of the Wigwam Motel on Flickr and asked permission to use it in an upcoming newsletter promoting travel on old Route 66.


The Wigwam Motel is a unique motel in northern Arizona, where, as advertised on numerous highway billboards, you can "sleep in a wigwam tonight." The motel received a boost from the animated movie, Cars, which featured a small town motel with traffic cone shaped rooms. The Wigwam capitalized on this exposure by bringing in vintage cars closely matching those in the movie and parking them in front of the rooms.


The Galaxy 500 and Impala were two of my favorites. My earliest childhood memory of our family car was of an Impala like this, only a kind of rusty brown color. And my Grandpa Doode had a yellow Galaxy 500, predictably called "Old Yeller."


I also liked the old Pontiac, at least the cool hood ornament. And of course, everyone likes 'Mater from the movie.

I also got some good photographs of the neon signs in front of the motel, using a no flash setting, and long exposure. And of course a tripod. Converting the photograph to black and white in Photoshop gave it a more nostalgic look.




You can see more of my photographs of Arizona at my website.
http://www.mountainsandcanyons.com/

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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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Fourth of July Balloons

Gunnison, Colorado has some event planned for practically every week from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Last night's fireworks were impressive, especially for a small town. Today was also the final day of the hot air balloon festival. Unfortunately the first two days were either to humid or windless. So Friday they didn't get to fly. Saturday they tried, but ended up just bouncing from block to block, not really getting airborne. Today was great though. I got to Jorgensen Park in time to take photos of the balloons inflating and taking off. Of course the alien was the most popular. The colorful balloons make for very good photographs, even while on the ground.

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