To avoid possible monotonous posts, I’ve decided to mix up things a bit. I still have a week’s worth of photos from a May visit to the northern area of the Bisti Wilderness, but since I’ve had many consecutive posts about Bisti, I will now intersperse posts about other areas with the Bisti posts. This means getting posts out of the heretofore chronological order. I hope this will keep followers from being overly bored and will not result in confusion due to the lack of timeline continuity. This is the first such out of chronological order post.
In July, 2019 I traveled to my oldest son’s place north of Denver, Colorado and we set out the following day for a week of camping and photography in the northwestern portion of the state.
Our first destination was Cold Springs Campground in the Routt National Forest adjacent to the Flat Tops Wilderness, named for the Flat Top Mountains of the Rocky Mountain Range.
When we arrived at the campground, there was only one spot left in the first come, first serve campground. Even though it was not the most sought after camping spot for most, it was actually a good spot for us and the Sportsmobile, since it was fairly level, easy to pull into and out of and had full sun exposure, which was perfect for utilizing the solar panels for maintaining the battery charge. The spot was closest to the roadway, so we got some dust from passing traffic, which tended to travel faster than the speed limit, but the dust was minimal and not a real problem.
Since all other campers or those looking for an empty spot had to pass our location on the way into and out of the campground, we had several people asking about our camping vehicle and taking photos of it. One couple even stopped beside us in their vehicle, as we hiked along the roadway towards the reservoir, after they had seen us around the Sportsmobile. They asked questions about the vehicle and seemed interested in looking into acquiring one, making a note of the Sportsmobile name.
The biggest problems at this campsite at this time of the year were the mosquitoes and other swarming insects, which swarmed us every time we were outside for any length of time. This is typical of forested mountain areas in the summer, especially those near water and there was a small lake adjacent to the campground fed by a mountain stream cascading into it on the north end of the campground. We used lots of insect repellant, still it was difficult to concentrate with so many mosquitos and/or other insects buzzing about. I also had to edit out a number of mosquitos from some images. There might be others hidden in the image details that I did not see, when editing.
There were fairly abundant wildflowers in the area, especially around the wetter areas near the streams.
I tried to use higher ISO to get faster shutter speeds to freeze the flowers, but with limited success, since I still wanted to have a slow enough shutter speed to get a silky effect on the flowing water.
There is a small reservoir, maybe a half a mile up the road, where the roadway ends. We hiked to the reservoir to check it and the area to the south of the roadway, looking for suitable areas for photographic interest.
We also explored around the small lake adjacent to the campground, determining that we could do sunrise photos on the east side of the lake.
At sunset, we got good light, after the afternoon clouds opened, shooting south of the roadway.
The bands of color in the sky of this photo are in the raw file. I thought this was not normal and would not have included this photo, but my son convinced me that this is not the abnormal banding sometimes seen in digital photos. He thinks there are just layers of clouds that are separating the colors in this manner and I can see some layering in the atmosphere. It just looks so unusual to me, so I am still not fully accepting that this is normal coloration.
Stay tuned for more about our Colorado experience and resulting photographs.
Ken
I must admit I love seeing green vistas and the many evergreens in the landscape. And wildflowers are a plus!
Shutterpug, the lush mountains are surely a big change from the desert; but I find shooting in such an environment much more difficult than shooting in the desert. In the desert it is much easier to isolate subjects, while the mountains tend to lend themselves more to the grand scenic. While the grand and large landscape is wonderful, capturing it in a manner that expresses one’s awe of the scene is difficult. Thanks for your comment and for following my blog.
I love that first shot, Ken. It could be the perfect advertisement for a Sportsmobile! And those solar panels look like they are holding up well. I also like that second mountain stream and wildflowers shot – very nice leading line with a nice touch of silkiness added to the water. I agree with your son – sometimes photos do show up with different bands or layering in the sky. I don’t know the scientific reason, but the camera picks up on it. Nice images, Ken. And I’m glad you mentioned the mosquitoes because that reminds me to take insect repellent with me for my trip to Olympic National Park.
Hi, Becky. That first shot that you like is just an iPhone photo taken as we were scouting the area east of the lake. I have been pleased at how good some of the iPhone shots come out. It is a simple camera that I always have with me, so I use it often, when scouting locations. Someday, maybe I will get a more versatile small, lightweight camera to use for scouting. The solar panels were a really good investment. I had to revamp the homemade covers for them, as the glue on velcro used to fasten the strips is not as strong as the velcro, so the strips kept pulling loose. Thanks for the comments and kind remarks. I look forward to seeing your photos from Olympic NP.