Tag: Sky

Colorado Mountains at Sunset

Dinner plans were complicated by a number of our choice restaurants being closed for various reasons, requiring some driving about looking for alternatives. As we drove between two local towns, I made mental notes of possible locations for sunset photography.  After dinner in Hotchkiss, I returned to one of those location for sunset photography.

Mountains and Clouds
Clouds, Mountains and Valley
Mountain Peaks at Sunset
The Cloud
Colorado Sunset Clouds

As I returned to Hotchkiss, I noted an almost full, silvery moon rising above the clouds.  The moonrise was hidden by the clouds, when I was shooting.  It was too late to find a good vantage point from which to include the moon in my late day images.  That was disappointing.  If I had hung out at my sunset shooting location a few more minutes, maybe I would have had an opportunity to get the moon in my images.  Never the less, I thought I had a good sunset photo session.

Ken

Salvaging the Day

After a day of browsing and walking around in Ouray and Telluride, quaint, old Colorado tourist towns, we had dinner in Ridgway.  I had hoped to be able to rush up the highway toward or over the Dallas Divide from Ridgway, after dinner for sunset photography,  but we were a little late getting out and the service was slow at our restaurant.  By the time we finished dinner, it was too late to go anywhere.  Arriving back at our lodging and resigned to having lost my opportunity for sunset photography today, I hoisted my camera backpack, grabbed my tripod and camera and began to walk into the lodge. Then I noted golden sunset light on the nearest mountaintops.  So I jogged down the road past the inn to get past other buildings, power lines and trees to try to get into a location to shoot the rapidly changing scene before the light faded away.

Eventide
Eventide 2
Day’s Final Performance
Finale
Moon, Sunset Clouds and Fading Mountain Light
Day’s End

As the sunset light faded away, I walked back towards the inn, stopping to photograph grass and wildflowers in the dim evening light.

Grass and Wildflowers
Grass 1
Grass 2
Progression
Fuzzy, old head

What will tomorrow bring?

Until then,

Ken

Telluride, CO, August 2022

After a morning of browsing and shopping in Ouray, we traveled over the Dallas Divide to Telluride, another quaint, old Colorado town that is popular with summer tourist and winter skiers.

In route along Colorado 62, I kept an eye out for potential photography sites, hoping to return for sunset photos.  I stopped at one location to get a few shots of the afternoon storm clouds building over the mountain tops.

Afternoon Storm Clouds 1
Afternoon Storm Clouds 2
Afternoon Storm Clouds 3

In Telluride, I only used my iPhone to shoot a few images in the old town.

Holding it Together
Storm Clouds, Telluride, CO 1
Storm Clouds, Telluride, CO 2
Watchful

There must be a story behind this mural painted on the side of a Telluride building, but I don’t know it.

Storm Clouds,Telluride, CO 3
Building Plaque, Telluride, CO

Butch Cassidy reportedly took over $24,000 in the robbery of the San Miguel Valley Bank.  That was quite a bit of money in those days, equivalent to about $857,000 in 2022 money.  Butch should have retired after this haul.

So much for this quick visit to Telluride.

Until next time,

Ken

U.S. 550, August 2022

The drive from Durango, Colorado via US 550 to Silverton and Ouray has to be one of the best road trip drives in the U.S. with magnificent mountain views, many sharp switchbacks with slow speed required to safely navigate those sharp curves.  The road is often on the very edge of steep drop offs.

There are prominent red top mountain peaks that can be seen for miles along this roadway.  Somewhere between Durango and Ouray, I pulled off at a dirt road going into the forest to get a few shots of red top mountains with the typical afternoon storm clouds gathering above them.

Red Top
Red Top and Clouds
Red Peak and Clouds
Red Pate

Until next time,

Ken

Old Mill

Determined to find an old abandoned truck, that we had been told about, along a 4 wheel drive road, we continued on past Animas Forks.

We had been told that the old truck was just beside the road about a quarter of a mile past Animas Forks.  Yet we drove much farther than a quarter of a mile, passing the old mill we had been told about, too.

At some point past the old, abandoned mill, we decided that we had either missed the truck or that it was much farther along the roadway than we had been told.  We turned back and stopped to photograph the old mill.  As I was getting my camera out, the retired photographer, who had told us about the truck, drove up and informed me that he had been mistaken about the abandoned truck being right next to the road.  Instead, it was up on a hill at the end of a short spur road.  He even pointed to the truck that was barely visible in the distance.

I shot a few photos of the old mill, before back tracking to the old truck.

Mill Reflection
Abandoned Mine Mill
Old Mine Mill 1
Old Mine Mill 2

Next abandoned truck,

Ken

Rural Decay and Miscellaneous Photos – March 2022 Travel

Antelope Cafe

Small, rural towns across the U.S have experienced dramatic economic downturns as the agrarian industry evolved from one that required much manpower to one that relied more upon mechanization (machine labor).

I see much evidence of this in my road trips, occasionally taking time to photograph the abandoned businesses and homes, either in small rural towns or those scattered across rural farm and ranch lands.

Fading Facade
15170

The title for this photo is taken from the street number that is hanging upside down on the post to the left of the door.

Wild Horse School

In spite of the obvious economic hardship indicated by numerous abandoned homes and businesses in one small community, this old school seem to be well cared for.

Out to Pasture

Old farm machinery rusting away in this farm field, may have been some of the initial machines that started the economic downturn in this small community.

Alone on the Plains

This lone tree in a vast, post harvest farm field, beneath the wide open sky caused me to pull over for a photo.

Until the next adventure and/or desperate need to photograph something overcomes me,

Ken

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 22 – Cathedral Valley Exploration

Layers of Mystery, iPhone Photo

My readers have already seen many photos of some of the fantastic, massive geological features in the Cathedral Valley portion of Capitol Reef National Park.  The long loop road through this area passes many such features.  We did not have time to explore around all of these and certainly not time to visit each area for golden hour sunrise or sunset photography.

But we did stop and walk around at some of the more easily accessible areas near the roadway.  Often, I would use my iPhone camera to capture the scenes, rather than lugging around a heavy DSLR and lens.

Magic Seeker, iPhone Photo
Desert Vortex – Sky and Earth, iPhone Photo
Rock Power, iPhone Photo
Commander/Tower of Power, iPhone Photo
Desert Sentinels/Commander and Sidekick, iPhone Photo
Cathedral Valley Scene, iPhone Photo
Sky Partitioner, iPhone Photo
Desert Sun, iPhone Photo
Serpent Sky, iPhone Photo
Halo, iPhone Photo

Until next time,

Ken

 

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 12

Late one day we decided to shoot from one of the overlook areas near the visitors’ center.  I shot from a little before golden hour until only the clouds on the distant horizon were illuminated and the color faded away.  These are the best of the photos I obtained.

View from a Capitol Reef Overlook
The Path
Earth and Sky
Planet Earth
Red Planet
Late Day View from a Capitol Reef Overlook
Sky Mute

Until next time,

Ken

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 10 – Cathedral Valley

I will continue to test my readers patience with even more photos from Capitol Reef National Park’s Cathedral Valley.

The photographs in this post are all taken around the features called “Temple of the Sun” and “Temple of the Moon”.

Monoliths, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Monoliths, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Sun (in right background), Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Downcast
Temple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Sun framed by smaller rocks, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Sun, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Sun, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Sun, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Sun, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

These photos were all taken late in the afternoon.  The high ridge to the west of these features blocked much of the golden hour light, so essentially all of the foreground objects were already in shadows by the time the best golden hour light illuminated the large monoliths.

Temple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temple of the Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Temples of the Sun and Moon, Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Until next time,

Ken

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, March 2022, Part 9 – Cathedral Valley

Even more Cathedral Valley photographs,

Pyramid

This is not really a pyramid shape, but it looks that way from this point of view.

Emerging

Sometime in the distant future there will be more monoliths here.

Big Brother
Three Rocks
Monolith Production Line
4 Rocks

Until next time,

Ken