Week 28

Family road trip! We took off for Colorado to camp for the week. We were a little worried about 15 hours in the car each way, but Abram was a trooper and made it easy on us. He was also a great little camper and totally loved the outdoors as you will see!

Abram was kind enough to wear his cute hats for me almost all week long. He was all decked out in camp gear - this is one of the few times I feel like I had better clothing options for a boy than I would for a girl:





I feel like I never get this gorgeous light at home, and there it was just screaming at me to get some hazy backlit shots:






Adrian getting ready for some fly-fishing:


Out on the lake:


Abram throwing rocks into the water while his Daddy fished Chambers Lake and he managed to skip one... and I managed to catch it! What luck!



I am hoping someone else who was with us got a family pic. Here's what I do have:




Wildflowers were all over the roadsides and mountainsides and trails. I have many left to go through, but I also have a few to post. Shot with 85mm f/1.8 and 13mm tubes unless otherwise noted. Correct me if I am wrong on the names!

Fairy slipper (Calypso orchid?):


Backlit Indian Paintbrush:


Columbine (borrowed 100mm 2.8L):


Maybe? a Yellow Banner flower:


Couldn't identify this one, but it is my favorite:


I am no wildlife photographer. I get nervous and excited and, therefore, too shaky for the crispest shots. Plus I am in such a rush to get the photo that I don't take the time to think about the best settings. If I were given a "do-over" on these, I would have shot in AV mode.

Bull munching roadside:


Cow and a young moose walking through our campsite. Incredible!


And one not-so-wild animal. Ben's pup Samantha:


The scenery was so gorgeous that it made my first attempt at landscape photos easier. The tough parts for me then were figuring out what to focus my photo on (the gorgeous flowers in the field? The river rushing? Or the snow-caps?) and how to compose a shot that leads you in to it. I don't feel successful with that, so I feel like my photos are just "pretty". Something to work on before our next summer vacation!

This one I want on a canvas for Abram's room. I love it and he loves his "choo-choos". It still needs a bit of work, but I really like the perspective and the clouds. Kind of proud of how this one turned out!



Rockies! There are the first ones I have edited. I have many left to process, but I couldn't wait to share b/c it will take me weeks to get them all looking like I want them.






Sunrise over Chambers Lake:


This one I am happy with - I got the stars reflected in the lake and was lucky that the clouds were low on the horizon and didn't interfere with the stars. There was a nearly full moon on the only night that was mostly clear, so I had to wake up a few times in the night to check on the status of the moon. At 4 a.m. the moon was behind the mountains to the west, but there was still some brightness. This is an 8 second exposure shot with my 30mm.



More stars, and I think the Milky Way but either my settings or equipment weren't quite right to capture it:


And wouldn't want to forget the ride home... had Adrian pull over in Kansas for these cows: