Landscapes Sightings
August 11, 2020

August 11, 2020

Environment:Start Time: 7:05 AM Temperature: 60 degrees Sky: Scattered Clouds, light breeze I decided on a change of pace this morning once I saw the sky. It was full of well defined fluffy white clouds which made me want to shoot more scenic pictures. So I put my vintage Olympus Zuiko 14-54mm zoom (a lens I have yet to write up in this blog) on the Panasonic GX-85 and went looking for scenery. What I settled on was not exactly what you think about when the word “scenery” comes up. I went to the Osprey Picnic Area on the eastern…

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Birds Landscapes Sightings Wildlife
July 31, 2020

July 31, 2020

A very pleasant morning at 6:40. A chilly 58 degrees under bright sunshine. Neither wind not clouds were of any consequence today. Walking was fantastic, not so much photography. The photo below is a terrible shot (and highly edited to boot) of what I believe is a Cooper’s Hawk. S/he was bouncing around from branch to branch in heavy foliage and deep shade. This is the third day in a row that I have encountered these hawks (there were two of them today) so I guess they must have a nest in the area. I will keep trying. Today’s featured…

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Landscapes Sightings
July 29, 2020

July 29, 2020

The sun is coming up later these days so we are getting started later. This morning it was 6:30 with a very pleasant 64 degrees. Not many clouds and a slight breeze made for a very pleasant hike. It’s a good thing the walk was a pleasant one (and well worth the trip out) because nothing was happening in the photography department. The best shot I (almost) had was of one of the Osprey adults in the nest but s/he flew off as I approached. So I am compelled to reach back into my archive and post a couple evening…

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Landscapes Sightings
July 28, 2020

July 28, 2020

An oddly foggy morning kept us in early this morning. Skipping today would have meant missing a fourth walk in a row so I finally decided to venture out at 9:40 in clearing skies and a temperature approaching 70. Lake Pueblo State Park was much busier at this “late” hour than what we are used to. The extra folks and the warmish temperature made me limit the walk to just the dog-walking part. Even though the walk was shorter than normal I still managed to get a peak at the Osprey nest and the Heron nest – both of which…

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Landscapes Sightings
July 24, 2020

July 24, 2020

Warmth continues this morning – 65 degrees with less humidity than yesterday. Once again the eastern horizon had fairly heavy clouds. The difference today was that the clouds at least had some definition and a few of them might even have been referred to as “fluffy”. Still the light was not great at 6:15 when we did the first leg of the day’s hike. Probably shouldn’t label it the “first” leg since it turned out to be the only leg. Not much was going on today on the trail. Not many birds were around and no deer showed up at…

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Landscapes Time Lapse

Passing Summer Storm Time Lapse

Here is another time lapse I shot last August. This clip is comprised of 288 individual .jpg frames shot at seven second intervals. Exposure on all frames was f-22, 1/160 second at ISO 200. These images were developed and cropped in ON1 Photo Raw (2109) and then exported as FHD .jpg files for “animation” in Pinnacle video editing software.Gear: Panasonic Lumix GX-85; 14-54mm lens.Software: ON1 Photo Raw; Pinnacle Studio Ultimate V22.

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Landscapes Sightings
July 02, 2020

July 02, 2020

We set out at 6:30 this morning – not really sure why we got the late start but it must have been Whisper’s fault. The sky was hazy once again but there was little to no cloud cover. I think the haze is still smoke from nearby wildfires. No wind today to clear it out. Temperature was a comfortable 60 degrees. Since the sky was so clear I abandoned any hope of a decent landscape and went out this morning with the Nikon D5100 in hopes of getting some birds or critters. Frankly, there was not much going on at…

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Critters Landscapes Sightings Wildlife
July 01, 2020

July 01, 2020

What a difference a day makes! Cloudless sky, no wind, and a temperature 18 degrees cooler than yesterday. I never realized 55 could seem so cool. I had no excuse to settle for a shorter hike as we set out on the trail at 6:20. Once again I was armed with my Panasonic GX-85 and the Olympus 14-54mm lens. The problem I faced today was that cloud free sky. Landscape shots with nothing but blue in the sky are usually pretty boring. I know that in this digital age of photography I could add in some interesting clouds if necessary…

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Landscapes Sightings

June 30, 2020

Windy and warm pretty much describes the park this morning at 6:10. I knew it would be windy when I left the house but I was surprised by how strongly it was blowing at our favorite walking venue. Since the wind was coming primarily from the West it added a noticeable warming component to the 73 degree air temperature. Though the light was quite good it was generally uncomfortable overall. All of this being said, it should come as no surprise that I settled for just the shorter dog walking tour and called it quits after that. Whisper was happy….

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Landscapes Panasonic Lumix GX-85 Sightings
June 29, 2020

June 29, 2020

Another late start this AM – got going around 6:20 in a very pleasant 58 degrees. The sky had a strange haze to it that filtered the sun but didn’t kill the light. I don’t know if the haze is a result of a reported wildfire west of the park or if it a Saudi dust cloud that is currently encircling the earth. Whatever the source it rendered Pikes Peak unseeable today. Though I saw a number of birds and critters today I was not focusing (if you like this pun then it was intentional) on them. I elected to…

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