July 28 - Springfield

There was a warm South breeze last night, and I headed over to the Commercial Street Bridge to see if I could catch some of the sun as it was setting. I just missed the sun, but I found a few other compositions that were interesting.



July 22 - Branson

I was in Branson on Friday night at the Radisson and up on the 9th floor, there's a pretty good view of the sunset. You might think there would be a lot of headlight trails during a long exposure such as this, but this is Branson, and the cars didn't move much!

July 18 - Additional Rocky Mountain National Park

It's been so warm (Ok, really HOT) here lately and I haven't been out to shoot much. So I thought I'd go back through and process some of the shots from the recent vacation that I passed over the first time through.

I'm still fascinated by Monument Rocks. Here's another composition of the arch, but this time just looking up into the sky with the wide angle lens.


Here's another Columbine, but a very young one that hasn't opened all of the way. Very alien-like.


On our last afternoon, the clouds near the tree line started breaking up after a rain.

July 6 - Rocky Mountain National Park

On Thursday, we started with a quick trip up to Bear Lake - which is conveniently located right next to the road. The conditions were good for photography for about 5 minutes and then the wind started really blowing.


Later in the afternoon, we visited a nice creek on the way to Bear Lake.


Not long afterwards, we were up on top of the world trying to get above the clouds. But the clouds weren't cooperating. They were still interesting, though, and a fresh rain made everything look great!


There hadn't been much in the way of sunsets down in the Morraine Park. Though there were some great clouds this evening, they didn't become part of any fantastic sunset. It was still fun watching the sunlight fade for the day.


July 5 - Rocky Mountain National Park

We drove the length of the park today - just to see what was there. On the way down the west side of the park, I photographed my first MOOSE! Really cool. This was a young mommy moose, and here calf wasn't far away (but out of sight).



Later in the afternoon, we found some Columbine growing on the side of the road. It was great to see this beautiful flower. They were all over up there, ranging from blue outer petals to white.

July 4 - Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain National Park (RNMP) is a great destination. It really has it all - wildflowers, mountains, wildlife, water, snow... I've always enjoyed my stays there. We arrived in the afternoon and after securing a camp spot for the next three nights it was up into the mountains to see if there was any sunset light.

It turned out that there was a little bit of interesting light. The next three pictures were taken from the same location - not too far from the Alpine Visitor's Center.






These clouds engulfed the road entirely before we could get back down, and it was kind of a weird trip down the mountain with visibility less than a car length. Made it down safe and sound, though!

July 1 - Monument Rocks, Kansas

On a trip out west to Denver to visit a few friends, I had a chance to stop by Monument Rocks in Kansas. I'd been to a similar site last year (Castle Rocks) and this one was just as interesting but still different enough to make it worth the trip. This formation is a series of fin-like rocks sticking out of the ground.

Wile wandering around the base of the rocks, we spotted a small owl. Unsure if it was alive or dead, we approached quite close before we spotted small movements. We took a few pictures and left it alone.



In one of the fins, there is a big hole. In the background is the other range of fins - it's probably only 200 yards away, but this wide angle lens makes it look further.



There had been a storm brewing to the north all afternoon, and I snapped a few pictures trying to catch the lightening. It wasn't very spectacular lightening, but I did manage to get one little bit. You should be able to see it if you look closely.



After Denver, we were in Rocky National Mountain Park for a few nights and I'll be posting those as I have time.