Didn’t know if this was going to happen at all today as it looked pretty bleak prior to sunrise. The temperature was only 10 degrees and the weather page called for clouds. Seriously considered just taking Big Dog for a walk around the fairgrounds and calling it a day, at least as far as a photo shoot was concerned!
But the sun finally came up and the sky was pretty so off we went, me and Big Dog to the trailhead. The cloud show going on over the Sangre de Cristo was amazing and I was eager to clear the ridge so I could get the full view and some cool pictures. So we were double timing it up the mountainside when all of a sudden a couple of large critters meandered into a clearing where I could get a pretty clear view. At first I thought, based on their gate that they were wolves, but of course I know that is nearly impossible here in Colorado. So I took a better look and ascertained that it was just a couple of bull elk. Their senses must be amazing because me and Big Dog were being as quiet and stealthy as possible, peeking out from a grove of trees, hopefully well out of
the sight of my subjects… But as soon as they had a visual angle in my direction they stopped to stare and soon they became nervous and headed up the hill. I figured there would be more animals around somewhere so I waited a bit to see if any were following. None came into view so we sneaked up the hill behind another tree for a view of the top of the ridge to discover a whole herd of the huge beasts.
Snapped a few captures of the distant animals, but they were so far away that I don’t think any will be salable. Still… nice pictures and a visual record for reminiscing 🙂
After that we just took a long leisurely walk in the snow during which I was thinking how wonderful today’s high tech hiking gear is. Back when I was a kid, clothing and boots were just dismal… If I had been wearing what I had to wear then my hands and feet would have been frozen and the whole experience would have been miserable. Today I just had my summer light hikers on, Gortex Asolo model of some kind and my feet were toasty warm. A pair of polypropylene glove liners was plenty to keep my hands warm. Nice 🙂
Oh and by the way, I thought I would try out a new framing method on my pictures… The above version is an emboss effect in Photoshop. It makes my work flow a lot faster and I think it still looks nice. I might try just a black border as well. The drop shadow just requires too many steps and it takes forever to prepare a picture for publishing. What do you all think?
These pictures and more are available for purchase as wall art and cool gift items on my website! Just give a click on the gallery you like and then click on an image! The prices and product availability will then appear! Well, that’s about it for today… time for some lunch!
