Author Archives: swkrullimaging

One Deer and Wildflowers

Deer in the Rockies

Pretty quiet morning on the trail… Saw one lone deer peering back at me from a field of wildflowers and rocks. We were far enough away so as to not cause any alarm and were able to get this nice shot 🙂 No more wildlife was seen on the trek, but there are a lot of nice wildflowers blooming. Don’t know what these yellow ones actually are, I’m no flora and fauna expert for sure… but they look nice and make for some nice pictures 🙂

Also got to try out my AllTrails.com hike logger on my new Verizon phone. It’s only a

Mountain Wildflowers

Samsung J3 but I like it OK. Was extremely disappointed with my previous phone that didn’t work at all in the mountains. So I successfully recorded today’s hike and was rewarded with a cool map and elevation profile. Haven’t figured out how to share it yet though… maybe the information will only be for myself. But still pretty cool even though I’m not sure what it is going to be good for 🙂

As always these images and more are available for purchase on my website as wall art on glossy metal or acrylic sheets, stretched canvas or traditional framing and matting. Tons of cool gift, tech, apparel and household items are also available with a #swkrullimaging picture!

Mountain Wildflowers

 

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Road Trip to Paradise Cove

Been wanting to do this for some time now, finally got it done. Had to go into Woodland for supplies and decided to take Teller 1 back home instead of the usual Highway 67 over the pass. I was hoping there might be a raging torrent of water flowing out of the mountains into Paradise Cove by now but that didn’t turn out to be the case. As you can see there is but a trickle flowing over the falls right now  but they are saying that it has been such a cold spring though that not much of the snow on the high peaks has melted. That just means another trip once the high water flow begins I guess!

Waterfall at Paradise Cove

Once at the parking lot I discovered that now the cove is an improved fee area and the price for one day of parking is $6. You just grab an envelope out of the bottom of the little dispenser, fill out the information, keep the stub and put your money in the envelope. Drop it in the receptacle and you are good to go.

I could see that the first part of the trail is steep and rocky so I grabbed my trusty trekking pole / monopod and started making my way down. I was glad I had the trekking pole as the extra stability came in handy on some of the trickier steps. Then came a nice quarter mile walk along the stream with a couple of easy crossings followed by a steep climb up a couple of switchbacks to the cove overlook. There were a few people down by the water, some swimming and some jumping off the cliff. Thought I might as well go down and introduce myself so I could get a couple of shots of the action!

Unfortunately I forgot to reset my shutter speed from my landscaping efforts earlier so a

Cliff Divers at Paradise Cove

lot of my images didn’t turn out. On this one of the jumper though, the slow shutter speed turned out to be a fortuitous mistake that resulted in a pretty cool motion blur dive 🙂 My long lens efforts however were just a disastrous blurry mess and I will have to make a return trip if I want those 😦

The best part of the day was this little fellow below, a cute furtive and curious ground squirrel who was busy trying to steal any food he could find from the unwary visitors in his domain.  He stopped long enough for this pose which I spotted and took full advantage 🙂

 

Rocky Mountain Chipmunk

Summer Struggle

Elk in Fresh Snow

Summer is the worst time of the year for my wildlife and landscape photography. I work so late and the sun rises so early that’s it is almost impossible to get out for a sunrise session. Later in the morning the sun beating down from straight overhead pretty much washes all the color out of a scene and the animals are all avoiding the heat of the day hiding deep in  the forest.

I try to make the best of it though, I still have hundreds images that I have flagged for upload to the stock agencies that are still waiting patiently on my hard drive for some attention! This image was one from the day after our huge “bomb cyclone” blizzard. I still remember this day, the elk had gathered near the summit where the snow had mostly blown away and access to the mountain grass easiest. There were about a dozen that I have uploaded to stock including this one. Don’t think I will put them on my website website as prints though, I have similar images already for sale there in the “elk” gallery.

Elk in the Sunshine

These elk appear to be having a relaxing morning! I saw them grazing on the mountain

Elk Herd in the Wilderness

grass near the edge of the dense pine forest. For some reason they saw me but did not retreat into the safety of the trees, but slowly walked along the edge of the wilderness while I snapped away using my big 400mm Canon lens. Usually they disappear like ghosts into the forest the moment they spot me. This was my favorite one with the rugged snow capped Sangre de Cristo mountain range in the background  🙂

Elk Herd and the Sangre de Cristo

As always, this image and more are available on my website as wall art on glossy metal or acrylic sheets, stretched canvas and traditional framing and matting. Cool household, tech and gift items are also available with #swkrullimaging artwork on them! Click the link if you want to see more!

Happy Herd

It has been a long time coming but we finally have leaves on the aspen trees in the high country. Of course it was only last week that I was still scraping snow and ice off of my windshield before the trip to the trailhead! Well, it was a beautiful sunny morning on the trail today and the wildlife certainly seemed to be enjoying it. The deer have been living off of the parched dry mountain grass all winter and now they have aspen leaves and dandelions to make life a little better for them.  I wasn’t able to get very close today but this distant shot of them at the edge of the wilderness should give you the idea of the joy that summer’s annual sojourn is delivering 🙂

Deer on the Rocky Mountain HillsideAs always this picture and more are available on my website as wall art and cool gift items! Click the link if you like!

 

Magnificent Mountain Morning

Beautiful Herd of Mule Deer

Sun shining, wildlife leisurely strolling through the Pike National Forest, fresh clean air… it doesn’t get any better than this 🙂 I couldn’t get very close to this beautiful deer herd, but maybe this distant shot is better anyway! And the blue sky and cloud mix over the snow capped Sangre de Cristo was simply sublime.

As always, these pictures and more are available as wall art on my website on glossy metal or acrylic sheets, stretched canvas and traditional framing and matting. Tons of cool gift items, handy household goods and tech items like battery chargers are also available!

Beautiful Snow Capped Sangre de Cristo Range

Springtime in the Rockies

Ghostly Figures in Foggy Mine Country

Springtime is an unpredictable mess in the Rockies but no one can say it isn’t beautiful! On this day a dense fog rolled in from below in the Arkansas River valley creating this amazing ghostly scene in the Cripple Creek / Victor mining district. The Peak itself however, was not to be outdone. There was just enough fog and approaching cloud cover to create this amazing vista on the south face of America’s Mountain.

As always, these images and more are available on my website for purchase as wall art and cool gift items!

Fog and Clouds on Pikes Peak