Yesterday was too hot to do anything most of the day and not a cloud in sight. Top that off with some horrendous Labor Day traffic going through town and it was just a nice day to hang out in the air conditioning and rest up a bit from the long week before.

However the late afternoon light was just a bit too enticing for a photographer and it had cooled off enough that I could take the puppies out for some exercise.

It was a nice leisurely stroll along one of my favorite trails in the Pike National Forest near Woodland… All the people and all their dogs off doing holiday things with all the other people doing holiday things. Perhaps that is why the small family of mule deer I have been getting glimpses of all summer were finally standing still in the open where I could finally get a decent shot of them! They weren’t afraid of me this time and just looked up from their feeding to wonder what the heck I was doing 🙂

I captured some of just the two fawns and a couple with mamma deer in the frame too. I will be processing all of  them in the coming days and they will be available for purchase on my website.

When I was done hiking I decided to take a drive in the cool of the evening down Ed Lowe Road, a place of great beauty and always a good source of wildlife pictures. This visit paid off too, when I spotted a small herd of doe mule deer feeding down by the stream in the deep foliage. They were hearing a dog in the distance though and would not look at me as they were more interested in the dog. But I did get a couple of nice portrait views of one of the does.

Later on my way back I spotted this huge buck mule deer foraging for food on a steep mountainside. He was a ways off but I think it is an interesting picture with the angle of the background so steep. I tried cropping it, but it didn’t really bring out the deer any more and cropping took away from the effect of the mountainside. So I steadied the camera with my elbows on the hood of my old Dodge truck and here we have the distant buck looking curiously at me from a range of about 100 yards captured with my Canon F4L 70-200.

Dusk was settling in on my way home back through Woodland Park on a beautiful and unusually warm evening. The outdoor beer garden at Bierwerks was just a bit too enticing to pass by, so I stopped in for a pale ale and a chance to bask in the glow of the outdoor fire pit and contemplate life. I am happy to announce that after a summer of turmoil and stress dealing with the real estate market I’m only days away from closing on a house and a move to Cripple Creek. My head is just swimming from all the ups and downs of trying to qualify for the loan and it was nice just to sit and look at the fire while sipping one of my favorites. For a bit I felt like I was joining the rest of the world on vacation to the mountains…

These pictures and more will be for sale on my website as wall art on glossy metal and acrylic sheets, canvas, framed and matted prints and also as novelty items including t-shirts and coffee mugs. Commercial editorial stock versions of the images is also available at the image licensing portal of my website.