Morning Walk

I found these elk before breakfast on the third day. Elk and most wild animals are mostly seen during sunrise and sunset. The animals sleep during the night and hide from the heat during the day under trees and bushes. The elk is very sensitive to sounds and movements from objects that are non-elk. I stepped outside the door, and immediately all of the elk stared at me. I tried to creep closer to them, but the noise scared them away, leaving me with only a few, far-away pictures. 

Feathers

For this picture, I took my 300mm lens and stood up on a chair for a better angle. The feeder was about 8 feet above the porch, but I wanted to be level with it. To compensate, I stood on a chair and had to balance myself since it was a rocking chair. I increased my ISO slightly to allow for a faster shutter speed so I could stop the motion of the wings (shutter speed 1/3200). After combining all these different factors, I was able to capture this picture.

Overflowed

On the third day, we drove about an hour west to the San Juan River. There was a concern that the river would be too fast to fish. Just by looking at this picture, you can tell the river is flooding. I haven't seen it at a normal state, but supposedly this stage was 5-10 feet above the average height. Rivers are measured in CFS (cubic feet per second). The normal river speed is 500 CFS when we fished it was at 5000 CFS. This is the highest the river is to be fished at.

Bison

As we ventured into the back roads on the ranch, we stumbled by this bison. We had just taken a right turn, and I stepped out to take pictures of a lake with the sun reflecting and scenery. I looked to the far left, (slightly blinded by the sun) and I saw this huge animal. I didn't know what it was at the time, but after researching a little, I learned this is a bison. The ranch has around 30 bison on the property, but mostly in huge pens. I could only get about 300 yards away, but with the 300mm lens, the bison looks relatively close.

Road to Nature

The place we stayed at had miles of dirt roads in the back that you could take to visit the property. I thought that it would be interesting to show one of the roads going to the mountains and disappearing. This road was one of the three main roads on the property. The conditions of the roads were not the best but even after driving for an hour and a half at around 20 mph we barely made it halfway around the ranch.

Conejos River Valley

In the afternoon of the first fishing day, we traveled to the Conejos River in southern Colorado. To get to the river we had to go over a mountain pass. I took this picture from the top of the pass in an opening of trees. I have never seen a picture like this that I like so much. There are the streaks of sunlight going between the mountains, different shades of green colored trees, and a river snaking through the middle. If I could change one thing, it would be the lens flare in the top left, but everything else is perfect about this picture.

Mirror on the Water

Down a dirt road was this mirror-like lake. Overnight there was very little wind and none until noon. It is not often that I am able to take pictures of lakes that reflect their surroundings. There are many reasons why I like this picture including the mirror-like lake, green surroundings, and blue sky. It is like a perfect combination of those three creating a perfect picture.

Sunrise Silhouette

My last picture for the June 7th sunrise was this silhouette of the mountains. I took the picture minutes before the sun would be above the mountains. I like how there is a clear focus on the mountains. There is so much focus that you can see the towers on the mountains from a very far distance. In the middle left of the sun, you can see the towers just barely.

Stretching Wings

The sunrise also brought hummingbirds to the three feeders on the front deck. Many of the hummingbirds stretched their wings between drinks on the feeder, which is what is happening for this picture. I positioned myself on a chair to arrange a better vantage point. I wanted to capture the hummingbird, sunrise, and mountains in the same picture. I believe I was successful except that the mountains aren't too in focus.

Mountain Sunrise

I woke up on the second day with my body still on central time. I rose before the sunrise and stayed awake to capture the entire sunrise. The last time I was taking sunrise pictures in the mountains there really was no sunrise because the mountains blocked the sun from the clouds. These mountains weren't as tall but the views were still amazing. There were a few clouds and even less were highlighted by the sun. I also wanted to include the building because the windows were reflecting the sun.

Super Bloom

The snowpack during the 2018-2019 winter in New Mexico and Colorado was around 650% above average. On June 7th, I went to the top of an 11,000 feet pass where there were feet of snow in some spots. All of the snow is melting and causing the rivers to be full of water. Some of the rivers are overflowing their banks making the surrounding areas very wet and creating a super bloom.

Searching

Welcome to Chama, New Mexico. For four days, I visited northern New Mexico and southern Colorado where I took over 4,000 pictures and caught 4 rainbow trout. The first thing I noticed when I stepped outside was the clean, fresh air. The air smelled like pine trees and didn't have any of the city smog. The next thing I noticed was this bird on a dead tree with interesting clouds behind it. I like how the bird is on the tree because it shows that life can be found on anything living or dead.

Raleigh

Lastly, on the North Carolina trip, I went to the capital Raleigh. I found this statue at the capitol building. I set it so that the statue was in front of the main road and in front of the dark gray clouds. The next pictures are going to be from northern New Mexico and southern Colorado where I went fly fishing. In addition to catching four fish, I also captured thousands of pictures of animals and the nature around the area.

Purple and White

Along with the other flowers, this flower is something that I have never seen in Texas before. The colors are very bright and pop out against the green background. The flowers are solid white with a few small spots of yellow, but the middle stems are purple.

Duke Chapel 

The next spot we went to was the Duke campus and Duke Chapel. It was built in 1935 and is 210 feet tall. Inside is a stained glass wall that reflects very colorful light. I did like the chapel by itself, but I thought it would be more interesting if I put the statue in front. I'm not sure who the statue is of, but it is interesting.

Peeking Out

I found this bird underneath a bush. I was walking around taking pictures of birds when I found this one. I was trying to take pictures of it, but it kept running behind the bush and hiding from me. There were only a few pictures that I thought were good because it kept running around the bush. I do like this one because the bird is looking directly at me and the camera.

Breakfast

On a walk in the morning, I found this squirrel eating its breakfast. I believe that this picture is different than some of the other animal pictures I have taken because it is closer to the subject. It also has a much higher resolution than my older pictures.

Red Bird

The red bird is one of my favorite birds to take pictures of. They are semi-friendly and always stare in your direction. The red birds also have very interesting colors. While there are only two colors the bright red contrasts perfectly against the black.

Camouflage

This bird had much more color than the last one. It's white, brown, and black help it stand out against the green leaves. I had the aperture on a high number to keep the focus sharp in the front and very blurry in the back. To achieve this, I set the aperture to the lowest possible on the lens. The smaller the number the more light that is being allowed into the camera and the shallower the focus.

Looking Back

Since getting my macro lens I have not been taking many pictures of birds and animals. For the first time in a while, I took out my telephoto lens and started taking pictures of birds. I didn't mean to take this in a silhouette but I was trying to make sure the sun wasn't in the picture. I placed the sun behind the building and bird causing the silhouette.

Oranges

Similar to the last picture, these flowers are crisp, clean, and have great color. The oranges are super bright and picturesque. The colors vary from red to orange to yellow depending on how far back you look. The further back you look, the darker the color. I am beginning to like flowers in North Carolina. The bright colors, crisp edges, and easy ability to take pictures of the flowers makes them very interesting to me.

Ring of Color

While the bright color flower was interesting to me this flower grabbed my attention even more. The bright rings also were very interesting. The eight flowers that make up the outer ring are bright and in very sharp focus. Moving toward the center the flowers start to look like pillows or butterflies with the crisp four corners and soft appearance.

Ants

I found this ant on one of the non-bloomed sunset flowers. I used my macro lens to show the smallness and limbs on the ant. If I could change something about this picture, I would change the focus on the ant. I wish the ant was entirely in focus but at least the closer half is in focus.