Floods

On the ranch, the floods were not as bad, but there still was some flooding evident. For instance, this tiny stream turned into a little lake and a creek. After looking back at this picture, I wish that I took less of the sky and positioned the camera lower to ground. I feel there is too much sky and not enough river and nature.

Fresh Air

To me, this picture is the one that reminds me of the fresh air only found in pine tree forests. There are pine trees, water, green grass, and bright blue skies. This picture is slightly different than the one I took earlier because of the clarity of the water. This water was less clear, causing the mirror to not be perfect. There is an outline of the trees and shore, but there is not defined objects on the water.

Mountain View

Near the front porch of the cabin was a dead tree with a background of the mountain. I focussed on the tree because I like the design the tree makes. In addition, I decreased the aperature (I set it to 1/5) to allow for the mountain and tree to be in the picture. I also like the difference in color between the brown sticks, green trees, blue sky, and white snow. They all combine to make a picture that I find very interesting.

Eagles

On the morning of the fourth day, we took a 1.5-hour drive of the property. On the drive, I saw at least six different animals including bison, elk, deer, prairie dog, coyote, and this eagle. I took this picture with my wide-angle lens but zoomed in. I wasn't able to take the picture very close to the eagle because I didn't have time to switch to the telephoto lens, but I worked with what I could.

Sunrise over Chama

On the last day, I woke up early and captured the sunrise for the last time. There was a slight haze in the air, causing the sun to create stripes over and into the mountains. I don't know why there is a haze, and after asking our fishing guide, he too didn't know why. He said he thought there were no fires, but maybe there was.

Sunrise Stop

The hummingbirds were a little different than the elk, in the sense that they came more often and not only during the sunrise and sunset. The majority still came during the sunrise and sunset, but some didn't, making them easier to photograph. Like my other hummingbird picture, I was standing on a chair to get a better angle. This time, I positioned the camera, so the background was a tree with the yellow-orange sunset in the background.

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.