Springtime’s Race to Summer

On many mornings, I wake up to perfectly clear skies, but by mid-day, clouds roll in over Colorado’s Front Range. If you look at some of the vehicles in the area, it apparent that some of the clouds carry large hail that can pelt and damage everything. The storm clouds can be both beautiful and destructive.

I have an app on my phone that is “supposed” to predict the best nights to see the Northern Lights. A recent solar flair prompted many Northern Lights alerts. My app reported a ZERO chance of seeing them on the first “prme” night in Larimer County. I didn’t go out. The next morning, area Social Media sites were loaded with regional Northern Lights photos. Lesson learned! The next night, the same app again called for a ZERO chance, but I went out anyway.

My outing took a little extra effort as described below…

The Rest of the Story: The photo above was taken from a pullout alongside Horsetooth Reservoir, a few miles north of Loveland just to the west of Fort Collins. On the second night, even with a ZERO chance of seeing the Northern Lights, I made the relatively short drive to the lake. I was hoping to photograph the Northern Lights in the heavens and reflections in the lake. It was a good plan! As I sat waiting in my truck, I could see a large bank of clouds rolling in from the south. The clouds were being pushed northward. It was apparent the cloud bank would eliminate all chances of seeing the Northern Lights from Horsetooth Reservoir.

I made the executive decision to try to outrun the clouds, ending up close to the Wyoming border. The little add-on trip tacked on another 40 miles each direction. I felt it might be my only chance to photograph the auroras, so it wasn’t a tough decision.

With a long exposure, the camera was able to pick up the colors in the night sky much brighter than what I was witnessing with the naked eye. I took these photos with my Sony A1 with a tripod, but my handheld iPhone 13 also did a great job.

Denver has a reputation of having air polution. On a windy day, the smog can be pushed out of the metro area and into the plains. Many of the local photos I saw had a grainy brown texture in the otherwise colorful sky. I can’t help but wonder if the Denver smog was being pushed in “front” of the big cloud bank and causing the brown grain?

My night time outing was worth the effort, but I would have liked an hour or so of clear skies and the bright glow of the aurora.

A pair of Great Horned Owls have apparently been raising babies in the same tree for years. I photographed them last year and again this year. Unfortunately, they mature quickly and move up the big cottonwood long before they start flying. By the latter part of May, leaves fill in and the owls become difficult to photograph.

I took this photo on a morning with light rain.  The soaked male was tucked deep in a pine tree, yet not too far from the group of four chicks.

The female Great Horned Owl was typically closer to the chicks. I added some “light leaks” effects to the edges on this one.

Last fall, I purchased a tilt-shift lens, but didn’t spend as much time working with it as I had wanted. Last week, I experimented with the lens at a nearby classic car show. Depending on how the lens is used, it can produce a very shallow depth of field⏤or it can help dramatically increase the depth of field on an angled subject.

I used the tilt-shift again on this image. Only a small zone of the photo is sharp. I added a classic “light leaks” effect in Lightroom. In the “old days” of film, light leaks could be caused by light entering the back of a camera’s cover. The vintage effect can be used in many ways, especially if being applied digitally.

You might have to study this image a while to figure out what it is! The photo was taken at the classic car show using the tilt-shift lens. The abstract image is a close-up of one of the chrome hood ornaments on a cherry red vehicle. In Photoshop, I inverted the colors, causing the red refelections to turn green and the reflected blue sky to turn orange.

I occasionally drive up the Big Thompson Canyon, hoping to see a few Bighorns. It is a “hit-or-miss” venture and I usually strike out. On this recent trip, there were seven rams grazing relatively close the the roadway.

By mid-May, most of the Bighorns have shed their shaggy winter coats and are starting to look pretty good. I’ve also seen several groups of ewes and lambs around the area.

Earlier in May, I made the drive to remote northwest Colorado to photograph wild horses & the Great American Horse Drive. After having a couple of good days of photography, I decided to book a quaint hotel room in Maybell to be able to get an early jump on another day of photographing the Wild Horses at Sand Wash Basin. As it turned, out, the entire region received about an inch and a half of new snow. Besides changing the look of the area, the snow made the roads at Sand Wash dangerous. I opted to stay safe and instead take photos from the lightly traveled roads in the area.

I believe this was taken near Hayden, CO, on my way back home from the Sand Wash Basin area.

At the time I took the shot of this White Pelican, I was concentrating diving Osprey. It’s always nice to get a chance to see several different and interesting subjects in one outing. Early morning and late evening light adds so much to a relatively common subject.

White Pelicans and Great Blue Herons often share the same ponds. I have been seeing more of them in the Loveland area lately.

I’ve been told that the males (and some females) grow the flap on their beaks during the breeding season, but I haven’t been able to find much information on them. I’d like to find out what the flap is called.

Ah ha! Julia Gwinn from Albuquerque, NM, just let me know the flap or bump is a “caruncle”—with the pronunciation being more like “cah” “runcle” . The information comes from Cornell Labs and All About Birds.

I often see While Pelican in pairs, but occasionally find a much larger group. They appear to work as a team to push small fish into a smaller area for a group food fest.

This is a detail of one of the old vehicles I can find in the area. Mother Nature can be a fantastic designer!

I photographed this large bull in my neighborhood for about a week. He was much larger than the other ten bulls that were hanging with him. I kept looking for the group, but they appear to have moved on. I hear reports of herds of elk near “the golf course”, but I haven’t found them. There’s also a chance the group of bulls headed to the high country for the cool summer days and fall rut.

Rocky Mountain began its “timed entry” program starting on the Memorial Day Weekend. I took this photo early on Thursday before the big weekend. At that time of the month, things were still relatively quiet. Summer trips into RMNP take a little extra planning.

This is an unexpected scene⏤but at some point you learn to expect the unexpected in Colorado. This “sheep drive”, just outside of Maybell, stopped traffic in both directions.  I was in the area to photograph
The Great American Cattle Drive and the Wild Horses at Sand Wash Basin.

Later in the day, I had to wait for another flock of sheep that had already “lost” their wool.

Colorado is blessed a wide variety of terrain. I ended up on the road between Phillipsburg and Yampa after finding out that Rabbit Ears Pass was closed due to snow and dangerous conditions.

Yampa, CO is a sleepy little (historic) town along the Yampa River between Craig and Walcott. I stopped for a few photos in and around Yampa, but I needed to get home. I still had to drive across I-70 and through the Eisenhower Tunnel. As I was leaving Yampa, I made a note-to-self: “I need to go back there someday when I have more time.”

I caught this Great Blue Heron skimming the water early one morning. Days are long in late May and June, so it takes a lot more effort to be at a good location at sunrise.

On the morning of this post, I stopped into a local hardware store to buy an American flag. I had planned on putting one out for the Memorial Day weekend, but couldn’t find the one I thought we brought with us from Wyoming. 4th of July is coming up, so I thought I’d plan ahead for that upcoming holiday. When I walked out of the store, carrying the new American flag, I looked up to see a Bald Eagle flying overhead. He was right on queue!