Digital paintings

Tonight when reviewing the photos from the day, I came across two that seemed more like paintings than photographs. The combination of the light, colors, focal length, lens characteristics all combined to push me in another direction in post-production.
I have not shot many hummingbirds this year, despite many of them being around - just would rather watch and listen to them than take photos. But this Rufous H'bird presented himself quite nicely so I was lured into taking his picture.  Glad I did.
The hibiscus flowers are changing color over time - they used to bloom quite vividly orange and now are much more melon like and cooler.
Enjoy!

Morning, Glory

Two words, and if you separate them by a comma, they bring an entirely different meaning into play.
Diana plants these around the garden, and they also are self-seeding. Very strong vines, but the purple flower is a joy to behold, especially in the morning or evening light. A deep saturated purple, it is a very restful color for me.

Backyard Moments of Beauty

Watching the sun rise over the mountains this morning, and enjoying a cool breeze with my coffee. A stroll around the yard and then back up the steps to the deck where Murphy awaited me.
Here's the two M-O-B's that I liked the most!

Uinta Landscapes (and guide dog)

Here are a few photos of the landscapes that we enjoyed during our recent jaunt to the Uintas. A definite fall feeling to many of them, the light and colors were vibrant.
Murphy in the stream - he was acting as my guide dog after a long hike in the forest. Sometimes I follow him faithfully and sometimes I have to take another trail because I only have two legs! But he is a great companion; always checking back on me to make sure I am coming.

We stop here at the entrance to a narrow road.  We've seen a young cow moose here a couple of times and are always looking to repeat those sightings. This time we spooked something in the tall willows, but never did see what it was.

Geranium Leaves 

The once tall and vibrant stalks are part of the winter preparation.

Dare I say - "A river runs through it"?

Colors, lines, shapes and textures are everywhere in the forest.

Pastoral scene

My guide dog checking to make sure I am still coming!

More on Hawks

Continuing with the theme of hawks - this hawk circled us and flew into the sun.  The camera goes to 1/8000 sec shutter speed at f/5.6 to capture this. Nothing done after capture except a little white vignette.
Kind of ghostly but I like it. All from stopping to see the one bird in the road.

These two below were playing tag through the trees - they were shortly joined by two others.  Just kids at play!

Getting to be fall in the mountains

Murph and I spent the morning in the Uintas and boy, does it smell like fall is coming!  There are some leaves changing, mostly I saw the changing leaves around the Park City area. But some willows in the creeks are turning yellow; the ground cover leaves are turning red and the various plants have died back and are preparing for winter. It felt like the land was in a preparation time - preparing itself for the coming season.
The big attraction today was the hawks - first thing I did was stop for this immature redtailed hawk. When he turned his head around and looked up, so did I and there was his partner zooming overhead.  Of course he had to take off also! Wonderful to just sit for a while and watch what the natives do.
Also including my normal photo of the Uinta mountain peaks.  Definitely looks dry and "fally" here.

Sunsets differently

Today we have a couple of different ways of looking at sunsets. While the classic view can be beautiful, often it is ho-hum. Just another sunset.
I'm experimenting with some different ways to present common views, to see if there is a resonance for me in a particular way of presentation.  Here's a couple of examples of GSL sunsets.

A couple of cuties

Here's a couple of photos from a recent trip to the Uintas.  The first is a view of Mill Hollow reservoir, with a bit of a stylized sky - fun to see what happens when you desaturate and change the luminance on colors.
The second one is one that I shot while crawling over logs following Murphy through the woods. I thought I had held real still - NOT! It makes me dizzy to look at it.

Pine needles and sunshine

Sunshine, pine needles, and the chattering of a squirrel - all are in my memory of childhood and are very good! The warmth of the sun in the morning, the light on the grass, the smell of the pine needles, and the ubiquitous chatter of the squirrel are embedded deep in my psyche.
Here's some reminders of those from Montana.

Superheroine and unravelling mystery

We were visited by a Superheroine yesterday - that was one of the many labels she had for herself during our playtime. Carmen is growing up but is still quite adept at creating intriguing stories quickly. She often meshes her imagination with characters or events from PBS shows.

And here are a couple of photos of the Mystery item - Gail, you guessed the spiderweb correctly.  I was sitting on a bench on the front porch at sunset and the sun's rays lit the web quite neatly.

Mystery

I shot this with my iPhone sitting outside the house - any guesses on what it is?  Reminds me of something from the Lost Ark!

Here's a real "Do NOT Do This!"

Do not go away in August, even for only 4 days, and leave your pets in charge of the garden!! They will not pick things and would rather sleep underneath the tomato plants where it is dark and cool than pick the tomatoes!!
Here's what I picked in 20 minutes tonight!  Anyone in our area that wants some, please holler - 801-832-9888!

Last day in the BitterRoot Valley.

Monday was a slow day - visited the wine store and the bookstore (requisites for Diana) and other places just to see what was here.  Took a walk through the woods in the afternoon, another nap and then watched the shooting stars in the evening.
Monday was lawn cutting day at Deer Crossing and the turkeys were quite active before and after the mowing.  A smokey day in Hamilton from the Idaho fires, and I managed to catch a shot of the mountains as we came back from dinner.  The other photos have captions on them.
Long drive home today - be glad to see our animals again.

Stu headed to mount up!

Sure hope the kids make it through the winter!

This is the wonderful place we stayed.

Afternoon sun on grasses in the pines.

Not much to say about this!  They are headed for the birdfeeder.

Smoke from Idaho fires over the Bitterroots.

Hamilton Sunday

We filled our Sunday with a lot of exploring.  Starting with a church service at the Episcopal church in Hamilton - an informal and welcoming community, drives through the country, time in the town, stalking a whitetail doe, naptime, enjoying a wonderful dinner at an organic farm/restaurant overlooking a beautiful valley and dodging deer on the way home!

Sometimes you just gotta do certain things.  This doe was standing not far from the cabin when I came out.  I decided to see if I could stay fairly close to her like I used to be able to and darned if I couldn't.
Here's a few shots from the day.

Hamilton Episcopal Church altar

Diana renews her relationship with horses, Freedom and Shiloh.

Anyone up for a relaxing time?

I love the deer form.

Entryway to the restaurant.

View from the deck of the restaurant.

Montana Day two

We spent a lot of time relaxing, touring the town of Hamilton and eating a wonderful breakfast at our B&B. The day was clear - the smoke from the fires waited until later in the evening to come over the mountains.
The turkeys showed up this morning, the orange cat on the property enjoys a good scratching, a Osprey circled me while I was waiting for Diana, standing in a parking lot downtown.  Lots of deer almost everywhere - all gardens have a 7 foot high fence around them if they are out of town at all.
As I post these I realize I probably need to shoot a 'River ran through it" photo, as the Bitterroot river runs right through the valley and is very picturesque.  Maybe I will get to that :-)
Here's a few from yesterday.  Enjoy.

We are staying in the log cabin at the end of the fence.

Backlit flowers on the decks of our B&B.

Smoke from Idaho fires drifts over the Bitterroot Mountains in the evening.

The clouds are sure beautiful here in the valley.

Vacation in Montana

Diana and I are vacationing in Montana in the Bitterroot Valley - around Hamilton and Missoula.  I'm sitting outside in the dark at the B&B we are staying at just below Hamilton.  It is called Deer Crossing and that describes it very well.  It sits on 25 acres of forested and meadow land with a stream running through it.  There is an old apple orchard just down the hill.  The couple that own it also board horses and own two horses and a donkey!

In addition to deer, there are wild turkeys here and Stu, one of the owners, said there is a large red fox that has been visiting the meadow just across from our cabin.  I hope to catch a shot of him/her during our stay.
VERY quiet here - both Diana and I love that. The small stream runs right outside of our bedroom window so I anticipate a great sleeping night - along with the temp dropping to about 50!

Here's a couple of shots from the day.  The young deer was the first animal to greet us when I pulled up in the truck. The horse - Freedom - has beautiful lines and color and came down to check us out. The turkey family wandered into the front yard and back into the meadow - Mom flapped her wings so one of the babies did also. Then the clouds - what can I say!?
Enjoy!