New Friends.....

I have been blessed in the friends dept. lately, NLC photo group helped me meet Chris G. A wonderful, knowledgeable photographer who is helping me understand the Not "auto" settings of my Nikon... so Manual is now my new challenge.

While at Starbucks, waiting for Chris......

I couldn't resist the Venus Fly Trap plant. Yes...its alive, I got the buds to close.

I then tried to apply my new lesson and went out and parked at UCCS Recreation center to shoot the Garden of the God's road.....and a cool rainstorm arrived, and the sun came out at same time......

Then..Saturday I was on Facebook and a lady named Dina was asking if anyone wanted to hang out and perhaps show her how to set her camera to capture the beauty of Colorado. She is visiting from Idaho.

We met at Village Inn and chatted for a long time, and then headed to retake some Garden of The God's photos, then Manitou Springs, Down through Rte 24 to Woodland Park and onto Rte 67 towards the Hayman Fire grounds.
(The Hayman Fire was a forest fire that started 35 miles (56 km) northwest of Colorado Springs on June 8, 2002, and became the largest fire in the state's recorded history.)

 and then Today.. I meet up w/ other photographer's.... a few named Try, Brian, Tony and my 2 friends Chris and Dina, and many others I will get to know in a Manitou Springs Photography Club. Can't wait!

Well, off to get some pics edited to upload the FB page for the club meeting tonight at 5PM. See ya later!

Photo Study - Shadows... and some bonus shots.

I am in 2 Photography clubs now... and the one for NLC meets every Thursday at Starbucks.
This week we were given a homework assignment...

Shadows!

Now... I am not good w/ purposely finding a subject... they usually find me....
But I did (in a 2 day span) capture some potential shadow shots......

Some of these will be shown tonight at my Club get together.

I went to Palmer Lake and Spring Valley areas... and tried some more geocaches.

Now, I loaded 5 geocaches in to find... found 1 immediately in Spring Valley area near the schoolhouse I shot on Lorraine Rd.

The Colorado Spirit Quest series took me to Spring Valley Cemetery...I feel so bad for the unmarked graves... no one knows who they are? No one comes to pay respect?

Got a cute geocache here (nestled into a small cornucopia) and I walked around for about 20 mins in all directions because my stupid GPS had an attitude.

Just some macros I tried...

Now after driving to a geocache in a small area of Palmer Lake down a 1 lane, 1 sided switchback road... I looked for a cache w/ a difficulty of a 4. Guess what?? I didn't find it, and I was in the 2PM sun...

I gave up... and drove around P.Lake... and stopped for a few minutes (45 actually) at an ice cream spot. 

Rock House Ice Cream... I had Cake Batter in a sugar cone... Mmmmmm

These 2 shots were just "Fun!"

I drove to a remote spot to spot a Virtual Cache (no container or log book) to spy a "Safari" animal....

I got to the spot, it rained hard on me, spent 20 mins looking at the area in question, and later I e-mailed the cache creator and guessed... I was right. I can't say  what it was in here due to other cachers who may read this and want to go there to spy it themselves.

I finally captured a few more shots in areas...

above.... Tiny chapel is at Ponderosa Conference and Recreation Center

Greenland Open Space area.

Train was not coming to run me over.. It was "parked" the whole time I was in that area.

Well that is all for now... as I need to upload these to a USB port to bring to the club gathering tonight. 

Thanks for looking!

Out and about on my Birthday!

I wanted to go and explore on my 37th Birthday, so I grabbed the Kia, and left puppy home this trip. Off I went at 7am.

Hit CR 77 from Rte 24 in Divide, towards Tarryall again, but now armed w/ a different exit... to Rte 285!

My 1st abandoned cabin of this trip.... I love these finds!



Looking at Platte River from above on CR77

Old Mine Shaft in Tarryall I believe.

These next few Homestead buildings were all around, and I forget where exactly some were located,

I can find out later if anyone asks me. Just enjoy for now.

 Derby Cabin 

w/ old Homestead Certificate copy.

Now... I left 77 and entered Jefferson on Rte 285....at about lunchtime, and saw this place...

This once was an old Train Depot for the D,SP and P Railroad.
Now its houses a realtor and other stuff... but its kinda cool!
Borrowed this from Google images.....

Jefferson Depot in 1937

Had a pretty good burger and fries from the little red caboose lunch stand next to the train depot... but $11 for a sandwich, fries and water? Yikes.

Now, I wanted to geocache my way around, and the previous night I spent 2 hours e-mailing myself coords for area caches, and I would pull em up when I came to the area.... Too Lazy.....to load em onto the GPSr..... my Bad....as I had no internet service out here!! GRRR!!!!!!

I knew I was within 2-9 feet at each location of a cool cache, but w/o the exact spot... I'd never find them.

Glad this was a photo trip not just a geocache one.

Next bad move I made was not studying the online maps better or using the truck GPS (my kid has it) so I went NORTH on 285, instead of south.... well... I did get a few nice shots in Bailey and Pine Junction, headed to Breckenridge, and I drove Kenosha Pass to 10,000+ altitude.

I finally got a map in a small country store in Pine Junction... and lady at counter told me also where I was supposed to be going... Grrrr.... I hate wasting my time when I know better.

Como, CO!

Now once this Train roundhouse was open to walk around and explore the windows... but since its now a registered landmark... its got ugly fences and gates w/ padlocks all around... kinda kills my shots....

Front side (top photo) and Back side (bottom photo)

Look, someone I am related too????

Now this part of the river is in Alma, CO and I went back to see some parts I missed last roadtrip on Sunday the 24th.

Not sure what the heck this was? a Steel tree w/ weird attachments in Southpark City / Fairplay, CO

Let me stop and think about that....

I went home, at 5:30pm and my family / friends all threw a BBQ and made it my birthday party, complete w/ burgers, hot dogs, chips, salads, whoopie pies w/ candles for me to blow out, and ended w/ a fire pit and s'mores.

That was the end to a wonderful day!!!! 

See ya on my most longest upcoming road trip in August.....to Douglas, WY and YELLOWSTONE!

That will be my last for 2011.