Anyone Game? 2 Castles and a Road Trip TR! Last Day and TR Wrap Up! #2796; 10/01

[PrincessInOz]

Great shots PIO! What is the purpose of the filter?

As an Aussie, I'm a little ashamed to admit that I never knew that Australia Day was such a recent thing I remember celebrating it as a kid, but don't remember exactly when the celebrations started.

I always learn so much through your TRs!

Google is my friend.

I started enjoying the Melbourne festivals about *mumble mumble* years ago when I was at Melbourne Uni. That's about as far back as my memory banks go.


The filter? It acts like sunglasses. The 9-stop one is very dark and I really can't see through it at all. And like sunglasses, it will block out the light so that if I want to get a shot exposed so that we can see it, I get to play with the exposure parameters - ISO, aperture, shutter speed. In this case, I left my camera lens open for longer to achieve an image on the sensor. Some of the pictures in this set were taken with the shutter left open for between 35 - 45 seconds.

For the fireworks, I can get more firework trails in the shot without over-exposing the image. At least....that's the theory. I think that because it is filtering out the bright light, you can get the lovely fireworks colours shine through more on the image.

I've now got a baseline to work with now and will be adjusting ISO, aperture and/or time next time to see what the effect is.



In the case of Treasure Falls, I posted two similar images of Treasure Falls. For one of them, I used that filter and adjusted the settings to get the image. If you do head back to look, you may find that in one of them, the water 'flow' seems fuller and whiter; and it gives the impression of where the water moves more. For the type of photography that I do, that's the other practical use of the filter.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Wow. Happy Aussie Day- and those are some great shots!



Jud

Thanks.

No trip to Rocky Mountain NP today. I had a scare with my dog last night and didn't think I should take off and leave her. I'll get up there on the next nice weekend.

Happy Australia Day! The fireworks pictures are fantastic!

Jill in CO

Oh no! I hope your dog is okay!!!
Stay warm and I'm sure you'll get up there when the time is right.

Thanks. I'm enjoying the public holiday today.

 

[tiggrbaby]

Oooooh! Those firework shots are incredible! I felt as if I was there!

Happy Australia Day!

 

[zanzibar138]

The filter? It acts like sunglasses. The 9-stop one is very dark and I really can't see through it at all. And like sunglasses, it will block out the light so that if I want to get a shot exposed so that we can see it, I get to play with the exposure parameters - ISO, aperture, shutter speed. In this case, I left my camera lens open for longer to achieve an image on the sensor. Some of the pictures in this set were taken with the shutter left open for between 35 - 45 seconds.

For the fireworks, I can get more firework trails in the shot without over-exposing the image. At least....that's the theory. I think that because it is filtering out the bright light, you can get the lovely fireworks colours shine through more on the image.

I've now got a baseline to work with now and will be adjusting ISO, aperture and/or time next time to see what the effect is.



In the case of Treasure Falls, I posted two similar images of Treasure Falls. For one of them, I used that filter and adjusted the settings to get the image. If you do head back to look, you may find that in one of them, the water 'flow' seems fuller and whiter; and it gives the impression of where the water moves more. For the type of photography that I do, that's the other practical use of the filter.

Sounds like fun!

 

[Pinkocto]

WOW, those are SPECTACULAR!!!!! Happy Australia Day!

 

[ACDSNY]

I'm doing catch up routine again. I'd say your refuge animals are better feed then their wild counterparts. Loved the lion, bobcat and wolf pics!

You did amazing with the fireworks shots with the new filter. I love the last two with all the color reflecting on the water.

 

[mvf-m11c]

Happy Australia Day PiO. Very nice pictures of the firework trails as usual. They are getting better and better every time you upload them. Nice to hear that you used a filter during the shots. You know from my DL TRs and taking pictures of the firework trails that i used a ND filter.

 

[dgbg100106]

That was one "Randy" sheep... Thanks for pointing that out..

The animals were beautiful, I hate to see them caged, but I would not have wanted to find them in my hikes across the hills.

The stars are beautiful, and the fireworks are amazing.

 

[Pluto0809]

I loved all of your animal photos. My feelings are a bit mixed on zoos too. I do hate to see animals penned up but at the same time without modern zoos, we wouldn' know half of what we do about the animals and how to help them in the wild. Plus there are a lot of endangered species that are being kept from going extinct by zoo breeding programs.

Mom and I saw an Elk in Yellowstone, they are so big and majestic!

Gorgeous sunset and fireworks photos!

 

[dolphingirl47]

The fireworks photos are absolutely stunning.

Corinna

 

[franandaj]

Looks like I forgot to comment again. That's the problem with reading posts from my phone! I agree with you on the zoos. I usually hate to see animals in small pens, but as mankind encroaches on their habitats their lives are often threatened by our presence. I'm glad that these animals were well taken care of.

Your fireworks shots are beautiful!

 

[Leshaface]

I agree with you about the animals being penned up. But with that being said, it looks like they are WELL taken care. Seriously, their meals look fresher than what I eat at times Especially the Grizzly! She got some great eats.

Wonderful starry night shot!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Oooooh! Those firework shots are incredible! I felt as if I was there!

Happy Australia Day!

Did you feel the boom of the bursts? I was pretty close to the launches.

Sounds like fun!

WOW, those are SPECTACULAR!!!!! Happy Australia Day!

Thanks Pam.

I'm doing catch up routine again. I'd say your refuge animals are better feed then their wild counterparts. Loved the lion, bobcat and wolf pics!

You did amazing with the fireworks shots with the new filter. I love the last two with all the color reflecting on the water.

Those animals were pretty well fed. All of them. Even that emu!

Thanks. I think the last one is my favourite from the night.

Happy Australia Day PiO. Very nice pictures of the firework trails as usual. They are getting better and better every time you upload them. Nice to hear that you used a filter during the shots. You know from my DL TRs and taking pictures of the firework trails that i used a ND filter.

Yes, I know you have a few filters, including the ND. I normally do shoot with a 2 or 3 stop ND filter. This was the first time I put the 9-stop on for fireworks.

That was one "Randy" sheep... Thanks for pointing that out..

The animals were beautiful, I hate to see them caged, but I would not have wanted to find them in my hikes across the hills.

The stars are beautiful, and the fireworks are amazing.

Thanks Brandi.

I loved all of your animal photos. My feelings are a bit mixed on zoos too. I do hate to see animals penned up but at the same time without modern zoos, we wouldn' know half of what we do about the animals and how to help them in the wild. Plus there are a lot of endangered species that are being kept from going extinct by zoo breeding programs.

Mom and I saw an Elk in Yellowstone, they are so big and majestic!

Gorgeous sunset and fireworks photos!

We have a pretty decent zoo(s) in Melbourne and I don't mind supporting them because they have a good breeding program for endangered species. In fact, they brought the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect back from the brink of extinction. They were almost wiped out on the island by rats and only re-found in the early 2000 on a remote outcrop. They need to get rid of the rats before they can rehabitate the insects on LHI.

The fireworks photos are absolutely stunning.

Corinna

Thanks.

Looks like I forgot to comment again. That's the problem with reading posts from my phone! I agree with you on the zoos. I usually hate to see animals in small pens, but as mankind encroaches on their habitats their lives are often threatened by our presence. I'm glad that these animals were well taken care of.

Your fireworks shots are beautiful!

Me too. I wish we could be a lot more environmental conscious and learn to be gentler on the planet. *sigh*

I agree with you about the animals being penned up. But with that being said, it looks like they are WELL taken care. Seriously, their meals look fresher than what I eat at times Especially the Grizzly! She got some great eats.

Wonderful starry night shot!

That Grizzly's meal included shrimp that day. Underneath the fruit was shrimp. Apparently it's her favourite and they hide it a little bit so that she eats the stuff on top first.

Thanks.

 

[rentayenta]

No trip to Rocky Mountain NP today. I had a scare with my dog last night and didn't think I should take off and leave her. I'll get up there on the next nice weekend. Happy Australia Day! The fireworks pictures are fantastic! Jill in CO

How's your dog?



Great photos PIO! Your photos are amazing and the fireworks are gorgeous. Oz knows how to do it! Happy Belated Australia Day.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Your pics just get better and better. We often seek out wildlife refuges when travelling - very important that someone takes care of all the "thrown away" exotic and other "pets" or injured animals. When I was a teen we used to raise Pretty Face Wallaby babies found in the pouches of wallabies that had been shot by hunters (we lived in the bush) and brought in to our shop but it wasn't easy and we lost quite a few. Those that lived to adulthood were beautiful but tended to get aggressive at maturity.

 

[jedijill]

How's your dog?



Great photos PIO! Your photos are amazing and the fireworks are gorgeous. Oz knows how to do it! Happy Belated Australia Day.

She's fine now..thanks for asking. When I woke up she was back to her chipper self. Why can't they act funny during the day and not wake you up at 3am.

Jill in CO

 

[PrincessInOz]

How's your dog?



Great photos PIO! Your photos are amazing and the fireworks are gorgeous. Oz knows how to do it! Happy Belated Australia Day.

Thanks Jenny.

Your pics just get better and better. We often seek out wildlife refuges when travelling - very important that someone takes care of all the "thrown away" exotic and other "pets" or injured animals. When I was a teen we used to raise Pretty Face Wallaby babies found in the pouches of wallabies that had been shot by hunters (we lived in the bush) and brought in to our shop but it wasn't easy and we lost quite a few. Those that lived to adulthood were beautiful but tended to get aggressive at maturity.

That would have been an amazing thing to do, Wendy.

I used to attract stray dogs in my teens. I think I ended up 'finding' at least 8 or 9 strays and taking them back home. My parents were not happy with me!

Thanks!

She's fine now..thanks for asking. When I woke up she was back to her chipper self. Why can't they act funny during the day and not wake you up at 3am.

Jill in CO

Glad you're dog is fine.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Pagosa Springs 28 September 2013




Breakfast at the Pagosa Bakery



We slept in this morning. At least, the rest of the family did. I missed sunrise but I did get up to enjoy the snow-capped mountains. It was such a change to the previous morning.







In all the planning for this part of the vacay, X and Y had always allocated this day to spend with us. They wanted to share a typical day for them with us. I was all for it; especially when we started out in a very familiar bakery for breakfast.







DS got the muffin for breakfast. Yes, I know. I'm a very bad mother.







Would it change your opinion to know that there was cinnamon running through the muffin?







Y decided on the chocolate croissant.







Light, flaky, buttery but yet a little bread-y at the same time.







X, DH and I had the breakfast burrito.







Egg, potato, peppers, onion and cheese. This was so tasty.






For a small town, this bakery is decent. For someone that comes from a large city, the range stocked here might seem rather limited; but what they do have is well made and it does taste and feel more 'artisan' than mass produced.


Looking back at these pictures, I started to wonder about the bakery in Mancos, another small town about 90 minutes away, just off the 160. That bakery gets rave reviews and I did try and stop in there on our drive from Monument Valley to Pagosa. But we were running late on that day.....so late that by the time we drove past Mancos, it was closed.


Next time. However, if anyone has been to Mancos and has tried out the bakery, I'd be curious to find out what you think of it. And for anyone is heading to this direction, I understand that the Mancos bakery is worth seeking out. I didn't make it there; but I thought I'd share that bit of research anyway.



(Continued in Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

(Continued from Previous Post)


A Scenic Backroad Touring Drive



Whenever X and Y are at the cabin during the sunny months, they always try to get a drive and a walk in. So, they decided we needed to see one of the more scenic and easier drives in the area.


The Plumtaw-Piedra Loop is a Forest Service access road that begins in town as Four Mile Road at the corner of Lewis and Pagosa Streets. The loop is about 35 miles along dirt roads that seemed pretty well graded. We took our standard gear box cars on this road and it was fine. Bumpy, but good enough.
I had hoped to see deer or even elk; but these were the only bovines we saw.







I had to stop to take a picture of this cabin. When someone says 'cabin', this is more like what comes to my mind.







Did you spot the scenery? This drive is substantially higher in elevation than most other back roads (we do hit around 8000 feet) and the vistas are just spectacular! Especially when Mother Nature was providing the colour contrast.







It was a rather leisurely drive and we made a few stops to enjoy the vistas. Y told me that this was one of her favourite views at autumn as these trees were normally a patchwork of red, orange, yellow and greens. Not this year.







Even though I was sad not to see the fall colours, I didn't mind the white, blue and green contrasts. It was quite beautiful.







On this drive, we drove through a section where Aspens predominated.







I loved the bark on the Aspen trees. Such interesting texture - rather like some of the Eucalyptus trees we have in Australia.







We were lucky enough to catch a gust of wind blowing here. The sound of the wind through the leaves was amazingly musical! I don’t know if many of you read Enid Blyton when you were children. But the sound reminded me of the 'wisha-wisha-wisha' in the corners of my imagination from the Magic Faraway Tree.







The leaves of the Aspens were just starting to turn yellow. I wished we had an extra 4 nights here. It would have been lovely to see the colour change completely.







I think I mentioned that we were there very close to the start of hunting season. On this drive, we saw many hunters starting to set up camp. They all had very serious hunting and camping equipment with them. And yes, we did stop and ask if it was okay for me to take this picture. I figured we were better asking permission rather than risk having a different sort of barrel pointed in our direction.






It's all farmland out here. There were a number of ranches of at least 50 acres; and in my imagination, this is what I expected Colorado to look like.







I wonder what it would be like to live here when the snow is up to the shingles? No, thanks. I don't think I want to find out.







Everywhere we looked along this drive, the vistas were magnificent. I never found out the name of this peak; but it was always present on this drive.







This is one of my favourite pictures on this drive. I do have the one without the 4-wheel drive in it; but I think the car adds scale and dimension to the magnificent countryside.







When we passed that peak, there was always another peak that would dominate. We always seemed to be in the shadow of giants.






Once we got past that fork in the road, we hit a valley that seemed pretty wide. We left the proximity of trees and mountains behind.






The countryside was a lot gentler and tamer here, but always within the shadow of the giants.






X and Y had another stop in mind and a walk. We were happy to go along with whatever the next curve brought. What an amazing drive it had been so far and we still had the walk to go.






 

 

[ejud]

Fun, ain't it? Hehehehee...

That shot through the ranch gate- nice!



Jud