Just Playing Around Here with Lightroom 2.2

Not getting out here lately, so I am here playing around with some features of Lightroom 2.2 based on some online classes I have been watching. This is done with post cropping vignetting. The top one was taken in Gunnison County last fall and the lake is Spraque Lake in RMNP, one of my favorite spots in the park.

A Cabin in the Woods

Nikon D2x Sigma 24-60mm Ridata Pro 150x media

Taken in the west side of the Rocky Mountains. Notice the trees in the background. They have been killed by the Pine Beetle infestation here in the Rocky Mountains. If you go to the west side the Rocky, don't expect to see any green trees. They have been pretty much all killed or in the process of being killed by the pine beetle. It is just a lightening strike away from a massive forest fire that will basically wipe out the western side of the Rockies as far as trees goes. Just imagine from the Colorado-Wyoming State line all the way to past Vail south with no trees. Basically what we have now, just standing dead trees.

Big Horn Ram Sheep in Grant, Colorado

This is part good and part rant so pardon my ranting. Ok for the good, I was out today riding around with no specific goal to obtain or anything. Had my camera's in the truck just in case something looked good to shoot. I was going down US 285 from Denver to Fairplay and before I got to the turnoff for Guanella Pass in Grant, this guy with a a whole bunch of ewes and a couple of young rams from what I could see were eating some snow for their water. Now for my rant, while shooting these guys and we were minding our own business, me the photog and them the sheep. All of sudden a Harley with straights guns the motor just as hie passing the herd and spook's the crap of them. The only reason the biker did was because he had to slow down while other cars were slowing down to see the sheep. This is not the only other time I have had problem with Harleys or other bikes with straights and I am sick of it as a photog. I love shooting wildlife in their environment and do not mind sharing that with other people either, but when other people are totally disrespectful of what is there that everyone is observing and they gun their illegal modified engines (straight pipes), it just totally rubs me the wrong way. I have worked along time to get my craft where it is and I am always working on to improve it and when inconsiderate A$$HOLES disrupt things I love and puts more stress on animals that are already under stress from weather illness, predators, I have to draw a line.

Well till later

Snow Pictures for Folks Down South

Here are a couple of pictures taken of some crab apple trees around the house after the last snow we had this week (Tuesday night). By later that Wednesday morning, it was all gone. When it snows, it is so fry that is comes as a powder snow. You can just blow on it and it comes off. Now when it melts, it still makes things just as wet and slick. We are suppose to get some more snow today and this weekend. I need to get my butt up in the mountains and get some shots. Maybe I will do that this weekend.

Till later