Early Morning, Early Spring

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I posted this image on FB and got a quite a few "likes" which surprised me because this image has a fatal flaw—bland light. The composition is great but the light is the opposite of great--it stinks! What happened was this is an early morning shot before the sun rises, on the left, out of the frame is about forty more elk and I thought I might be able to sneak to the left and set up again before the sun turned the sky and mountain a beautiful shade of pink but of course what actually happened is I spooked the herd and as I set up in the new location they all walk off and then the sun came up giving me the glorious sunrise light but after all the elk were gone.

The great shot belongs to the patient, which was not me on this morning.

The Chalk Cliffs

These are part of the Chalk Cliffs over by Buena Vista, Colorado. This image has some great lighting and dramatic elements to it. I got up early in the morning before light and hiked through Juniper and Pine trees to catch the morning sun reflected on the dramatic white cliffs. One thing I missed however, was the aperture being too open for this scene and getting only the middle section with the trees in focus. Perhaps that adds to the drama of the image but I sure would have liked that little valley were looking at to be completely in focus.

Safety In Numbers

During a storm an elk's primary senses, it's way of detecting danger, is diminished because the wind makes everything move making the movement of predators hard to spot, the sound of approaching danger is covered, and their best defense, their sense of smell, is destroyed because the wind is usually swirling so much it's impossible to tell which direction it's coming from. In the worst of storms elk will often be found together out in the open in a circle facing outward making the approach of predators impossible.

Here a herd is getting ready to move. Being out in the open like this makes it impossible for any archery hunter to get close enough for a shot. All those eyes watching making it extremely difficult to remain undetected. A rifle hunter will also find it hard to make a clean kill with them all bunched together as well.

A pretty nifty defense if you ask me.

Old White Ranch House

As you drive around the Rocky Mountains you seem to frequently come across old mining cabins, no bigger than a modern day bedroom so it's quite unusual to come upon a large abandoned house like this.

Structurally, it seems in good condition and obviously a lot of work went into it. There's nothing around this area but sage and sand so I can only imagine that this was a ranch house for a large family or perhaps this was part of one of the many mining boom towns in Colorado and was built just prior to the minerals in the area drying up.

There is what seems to be a garage on the far right of the house so this might have been built a bit later than the other mining towns of this area. Of course this is all speculation on my part but some of the fun of coming across these empty dwellings is trying to figure out what brought them to this desolate area and what drove them out.

Bob Womack's Cabin

In 1890 an old cowboy by the name of Bob Womack was the first person to strike it rich in the Cripple Creek District. Bob decided to celebrate by going down to the Colorado Springs area on a three day drinking spree. When he sobered up he found out he had sold his mine for $500. The new owners renamed the mine "The Gold King" and pulled over $5 million in gold from it. Bob died a poor man in his sister's house in Colorado Springs in 1909 but he never regretted selling his mine, he figured he got a lot of money for it and he was glad the new owners did too.

Seen in this image is a couple of power lines on an old telephone pole. This little valley, known as "Poverty Gulch" was filled to capacity during the gold rush days. Now reclaimed by aspen trees you can still see some of the old prospector holes.