Category Archives: colorado

Year in Review: 2011

Travel started earlier than usual for me in 2011 with a short trip to San Diego in January. The warm weather was welcome as we were having one of our snowiest years on record back home:

In early April, I escaped the cold once more for a couple of weeks in Fiji. I was there for a Society of American Travel Writers Freelance Council meeting. It was my last year as Chair of the Freelance Council and Fiji would be the last Council meeting under my term. It was a great meeting and a wonderful destination. One of my favorite memories was an evening on the beach with a bunch of fire dancers. There’s not much that’s more fun to shoot than people spinning burning torches on a beach at sunset. If you haven’t tried it, take my word for it.

It was very warm in Fiji — even without the fire. A jet boat trip up the Sigatoka River was the only time I remember actually feeling chilly:

If those cliffs look familiar, I was told that some of the scenery for Avatar was shot in that area.

I wasn’t back in the states for more than a week before driving to Ohio for a couple of stories. I made sure to schedule in another trip to Hocking Hills to try and get some waterfall shots. The last time I’d tried, it was an unusually dry season and it was like the tap had been turned off. Much better results this year.

Back home in June, I managed to photograph a few Kansas events that had eluded me for years. One was the Symphony in the Flint Hills (which is just as amazing as it sounds — an orchestra playing out in the middle of acres and acres of tallgrass prairie and rolling hills) and the reenactment of the Battle of Black Jack. Here’s a shot of “John Brown” from that day:

A trip to Colorado and over the Continental Divide followed. Here’s a lake that sits nearly on the Divide at Milner’s Pass, elevation 10,759 feet:

Quite a few regional shoots followed which I’ll share later after the stories have run. In September, we were on the road again making a big loop through southeastern Iowa:

and down the Mississippi to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Here’s a shot of the Louisiana State Capitol:

Rounding out the year in November was one more trip over the Pacific, across the equator and the International Dateline to New Zealand. This was SATW’s Annual Convention and I officially ended my term as Chair of the Freelance Council and became the much less encumbered Immediate Past Chair. I truly enjoyed my two years in office and serving on the Society’s Board of Directors but it will also be good to step away for a bit and re-focus on my photography business. The New Zealand Convention was great and I especially loved the four days I spent afterward exploring the Southland from Dunedin down to Stewart Island. Here’s one from the Otago Peninsula near Dunedin:

And I’ll leave you with flowers that were blooming in Queens Park in Invercargill, NZ. It’s not bad to end a year with a second season of Spring:

Chasm Falls, Colorado

Okay, this time my lack of posts is not (entirely) my fault. Last week was spent shooting in Colorado and on the first day of the trip my internet accounts were “compromised” (my hosting company’s term) and I lost all ability to send and receive emails or to log into any of my sites and blogs. Really convenient. At any rate — it’s fixed now and all is well.

The break from the heat was welcome. The day we left home, it hit 111 degrees. We, however, were quickly gaining altitude and getting out from under the “heat bubble” that’s been crippling the central US for the last month or more. It was cooler in Fort Collins and along the front range, but where we really felt the difference was in Rocky Mountain National Park. We drove the just-opened Fall River Road (it opened about a month late this year due to last year’s huge snowfalls and late melts) and back east on Trail Ridge Road — “the highest continuous motorway in the United States” according to the National Park site. At the highest point, the road reaches 12,183 feet and there was a definite chill in the air. I’m guessing mid-thirties with a blasting wind that had your fingers stinging about two minutes after leaving the comfort of the car.

This shot was taken much lower just a few miles into the Fall River Road at Chasm Falls. It’s a short but steep little hike down to the falls from the road but worth it. Also worth it were the tripod and neutral density filter that I’d brought along. With the filter and an aperture of f/22, I was able to slow the shutter to 1/5 of a second — just enough to get some softness in the rushing water.