14

For the past 16 years, I have been spending late October (around the time of my birthday) in the Palm Springs area of the Coachella Valley. I only 'discovered' Joshua Tree National Park a few years ago and have made it part of my photo itinerary during each trip.

It was this morning that I got motivated enough to get up before 5 AM and drive to the park (about 50 minutes) before sunrise. I wasn't completely sure of the best spot to be at sunrise and decided to take a chance. I recently added the app to my iPad2 for the "Photographer's Ephemeris" but I'm still learning how to use the maps and information on sunlight location to help me scout the area in advance for best position for lighting.

Anyway, here's one of my 'efforts' early this morning in Joshua Tree NP as the sun rose and began to light up the valley..

Last Saturday (Sept. 10th), I headed up to the town of Estes Park (gateway to Rocky Mt. National Park) which hosted the annual Longs Peak Highland Festival. A parade (one of the largest Scottish/Irish festival parades in the US) is customarily held through the streets of downtown Estes Park, on the way to the festival grounds.

I usually photograph the parade of all the participating clans along with military bands and piper bands.

At the festival grounds, there are many clan booths along with musicians and singers as well as Highland festival 'olympic' games (tossing of the caber, etc.) and more parades of bands and military groups in the festival arena. There was a US Air Force group that performed a precision drill involving the movement of rifle sabres. I shot a burst of photos at 6 frames per second to try and catch this amazing movement. The photo here amazed me for what appeared to be 'floating rifles' above the team that seem to appear 'casual' in their stance.

On this 10th Anniversary of 9-11, I remember: hearing of the plane crashing into the North Tower on the car radio into work. I manage the Audio Visual equipment in my office and was asked to turn on the video projection system in our auditorium so everyone could watch CNN news via our cable TV service. While I was watching smoke billowing out of the WTC on the live newscast, my mom in NY called me on my cell phone to let me know my sister-in-law heard from my older brother who had reached the 20th floor landing in the stairwell from his 40th floor office in the North Tower. Not too soon after, I saw the North Tower collapse on CNN and was sure my brother had perished - it was 45 minutes later that my mom called again to let me know my older brother got out in time. His story he would tell us much later of that day and the days following was truly remarkable....

I spent this morning making the drive over to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and found it VERY challenging to photograph. The canyon is very steep and narrow and very little light reaches the bottom for most of the day. I had to resort to multiple bracketed exposures in HDR to get all the details in the shadows and highlights.

In the afternoon - I got back to Gunnison in time to watch the US Pro Cycling Challenge pedal into town (as part of Stage 1) on their way from Salida to Crested Butte (over 90 miles of roadway that included climbing over Monarch Pass and ending over Mt. Crested Butte). I managed to get a shot of the 2 leaders followed 2 minutes later by the rest of the pack of 130 cyclists.

Driving down to Gunnison tomorrow morning for a few days. Finally got a week's vacation to take and spend some time taking photos. I only drove through Gunnison about 30+ years ago. My plan is to check into the Water Wheel Inn on the west side of town and, if possible, do some 'scouting' further west into the Black Canyon for some shooting on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the National Pro Cycling Race will be heading toward Gunnison and up to Crested Butte that same day. I'm hoping to catch so photos of the racers on Wed. when they leave Gunnison for Aspen via Cottonwood Pass. There will be a mass of people there and many roads closed before, during, and after the Stage.