San Pedro Parks Wilderness

Sept 15, 2013

The second weekend in September I drove to the western end of the Jemez Mountains, just east of Cuba, NM.  I read several descriptions of the San Pedro Parks Wilderness area and decided I had to see it.  I was hoping to see the start of the fall colors…

 

 

 

 

 

Valles Caldera hike

Penstemons

Earlier this year I wrote about the Valles Caldera, VC, and how I was going to get back for more hiking.  In late May we had several forest fires go through the area one of which went through a portion of the VC.  The VC closed around Memorial Day weekend and I wasn’t certain when it would open again.  Around mid July I looked at their calendar and saw they had just opened up and they were hosting their ‘Wildflowers’ guided hike.  I wanted to make this hike hoping to see many wildflowers in the VC so I made my reservation….

Bayfield, WI

I spent an afternoon in Bayfield walking around, seeing the town and looking for a sweatshirt for Sue.  Bayfield is small, around 600 people live here year round...

Apostle Islands

This is one of those places I never made it to when I lived in WI.  It was too far to go, besides I lived next to Lake Michigan what’s the big deal?...

Eagle River, WI

When I was growing up, many years ago, I remember going to the Eagle River area of the state, ‘up north’, to those people from Milwaukee.   It was quite an undertaking, Eagle River is 240 plus miles from Milwaukee most of it on two lane roads, pulling a trailer!  Google says it only takes 4 ½ hours for the trip now....

Shooting for the moon

I love the moon.  When I realized it was full this week I headed outside, dodging bats (flying ones) so they wouldn't fly in the door as I went out, to try and get a shot of the moon.

I swear I set the camera to a night setting, Mark.  Obviously that was not right, because...well.... look at my pic.  I don't really know what I was expecting to see, but I was hoping for more than a white blob in a sea of black.

When I saw what my effort had produced, I was disappointed, but not willing to brave going out the door again, and instead just whined to myself.

 I am happy with these other 2 pics though.  I like the colors of the flower petals and leaves looking up from the ground.

I need to further explore this view of things...

Sooo Mark, what's wrong with my moon?

Tell A Story

I hang around a lot of different photographer’s blogs and the main message I take away from each of them is to tell a story with your photos.  Layne Kennedy in particular says to tell your story in three photographs.

Northern Wisconsin

I’ve been away for a while but my plan has worked, at least once.  My plan was to have Pam start adding a few postings to the blog so it wouldn’t be so bad if I took a long time between postings.  She started this blog several years ago and has at least temporarily given up on her beading and other hobbies and has picked up a camera.  I convinced her to contribute some of her own images to this blog.  You can see some of her favorite shots on an earlier post.  I am the one she says inspires her, I don’t know about that, I just want her to enjoy her new found hobby.  While I was up in WI I went over the camera with her explaining what the different settings do.  Even though I have a digital camera myself I had to actually read the instructions for some of the settings so I understood what they do.

Inspired by Mark

I will never be the photographer that Mark is, but he sure does inspire me to pick up my camera.  I guess the point is if it makes me happy, then why not.  I’ve put all my beads aside and anything to do with beads, embroidery, etc.  A camera is just easier and I don’t have to thread a needle either which has gotten pretty close to impossible the older I get. 

AND Mark spent an afternoon trying to get me to understand the workings of my camera AND gave me a bunch of DVDs to watch and learn why I need to use my camera better…

Sooooooooooo

Some of my favorite things are flowers, leaves and trees, so that’s my focus before the snow flies…which will be all too soon…

This post should hopefully inspire Mark to post the pics he took while up here in northern Wisconsin for our dad’s 80th birthday.  Although in all fairness, I know he’s been busy since he’s been home. 

Did I do okay for my first official post??? 

Close to home

We still are waiting for rain.  We are still at about ¾” for the year.  Thankfully the local fires to the north are slowing and even stopping their growth.  Multiple fires to the south on the other hand are still growing.