Random Shots
Spring Update
I have been neglecting my miscellaneous spring time shots from the open space, and decided that May Day was a good day to catch up, especially since I have the day off! I was thinking just this morning how many different type of birds I see here in the spring time, and came up with 21 different species that call the Commons Open Space home for some period of time; fairly impressive for a small suburban pond. Lately there has been some action with the Great Horned Owls nesting on the south side; the chicks hatched a couple weeks ago, but today was the first time they could be seen from the ground. There are three of them, fluffy in their downy coats, wide eyed and hungry. The male and female have been trading off guarding the nest and hunting to feed themselves and the chicks. Also included in the gallery are the obligatory black and white images, and some random scenic shots from the past month.
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- A few different ducks; Ring-Necked (top left), Redheads, and American Coots (top right)
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- Red Tail Hawk
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- Great Horned Owl
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- Great Horned Owl
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- Another Double Crested Cormorant
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- Mallard Ducks
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- Old barn near CO7 and I25
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- Great Horned Owl and chicks
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- Cinnamon Teal Duck
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- Double Crested Cormorant
Morning Jaunt
A few quick shots taken this morning while walking Malie at the Broomfield Commons open space. The Swainson’s hawks were uncharacteristically tolerant of my presence today, which made for a couple great shots!
Skyward Again
Just a couple random shots I wanted to share…
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- This shot was from the middle lane of Sheridan Blvd at Legacy Ridge.
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- A decent shot of the half moon last week.
Random Springtime
Took these shots a week ago, and am just now getting around to posting them.
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- Mama squirrel having a snack in my Mom's backyard.
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- A Cinnamon Teal. I never realized what a variety of ducks visit our open space, until I started to pay attention.
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- I will admit, I have no idea what species turtle this is, looks like I need to visit the bookstore.
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- Yellow head again
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- A Kildeer hiding in plain sight, can you see it?
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- When it comes to naming birds, sometimes the obvious is the best; Red wing blackbird.
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- Yellow headed blackbird, usually make their appearance in mid-April.
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- I can't believe I got this shot, I was only half-trying to get him in mid flight.
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- Dog under glass...
Irish Moss
I have this lovely plant growing either side of my pond in the back yard, and it grows into a thick green mat with little white flowers that bloom in the late-spring/early-summer. My friend Kasia came by yesterday (during the brief time where there was no rain) to let me play a bit with her Olympus E-3 and new telephoto lens. She saw the moss, and promptly fell in love with it and wants her whole front yard covered in the stuff. Which I admit would be damn cool to do! So this post is for Kasia…
Irish Moss blooming in the June sunlight.
Zoom Zoom
Sometimes you don’t have to go far for photographic inspiration. I was drinking coffee on my patio this morning watching the Tulips bloom, and thought “damn those are pretty.” Took me a while before I actually went upstairs to get the camera though, and I also did something that I hadn’t done in a loooong time; I shot film of them too! Some of you may say “what the hell is film?” I have no idea who processes film these days for somewhat of a reasonable price, but I did it anyway. It was kinda fun getting back to where it all started with me, using my Dad’s Pentax K1000 which is manual everything; manual shutter speed, manual aperture, manual frame advance. Luckily, it has a built in light meter, so I didn’t have to go completely old school. But it made me slow down on the composition and make sure all the settings were correct before I clicked. Also made me appreciate my outdated Canon digital SLR quite a bit. For those uninitiated, macro photography refers to super closeups, and one of the most common subjects of macro photography are flowers. I have shot many macros of flowers, mosses, lichens and is one of my favorite types of photography. So here are the digital results, unfortunately I will not be able to post the film results here…
Smokin’
Thanks to southern California for burning so we could have some spectacular sunrises and sunsets for the past couple days!
I see you
Smoke and clouds
Open Space
Since I have a nice open space park half a block from my house, the sun was setting, I figured what the hell, lets go take some sunset photos.
Broomfield Commons Open Space
Unfortunately, some of the awesome dynamic range is lost in the translation to JPEG (yuck), but it still looks cool.
Sunset