La Ventana Natural Arch
On our way to Kansas, we made a point to stop at Grants, New Mexico to see La Ventana Natural Arch, the second largest in New Mexico. After a scenic 18 mile drive off the main highway, we came upon the arch and took a short walk to get as close to it as we could. Rain threatened most of the drive there, but the sun stayed out long enough for us to see the arch and some of the beautiful views of the sandstone cliffs and El Malpais Lava Field.
Road Trippin’
Texas scenes shot from the car window with my iPhone.
Edited in the phone with the Snapseed app and textured with Kim Klassen’s kk_chill for Texture Tuesday. Snapseed’s HDR filter was used on the truck photo.
Such a Fine Sight to See
We are on a road trip to visit with my husband’s father in Kansas and then on to Vail, Colorado to attend the wedding of the son of a dear friend. Lots of driving- and we will end up in a beautiful place with close friends!
Being Eagles fans (their Hell Freezes Over concert was one of my favorite concerts ever!), we HAD to stop at Winslow, Arizona to stand on the famous corner featured in Take It Easy. It cracked me up that, when I posted an iPhone shot of the corner on Facebook and Instagram, most of the comments consisted of quotes from the song lyrics!
Officers’ Row
On our visits to Mammoth Hot Springs at Yellowstone, I’m always captivated by the architecture of the buildings on Officers’ Row, especially the roofs. Here are a few photos I managed to take on this last visit.
All were edited with Kim Klassen’s kk_chill texture; the top photo also has a layer of kk_forreal.
Linking up with Friday Finds.
Looking for Fall at Yellowstone
Fence Friday
More from the Yellowstone archives- this time from the drive through Paradise Valley (remember that barn?):
Yellowstone Archives
Although I have been taking photos since I’ve been back from our trip, I keep finding Yellowstone photos that I haven’t posted here. (no wonder- I took hundreds!). I can’t promise these will be the last. . .
Old things that are falling apart
I am well aware that the title of this post could be referring to ME- so please resist making a joke! 🙂
On our drive in Paradise Valley (see yesterday’s post), I mentioned to Miles that I was going to be looking for barns and for old things to photograph. He commented that he LOVES things that are old and falling apart (again, please resist the joke!). I checked with his mother later, and it is TRUE- he is drawn to old, falling apart things- pretty cool for a six year old!
So look what we found!
Oh, I so love this barn! And the yellow flowers in front- so cool! This one was textured with 2 layers of golden by Kim Klassen.
And then there is the shot below of the same barn. I wanted the photo to look old too (although, realistically, the barn should look NEW in an old photo, right?), so I edited it and re-edited it- and edited it again- way too much time spent on this photo. Basically, I added a couple textures, brought it back to Lightroom and then decided I wanted a vintage look. Instead of starting over, I took the photo into Silver Efex Pro and used one of their presets to give it a tintype took. But the clouds had gone away! So I brought the new version in AS A LAYER over my original version in Photoshop and blended them. Then I kept playing with the textures (all Kim’s- mostly her older ones), adding and subtracting them until it looked the way I wanted. No point in naming the textures for you- I masked out and reduced opacity so many times- it would make no sense- ridiculous!
And finally- when we had finished our drive, we were in Livingston, where we took Miles out to lunch at his favorite Mexican restaurant. When we got into the car to drive back to Yellowstone, he pointed out something for me to photograph- he has quite the eye, huh? So proud of him!
Linking up with Texture Tuesday.
Country Roads, Montana-style
One of my favorite Montana drives is between Livingston and Gardiner, Montana- aptly named Paradise Valley. My husband, our oldest grandboy, Miles, and I took a leisurely drive through the countryside so that Gramma could photograph barns and the beautiful scenery that abounds there.
There were country roads . . .
and cows, of course . . .
and beautiful red barns!
You might see a few more images from this drive in future posts; I took dozens of photos!
Nature
We arrived home last night- so much to do! Laundry, groceries, miscellaneous to-do’s that can only be done from home- and catching up on my photography editing, posting, backing-up, blog visiting, and my still life classes. I am missing my little Yellowstone munchkins terribly; our 16 hour drive home only reinforced how far apart we are!
I’m posting some photos of new, green aspen leaves I shot on a drive the first week we were there. The snow had finally stopped and Spring arrived at the same time we did! I love the aspens in Fall, and this was the first time I had photographed their leaves in Spring. These were shot somewhere on Dunraven Pass.
The above photo is textured with two layers of Kim Klassen’s sybil, using color burn blend mode. The second photo is of the same branch, but I crouched down to get a blown out sky in the background- no textures.
Yellowstone Memories
Lamar Valley
Elk on a hill
Rodeo!
The highlight of last weekend was the rodeo- my Friday Find for the week. I hadn’t been to a rodeo since childhood and had forgotten what fun it could be.
There were bucking broncos. . .
and bulls!
And, of course, I love taking the detail shots.
But most of all, I loved watching Henry enjoying himself!
Yellowstone Epic Horse Drive
Last weekend as part of the Memorial Day festivities, a large group of horses were run through the town of Gardiner (bordering Yellowstone) and up to new pastures in Jardine (in the hills). We joined the throng lining the streets waiting for the Yellowstone Epic Horse Drive. It was all over in a flash, and my photos are mostly of the, um, back ends of the horses and clouds of dust. However, the 2 or 3 minutes that it lasted were pretty thrilling. The next day was the rodeo- probably the most fun event I’ve ever photographed. Look for those photos soon!
Bear Aware
Yesterday morning we noticed some activity on the road (park employees going up the hill, throwing rocks, not letting tourists out of their cars etc.) in front of my daughter’s house at Yellowstone; she mentioned casually that it was probably a bear. The bears are hungry and know that the elk mamas have their babies hidden in various spots around the area. I always try to act somewhat cool and un-touristy about these things, but eventually had to go outside with my camera. I edged around the side of the house and came upon two young black bears partway up a tree, with the park workers patiently waiting for them to come down. When they did, the guys chased them across the road, but they kept returning, especially the cinnamon colored one, who was not the least bit afraid of humans. Within a short while, there was a group of photographers with their long lenses gathered outside- how do they always know where to go? My husband and I went to town, and were surprised to see that the cinnamon bear was still on the hill across the street when we returned; the female elk had ganged up on him and chased him off the lawn. We haven’t seen any more of the bears since then, but it was a reminder that we are in Yellowstone and in bear territory.
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