Four-Years Ago (17-November-2007) — Colorado

Colorado Wildlife — Migrating Tundra Swans and Big Horn Sheep.

I drove to Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge near Walden Colorado. It is a long drive, but the pass through Rocky Mountain National Park was still open. I knew it was late in the year and didn’t expect to see many migrating birds, but hoped to see some Pronghorn Elk or Moose. While driving through the refuge on the Auto Tour route, I saw eight large white birds across one of the lakes. I took some images, first with a 80-400 mm VR lens, and then with 200-400 f/4 VR lens. It was rather windy, so used the car to block the wind to minimize motion with the big lenses. Even on a tripod this was hard. It looks like these are Tundra Swans which the bird list for the wildlife refuge list as being rare (once every 2-5 years). I guess  I was lucky. I also didn’t see anyone else while visiting the reserve.

Tundra Swans. Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge. Image taken with a Nikon D2XS and 200-400 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 400, 200 mm, f/8, 1/1600 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Photoshop CS5, Nik Define, Nik Color Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)
Tundra Swans. Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge. Image taken with a Nikon D2XS and 200-400 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 400, 200 mm, f/8, 1/1600 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Photoshop CS5, Nik Define, Nik Color Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)
Tundra Swans. Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge. Image taken with a Nikon D2XS and 200-400 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/8, 1/2000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Photoshop CS5, Nik Define, Nik Color Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)
Tundra Swans. Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge. Image taken with a Nikon D2XS and 200-400 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/8, 1/2000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Photoshop CS5, Nik Define, Nik Color Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)
Tundra Swans. Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge. Image taken with a Nikon D2XS and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Photoshop CS5, Nik Define, Nik Color Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)
Tundra Swans. Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge. Image taken with a Nikon D2XS and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Photoshop CS5, Nik Define, Nik Color Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)
Tundra Swans. Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge. Image taken with a Nikon D2XS and 200-400 mm f/4 VR lens + TCE-II 20 teleconverter (ISO 400, 800 mm, f/8, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Photoshop CS5, Nik Define, Nik Color Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)
Tundra Swans. Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge. Image taken with a Nikon D2XS and 200-400 mm f/4 VR lens + TCE-II 20 teleconverter (ISO 400, 800 mm, f/8, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Photoshop CS5, Nik Define, Nik Color Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)

While returning from the reserve I came upon several Big Horn Sheep along Colorado Highway 14.

Big Horn Ram Huddle. Along Colorado 14 near Sheridan in Roosevelt National Forest. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs and 200-400 mm lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec). (David J Mathre)
Big Horn Ram Huddle. Along Colorado 14 near Sheridan in Roosevelt National Forest. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs and 200-400 mm lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec). (David J Mathre)

 

Monday (14-November-2011) — New Jersey

Colorado News: Saint Catherine Chapel.

I saw a report on the news today that the conference center at the Catholic retreat at Saint Malo behind the Saint Catherine Chapel on Rt 7 in Colorado near Rocky Mountain National Park burned down today. Apparently, the fire did not impact the chapel. It is a great photo location, with Mt Meeker in the background. In most of my images at this location, I used the chapel to hide the conference center. This image is from December 2007, not today. I also saw a weather report that the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains had a significant wind storm, with winds up to 90 mph. I assume the high winds impacted the fire.

Saint Catherine Chapel and Mt. Meeker, Rocky Mountain National Park. (David J Mathre)
Saint Catherine Chapel and Mt. Meeker, Rocky Mountain National Park. (David J Mathre)

 

28-October-2011

Day 11 and Counting

My Drobo disk-array is rebuilding after adding a new drive. Don’t know how long it will take. New images to follow. The down side to large storage solutions such as Drobo is the time required for backup and restore. Not sure how many days this will take!!!!

Winter is Coming!

Latest report from the National Weather Service: Snow Saturday Night?

Tonight: A chance of rain after 2am. Cloudy, with a low around 36. East
wind between 3 and 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts
of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Saturday: Rain, mainly
after 8am. High near 43. Breezy, with a north wind between 14 and 21 mph. Chance
of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between 1 and 2 inches possible.

Saturday Night: Rain and snow, becoming all snow after midnight.
Low around 28. Blustery, with a north wind between 17 and 24 mph. Chance of
precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.

Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 47. Northwest wind between 9 and
14 mph.

Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 29.
Northwest wind around 7 mph.

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Check out an image of the Moon over Colorado taken 4 years ago today with a Nikon D2xs and 200-400 mm VR lens: 28-October-2011

24-October-2011

Day 7 and Counting

My Drobo disk-array is rebuilding after adding a new drive. Don’t know how long it will take. New images to follow. The down side to large storage solutions such as Drobo is the time required for backup and restore. Not sure how many days this will take!!!! At least I now get a message on the Drobo dashboard that that the data protection will be complete in ~140 hours.

You can also check out  Images of  San Francisco as I flew out from SFO taken 2 years ago today: 24-October-2009

23-October-2011

Day 6 and Counting

My Drobo disk-array is rebuilding after adding a new drive. Don’t know how long it will take. New images to follow. The down side to large storage solutions such as Drobo is the time required for backup and restore. Not sure how many days this will take!!!!

You can also check out a Panorama image of  the Moon over San Francisco and Oakland at Sunset from a Berkeley Hills Overlook taken 2 years ago today: 23-October-2009