David's Images of the Day Photoblog
I stopped in Roswell, New Mexico to spend the night. Just outside of the city is Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge. This is one of the stops that Sandhill Cranes make during their annual migration. They leave every morning to feed, and then return in the evening. There were literally thousands of the birds and the wildlife refuge — and they make a lot of noise.
The Park Service recovered all of our belongings from the tent-cabins in Curry Village. We then checked into various Yosemite hotels and lodges (gratis). Much higher end lodging than the sparse tent-cabins. Before dinner, Michael Mariant as a special treat after all the weeks commotion took us for a walk along a quiet and peaceful section of the Merced river. The diffuse and sublime lighting made for some great images.
Merced River Walkabout (Color Version)
Merced River Walkabout (Monochrome Version)
Merced River Walkabout (Photographer Ghosts)
Prior to leaving Sedona, we spent the morning photographing the morning sun lighting up the red rock buttes. I set up a Nikon D4 camera and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens to record a time-lapse video. I managed to walk in front of the camera a few times.
Monarch Butterfly. Eleven-years ago while driving home from work I saw purple wild flowers on the side of the road at an abandoned golf course in Hillsborough. I pulled over to see if there was a picture. The purple wildflowers attracted dozens of Monarch butterflies providing more colors. I took this image with my favorite 80-400 mm telephoto zoom lens. The hard part was working at the minimum focus distance for the lens (~ 7 feet). I needed to keep stepping back to get the image in focus. One more reason I always have a camera with me.
Every year after that I would check the place at the same time of the year, but never saw as many wildflowers or Monarch Butterflies. The last several years the place became a construction site for a highway bypass and interchange. Now that the construction is complete and the bypass open, it looks like wildflowers may come back. We will see if the Monarch Butterflies come back in the future.
Individual images in the slideshow can be viewed here.
After Jerome, we visited the “tourist attraction” of Gold King Mine and Ghost Town. Or how to make money off a dump. Lots of derelict old cars and mining equipment, along with displays for paying tourists visiting a ghost town. It even boasts an old-time desert rat riding a Harley Davidson (for a fee).
