Cooking Breakfast

Of course, I was not cooking breakfast. I don't cook. I get up early and take photographs. When I got back to camp, I did get to eat because the rest of the family got up a lot later and got breakfast. It is a remarkable experience to see the way that the light changes during the day. As I sit and review my photos on my computer at home, I can look out the window and see a thick forest of trees. There are plum trees, maples, box elders, oaks and some I am still meaning to look up and identify. But what is impressive is the way that the light changes on the leaves during the day. Since I live right next to a steep hill and in the shadow of the mountains, the sun does not "rise" until late in the morning. But I do get the last rays of light in the evening. Here in this photo, I was standing across the lake from the campfire. At first, I thought that the smoke was a fog or haze, but after I looked at the photo, I realized it was a campfire. I liked the way the trees and the smoke were reflected in the lake. I hope you can imagine being there.

About to Land

We have enjoyed having a hummingbird feeder right outside the window to our home office. There are quite a few visitors to the feeder during the day and some of them fly right up to the windows and take a good long look at us working. I have found that taking photos of flying hummingbirds is rather a challenge. So far, I have used my 300 mm lens. I am going to have to go outside with my 500 mm lens and a tripod before the weather changes and the birds start to leave for the winter. This is likely a female, Black-chinned Hummingbirg or Archilochus alexandri.

Glacier National Park, Montana

In our, now not so recent, visit to Glacier National Park, the scenery was magnificent as usual. The challenge was that the park has only two access roads. The recent fires in the Park have highlighted the challenge that visitors face: lack of access and lack of adequate parking. There is a Park shuttle service, but the parking for the shuttle is inadequate and the service is not nearly enough to make a dent in all the people visiting the Park and trying to park their cars in the very limited space available. This is the same challenge faced by Yosemite National Park. Both Parks are essentially traffic jams on a busy day during the summer. Zion National Park and the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park have solved the problem by excluding cars altogether from the Parks. The shuttle system at both Zion and the Grand Canyon work wonderfully. The Parks are much safer and more orderly than the mob scenes at Glacier and Yosemite. Even though our last visit to Zion was marked by a huge crowd in the Narrows, the visit was not marred by traffic jams. In Glacier, there should be a much greater effort to provide shuttle service that matches the need. There should also be a much higher fee for parking in the Park outside of the shuttle areas. Since the main road, like the one in Zion, is used for crossing the Park, there should be a crossing permit that does not allow parking, either free or at a reduced rate. Right now, Glacier and Yosemite are on my list as the worst run Parks in America.

Allen's Hummingbird in Utah

This tiny Allen's Hummingbird or Selasphorus sasin has been zooming around our hummingbird feeder for the past two weeks. It pretends to be "king of the hill" and tries to drive away any other hummingbirds in the vicinity, usually without much luck. I have no trouble spotting him, but I have a really hard time getting him to sit still long enough to get a photo in focus, especially one showing his gorgeous throat feathers.

Police Car Moth

Yes, this is really the name of this strikingly patterned moth and no, it is not a butterfly. The full scientific name of the moth is Arctiidae Pericopinae Ghophaela vermiculata. It is found in the western parts of the United States and south-western Canada, from British Columbia to California, east to New Mexico and north to Manitoba. We found this one on a flower in the High Uintah Mountains of eastern Utah at about 10,000 feet above sea level. I find it interesting how many people walked by this moth without even noticing it. It is one thing to be in the outdoors, it is another thing to be aware of what you are seeing.

The Arrow of Time

We see our surroundings in patterns. This phenomena is called pareidolia or the ability of the mind perceives a familiar pattern where none exists. Pareidolia is the visual or auditory form of apophenia, which is the perception of patterns within random data. See Wikipedia: Pareidolia. It is almost impossible not to see a pattern in this image. I can see patterns, including faces and objects, in almost any arrangement of light and dark, including floor tile, leaves on trees, clouds and all sorts of other situations. If you go back through my photos, you will see the many instances where I have taken images that show underlying patterns. First, I focus on the arrangement of the elements in the photo, but then I often see the patterns in the elements. I presently have 2705 posts with photos on this blog. See how many have underlying patterns. You will probably be surprised.

Moosehorn Lake in the High Uintahs

We drove to the Uintah Mountains in eastern Utah hoping to find a camping spot. It was a busy weekend in August in the great outdoors and we found that nearly every available camping spot, including roadside pull-offs had been taken. We checked each of the campgrounds in succession and found them all full. As is my habit, I don't believe everything I am told, so I drove around in the campgrounds to verify that the signs posted were accurate. In the Moosehorn Campground, we found two open spots and quickly paid for the camp permit. I had never been to this campground before and it wasn't until the next morning that I found out we were camped only about 50 yards or so from the lake. I got up early and wandered down to the lake with my camera and took a series of incredible images. So, welcome to Moosehorn Lake.