NYC 1978 - Looking Up

Here's the last photo from my 1978 trip to New York City.

Vintage Weekly

Peak Moods (4) - Fresh

My Peak Moods photos are taken from my front porch, usually in the morning when the light is good. This one shows the first real snow of the winter on Pikes Peak, late last week.

Skywatch Friday

Great Garden

We had visitors in town this weekend so we took them to Garden of the Gods, and caught the last remaining autumn color.

Pikes Peak had its first real snowfall on Thursday, so it stood out.

One of the best views in the park is through the Siamese Twins rock formation; this requires a short hike so many tourists miss it.

But anywhere you look it was beautiful.

We couldn't drive to the top of the Peak because of the snow but Garden of the Gods kept our visitors happy. I love having scenery like this right in my own city!

Blue Monday

Our World Tuesday

Pea Ridge Fences

While in Missouri we took a short trip to Arkansas to see the Pea Ridge battleground site. Here are some shots from the site; more to come.

Good Fences

Shadow Shot Sunday

Branson Hills

I'm still blogging about our trip to Missouri. The last post was from a trail just outside Branson. Near that trail was a fun little tower which I climbed - I took the first photo for Skywatch Friday, and the rest of the shots are from the tower's top.

Branson is a tourist town which has a lot of entertainment options, including this roller-coaster.

Here's a shot of the town. There are a lot of theaters with live entertainment.

I believe this tower has zip lines and bungee jumping, but as neither interest me I didn't explore more closely.

Old Courthouse Rotunda

I liked the rotunda in the St. Louis old courthouse so much I'm dedicating a whole post to it.

Our World Tuesday

NYC Night 1978

Here's another of my photos from New York in 1978. This one's a little rough as it was taken without a tripod at night on a film camera, but I did what I could with it.

Vintage Weekly

Electricity Pylon

Here's a random photo I took for Skywatch Friday, of an electricity pylon in Pulpit Rock Park. These blue skies are very common here year-round - we get over 3,000 hours of sunshine a year, more than anywhere in Europe.

Autumn Color

The autumn color is past its best in my part of the country, as I discovered on a hike on Saturday. I found almost no trees with their leaves still intact.

So I decided to focus on the remaining aspen leaves instead of whole trees, using my 50mm f/1.4 to narrow the depth of field.

I liked the results, especially this last shot.

Blue Monday

Our World Tuesday

Henning Creek Trail, Missouri

While we were in Missouri we visited Branson. Of course the most interesting part for me was a little hike outside the town, on the Henning Creek trail.

It was a pretty walk though a forest after the leaves had all fallen.

There was one spot with an overlook.

There were a couple of slightly rough spots, but nothing challenging for a Colorado hiker.

And most of the trail was easy and attractive.

All in all it was a nice way to spend an hour or two!

Scenic Weekends

Shadow Shot Sunday

Favorite Balloons

For Skywatch Friday, here are two of my favorite balloons from last month's balloon festival here in Colorado Springs.

This next one is the old woman who lived in a shoe (an old nursery rhyme) - it was the biggest balloon there as you can tell by looking at the people beneath it.

Old Courthouse (St. Louis)

Across from the famous Arch in St. Louis is the old courthouse.

It is most well known for the infamous Dred Scott case, in which the Supreme Court decided that no person of African ancestry could claim citizenship in the United States.

Some of the courts have been preserved.

And here's one last view on a cloudy day.

Our World Tuesday

New York Skyline, 1978

Continuing with my Vintage Weekly series of photos from New York taken during my first visit in 1978, here's one taken from the boat to the Statue of Liberty, looking backwards. This one took some serious editing to straighten, crop, and clean up the color.