Ojai

I just got back from a few days in the Los Angeles area visiting my wife's family, where (except for one day of rain) we had fairly nice weather - I'll be posting pictures from this trip over the next few weeks. It was quite a shock to go from t-shirts and this, taken on our last day there at Ojai:

To this, which greeted me at the car at Denver International Airport upon arrival:

Ice

We had some freezing fog and drizzle over the last couple of days but the sun came out again this morning. I love winter - it may be cold but it's the most beautiful season of the year.

After Sunset

It's at times like this that I really wish I had a super-telephoto lens. We had a great moonrise, but I don't have the equipment to capture it properly. In any case, the first picture today is right after sunset, looking towards the road that runs near our house (15 second exposure). The squiggle in the upper right is an airplane.

 The second picture is the moonrise just as it topped the trees, but the best I could do was trim a wider picture, and I'm not happy with the result.

First Snow

It's late in the year for it but we finally had our first snow. They're not the best pictures but there's something special about that first snow of the winter.

A Recent Sunrise

Here's a recent sunrise, looking out my front door.

Aspen Trees Changing

I wanted to see the fall aspen colors as they approach their peak, so I took a drive up Gold Camp Road today to Victor and Cripple Creek, two old mining towns (Cripple Creek is now filled with casinos). Gold Camp Road is a dirt road that passes to the south of Pikes Peak, and it is a favorite for viewing the aspen as they change color in the fall. Some storms started building but I was lucky enough to get enough sunshine to see the colors spectacularly. We don't have the fantastic variety of colors found in other parts of the country, but the aspens make it worthwhile. In some of the shots you can see how clearly the aspen groves stand out in the mountains as they change.

Ouray Waterfalls

Ouray includes a couple of great waterfalls. On one side of town is Cascade falls, a fairly tall but relatively thin waterfall in a very pretty setting.

On the other end of town is Box Canyon. A thundering stream falls through the rock, reappearing in a crack at the end of a steep box canyon. The canyon is so steep that the only way in is over a metal walkway. It's hard to get a good picture because so little of the fall is visible, but it's an incredibly impressive feeling to be there. The first picture is of the bottom section, just as the water is coming out of the crack.

The second picture is a long exposure (8 seconds) taken with a tripod (using a neutral density filter to get the extended exposure in daylight), to try and capture the roiling water after it comes out of the fall.