WildOats

Talk about going from one extreme to another. But that’s exactly what happened to me. A few weeks ago I was on vacation in Las Vegas. While out there, we went on a little excursion. We drove out from Las Vegas through the Utah desert, and into Colorado. So within a few days we went from a waaaayyyy hot desert, to high up a mountain into the waaaaayyyy cold, looking at snow.

Overall it was a neat little trip. But looking back at it, the contrast between the places is impressive. In Vegas and even the Utah desert you have all the tans, browns reds and the heat. But once you get into Colorado that all changes. You now have much cooler weather and it’s all green. It’s no longer a desert but a lush landscape.

I’m an east coast person. I’ve lived my whole life on the east coast, at sea level, and in very populated larger cities. So to me, the whole out west thing is all very new. I’m just not used to all the wide open spaces. It’s wild to be able to see so far into the horizon and not having you line of sight blocked by anything. It’s also odd to be so high up above sea level and not have much humidity. Here in Florida, the humidity in the summer is somewhere above 80%. In Vegas it was like 12%, and they were saying it’s never THIS high. I can only imagine how low it gets in the winter…lol.

While being in Colorado, we did go to this national park. The park is huge, with lots to do. People were camping there, you can go hiking, fishing all kinds of things like that. There’s also tons of wild life. We got to see some moose and elk I think too.

We only spent one day in the park, so we opted to take the journey to the top of the mountain. Right out of the gate, I have to say the place is very impressive to me. Like I said, I’m from the east from very congested places. This is totally NOT that. It’s soooo wide open with nothing but wilderness for miles. Huge mountains all around, with trees and pines covering them.

The trip up the mountain is very cool. They have this road that’s one lane in each direction carved into the mountain. While you’re driving you have views all around. It’s beautiful to look at. The problem is that the road goes right to the edge of the cliff. There are no guard rails or netting or anything to stop you from driving off the road and falling thousands of feet to your death. The best part is, they have these sticks, that stick up maybe 12 feet high or something. Apparently they are to mark where the road ends. I guess you use that as a guide when the road is covered with snow and you can’t tell where the roads ends, and your falling to your death begins. As if anyone would drive this road when it’s covered in snow. I mean even if you could stomach not knowing where the road ends, you’d never be able to stop yourself from sliding all over the place in ice and snow.

The road twists and winds as it goes up the mountain. You can see the incline of the road as it goes up, and then it takes the bend around. So in the beginning you are looking at all the beautiful sites. You don’t realize how long you’re driving. But then after a while, it dawns on you that you’ve been driving a long time. You start to think each time the road bends that you’re getting to the top. But as you come around the curve you realize you’re not there yet. But wait……there’s more. So up higher you go.

As you go up higher, you get the the tree line area. Above this point, trees no longer grow. The weather conditions become too harsh and trees stop growing. It’s cool to see, because in the beginning you have trees and pines all around you. But then as you get closer to the magical line the trees get thinner. Then all of a sudden there are no trees. It opens up, and all you have is grass and moss covering the ground. At this point, you start to think you’re getting to the top. But wait….there’s more. It’s still keeps going and going and going.

It took us about an hour and a half to get to the top. During the trip up, I didn’t notice the air getting thin. My ears kept popping from the pressure changes. But I didn’t really notice the oxygen thinning out. So we parked the car, and as soon as I stood up, I was like wow. You almost get a dizziness kind of sensation. The other thing that slaps you in the face right off is how cold it is. It was somewhere in the 40’s…… brrrrrrr!!!

They have this path for you to walk along. On the path, every so often they have a plaque with info for you to read. Well let me tell you, by the time you get to the plaque, you’re glad it’s there. Why? Because you almost HAVE to stop and catch your breathe. At this altitude just walking is hard work. Shows you how weak you really are compared to the elements.

I did get a shot of one of the plaques we saw. It shows you the mountain range and the altitudes.

While you’re up there, you get this odd feeling. It’s the sensation that you are someplace you really shouldn’t be. It’s almost other worldly in way. It’s sooo quiet. You do hear the wind as it’s blowing, and the voices of the people around you, but that’s it. There are no trees around. only the ones you see waaaaayyyyy down below you. There’s this mossy-grass growing on the ground. There’s also these rocks. They kind of look like the rocks you see on the mars pictures. And that’s it.

We were up there for maybe 30 mins or so. Then all of a sudden a cloud came in and our visibility became almost nothing. But before the cloud blew in, I did get a picture. It’s not the best picture I’ve taken, but I think between the cold and the thin air I wasn’t functioning on all burners.

In this picture I like how the mossy-grass was right next to the snow. I also liked the look of the blue melt water from the snow. I think it also shows how desolate the place is.

When I got back from my vacation a few weeks ago I was excited about the pictures I had taken. I thought I’d be at the computer and editing like crazy. But I have to say, I haven’t been too committed to it. Not sure exactly why, but I haven’t gotten very far with them.

The last picture I posted, I was commenting about the vastness of the Utah desert. When you see it in real life it’s very impressive. It’s HUGE. It’s soooo wide open, with nothing there for hundred of miles. The problem though is that it is hard to capture that in a picture. It’s hard to get a perspective of it all.

So with that in mind, I went and looked through my pictures hoping I could find something to help with perspective. I did find a picture that has a person in it. The person gives you an idea of size and you can get a better idea of how big the open space is.

When you get close to the edge of that cliff you can feel the breeze and it gives you the sense of being high up. There is also nothing there to stop you from falling. No guard rail or netting or anything. The rocks ledge out a bit, but they are steep and if you were to slip……..good luck. You’re going down. Way down too……it’s pretty far down.

So anyway, does this shot help you getting a sense of scale and perspective?

A few weeks ago I was on vacation in Las Vegas. While there, I took a small excursion into the Utah desert. I had never been out there before, so it was pretty interesting to see.

A few things hit you the first time you see it. Right off the bat is the emptiness of it. I’m a city boy. I’ve always lived in very populated places. Houses close together, tons of cars, people and things. So to see all this empty space is almost unthinkable to me. All you see for hundreds of miles is the road in front of you, behind you, and then nothingness. While you are driving, you quickly get the sense that if your car were to break down, you’d quickly die from the heat, and no one would be around to help you. Once in a while another car goes by. Other than that you are totally alone. Oh….get this…..no cell phone service for hundreds of miles. Like I said…..unthinkable. It’s pretty wild to see.

The other thing that jumped out at me was all the pretty colors. The yellows, browns, reds, greens, the blue sky, the clouds. It’s so wide open, with nothing there, that the colors are really in your face. It is impressive to see.

While driving, every once in a while they have these places you can pull over and look at the scenery and take pictures. We pulled over a few times and went out to walk around and just stand there and look. I did take some pictures of the desert, and I still have to go through all of them. But I do have one ready to post here.

I think it was the first picture I took in the desert. Anyway, this will give you just a small glimpse of how it looks.

What struck me right off, as I was getting out of the car, and walking towards the cliff was how it went on forever. It stretches on and on. Then I liked the dead tree. It emphasizes how harsh the place is. When you get to the cliff edge, it drops hundreds of feet into that plane.

One day I’ll have to make another trip out there, and this time bring my better camera. I’m thinking of maybe picking a really cool spot, and doing another panorama. We’ll see how it goes.

Well it’s Hurricane Season again. Actually Hurricane Season is from June till the end of November. A full six months. That’s a lot of time if you think about it. A long time to have to think about being blown away by a hurricane.

The past 2 seasons we lucked out pretty well. There wasn’t one hurricane to hit Florida. Which was nice, since the few season before we were hit by hurricanes left and right. So we deserved a little rest time, after that very active time.

This week we’ve been watching this tropical disturbance brewing in the Caribbean. Seems like it’s going to hit some of the Islands, and then probably come and hit Florida. Now we’ll hear all the so called hurricane experts give their opinions. They predict how strong the storm will be. What the possible track of the storm will be. All that. In the end, you don’t know where it will end up or how bad it will be. All you can do is sit and wait, and see how it all turns out.

Anyway, 2 years ago we had a hurricane come our way. The path of the storm took it coming in from the Gulf of Mexico, hitting the west coast of Florida, traveling across the state, then exiting the east coast of Florida and then it went up the east coast of the country.

The hurricane wound up being a category 1. That makes it the weakest hurricane, on a 1-5 scale. So I didn’t think it would be a big deal for us here, being that it had to travel over land before it got to us.

Well let me tell you for a category 1, that traveled over land before getting to us, it was much worse than I would have thought. The storm was very powerful when it got here. After the storm passed, and we went out to look around, not one tree was left untouched. Either the whole tree fell over, or it was snapped in two, or it was so twisted and most of the branches cracked off, and the leaves where all blown off. It really was amazing to see all the destruction that happened.

To me the worst part is right after the hurricane is gone. Now you’re left with all the damage, but not only that, you have no electricity. We lucked out 2 years ago in that in the hurricane hit at the end of the season. So it was pretty cool. But just imagine it being August, with 95 degree and 95% humidity, and having no power to run your A/C. For weeks!!!

After the hurricane passed, I did manage to go out and snap some pictures. They didn’t turn out great, but they do give you an idea of how things looked after the storm.

The first day or two after the storm, you couldn’t drive anywhere. The streets where impassable because of all the debris on it. You can see that from this picture. Most trees that were not palms where pretty much ruined. The trees are only now just starting to recover.

The trees that had a bigger canopy, where just blown over. I guess the canopy acted like a sail, and offered too much resistance and the whole tree toppled over.

Anyway, now we’re bracing for this new storm coming our way. We’ll have to wait and see how it all turns out. Wish us luck.

I’m not a big TV watcher. But when I do watch TV, I don’t usually watch commercials. As soon as a commercial comes on, I pretty much start to flip through all the channels. Sometimes I forget what I was watching initially, and get caught up with a whole new show.

Well last week while flipping through channels, I happened onto this Criss Angel show. I think it was called mind freak or something. Anyway, in this particular episode he was attempting to float above the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas.

After watching the show, I was inspired to take a pic of the hotel. As luck would have it, I just happened to be in Vegas, right down the street from the hotel. I also, had a great view of the hotel from my balcony.

I set a tripod up on the balcony. I attached my camera to it, and started to compose the picture. In the Criss Angel stunt, they kept emphasizing the light coming out of the top of the Luxor. So I kinda wanted to make that stand out in my shot.

I purposely wanted to shoot the scene at night, so the light from the Luxor would be more prominent. But this also made the exposure more difficult to nail. There’s a huge difference between the light levels of the buildings, the black sky, the Luxor light itself, and the street lights.

So I basically just did a trial and error kind of thing. I took a few shots at different exposures, hoping that at least one would be acceptable. If the exposure was too short, the overall image was too dark. If the exposure was too long, the overall image was too bright and over exposed. In the end I settled on an exposure of about 2.5 seconds.

Here’s the picture I managed to get.

I composed the shot to put the Luxor center stage. Then I put the camera into portrait position, to give the light plenty of room to shoot up into. I think the picture does work. I like how the light coming out of the Luxor rendered. I also like how the car lights became streaks. Overall I think I’m happy with the result. It’s just too bad I wasn’t there when Criss Angel was floating above the Luxor.

I’m back. Didja miss me?? Yea yea, I know what you’re thinking. Didn’t know you even left. Well anyway, I went on vacation last week. I went out to Las Vegas. I had a fun time, and came back yesterday.

Before leaving, I was deciding on weather I should take my little P&S camera or my big dslr. After thinking about it for a while, I decided to avoid all the airport problems and lugging along the big heavy camera and lenses, and bring my P&S.

While traveling back and forth, I was glad I only brought my little camera. It made things a lot easier, not to mention lighter. However, while I was in Vegas I was constantly wishing I had brought my real camera with me. There’s a lot to see and do, and the sites are great to photograph. Oh well, live and learn.

I did manage to take some shots, that I hope will turn out nice. You never know how the pics will turn out until you edit them. So there’s a few that I’m looking forward to seeing what I finally get.

The place I was staying at, had a great view of the Las Vegas skyline. I stepped out onto the balcony, and was like wow. I have to get a shot of this. The problem, if you can call it that, was that it was a 180 degree angle view. Way to big to get it all into one shot. Even if you zoom all the out, you’d never be able to get it all in. And even if you could do that, the result would be tiny little bits in the pic. So I decided to try something I haven’t done before. A panoramic shot. That’s where you take a bunch of pics, and then piece them together to form one huge photo.

Ok, so how did I do it? Well, I mounted my little camera on a tripod, and started to line things up. I took a series of about 12 shots. It was almost dark out already, and the lights were on. Each shot was a 4 sec exposure. I’d get one shot, and then re-position the camera again and take the next shot, for a total of about 12.

Then when I came home I opened Elements and allowed it to do it’s thing. It took about 20 mins or so to do the math and heavy lifting. It’s kinda cool how it aligns everything and then blends the individual shots into one huge image. In Elements it says the final image will be something like 13″X 58″. Wow!!!! that’s one big ass print. I’ll have to find out where I can get this printed, and how much that would cost.

Anyway, I obviously won’t be able to post a pic that big here. So I’m going to show you a small version of it. It doesn’t do it any justice, but here it is anyway.

I like that way the lighting turned out. I wasn’t sure how it would look being that each shot was exposed for 4 seconds. It’s too small to see here, but I even happened to catch a few planes as they were landing and taking off.

Overall I’m pretty happy with the job Elements did with the panorama. I think I’ll have to keep trying this out some more. So the next time you have a big scene you want to photograph, give the panorama a try too.