Posting this for Ken, who liked the bird in my last post. I think I got the right one, the right way. 😉
For The Birds
Tag Archives: Travel
Trying Something
I just purchased a new tablet and am hoping to use it for some of our upcoming travel in lieu of a laptop. Of course that means figuring out how to get photos from my camera to the tablet, then getting them from my tablet to my blog. I’ve used Fuji’s mobile app before but it sucks, so my best choice is to use a card reader, which I had never tried on a tablet.
Earlier this week we visited Greensboro, NC with our son and grandson, visiting the Miriam P. Brenner Children’s Museum. I took a few photos there and along the way. 😉
Since I don’t want to confuse my workflow too much, I want to be able to selectively choose photos from my memory card and only import the ones I want into Lightroom Mobile. That process worked great. One weird thing is that when I plugged the card and card reader in, my tablet set up a folder scheme as though it was going to back up files to my tablet. I’d rather not have it do that but haven’t figured out how to turn it off!
For fun I imported a few files on to my tablet, processed them on my tablet and let them upload to the cloud. I cheated a bit by outputting them from my computer, and my next step will be to refine the tablet outputting in order to do it from there. I’ve done that before and it’s not a big deal.
So far so good. 🙂
Biscuit Basin – Before The Explosion
Imagine our surprise when we read that a “hydrothermal explosion” had occurred at Biscuit Basin in Yellowstone on July 23. We had visited just two months prior, and the news photos of the devastation were incredible. All of our tour guides had joked about how Yellowstone sits on a huge underground volcano, and “you never know….” It’s well known that violent eruptions can happen at any time, and sometimes they actually do. Yikes! Fortunately no one was injured, and damage appears to be mostly limited to the boardwalk. And of course the size and shapes of several of the pools were dramatically altered.
Our visit was in an evening and the sky was overcast. As a result a lot of the colors are quite muted. But the various colors of the pools and the surrounding bacterial mats are quite evident.
And gnarly trees! 🙂
Why Did The Bison Cross The Road?
Because that’s what bison do! 🙂 Hopefully not on a blind curve at dusk….
This was just one of numerous occasions where we had to wait on a “Bison Jam.” And yes, it was snowing.
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River
Kathy & I visited Grand Canyon twice during our visit to Yellowstone. The first time was on our own, and we got there before 8:00am to avoid the crowds. We use the term “Nooners” to describe the people who start showing up to tourist locations around the time we are leaving. Yes, I know there is another connotation for that word! 😉 In a place like Yellowstone the Nooners start showing up and filling the parking lots by around 10:00am, in some places even earlier.
The canyon and the waterfalls are spectacular in any light, and we managed to get quite a few photographs, especially on the north rim where you could really see the topography. One of the things I particularly liked about the north rim is the gnarly trees growing out of the rock cliffs. They made for interesting subject matter and I’ve included just a sample here.
As we were leaving the Artist Point area, someone asked me if I knew what time the rainbow happened. It must have been obvious from the look on my face that I didn’t know anything about a rainbow. Silly me – a failure of research!
Fortunately, we returned the following day on a morning photography tour aboard one of the yellow buses. Our guide knew exactly when the rainbow would occur (about 9:40am, just in time for the Nooners! 🙂 ) and positioned us in the right spot. Not knowing when the peak color would be I made over 100 frames in order to end up with about 6. The one posted here is the only one I’ve processed so far but is typical of the others. Interestingly, the first day we visited was overcast, so we might not have seen the rainbow that day anyway!
Because it was a photography tour and not a Tom & Kathy journey, the tour only stayed long enough to capture the rainbow and didn’t travel the north rim at all. It was off to another photographic destination! I’m glad we saw the rainbow, but also glad to have visited the canyon on our own!
Before I Forget
Since my last post was a bit of a bust, I thought I’d post this to rev things back up. When we were in Michigan I caught up with this guy. Had dinner with Mark and his wife at a nice seafood restaurant in Marine City. I’m much taller in person…. 😉
You’ve Got Mail!
During our time in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan, we took a day to explore the countryside and essentially circumnavigate the peninsula.
We came across this line of mail boxes near Lac La Belle. It is certainly the most mail boxes I’ve seen in one place! We didn’t count them – feel free if you must! – but we estimated there to be about 20 in each section and 6 sections. I wonder how long it takes the letter carrier to stuff all those boxes?
Room With A View
We’ve been staying in Houghton, Michigan the last few nights and managed to snag a hotel room with a high floor and view of the Portage Canal which connects Portage Lake with Lake Superior. We had this rather nice view just after sunset.
Falling For Falling Water
I started the most recent installment of my photographic journey chasing waterfalls in western North Carolina, and still enjoy checking out new-to-me waterfalls during our travels. We recently stopped by Tahquamenon Falls State Park in the U.P. of Michigan to see and photograph the Upper Falls.
Tahquamenon Falls is sometimes referred to as the “root beer falls” due to the amber color of the waters caused by tannins in the cedar swamps from which the river drains. The water really does take on the cast of root beer barrel candies!
Don’t Adjust Your Set….
Kathy & I are currently on a journey through cool, comfortable Michigan. We’ve visited a number of places so I’ll likely be posting images completely out of order as I get to them!
We recently visited Sault Sainte Marie, MI and did a boat cruise (never pass up a boat cruise!) on the Soo Locks. These piles of Taconite are used in the production of steel and were waiting alongside the Algona Steel Company on the St. Marys River. The black piles made me think of the opposite of something like White Sands, NM.