Frasier, Niles & Martin

The Cranes! (groan...)

Did a quick overnighter to the San Luis Valley a few days ago to photograph the bi-annual migration of sandhill cranes to the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge. Last year was the first time for me down there, and this year there were many, many more birds. I lucked out with the timing. Didn't really come away with a deep and wide body of work from the trip, as it was sort of discombobulating with so much action happening so quickly in every direction. It didn't help matters much that I car camped nearby that night, and spent too much time listening to music and not much time sleeping. When morning arrived, I was in no mental shape to be a productive member of photographic society! Oh well, there's always next year.

[as always, click on the images for larger versions...]

Riley the Wonder Dog

Someone pointed out to me recently that I mention my dog, Riley, in the subhead of this blog, but I have yet to mention him in any of my posts. That ends TODAY! Here, for your viewing pleasure, is Riley at his best, via Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=halLJmRtbSY

Riley lives at my ex-wife's house, but we share custody in a completely amicable way. I go over to her house most every weekday to let him out while she's at work, and he occasionally spends time with me at my place, although without a yard, it makes it a little tougher. Since the above video was made, Riley has acquired a sister, so he no longer has to play tug-of-war by himself. Sindy is an absolutely perfect match for Riley in both size and temperament. They can really tear across the back yard, and then take turns wrestling each other to the ground. Good times!

Complaint Department

Just received in my in-box (emphasis added):

Hello,

I ordered a 2011 Scenic UTAH Calendar by Tom Till as I do every year.

I was disappointed because over the last many years you have included October 16th as National Boss's Day. This year you did not. Why?

I think the numbering system you used this year (font) and size is not as good as last year. My question is why can't you simply include all the holidays you used from last year. [sic]

I am not disappointed in the work by Tom Till, but I am with the holiday and layout. Maybe next year your publishing company can get it right.

Just wanted you to know someone is paying attention out there and your quality control may be a little bit off.

Thank you.
(I'll show mercy and not publish her name.)

And my response:

Hi _________,

Thanks for your concern. Speaking of getting things right, our company has been publishing Tom's calendar for several years, and we have never included National Boss's Day. Just as in the calendar titles we've published for nearly 20 years, the only holidays and observances we include are either national holidays (MLK Day, Labor Day, etc.) and prominent Jewish holidays (Yom Kipper, Chanukkah, etc.). We also include historically popular holidays like Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Father's Day. The lone exception is in our Colorado calendar titles, which include a listing for Colorado Day. We don't include Boss's Day, Secretary's Day -- er, I mean, Administrative Professionals Day -- Nurses Day, and sadly, no Take Your Dog to Work Day (FYI: June 24th). Furthermore, the grid design and font is exactly the same as it has been in every year we've published Tom's calendar. Perhaps you're paying attention to a different calendar?

Sincerely,
Todd Caudle
Complaint Department, Skyline Press

The Land Where Time Bares Its Soul

NEW! Wherever you see [photo], click on the link to view a photo relevant to that part of the story! To return to the blog, just use your back button.

I just returned from a New Year's week trip to the Moab, Utah area. Such an incredible region of the country! I love my local Garden of the Gods, but this place is what Garden of the Gods wants to be when it grows up. Moab is blessed with more natural beauty than seems fair, with Arches National Park just a few miles north of town, and Canyonlands National Park, with its more than a third of a million acres of canyons, mesas, arches, improbable rock outcroppings and the convergence of the Green and Colorado rivers, not much farther away. Just in case all that's not enough, the beautiful La Sal Mountains to the east contain a ribbon of peaks that rise above 12,000 feet.

I made my first trip to Moab sometime in the late-'80s. It was Christmas Eve, I had just finished work at the Focal Point camera shop, and I had no family in the area, so obviously a road trip was in order. Oh, and did I mention that the states of Colorado and Utah were being pounded by a blizzard? What better time to hop in the ol' Chevy Chevette and drive 400 miles! After many hours of white-knuckle driving, I stopped at the first motel I could find, and awoke Christmas Day in tiny Silt, Colorado. (Perhaps the name Sludge was already spoken for?) Thankfully, the storm had moved on by morning, leaving a winter wonderland in its wake. It was still slow going, as I-70 was hard-packed with snow and ice all the way to the state line.

The highway got a little better as I moved through Utah, so I took the advice of my then-boss to take the detour at Highway-128 and follow the Colorado River down to Moab. I'm eternally grateful for his suggestion, as this is my preferred route to and from Moab to this day. It's slower going, but the scenic rewards are many times that of the more conventional highway route.

As I wound my way south, the canyons along the river were all decked out in their snowy best, and the scenery jut begged to be photographed. At one particularly scenic bend in the road I pulled my car onto the shoulder, well out of the driving path, and set up my tripod. About that time a big dually pick-up came rumbling along, and as this man with family in tow passed me, he honked the horn like I was in his way. Nearly had to change my underwear! It just wasn't very nice. And on Christmas morning? Really???

I did take a fair number of pictures, but it was so bitterly cold that I spent a large amount of time in my motel room, where I caught HBO's airing of the Steve Martin/Chevy Chase/Martin Short classic, The Three Amigos. Merry Christmas to me!

Fast-forward 20+ years. Nowadays I actually make my living as a nature photographer, so to be able to go to places like Arches and Canyonlands helps pay the rent. With my recent move back to Colorado Springs, it had been a while since I'd had the time to take a trip. The prospect of shooting during and after an impending sequel to my original snowstorm follies was too good to pass up. At least in the intervening years I figured out that you leave town before the storm hits, not at the very moment it's applying a choke hold to your state. Owning a 4WD truck instead of my little Chevette helps, too.

My first stop was Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction. I slept in the truck as the snow really started to fly, and spent much of the next morning photographing the winter weather. [photo] On my way out, the ranger said they were closing the road due to the snowy and icy conditions, so my timing was just right. I then headed south along the Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic Byway, which winds its way through Colorado's own canyon country. Unfortunately, the snow was coming down so hard that I really couldn't see much. There were a few photo ops along the way, but fewer than I'd hoped. [photo]

I dropped into Paradox Valley, then climbed the other side and headed for the state line. By now the snow was really piling up, with easily two feet of powder flanking the road over the nameless pass that spit me out into Utah along the southern flanks of the La Sals. Once I hit the north-south Highway-191, I opted to head south 70 or 80 miles to another Utah gem called Goosenecks State Park. [photo] So named because of the way the San Juan River meanders wildly through its canyon, Goosenecks is little more than two overlooks, one a mere 1,000 feet above the river, the other called Muley Point, atop nearby Cedar Mesa, that's around 1,600 feet above the San Juan. I spent the night at the lower overlook and shot sunrise from there. I made an attempt to get to the upper vista point, but after climbing up treacherously windswept and snow-drifted switchbacks of the road to the top of the mesa, the access road to Muley Point was totally snowed in. So then it was back down the switchbacks, 500-foot drop-offs be damned! [photo]

By now I was feeling like a little civilization might be nice, so I made the long drive north to Moab and got a motel room. I didn't bother with any HBO classics this time around, but enjoyed myself enough that my intended one-night stay turned into two. Unlike my first trip, I spent very little time in my room, despite the bone-chilling temps.

There are few sights as dramatic as red rock canyon country with a fresh coat of white, and this storm really left its mark. The clouds hid the La Sals all day on New Year's Eve [photo], but the next day their crisp white ramparts pierced the cobalt sky. (Blech! Who writes this crap? Oh, wait...) It was quite a dramatic contrast. The wind must have really been howling up high, because huge plumes of snow were being torn from the summit pyramid of 12,482-foot Mount Tukuhnikivatz (an old Indian word that means Let's Totally Throw a Bunch of Random Letters Together and See If The White Man Buys It). [photo]

For my first sunrise of 2011 I headed to Canyonlands. I thought about shooting Mesa Arch first [photo from many years ago], and was heartened on my way past the trailhead that there were no cars in the parking lot of this popular destination. I headed to Green River Overlook hoping for some clouds below the rim, and barring that, I figured Mesa Arch made a good fallback position. No clouds, so I headed back to the Mesa Arch trailhead. There were now, just 15 minutes later and half an hour before sunrise, six cars in the lot. I pulled in while I considered my options. Then car seven came along. And car eight. Knowing the shooting space at the arch is pretty limited, and guessing that the fresh snow now had roughly a million foot prints in it, I decided to head to Grand View Point instead [photo][big photo], one of the most aptly named overlooks you could ever imagine. I always like transitions, be they weather, seasons or calendar, so to see the sun breach the horizon for the first time in 2011, with its new beginnings aura, was even better than the last sunset of 2010 the previous night, spent shooting near the Fiery Furnace in Arches. [photo]

Later in the day on New Year's Day I headed up the La Sal Mountain loop road, roughly a 60-mile route that follows along the flanks of the mountain range before dropping into Castle Valley's steep canyons on its way to join Highway-128. I was surprised to find the road plowed, as I'd never been able to drive very much of it in past winters. The light was flat so I didn't really have too many shooting options, but I thought I'd scope it out for future reference. [photo] Well, 18 and a half miles into it the plowing came to an abrupt end, and I wasn't about to attempt to break dozens of miles of trail through two feet of snow. I was sure wishing there had been some (any!) warning that the road wasn't passable beyond this seemingly arbitrary point. To add insult to injury, I could see down towards Castle Valley, and it looked like I was missing some low clouds and fog sweeping through the valley. Knowing it would take way too much time to make it over there by looping my way back around, I unleashed a string of F-bombs (think Hugh Grant in the opening scene of Four Weddings and a Funeral), turned the truck around and headed back towards Moab. Once down around Ken's Lake, I shot dozens of images of the sandstone ramparts preceding the La Sals, many for the purpose of merging into gigantic panoramic photos later. This took me through sunset and beyond for my first day of 2011. [photos to come]

For my last morning shoot, I figured I'd try Castle Valley in hopes of getting a repeat performance of yesterday's fog (accessed from Highway-128 this time), but was out of luck. The air was bitter cold and very clear, so I decided to head back up 128 to start the trip home. Shortly after hitting the highway, with still about half an hour to go before sunrise, the dramatic silhouette of Fisher Towers presented itself, and a very thin crescent moon was not too far away. It then became a simple task of finding that point along the highway where the two lined up. It was a serendipitous way to start my final day, to say the least. In fact, the shots of the crescent moon rising over and amongst the towers turned out to be some of my favorite images from the trip. [photo]

I did find a little bit of fog along the Colorado River as I headed northeast, and took a few shots of it along the way. Once back in Grand Junction, I found a car wash and attempted to explicate the few hundred pounds of ice that had so caked the rear wheel wells of my truck that every time I hit the slightest bump, the truck bed would slam down hard on the rear tires. There was only about an inch of clearance between the ice and the tires! After burning through every quarter I had in the truck – 26 of 'em! — and still only making minor headway, I decided the ice was evil incarnate. I'm convinced that if Hell ever does freeze over, this was gonna be the ice that did it.

Beyond the Bells, Part 2

I've been so busy moving my entire life from Pueblo to Colorado Springs that I haven't had the luxury of posting much the last few weeks. Just to keep the blog warm, here's a shot at a little lake near Marble that warranted a detour on my way over towards McClure Pass a few weeks ago.
[click to enlarge]

Beyond the Bells, Part 1

Remember how I said in my previous post that, despite the Maroon Bells not revealing themselves, I still found plenty to photograph? Here are a few shots from that day, taken while waiting/hoping for the Bells to emerge from the clouds. These images were made within view of the Bells, but looking in different directions. As always, click for larger version.

EDIT: Apparently I'm running up against a maximum pixel size for when you click on the image. If you want to see an even larger version than what you see when you click the photo above, click this link: http://www.toddcaudle.com/102710-quadtyche.jpg
(if it only covers the top of your monitor, click on the image to maximize it...)

First Ever Photograph of a Human Being

Absolutely incredible! Too bad he (presumably) never knew of his claim to fame. Click the link to read about it: http://www.petapixel.com/2010/10/27/first-ever-photograph-of-a-human-being/

Snow Day

Maroon Bells and Maroon Lake, just outside of Aspen, is the quintessential beauty spot in Colorado. It's a scene that's viewed and photographed many thousands of times over the course of a summer and fall. So many people visit the place that on summer days and fall weekends, access is limited to riding a shuttle bus up the eight or nine miles of the Maroon Lake Road. (FYI: Head up before there's anyone manning the entrance gate and you can drive your own car up, and not pay the fee.)

As far as photographic subject matter goes, it really doesn't get any better than seeing these classic peaks reflected in the lake at sunrise. It's a gross understatement to call the place iconic. And therein lies the dilemma. Maroon Bells reflected in Maroon Lake has achieved iconic status because it's been seen and photographed so many times. It's been seen and photographed so many times because it's so incredibly, classically beautiful. (Ease of access doesn't hurt, either.) As a photographer, there's very little chance of going there and coming away with anything that hasn't been seen a million times. Show up on any given weekend morning in late-September or early-October, when the aspen forests flanking the mountains are at their peak fall color, and you're likely to share the scene with more than 100 tripod-toting strangers. Chances are, if you didn't bundle up and make your way to the shoreline an hour before sunrise, you're not going to find a decent spot from which to shoot. So why bother?

And yet, I still find myself drawn to photograph this very familiar scene. Case in point — on Tuesday of this week, with a fairly substantial snow storm gripping Colorado's mountains, I drove for seven hours, capped off with a trip over a very snowy and slick McClure Pass in the dark, to spend the night at the Frontier Hotel (that would be my Nissan Frontier pick-up parked in the Maroon Lake parking lot), hoping to fulfill a decade-long dream of photographing a winter view of Maroon Bells. Though technically not winter, if I could get up there before the road closed for the season, it would save me from alternative methods of access, which would be either skiing the last several miles of the road, or renting a snowmobile at the T Lazy 7 Ranch to make the trip up to the lake. Through many phone calls to different agencies in Aspen and Pitkin County, I was able to determine that, despite a foot of snow falling on the Aspen area, the road to Maroon Lake remained open. After checking out several online webcams that showed very wintry roads in Leadville, and hearing on the radio how much of a mess I-70 was due to the weather, I decided to drive the long, more southerly route over snowy Monarch Pass, along the north rim of the deep canyons of Curecanti National Recreation Area, and then over the aforementioned McClure Pass, before dropping into Carbondale and on to Aspen. From there, I headed up the Maroon Lake road, blazing a trail through untouched powder the whole way. Once in the parking lot at the lake, I wrapped my zero-degree North Face sleeping bag around me and drifted off to sleep to the unbelievable artistry of Porcupine Tree's "Signify" blasting through my truck's speakers. I woke up a few times to see the moon and some stars, leading me to believe that maybe the storm would loosen its grip enough by morning to allow me some shots of the Bells. Unfortunately, when the light of day arrived, the mountains were completely socked in. I still found plenty to shoot, but the coveted Maroon Bells winter shot was a bust.

After a few hours of hoping for clearing clouds, hunger pangs took over, so I headed down into Aspen for breakfast. I wasn't ready to throw in the towel just yet, so I headed back up for a second chance. Ah, second chances. Not long after I got back to the lake, the clouds began to part, revealing a glorious scene of the Bells decked out in all their winter glory. I began to photograph the scene when both peaks were still barely visible through the flowing streamers of clouds, and kept shooting until the only clouds left were some tame powder puffs drifting harmlessly above the peaks. The landscape was a crisp, cool pastiche of blue and white. Despite the peaks now fully in view, clouds down valley were still producing snow. If you click the photo to see it at full size, you'll notice some white streaks in the blue sky at the top of the image. Those streaks are snowflakes caught during the exposure.

My only disappointment was in discovering the lake had already frozen over. No matter. There was still plenty to photograph without the classic Maroon Lake reflection.

Time flies...

Ya know, when I started this blog, I fully intended to post to it constantly. And then life intervened. Here it is, more than two months since my last post, with the first paragraph of a review of Rush's August concert at Red Rocks sitting there in draft mode looking irrelevant, and maybe 20 or more posts having gone unwritten. Our home in Pueblo is up for sale, the wife and I are splitting up once it sells, and I've already got an apartment in Colorado Springs for my eventual move back "home." There have been many great road trips (not nearly enough, but I've been busy) worth writing about, worth sharing pictures of, but I just never got around to it. Heck, there's a course-changing election a few days from now, and I haven't taken the time to write a single word about it! Not that politics will ever play more than a fleeting role here, but still...

It's time I changed that. No promises, but I'm going to try to be more active and consistent on this blog, so you people out there on the Internets will have a reason to tune in.

Funnel Cake

Last night I did a little storm chasing west of town. I got out there before sunset, but much of the storm had moved far enough east that the nearly constant lightning was concealed within the roiling clouds. It was a very dynamic system that eventually joined with a few other cells, and once it got darker, the lightning bolts were there for the prepared photographer's taking.

Then I got a little extra treat. A funnel cloud dropped out of the sky not too far from me, yet far enough away that I really didn't worry about it coming my way. Plus, the storm was still pushing away from me, so I figured even if it touched down and graduated to tornado status, it wouldn't threaten my location. It never touched down, and dissipated shortly after it formed, but not before I got one shot off. This is a 1-minute exposure, and the orange glow in the clouds is from the city lights of nearby Pueblo.

My New Logo?

Last night I was up at timberline on Mount Emmons (near Crested Butte) with my friends Ed & Faith Cooley from Arkansas. We were lucky enough to witness one of the most beautiful sunsets I've seen in years. This humongous cloud towering over Emmons' northeast shoulder turned just about every color a cloud could be. It...was...AMAZING!

So I figure, since my e-friends on the Rocky Mountain Nature Photographers forum refer to me as Cloudman, due to my propensity for shooting all sorts of interesting cloud pictures, maybe I need to incorporate this one into a new logo.

Ah, maybe not. Enjoy!

Don't Try This at Home -- Or Anywhere

So check this out. I was coming down from Paradise Divide near Crested Butte last week and happened on this scene. I have NO idea how this lady ended up like this (maybe Carl Edwards had gone "through" earlier), but it took two trucks and three brains to get her out. I was second on scene, but the first with a tow strap. I tried to pull her out, but there wasn't enough road width to pull her straight back and I just managed to pull the back end around more, threatening to complete the job she started, putting her over the edge. Then a guy (in the red SUV) had the idea of using his trailer hitch like a pulley to pull her straight back (think of my tow strap in the shape of an "L,", with one end hooked to my hook and me pulling straight up the road, and the strap making a 90-degree turn around his trailer ball to pull her straight back), so we tried that way, and it worked! Until my tow strap snapped. Damn! I really liked that tow strap. It didn't bust a few months ago, when my little Nissan Frontier and I pulled a gal in a full-sized Dodge Ram pick-up hauling three horses in a horse trailer partway up Monarch Pass on a sheet of ice. Apparently a Buick LeSabre was just too much to handle. Oh well.

A third guy, who had a bunch of chains in his truck (I think he was the ghost of Christmas Past) suggested we hook one chain up front and pull one way, hook the other up at the back and pull the back end around at the same time, basically yank her back onto the road. BINGO!