Where I've been and what I've learned along the way…
Made a brief visit to Iowa over the week-end and took some new roadside flower photos, plus a few rural HDR scenes, including the historic Hurstville Lime Kilns near Maquoketa.
Most of these flower photos were taken along a 150 ft stretch of median where I-74 joins I-80 West. The sheer number of blooms was impressive! The mostly purple asters contrasted nicely with the intense yellow goldenrod.
While in Colorado we had the opportunity to visit Rocky Mountain National Park.
The first day I hiked around the Bear Lake area and took HDR photos of the taller peaks. I was lucky the sky stayed clear until noon (gallery photos 1-15).
On the second day we did a car tour along Trail Ridge Road. There were more clouds and even some rain. At one point we hiked up to an alpine desert above 12,000 ft. These “mushroom rocks” offered an unusual photographic subject.
Along the way we saw both elk and the wily marmot.
We recently returned to an old favorite from the time we lived in Wyoming called Vedauwoo. In spite of their weathered sandstone appearance, these rocks are much harder—granite I think. The snow had only recently receded and the wildflowers were out in full force! I’ve posted a gallery of macro and HDR photos for all to enjoy. The last few images are from Northern Colorado where we saw fields of wild iris in all the wet places.