And now, for a change of pace--balloons!

My buddy Geri Tzimoulis called me because someone she knew was involved in putting on a balloon festival here in Vegas. When I arrived, the first of fifteen balloons were lifting into the morning aky, while more were being inflated.

People were setting up one balloon after another:

 

It is a three-day mass balloon ascent (15 balloons). The weather has cooperated perfectly on the first two days.

 

 

 

And then we add motion!

 

 

For a YouTube video of the entire festival, just click on the YouTube icon on my web page www.divexprt.com 

 

After three mornings of perfect weather for ballooning, the wind came in the next day! Here's a sample:

 

 

The events organizers did a magnificent job, and luck was definitely with them! 

 

Triumph and vindication...

 

Oh, well, let's not go overboard. I did get up at 2:30 Tuesday morning and stepped out of my motel room. The sky was full of stars!  Game on! I loaded the car and took the hour drive down to Maroon Bells (you have to be there by 5:20 or 5:30 or the close parking lot is full).

By 6:00 or so, the first faint blushes of sunlight touched Maroon Peak. I admit that Maroon Bells is a one-trick pony, but it is a helluva trick! Best of all, the two stormy days had put new snow on the peak!



Beautiful, subtle colors! Unfortunately for me, I hardly noticed because after an hour  in this deep freeze I was freezing to death. Heavy gloves, wool short, muffler and heavy jacket simply didn't work as the three and a half hours ticked by. B-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-...

Ah, but the colors got better by the minute as the Sun slowly rose.

About now I was shaking, and couldn't use  my hands. The next time somebody says 'global warming' to me I'm going to pop them. Hmm. Maybe I'll just suggest they go to Maroon Bells at Dawn in September...

Then the sunlight got to my spot, and within a few minutes I had to peel off all the cold-weather gear. It was really balmy, especially when the wind stopped. After a half hour I even regained the use of my hands!

I have the complete sunrise sequence, which will eventually go up on YouTube and my web site. I could only stay there until 10:00 A.M, because I had a nine-hour drive back to Vegas.

Meanwhile, this gives you an idea of why this is the most photographed site in Colorado.

Desperately seeking Sun, not finding any...

I came here at precisely the same time last year, and wore polo shirts and shorts.

I therefore have definitive evidence for the IPCC that the world is cooling!

Since there were no pictures worth taking, I went exploring after I saw about 70 private jets on the local airport. Sure enough, all along the side roads were secluded private lakes and looooooong driveways, some with huge but rather hidden  mansions.

Unfortunately, the conditions on the roads were the kind you find on a polar expedition. So much for photos at Dawn or any other time...

I intended to go up over Independence Pass  http://www.divexprt.com/HDRphotography/2012Colorado/2IndependencePass/IndependencePass.html   , but turned back as I thought about what road conditions would be at 10,000 feet. The wisdom of age...

Wait! Isn't it still September?

One more try for Maroon Bells at dawn. Then it is ten hours from there to Vegas.  Hmmm. wonder if I could hitch a ride on one of those jets...

Isn't it great being a photographer?...

When I woke up this morning, the skies were clear in Vegas. Since I had 600 miles to go today, the Colorado weather forecast (Sunny, 0% chance of rain) was welcome.

Everything went well for about 350 miles. Then I went under the biggest, blackest cloud I've seen in twenty years (I do remember a famous one that almost sank us out in the Coral Sea). Twenty miles later, I took a picture back at it:

That cloud was the first of two in Utah and a third in Colorado. All had giant lightning bolts flying around, machine-gun-like hailstones, and sound that made your ears ache.

From sunshine to this in a couple of minutes:

Gee, I wonder if it will be nice and clear, with 0% chance of rain again at Dawn tomorrow?

The Photo Journey concludes...

Yesterday was a weather wipeout, but today dawned clear. Saturday morning, and Canadians know that you will freeze your butt off down by the water at Lake Louise, so they come later. I was the sixth car in the lot, and was rewarded with seeing the first kiss of sunlight on the glacier:

I waited as long as I could at Lake Louise, getting as much light on the scene as I could:

Parenthetically, there is another one of those small, unostentatious bungalow resorts on the shore at Lake Louise. The Canadians seem to specialize in these:

My friend Rick said that I should get to nearby Moraine Lake early, because the parking lot was quite small. I imagined a remote lake with crickets chirping, and when you stood on a parapet to get the scene recorded, you would think it was just like that. the lake doesn't have a lot of boats and people, as you see in the picture.

No, they are all on the parapet behind you and scrambling over the rocks to get into your picture.

The beautiful lake is surrounded by tall peaks and immense forests:

However--you would be wrong about the crickets at Moraine Lake. When the sun came out and it got warm, this was the scene leaving that parking lot:

I have four and a half minutes of that, hundreds of cars lining the approach road for at least a half-mile. I did try to go back to Lake Louise at Noon, but the parking lots were full, the approach roads were packed with cars, and there was a hundred-car line-up on the Trans-Canada Highway just to get off at the Lake Louise exit!

Heading back for home tomorrow morning, via Waterton Lakes, East Glacier and Pocatello. Expect me in October...

Wonders in the sunshine...

I spent yesterday again desperately trying to hit key attractions while the sunshine continued. My friends had suggested the Spray Lakes Loop near Canmore, so I tried it first thing in the morning. Sure enough, the morning light enhanced the view:

All along the road, there were overlooks where one could drink in the work of Nature, the Master Designer:

I could have relaxed here all day:

However--there were other important sites to hit and time was limited, so I went on to Johnston Canyon, where Parks Canada has built a walkway through a deep, narrow river canyon.

 

The Canyon has two falls, one easy to get to and the other miles away. I went to the closer lower falls, which were pretty powerful in a confined space:

 

 

There is a small cave you can enter to get right next to the falls in a confined space. This is where you appreciate the power of moving masses of water to carve through the hardest of rocks:

 

 

Moving on, I returned to Emerald Lake to shoot without all the cloud shadows of my earlier visit. This picture will be the left side of a three-image panorama of the entire lake when I get time to do it:

 

 

For the final important target of this day, I returned to Takakkaw Falls to be sure I did it justice. I went closer than I did on my earlier visit, but the camera starts getting wet from all the spray at about this point:

 

 

By the way, if you ever get to visit Takakkaw, you will have the fun of navigating this canyon with two hairpin turns...

 

 

The Toyota looks as if it were sent for and couldn't come, a relic of Grapes of Wrath, but I haven't seen a car wash (or cell phone service, or much else) out in the places where I've been spending all my time.

 

Off this morning to a beautiful lake which only issues only twenty permits per day to visitors. Can't wait!

 

 

The power of sunlight...

My friends were right about the glories of the Canadian Rockies--it just took sunlight to see them. The final morning in Jasper dawned with the first clear skies after ten days of clouds, and what a difference!

After the obligatory breakfast with my close friend Buck:

I took off to capture the images which have been eluding me. First, Sunwapta Falls, which flows past a small island before plunging into a deep gorge:

 

The day was a sprint. So many places to capture while the sky was clear! This is Waterfowl Lake:

As you can imagine, the Columbia Icefields gleamed in the Sun with their new coat of snow from the recent weather:

and a lake I had been hoping to see in ideal conditions was all one could have wished. This is the view of Peyto Lake from the Bow Summit:

 

Mountains, mountains everywhere!

 

 

Our old friend Bow Lake seemed positively invigorated!

 

 

As I neared Banff, a member of the local aristocracy came out to greet me:

 

 

A new beginning, and not a moment too soon! Off to find more subjects today--I have a long list!