M-Photo | Field Notes

Bent's Old Fort was a trading post for trappers, traders and travelers on the Santa Fe Trail back in the 1830's.  The National Park is a reconstruction but it looks pretty authentic to me.  This place is amazing!  You can go into all the rooms and they are decorated with period artifacts.  Bent's Fort was constructed of adobe bricks and was a meeting place for traders and travelers.  Beaver pelts were traded and when the Beaver supply diminished Buffalo furs took their place.  In the middle of the fort was a press that flattened out the furs for shipping.  The two story structure was made up of guest quarters, dining room, a bar complete with billiard table, a blacksmith shop and storage rooms filled with gun powder and food stuffs.

Beautiful day in Colorado for a spring hike.  No elevation hiking today, we wanted to enjoy the warmth.  After months of bundling up in winter gear it is really freeing not to wear a coat and feel the sun on my skin.  I am solar powered after all.

Two and half hour, 3.56 mile with 659 ft elevation gain.

Horse Tooth Mountain Trail

Predawn wake up to get to the Garden of the Gods for sunrise.  We got there on time and there was parking!!  That is the best time to get there otherwise you are out of luck finding a place to park, we know. Used ‘The Little Guy’ on this trip.  The light was not what we planned, I had a bum leg, hiking was a bit challenging so we took it easy.  Photos were not great but it was a fun day anyway.  We went to the the trading post and that is where I shot quite a bit, opted for black and white processing to bring out the contrasts.

I have been reading a lot about photographers using mirrorless cameras as a supplement to their DSLR’s. The idea is that mirrorless cameras are much lighter than DSLR and it is true because there is less hardware in the camera.  We have been hiking a lot this year and lugging all my Nikon gear is killing me. This little guy weighs significantly less than my Nikon D500 for sure. I have tried out the Olympus Pen a few years back.  It wasn’t bad, just felt fragile and I guess I wasn't quite ready to make the move. That was a few years ago and technology has improved. I am really liking the digital viewfinder.

This has been a fun little camera. One of the reviews I read said that this little guy makes shooting fun again.  I have to agree, it has buttons and dials and reminds me of my long time friend; my Olympus OM 2 film camera. There is an Aperture ring on the lense, so cool!
Having a lighter camera in the backpack makes hiking that much easier. For the more photo oriented trips I fin…

The Butterfly pavilion is an insect zoo in Westminster filled with spiders, beetles and of course butterflies and moths.  It has been cold and the landscape in Denver is pretty beige this time of year.  Being able to spend some time in a mini rain forest with greenery and humidity was just what I needed.

https://www.butterflies.org

What an awesome place!!

Entry into the ice castle is timed so that there are not a lot of people in the exhibit at the same time and you can stay as long as you like.  From the outside I can’t say I was too impressed.  We arrived in Dillon about two hours early.  You never know what the traffic is going to be like up the the high county, it being ski season and all.  We parked at the castle and took a walk for some coffee to kill time.  At the Starbucks there was a group of girls sitting at the table next to us.  One of the girls was dressed in a costume and looked like a winter queen.  I remember thinking that it was so very cold and what ever photo shoot she was about to do would be pretty cold for her.  It was obvious to me she was dressed for a photo shoot.  
The inside of the ice castle was way better than I expected.  There was an open space in the middle that was surrounded by the ice wall and entrances to various caves.  There was also an ice slide!  We explored the site for…