Skip to main content

Pawnee National Grasslands



Governor Polis lifted the stay at home restriction in Colorado and now we are on the safer at home policy, which means try to stay at home.  Some restaurants and places of business are opening back up around the state.  Erich and I wanted to head out to Pawnee Buttes just outside of Fort Morgan on Friday night to shoot some stars, but the weather did not cooperate.  I just can't shoot any more flowers in the house!  Storms were coming in so we decided to go out on Saturday and make a day of it.  Even if it a bust for photography, it is a nice drive anyway.  It is about a two and half hour drive through the plains on county roads. Got some pretty good photos!

We came in from the top this time and saw a lot of people camping with tents and trailers.  I was kind of surprised to see so many people here, it is usually a place where not too many people go.  Pawnee Buttes is in the Pawnee Grasslands and is part of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  Most places in the BLM are not overly crowded, but with all of us trapped inside due to the COVID19 pandemic, many people are going out and are most likely looking for less populated areas.  As did we, but then again we are always looking for those places.

The goal for today was experimenting with long exposures using the Lee filters; the ND Grad and the big blocker.  I have to say the new Manfrotto tripod was fantastic for this shoot!  It is heavy enough and has a little hook on one of the legs where I could hang my bag.  No movement...but I did forget my iPhone in the Jeep so I had to hold the shutter down for my two minute shots. It was a bit windy and was chilly.




On the way out we knew there was an abandon house that we shot before.  The house was quite different than the last time we photographed it.  Someone cut down all the trees that were surrounding it so it was bare and full of bullet holes.  Still a pretty cool shoot.  Lot's of good texture. 





First time shooting the house back in 2017.


Across the road there was a lone tree in the field with a dramatic sky. A little farther and we stopped at a small bridge to shoot a river.  Great day out of the house!








Labels:
Location: Pawnee Buttes, Colorado 80729, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kansas and Oklahoma Road Trip

Labor Day weekend is a chance to travel farther than a six hour radius from home and see more of this great country.  We try to go to places where half of America is not visiting the same sites.  Therefore, Kansas and Oklahoma! The goal of this trip was to shoot Natural Falls in Siloam Springs, Oklahoma.  Never made it.  We spent a lot of time on Kansas. All the road tips to Indiana to see family, there is absolutely nothing to shoot in Kansas, well not off I-70 anyway.  It wasn't until we headed south to Wichita that we found some cool stuff. First stop was Monument Rocks in Gove County. Kansas.  Rock formation in the middle of farm land. Erich flew the drone around and we snapped a few photos - great start to the trip!! Camera: Fuji XT3 Wichita is really a nice city with a new-ish city center.  The Keeper of the Plains greets visitors on sacred Indian ground between the Little Arkansa and the Arkansa Rivers.  At night fla...
Post a Comment
Read more

Grand Teton and Yellowstone - Wyoming!

The second road trip of the year we headed to northern Wyoming to visit the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.  We stayed in Colter Bay, a village in the Grand Tetons, renting a rustic cabin for 4 nights.  This was the home base for our adventures of exploration in the parks. We had a bit of weather the first two days, after all it is Wyoming and you always have to be prepared for anything.  It was quite cold, around the lower 40s in the day time , cloudy and rainy.  We bring our 'Wyoming Bag' on every road trip (gloves, beanies, and 32 degree jackets). This is not great weather for photography, but we pushed through. We brought the IR converted Lumix cameras just for fun. We did some cool stuff in infrared in the Badlands two weeks ago and wanted to keep the trend going.   Camera: FujiFilm XT5, Lumix LX 100, iPhone  Grand Tetons in Infrared  We started the trip in Cody, Wyoming over the weekend intending to avoid the weekenders in the parks.  We strol...
Post a Comment
Read more

Badlands - Memorial Day Weekend

First road trip of the summer to the Badlands of South Dakota.  We packed up the truck and the Yeti and headed out on a beautiful day excited to get out and escape for a couple of days. Our lunch stop was in the small town of Edgemont, SD.  Cute little city park with a covered bridge, a Canadian Geese family, young boys fishing from the bridge and two large guns flanking the entrance to the park...interesting.  Camera: FujiFilm XT5, Lumix LX100 We had some weather on this trip once we got to Rapid City, which seems to be the norm anymore on our photo trips.  So, we made the best of it and decided t do some long exposure shots in the park and follow some really ominous clouds which resulted in a wicked hail storm.  After it was over it looked like it had snowed. Well, that is spring/summer in the mountains of the west. We were a bit discouraged since the sky just turned to gray, so we left the park and took the Sheep Table Mountain off road trail with a brief sto...
Post a Comment
Read more