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A landscape photographer's tour
Keith's travels in Colorado - April-May 2006
In 2004 Keith first took his then fairly new Canon 1Ds on a driving tour round the Rockies in the USA. This photo-diary covers a driving trip around Colorado in April/May 2006.
NEW -- Create your own customised A3 size wall calendar from some of Keith Cooper's photographs. Choose your own images for your own custom printed calendar - 12 months starting any month of the year. Choose from nearly a hundred images - many not yet in our main gallery.
This collection has been re-written to make it easier to follow than the original (big) web page. On my return to the UK , I wrote a more technical article about the photographic aspects as a follow up to my original "Keith's first all digital visit to the Rockies"
There are other photo travel diaries covering trips to:
Washington and Oregon in September/October 2007 and California/Oregon in April/May 2007
Note for visitors from Colorado - I had a great time, thanks! I do really like the place :-)
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Return to South Park
On my way back from Gunnison to Denver I decided to pay another visit to Fairplay. Planning the end of a trip usually involves working back from the fact that I've got to hand the car back early one morning, and thus I tend to stay pretty close to the airport the night before.
Leaving Gunnison, US 50 climbs up over Monarch Pass, and the scenery changes quite noticeably. I thought I'd capture a set of pictures showing the changes, the differing views you get going over some of the high passes.
It starts off fairly arid - we are already at about 8000 feet.
A few conifers start to appear
It's now quite heavily forrested
This view from a stop at a sharp bend shows how far I've climbed so far.
There were bits of car wreckage down below...
With the steep slopes there are truck run off lanes. I think the idea is to see how many buckets you can knock down.
I'm not sure how you are supposed to read all those road signs as your truck hurtles on to the ramp, perhaps afterwards...
A few bits of snow appear
And lots more - nearly there now
This shows some of the snow they get up here
The continental divide is marked on almost any road that crosses it.
Here's one of the ways of clearing the snow
And the view looking East
Meanwhile I stopped off for a coffee in the gift shop, which boasts an impressive range of stuffed animals.
Keith - reflected
After a while I got to Fairplay, where the weather was a bit better than my first visit.
This view is looking towards Kenosha Pass, where I stopped off on the way.
South Park Sky
- Converted to B/W using convert to B/W Pro. one curves layers to enhance sky contrast. The layer was partially masked to stop the foreground becoming too dark
Back in Fairplay I had a quick look at the 'restored' South Park City, which although closed until May 15th, I was allowed to have a look around :-)
More pictures of trains for certain people back in the UK ;-)
This time I'm staying in the Fairplay Hotel.
Unfortunately it's Tuesday and it looks as if I'll miss the open mike spot and back woods review...
This is how my laptop is currently being powered.
I have not seen a light fitting used like this since at my Grandmothers (for the iron) in the 1960's
All seems well.
Now to find a telephone socket to connect to that internet thingy
- Note added next morning from a Starbucks in Woodhouse Park -- I did eventually find a telephone socket, it was in the office of the Hotel :-) The site was updated over a 26,600 dialup connection - it took a while ;-) I'm assuming that not many people are following this photodiary with dialup connections!
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