Best of 2011
Another year has come and gone. 2011 was a good year for us photographically. We thought we would put together a "Best Of" gallery to show off our best photos from the year. Hope you enjoy!
San Juan River
In May we took a 5-day raft trip down the San Juan river in southeast Utah. Several of the days were cold and rainy and the wind would not relent! Nevertheless, the sun did make a few appearances and we made the best of those times. There are tremendous petroglyph panels along the river with figures up to 6 feet tall! Unfortunately, someone has taken many hours to systematically deface some of the panels. Luckily, the most beautiful panels are higher up on the cliff and are preserved. We had beautiful sunsets and sunrises, moonsets, and there were lots of flowering cacti. Even had a brief encounter with a collared lizard!
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San Juan Mountains
In late July we headed up into the Mt. Sneffels Wilderness out of Ridgway, Colorado. We camped near the Blue Lakes trailhead in one of the most beautiful mountain valleys on earth! The blue lakes lived up to their names with vivid turquoise colored water and the wildflowers were blooming in profusion! We drove over several of the high mountain passes on jeep trails, reveled in the crisp mountain air and flower-covered alpine meadows, and checked out several old ghost towns. Back at camp we had a family of marmots for neighbors and we had a lot of fun photographing them.
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Mesa Verde
From the San Juans we headed south to Mesa Verde where we toured Spruce Tree House, Cliff Palace, Balcony House, Long House, and others. We tried to time our tours to coincide with afternoon light, but the monsoons swept in and we had clouds most afternoons. The light was rather flat so we played around with some alternative post processing techniques and decided upon a look reminiscent of antique photographs. They turned out pretty well!
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North Rim Grand Canyon
In early August we traveled to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon hoping to capture monsoon rainstorms over the canyon. The rains came and we had tremendous atmospheric conditions over the canyon on several evenings! Turbulent storm clouds with their undersides glowing red, rainbows, and wonderful glowing light passing through downpours. To top it all off we had lots of lightning! It all made for a wonderful few days of shooting!
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Miscellaneous
We also did some shooting locally. We caught the fall colors up above Santa Fe and also in Camp May above Los Alamos. Did some shooting in Bandelier National Monument as well as up around Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch. We had a fantastic trip on the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad out of Chama, NM in the fall, and even spent some time shooting flowers in our garden. We ended the year on a high note photographing the sights and the lights of Christmas on Canyon Road in Santa Fe. All in all it was a great year! Looking foward to 2012!!
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