|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In the very old days,The Sleeping Ute Mountain was a Great Warrior God. He came to help fight against the Evil Ones who were causing much trouble.
A tremendous battle between the Great Warrior God and the Evil One followed. As they stepped hard on the earth and braced themselves to fight, their feet pushed the land into mountains and valleys. This is how the country of this region came to be as it is today. The Great Warrior God was hurt, so he lay down to rest and fell into a deep sleep. The blood from his wound turned into living water for all creatures to drink. When the fog or clouds settle over The Sleeping Warrior God, it is a sign that he is changing his blankets for the four seasons. When the Indians see light green blanket they know it is spring. The dark green blanket is summer, the yellow and red one is fall and the white one is winter. The Indians believe that when the clouds gather on the highest peak, the Warrior god is pleased with his people and is letting rain clouds slip from his pockets. They also believe that the Great Warrior God will rise again to help them in the fight against their enemies. From Legends and Children's Stories of the Ute Tribe. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spectacular Spring day with lots of backcountry skiers in Aspen highcountry out dodging the avalanches |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Authorized by the city of Canon City in 1929 the bridge is the highest suspension bridge over water in the world (1,053 feet). The river below is the Arkansas River. Note in the image the tourist train in the canyon and the wite-water rafters on the river. A helicopter is captured in three places as it does flight seeing. An aerial tram is seen in the far right of image. The image was caught with an Epic GigaPan and a Canon G10 having a 1.4X teleextender attached, giving an effective 200mm focal length. The GigaPan was optimized in Photoshop CS4. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
From the peak of Baldy Mountain at 13,300 feet, a panoramic view of Pyramid Peak, the Maroon Bells, Mount Snomass, Mount Daly, and Mount Sopris. We skinned up to the peak before an afternoon of fabulous backcountry skiing. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Our thanks to the firemen of the Arvada Fire District who trained members of the 2009 South Pole overwinter crew for 2 weeks in September 2008. The training was challenging and very interesting. At times such as the moment pictured here, things got a bit heated.
This is a working fire station. The station is also used to teach students from the Fire Science Technology Program at Red Rocks Community College. The 15 images for this panorama were photographed with a Nikon D80 and stitched with Autopano Pro. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This lichen covered boulder is in the backcountry of Snowmass, Colorado, on Burnt Mountain. I have been thinking of photographing this site for over a year and finally made it out with the Gigapan mount and tripod way out in the wilderness. Actually, the day before, I was here trying to photograph this by hand. I was concentrating really hard on lining up each shot to make a handheld Gigapan. I was about half way through when I heard some snowboarder on the hill above me yelling "hey, photographer, enough with the photos of the rock, move out of the way already" Well, I wasn't done, and I did not want to loose my 'nodal point' position. Besides, we were in the backcountry wilderness, there are a million different routes to go. But they wanted to go right where I was standing. I told them to go around. They did not understand why I would not just move. I understand that it is not obvious to a layman why moving would ruin my shot in progress. I held my ground. The first fellow snowboards by me no problem. The second fellow PUNCHES me as he is going by. Luckily it was a weak punch, but it did throw him off balance and he crashes landing upside down in a tree well below me. Well, I did not escalate the situation further beyond calling him an mild expletive. He dug himself out and did not crawl back up to my little spot on the planet.
Here is another view of this boulder from the year before (lots of snow) http://share.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=3124 I shot this as a High Dynamic Range 3 images per location, but I could not find stitching software that would stitch it. PtGUI would align it great but would never stitch it, it just halted upon stitching. Autopano Giga kept crashing... So this is not the HDR version, and the Gigapan Stitcher performed marvelously. Personally I feel this image has a painterly feeling, but the painter would have to be Jackson Pollack. Its very abstract, with lots of random splashes of color about. It seems that the lichens like to live in the moister regions of the boulder, in the cracks on non-vertical faces. There definitely is a gradient of the lichen species with the amount of water that can be held onto. The fleshier lichens are in the cracks. Its amazing to think that this is the thickness of the life on the surface of the earth at this place, just a thin crusting between hard rock and atmosphere! Lichens (IPA: /ˈlaɪkən/) are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic association of a fungus (the mycobiont) with a photosynthetic partner (the photobiont or phycobiont), usually either a green alga (commonly Trebouxia) or cyanobacterium (commonly Nostoc). The morphology, physiology and biochemistry of lichens are very different to that of the isolated fungus and alga in culture. Lichens occur in some of the most extreme environments on Earth—arctic tundra, hot deserts, rocky coasts and toxic slag heaps. However, they are also abundant as epiphytes on leaves and branches in rain forests and temperate woodland, on bare rock, including walls and gravestones and on exposed soil surfaces (e.g. Collema) in otherwise mesic habitats. Lichens are widespread and long-lived however, many species are also vulnerable to environmental disturbance, and may be useful to scientists in assessing the effects of air pollution, ozone depletion, and metal contamination. Lichens have also been used in making dyes and perfumes, as well as in traditional medicines. Stitcher: 0.4.4090 Images: 221 (17 columns by 13 rows) Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ50 Capture time: 2009-03-28 16:05:33 - 2009-03-08 16:27:41 Aperture: f/11 Exposure: 0.00625 ISO: 100 Focal Length (35mm equiv): 420.0mm Horizontal Overlap: 14.3 to 19.7 Vertical Overlap: 15.8 to 23.8 Computer Stats: 2046 MB RAM 4 CPUs Total Time: 2:28:39 (0:40 per picture) Alignment: 24:01, Projection: 9:09 Blending 1:55:28 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
One of seven new businesses celebrating " Grand Openings on Grand Avenue" May 16th Mancos, Colorado. USA
Marilyn Kroeker Pottery and Watercolors. Steve Sykes Photography |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This panorama shows wovers learning fire fighting from the professionals at the Arvada Colorado training center.
We had a memorable experience there, learning how to extinguish fires, search a burning building, haul co-workers out of harm's way and how to use basic fire fighting equipment. Look around the yard and you will see lots of ways to make fire training interesting. The 34 images for this panorama were photographed with a Nikon D80 and stitched with Autopano Pro. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
cold |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The I-70 roadcut through the Dakota Hogback reveals some 100 million years of rocks from the Age of Dinosaurs.
On the way from Denver to Mount Evans http://gigapan.org/gigapans/29881 I took a break at Red Rocks where I made some spherical panoramas: http://www.360cities.net/image/colorado-red-rocks-park http://www.360cities.net/image/red-rocks-park-colorado-usa Also very interesting rocks: http://www.360cities.net/image/castle-rock-north-east-view-usa http://www.360cities.net/image/castle-rock-west-view-usa |