We were so impressed with our sojourn through the Snowy Mountains we decided it would be the destination for the next day. We headed for the Snowy Mountains and hoped we could take advantage of the massive cloud formations that precede big storms. Our luck held out until the storms hit, with heavy gray clouds, rain sleet and hail. When that happened, we explored a little bit avoiding the mudded out roads and four foot piles of snow. At an elevation topping 10,000 feet, there was plenty of snow still on the ground and the lakes were frozen. There is enough beauty up there to keep us busy for weeks, but we didn’t have the time. This turned out to be the last day of Safari XXXIX due to changes in my travel plans. We can look forward to the Autumn Safari on the East Coast.
June 05, 2023
June 04, 2023
1043 Go West, Young Man…
There are only so many directions you can go. That is if you want to stay on roads. Setting out cross country paying no attention to roads happened more than a hundred years ago, but today we pretty much have to follow the roads that have been made for us. We headed out of Laramie to the Southwest on Route 230 and wound up in Colorado. This is not a bad thing, and this little sojourn reminded us borders between states are artificial because there is not a lot of difference between how Northern Colorado and Southern Wyoming look. As we began our return leg to Laramie, we were faced with a choice of the Interstate or Wyoming Route 130. I should amend that by saying Scenic Byway Route 130. We made the better choice by returning via Route 130 over the Snowy Mountains..
1042 Words Take A Lot More Time
I have a monthly cadence for the creation of The Lipka Journal. (You should click over to my website and download a couple of issues.) I never really stop creating. I post the new issue on the first of the month and immediately begin working on next month’s issue. Doing all the Lightroom, Photoshop and InDesign work takes a little bit less than a week. What do I do with the rest of the time, you ask? Making up words is the answer. I spend about three times as long working on the words as I do on the images.
Using words to complete the story is my measure of success. Finding the right words and then arranging them so they augment the visual impact of the images is a difficult task. It takes a lot of time to look at the images, find their meaning and then add words to them.
Images show the world in front of us; adding words make the images into stories. It gives the images depth and meaning beyond an exposition of what was in front of the camera.
Oh, look! It's the cover photograph of The Lipka Journal! There's a new issue of The Lipka Journal at my website. Stop by and download the latest issue.
June 03, 2023
1041 Return to Vedauwoo
Today was a threepeat day. My photo buddy, Brooks Jensen, has been laid up with a pinched nerve for most of this safari. Today was a day to get him out to see Vedauwoo for himself. The skies were cloudy all day. I uttered a discouraging word or two. We saw neither deer nor antelope. We hoped tomorrow would be better.
June 01, 2023
1040 Home Before the Storm
We decided to go off exploring today, or as we like to call it, “Photography by wandering around.” The randomly selected route led us to Happy Jack Road. At one time it might have been the main road between Cheyenne and Laramie. It was pleasant, scenic and had several Forest Service roads leading off from it. Because photography doesn’t begin until the pavement ends, we spent most of the day on Forest Service Roads.
The scenery was straight out of “Lonesome Dove” and we spent a goodly portion of the afternoon expecting to run into Augustus McRae and Woodrow F. Call. The weather was clouding up all afternoon and we beat the main part of a big thunderstorm back to the RV park. The late afternoon thunderstorm was violent and heavy. The big question is how the rain will affect the dirt roads we like to travel for photography.
It's June First and that means there's a new issue of The Lipka Journal on my website. There's a link to my website, Postcards from the Creative Journey, at the top of the page, so stop on by and download the latest issue. There are photographs from France, the Oregon Coast and an assortment of chair pictures.
1039 It’s Not a Real Photograph First Published 2/9/2014
Most images these days are not real. They are virtual. You rarely hold photographs in your hands any more. I’d wager that most of the photographs you see are virtual. The back of a cellphone, a computer, or pixels projected on a screen or some other computer generated image. They are not artifacts, they are virtual images. It’s getting to the point where you almost have to go to a museum to see a real photograph because the photograph as artifact is becoming increasingly rare. I exaggerate, but not by much I think. There will be a time when the only place you can see a photograph will be a museum.
With this replacement of the physical with the virtual I think something odd will happen. Instead of becoming more valuable with age and scarcity, photographs will have less value because current and future generations do not appreciate the physical artifact because they have been raised in a virtual world. It would be similar to wax cylinder music recordings; or for that matter a 78 rpm record. Maybe some collectors will have them, but for the most part, actual photographs will be a thing of the past because future generations are being raised with photographs as virtual images.
Golly Gosh, it's the first of the month of June and there is a brand new issue of The Lipka Journal waiting for you at my website. Get over there and download yourself the latest issue.
May 31, 2023
1038 A Bit Farther, A Bit Better
Today was the first day Brooks and I were out photographing together. We started at the Ames Monument and went a bit farther down Hermosa Road (a dirt road, of course) until we felt we had seen enough high prairie today. We then went to the Vedauwoo Recreation Area to continue exploring beyond what I have done so far. Yesterday’s big rain knocked the dust down on the roads and it was a pleasant day to drive with the windows open. This morning’s clouds gave way to overcast and removed great shadows.
Vedauwoo is a hidden gem. A beautiful place with very few people. Great for my style of photography.
May 30, 2023
1037 A Change of Plan
My photo buddy, Brooks Jensen had some work to do on his publication that kept him from getting out to photograph. I thought that I might enjoy a round of golf at the local golf course. Yes, Laramie, Wyoming has one eighteen hole golf course, associated with the University of Wyoming. I made the arrangements for a tee time and then mentioned that I would need to rent a set of clubs. I was told that the course had no rental clubs. So much for my round of golf.
Well, the golf plan was scrapped so I went back to Vedauwoo to photograph. While I do love photography, I would really like to see how far I could hit a driver at an altitude of 7,165 feet.
I explored some different areas of Vedauwoo before some late afternoon thunderstorms chased me back down the hill to Laramie.
May 29, 2023
1036 A Pleasant Surprise
We didn’t scout out Laramie, Wyoming too hard prior to the safari, so we’re just going to wing it and practice our tried and true, “Photography by wandering around.” The search for “things to do in Laramie, Wyoming” one of the top results was Vedauwoo Recreation Area. I put on my John B Stetson, hopped in the pick up truck and headed East on I80. After cresting the hill at a mere 8860 feet, it was not too far to the Recreation Area. Despite it being a holiday weekend, the park was not crowded.
Photographically speaking it was superb if your choice in photographic subjects runs toward the massive rocks, trees and big puffy cloud type photographs. Happy for me, that’s what I like to do and I had a pleasant afternoon photographing. I’m not sure how I am going to use these great images, but I am sure I will figure something out.
Click on this link to see a larger panoramic image of some impressive geologic structures.
This park, while fairly compact has a lot of interesting viewpoints and combinations of rocks and trees to photograph. There will definitely be a return trip (or two) to this place.
1035 On the Road Again…Safari XXXIX begins
Photo Safari started out with a bang. I’m at the Wyoming Territorial Prison and I get my camera out, and I head out to create some art. At the first moment of truth, I make one smooth move to flip the camera switch to “on” and effortlessly lift the camera to my eye.
Blank. Nothing. Dark viewfinder. Then and only then do I realize there is no battery in the camera. I fumble through the bag, find a battery and install it. The camera again is raised smoothly to my eye where I see the message telling me there is no memory card in the camera.
Yeah, I’m really good at this photography thing. At least it was the first day and easy to get back in the swing of things so I can move on to making more sophisticated mistakes.
The Most celebrated prisoner in the Territorial Prison was Robert Leroy Parker also known as Butch Cassidy.
One of the things the Prison was noted for was its fine hand made straw brooms. Not a skill that had much application "outside the walls."
May 28, 2023
1034 Getting Second (or more) Chances
The "thumbprint"
One of the good things about staying in one place while on photo safari is the ability to recover from your blunders. We’re not talking mistakes, here, where talking about something so stupid and unthinkable that you can’t possibly be mad because what you’ve done is laughably bad. I’ve done this more than a couple of times, but the most recent memorable gaffe came from the 2021 fall safari in Northern Arizona. It even surpasses the Utah desert disabling the automatic focus incident.
A huge fingerprint smudge on my most used lens cost me a morning’s work. I did not find out about this great blunder until we had completed a morning’s worth of photography. Had we been on a “rootin’, tootin’, never stop shootin’, runnin’ and gunnin’ photo-graphic trophy hunt,” I would not have been able to revisit the location to correct my blunder. Staying in one place allowed me to revisit the site of the ruined images and save me from my own stupidity.
There are two good thoughts here. One is to check your camera functions before you head out to photograph. Two is to stay in one place for a while in case you forget to pay attention to good thought number one.
May 25, 2023
1033 I’m Starting To See Photographs Everywhere First Published 8/12/2012
I’m very happy about this. I noticed it a couple of weeks ago when I was playing golf. I was coming up to the third tee and I looked to the left and there it was - a nice, minimalist landscape. I was at the bottom of a small grassy knoll. The top third of a conically shaped tree was visible on the left side of the knoll and spectacular cloud filled the top two thirds and right side of my “composition.” It would have made a great photograph if I had my camera with me.
The key to the photograph would have been the cloud. I was wearing my “blue blocker” sunglasses (they are a light brown color, a Wratten 90 filter if you’re old enough to know what that means) and the clouds have a wonderfully spectacular “pop” when you look at them through those lenses. My youngest daughter just changed her sunglasses from grays to blue blockers and she noted, “The world looks happier through blue blocker sunglasses.” I agree - especially if you are looking at clouds.
I really am ready for the photo safari to begin.
And so Photo Safari XXXIX begins today. Watch this spot over the next few weeks for real time Postcards from the Creative Journey.
