Not a Ramada!

Here's my excuse.  My escape.  My little birdhouse, tucked against a tree.  Branches and clouds and stars and mud.  I cannot get any closer to sharing with you, my love of being outside than this image.  Of course, I do a lot of crazy things outside, but being in the mountains, moving slow, watching the sky spin, is what I really need.  Maybe I'll fit some tent time in this weekend, too.  It's a work trip if I have the camera with me, right?

Have a pleasant weekend in your own little birdhouse.

Star Bombers

Trails in the SW sky, the Milky Way (center frame) remains visible above the Hayden Point forest fire. Compiles from seventeen four minute exposures.  These are the same trees and stars from yesterday's image.  Enjoy.

Through the Trees

Three blue spruce stand against the night sky in the White River National Forest.  Several miles away a fire near Hayden Point glows on the horizon.  The Milky Way continues on, undeterred.  Single 30 second exposure, trails to come later.

Flat Tops Trails

Flat Tops Trails, originally uploaded by McF Studios.

Of course I made a time-lapse. This is 10,080 seconds compressed to one.

Flat Tops Trails

A clear night above 10,000 feet in the White River National Forest. Half a moon lit the foreground and provided some colour in the sky. I figured there was too much light to catch any trails, or maybe the star colours wouldn't translate as well. Guess it pays to shoot anyway. The warm glow on the trees on the left is from my campfire. This image was compiled from 42 four minute exposures, roughly three hours.

Steady Thursday & Free iPhone Wallpapers

I think Thursday is going to be my post day.  It's always a struggle to produce content for the blog that meets my standards for artistic endeavours.  Sometimes the pictures happen easily, but the stories have trouble finding words, other times it's the opposite.  But I usually have something to share on Thursdays.  Maybe it's circadian.  Todays offering is in honour of the Fourth of July celebrations this week in the States.  I've created a set of 18 iPhone wallpapers of fireworks.  You get them all for the low cost of one mouse click on this link.  They are sized for the iPhone 4 screen specs but will display on any of the iPhone or iPod Touch models.  To install them Mac OS omputer unzip the file, drag the folder to iPhoto, sync your iPhone/iPod Touch, then, from your iOS device select an image and set it to the wallpaper.  Installing these from a Windows computer begins by pressing CTRL-ALT-Delete, and proceed from there.
Enjoy the prefestival fireworks!