Terraspectrum

This is a full terrestrial rainbow!  Every colour is present and it's still an hour before sunset.  This is the time of year you can smack a sagebrush and the incredible dust carries forever on the wind.  I wonder if there's a way to print this as a scratch-n-sniff?

Wandering Watershed

Sand Creek trickles through the Boxelder Watershed in Bent Rock Canyon, Red Mountain Open Space, Larimer County, CO.  An old quad identifies this as Sand Creek, but a sign on the property identifies this as Boxelder Creek.  I'm going with Sand Creek because the old quad matches the actual geography and there's is another creek to the south.

Paladin's Grope

Strikes me as something sinister spreading out.  I can feel fingers twitch toward the grasses.  Far, far from home.

Leaf & Rock, Plate 7 of 9

This little broken rock is in the middle of a hiking trail, which made it really easy to find a wide, level place for my tripod.  Turns out it's also the preferred trail for an even less socially adept group of entheusiasts, Joggers!  Before I knew it, my artistic pursuit was an impediment to all of Western Fort Collins!   No one ran into me, but I was reminded of the local etiquette regarding stationary objects and pathways.  Whatever.  These results were absolutely worth it... just look at that texture!  This kind of stuff isn't found every day, so you silly joggers can run in the road, I'm doing important stuff here!
(image notes:  Nikon P7000, tripod mounted, 5 shot bracket, tonemapped in Photomatix Pro4, black and white conversion in LR3)

Nikon P7000 Field Test - UPDATE!

UPDATE:  November 2011  I noticed this page has received a bit of attention lately, and thought I'd let you all know how I'm getting on with this camera.  Well, it went to Nikon Service in April for repair of the lens blades, then it was replaced after developing the same lens blade problem, then replaced again, and then replaced once more all for the same lens blade problem.  When the camera worked it worked well.  Unfortunately, the five different SNs I used exhibited the same physical defect.  I could rant for a month about my frustration with this camera.  But our affair has ended and not at all too soon.  I'm taking recommendations for a new compact camera.  Supposedly the P7100 fixed a lot of the shortcomings of the AWFUL P7000.  Someone else will have to review that one, I'd rather go back to disc film!


Now back to the original post.
When the Nikon P7000 arrived a couple of days ago, I charged the battery and headed out for an eight mile hike.  Out of the box and into the field.  I didn't read any of the manual, didn't learn the buttons, tied a piece of webbing to the strap attachments and started using it.  This isn't a super technical review, just my reactions to being handed a new camera and trying to make interesting images while out enjoying the big bright Colorado sunshine.

Click through for samples and some running commentary.