2010 was a Very Good Year for Photography - Part 3

The saga continues with my friend Jeff (a panorama photographer, shooting a round shot camera using 120 film) and me making a trip to the Indian Peak Wilderness area and photographing several of the lakes in the area.  Our favorite is the Red Rocks Lake shown in the early morning with rocks and lily pads in the foreground and the Indian Peaks in the background, and a pristine reflection in the lake:

We also spent some time on this trip hiking around Long lake looking for wild flowers and nice views of the Indian Peaks over looking the lake.  The wind was blowing fairly hard, so we did not get the reflections we were looking for.  A very nice view in any case:

After spending the morning hiking and shooting photos, we retreated to Boulder, CO and had our lunch at a Brewing company that serves it own micro brew and a mean chicken fried steak with garlic potatoes.  I sometime think the photo excursion is just an excuse to enjoy this great lunch and beer ;O).
Kathleen and I started out in early October to get some aspen photos above Central City (an old mining town).  Kathleen's shot illustrates why the locals call the aspen in yellow leaves 'Colorado Gold':

We found lots of aspen in the hill above Central City, but found our best shots in the city itself.  Kathleen grabbed this shot of a mining cart turned flower pot at the gateway to Central City I think as a memento to the mining heritage of the area:

I spent time photographing the old town buildings and exploring some of the remaining history.  I have shots from the 70s and 80s, before the gambling interest took over, and they show a very different atmosphere in the town.  I may some day print some of those old shots as a history of the area.  This shot of the main street of Central City stood out for me because of the odd cloud structure:

In late October I took Kathleen to Colorado Springs and a visit to the Garden of the Gods park.  We stopped at the visitors center at the east gateway to the park and took this photo showing the entrance to the  park and Pikes Peak in the background:

We drove into the park and took hundreds of shots.  The day was perfect and light great and in every direction we turned there were great and colorful photos.

We worked our way to the south end of the park and went to the visitors center there and then went to balanced rock, one of the icon of the park:

As you can see the light was great with wispy clouds in the sky.  All in all it was a great day.  We walked our legs off and still had enough energy to smile.  To finish the day I took Kathleen (myself as well) to a restaurant in Manatu Springs called Mona Lisa Fondue.  The ambiance and great food provided a perfect way to end what turn out to be a perfect photo outing ;O).