I learned from a photographer friend, Matt Vincent, that sunset at the equinox is pretty special. You see, here in the west, roads are laid out by strict compass guidelines; east, west, north and south. By looking west at sunset or east at sunrise on the day of the fall or spring equnox, the sun […]
I was out for an evening of photography on the Pawnee National Grasslands the other evening. The stars were out, a brisk wind was blowing, and the quarter-moon was to rise at 11:35 pm. I took lots of shots of the windmill and stars, but my favorite photo came just after the moon appeared. My […]
My friend, Doug Chaney and I ventured out to the Pawnee National Grasslands late one night during a new moon. We were hoping for a clear night, but clouds came in the way. Nevertheless, we found a nice spot in a wind-swept portion of a side road, and set up our tripods. The temperature was […]
On the plains, nothing announces spring better than the song of the meadowlark. On a recent morning trip to the Pawnee National Grasslands, I caught a couple of them in full throat. It’s fun to catch them from the window of Big Red – the Pawnee has many gravel roads with barbed wire fences on both sides […]
Burrowing owls are delightful birds. They are found on the open prairies of Colorado, usually in association with prairie dog colonies, where they use abandoned prairie dog holes for their burrows. I recently discovered a small flock of burrowing owls near a gravel road just north of Keota, a largely abandoned farming community within the […]
I was out early this morning to check out a wind farm I’ve noticed north of the Pawnee National Grasslands on the plains east of Fort Collins. I had no idea that this enterprise was so vast! There are several hundred wind turbines just east of Grover, all gathered to take advantage of the rather constant […]
In late October and early November, sunrise on the plains is a special event. I’ve been to the Pawnee National Grasslands east of Fort Collins twice this week visiting one of my favorite scenes. There’s a working windmill near the Pawnee Buttes overlook, and I always check out the sky behind the windmill before I venture […]
To get to the Pawnee Buttes on the Pawnee National Grasslands, the most commonly traveled gravel road passes by the almost-ghost town of Keota, Colorado. I was out early one summer morning to see what I could see, and found a curve in the road that gave me a view of the Kiota watertower with a beautiful sunrise […]