Erich's Photo and Travel

 Finally, due to the ease of the COVID19 restrictions in Colorado, we were able to attend a photo workshop for photographing birds of prey. Mike's Camera in Denver, CO puts this annual event on their calendar and we quickly signed up. Hawk Quest is a non profit company that takes in injured and sick birds of prey and nurses them back to health.  Unfortunately due to their injuries, they will never be released into the wild. Both Michelle and I have tried our best to get close to the various eagle nests in our immediate area without success. Today, success was made, photographed and logged.   American Kestrel American Bald Eagl Owl Harris Hawk We Rule!

 Denver has officially lifted its Mask Mandate for fully vaccinated people while outdoors!  I still feel a bit weary about this especially since this mandate is based on the honor system. Well, what do we have to loose right?  Head outdoors to the Denver Botanic Gardens for a bit of sunshine while it lasts today. We got to the gardens at 0900 and the really wasn't a lot of people there.  That soon changed.   People everywhere.   Just because the mask mandate has been lifted doesn't mean you can block the sidewalks, or social distance to some extent.   After just three shot hours, we got sick of the people and headed home.   Most of the above photos were taken using my Olympus 12-100mm lens (which totally kicks ass by the way) and my 60mm macro lens without a tripod.  I rule.  You know it so you don't have to verbally acknowledge it.

 We only get one good day of weather this weekend so we took advantage of the day and took a walk along the Platt River to shoot some wildlife.  Of course, this entailed lugging our telephoto lenses. We found an eagle's nest situated about 100 yards from the trail last week when we rode our bikes along the trail but didn't have our cameras at the time. The nest has a chick!  The mother wasn't around but we figured she was out hunting so we ended up waiting about 20 minutes for her to come back with food. This is as close as we could get.  I took this photo with my 100 - 400mm Leica Lens.  Not too bad.  Wish I could have been closer but a fence was there to keep people like me out. There were egrets and geese, and other birds that I have no idea what they are called.  I asked them their name but cheep, cheep doesn't translate well in my brain. We even spotted a prairie dog who immediately alerted his troop to our arrival! As always, it was nice to get out of the house al

 Now we both have at least one shot of the Pfizer Vaccine, we decided it was time to take another road trip.   Louisiana sounded good! A quick check on AirBNB and we found a nice two bedroom two bathroom home on Algiers Point.  Algiers Point is a short ferry ride across the mighty Mississippi River from Bourbon Street.   Did I forget to mention that New Orleans, LA is an eighteen hour drive away?   As always, we got up butt ass early to hit the road.  We felt we could make it to Wichita Falls, TX and stay the night at a hotel. Not a lot of stopping on the way due to the mileage we have to endure.  We did stop in Memphis, TX for a quick photo op and bathroom break: We still didn't feel safe eating in restaurants so we went to a local grocery store and picked up some heat and serve meals from the deli. Up and at 'em early the following morning to make it to New Orleans... We arrived in New Orleans around 6pm and found a small restaurant a block or so from the house.  Michelle got

 Oh what a week we had weather wise! Last Saturday Denver was hit with a major snow storm.  The estimates were anywhere between ten inches to four feet. The snow started to fall Saturday morning and didn't let up until late Sunday evening. I tried to stay ahead of the game by shoveling about every two hours.  Glad I did! The sun came out and the snow is slowly melting away. Spring came yesterday and the outside temperature was 66 (36 today). Michelle and I bought new cameras.  Yes, I know, like we need another camera. No reason to stay indoors today.  Tomorrow, yes.  Snow is expected. The new Fuji takes awesome photos.  Just look! Finally stopped for a beer here.  Yes, just one beer. Just nice being outside again.  Of course, we wore our masks and tried to social distance as much as possible.