Sunday, January 8, 2017

Traveling more

While 2016 has been a year of change for most people, for me it has provided me the opportunities to travel more. Regular readers will already know of my recent vehicle change to a Ford F150, which with our 16ft travel trailer, has provided a home base for several camping trips.

June saw us camping for a few days at the Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Oklahoma.  And while I did not take a lot of photographs, I did enjoy the chance to escape the "rat race" and watch the sunsets over the lake while walking my dogs.
Sunset

August saw us off to Colorado Springs for a long weekend; primarily to visit the Tiny House Jamboree. But it also provided an opportunity to visit the popular attraction of Pikes Peak. The views while driving up (and down) Pikes Peak were amazing and the summit provided some great views . While here I did take a 360 panorama but for some still unknown (to me) reason, I have not been able (yet) to process it successfully and get all the elements to align correctly.
Train

Train

View

December saw us off to spend a long weekend at Beavers Bend near Broken Bow, OK. It was a great change of pace to spend not only my birthday, but also the new year away from the "rat race". And while it may not have been the most photogenic of locations, I still enjoyed wandering around, either walking my dogs, or carrying my camera to see what I could find. Was also great to experience a selection of different visitors to our camp site: crows, squirrels, woodpeckers, raccoons. And to also spot some deer in the distance while hiking one of the trails; although Jax thought he was up to the task of hunting down a full grown deer! And while he wasn't able to go off in pursuit, he did manage to scare them off with his "battle cry".
Woodpecker

Reflection

Reflection

Crow

Squirrel
Hole
Fungus

Stump

Tree

I still need to work more on balancing my personal time and my photography time. Currently I'm still not spending as much time with my camera and photography as I would like but 2017 should see a resurgence of my work, as I make a greater effort to shake off my creative blocks and my technology burn out. Hopefully I can also shake off the carpal tunnel issues I've been suffering lately too.