The Road Less Traveled 03 (Colorado road, somewhere...)

So, in the previous image, the road was barely visible. In this one, you can't miss it. :-) This is another shot that represents a little bit of what's going on in my life right now. Of course, I've got Colorado on my mind. :-) But the idea of taking a new path ... possibly a less traveled path ... these are things I'm contemplating as well. Comments? (I mean comments on the life decisions or on the photograph ... both are welcome as usual!)

 

P.S. I get the feeling that I might actually have a little more free time over the next couple of weeks. You might see me around here more often!! :-)

Is this really a landscape shot? Any comments or ratings are always

appreciated! :-)

It sure is a landscape, and a grand one to! For me this image evokes a sense of wonderment and expectation (I am a 'mountain man' myself), as the hills almost 'grow' from the horizon as one draws closer.....

Technically I think you have done just about everything 'just right'. I might have preferred a bit more mountain and sky to tarmac ..but then the road does diminish tantalizingly into the distance......and seemingly 'into' the mountains ...

Great Shot!

Thanks, Mike - that was exactly what I wanted people to "get" out of this shot. :-)

I really like the road fading off into the distance and the hydro-lines echo that line nicely. Mike is right, you really feel drawn forward and into the mountains and you want to take that journey. I also like the natural clean colours here.

 

My only complaint in the road sign. Although it helps keep the roadway as a central element, it is just too distracting for me. I think I would have much preferred an uninterrupted mountain horizontal line meeting the uninterrupted roadway line leading back into the image. The same shot 200 metres forward down the road would be a major improvement in my mind.

It sure is, Lou Ann, and it is a great one. It reminds me of the first time I saw the Rockies, in my case coming into northern New Mexico on I-40, and then turning up to the northwest on back roads (129 and 104, avoiding I-25 entirely except to cross it) that led into Las Vegas, NM and finally into Taos. My first glimpse of the mountains was a white line on the horizon (about one hundred miles away) that finally grew into something like this. What we were seeing was the range (the

Sangre de Cristo) that contained Wheeler Peak, the highest peak in New Mexico, not very far from the Colorado border. Years later I would fly into Denver. I remember climbing up into the state house dome and being able to see virtually all the way from Pike's Peak to the south toward Rocky Mountains National Park (northwest) and then all the way up into Wyoming. On both trips it was April (as in your shot), when it was beginning to warm up on the high plains but with plenty of snow still on the high mountains.

 

I would not see higher mountains until I saw the Andes after I moved to Ecuador, when I would be able to look out my south window on clear days and see 19,000-foot Cotopaxi about thirty miles to the south-southeast. Nothing quite impressed me so much, however, as seeing the mountains rise up from nothing as I approached the Rockies for the first time on a road that looked a lot like this, except that we were heading northwest most of the time. (You appear to be heading almost due west in this one.) I also enjoyed watching the flora change from grass to scrub cedar to ponderosa to blue spruce as we climbed in altitude, going from near desert to rich forest to bare snow fields when we crossed a high pass over the front range.

 

You'll have to send us a continuing travelogue as you explore this great part of the world. I am happy for you if you are going to be moving to this magnificent kind of country. When I was an undergrad in chemistry, my research director was from Boulder and he wanted nothing more than to get back (in his case) to the San Juans. Fortunately he got a job at Ft. Lewis State College, where he taught until he retired. He still lives in southwestern Colorado.

 

Keep us posted!

 

--Lannie

Hi LouAnn,

When I see scenes like this, I'm even more excited about our trip west in the fall. We've been out there several times but it's been five years now. As many times as we have been west, I've never seen the mountains quite like these. Wishing you well on your new journey....

Very good work, perfect panorama, best regards.

good angle..congrats

Means you will not look back in several years and regret having never tried for the brass ring ......... The hardest part for me LouAnn, was leaving good friends behind -- until I realized that had I never moved - I would never have met the people I now call friends ...... hope that helps. (-;

 

As far as the image - my only suggestion would be to stay in *your* own lane - sol ...

Thanks for the visit, Ken. :-) Yes, my own lane. The thing that was readily apparent to me on that little drive when I took this image was that we were the only car for miles and miles. I could have set up a tripod in the middle of the road and taken lots of shots with different lenses ... and never been bothered by vehicles. There is NO road in the DC area that would provide that opportunity, day or night, without police intervention. LOL!