Some of you may have read my "introduction" posts where I mention I'm a trail rider. As in I take my horse up trails only pretty in-shape people hike. Often we don't even see anyone else. And I say "we" because on these trails, it's always better to have a buddy.
The summer season started for us a couple of weeks ago. My friend/"buddy" has a place between Salida and Buena Vista, CO, so we often go there and ride the Collegiate Peaks area (for those familiar). For those unfamiliar, it's mountainous southern Colorado. We had 2 days of rides planned, which had to be tweaked because the horse I usually ride (Sky) came up limping on day 1 out of the pasture. We had 3 horses with us, so Sky stayed in the pasture (with pain meds!) and I rode her mother, Sierra. Sierra is 28 years old (about equivalent to 90ish in human years), has a heart murmur, and only one eye. And she did AWESOMELY! Ten miles each day, not too much elevation gain, but we were around 2000 feet higher than where the horses live.
Because I can only take one lens with me (have to have room in the packs for lunch, rain gear, water, and libations...), I went for my 18-55mm because it does the best with landscapes. I also had a polarizing filter on it.
On to the pictures! This first one is a shot of clouds sitting around Mt. Princeton from the morning of day one.
Day 1: Midland bike trail. This one is a "selfie"...set camera on sign post, set the shutter to self-timer, press the button, and ride 25ish feet away to your buddy. Sometimes these yield amusing results, but this one turned out well. (Most amusement comes from when we have to have the buddy hold the horse, you press the timer and run and jump on. I've got one from last year where my saddle is sliding off the side...) It's Mt. Princeton again in the background.
Kind of a pano of the mountains.
This is another classic trail rider picture: you have to get the horse's ears in the photo or you weren't really there on a horse! Sierra doesn't stand as still as Sky so I had to work a bit harder to get one with her ears.
Day 2: Browns Canyon Wilderness. No bikes! (Nothing against bikes, but it's always nice to have the trail to yourself. I'm sure all you mountain bikers out there agree.) This day was quite cloudy and gray and some smoke/haze was drifting in from the fires in CA, so basically it was a photographer's nightmare in terms of lighting. I tried. Very hard. Another mounted self-timer shot:
I played around a bit with the in-camera contrast filter. Just for fun. Made it "high contrast" and then underexposed the image a bit. I kind of like the result, even if it's not "natural". Left to right, these are Mt. Jones, Mt. White, and Mt. Antero.
Another like the one above, this time of Mt. Princeton.
At lunch we found some wildflowers, so were were playing with trying to get them and the mountains in the frame. I was slightly more successful than my friend, because I have a better camera (she has a point-and-shoot), but I also sat in a cactus trying to get this shot. That was not so good.
And finally, an unrelated shot that I took a few days later. It's of my mom riding, and it was one of those that I didn't quite plan but really liked the result:
Be prepared for more trail riding pictures as the summer progresses!
Post #1 by Aerlind
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