Just got back from a week with my wife and son in Colorado at the cabin, aptly named "Oklarado", her great-great-grandfather built in 1922. No phones, no internet, no cable TV. For a couple forty-something, on-call 24/7 programmers it was heaven.

Wind Machine Farm just west of Salina, KS on I-70

The Cabin

The stream out back

Manitou Springs street shots

Hiking with the Tike in B&W

Taking a nap

Pike's Peak from the Safeway parking lot in Woodland Park

Hummingbirds outnumber just about everything but squirrels

Sunset at the KS/OK border coming home.

[nulla]

great shots...


I like number 5 best of all


Hope you had a great time.


Something I need to do... this oncall gets to me as well



Neil

Love the B&W of your wife and son. It has a timeless quality about it.

[Venturi]

Thanks for the look and the comments.

Neil: I like that street shot in smaller versions but full-size the post-processing gets a bit obvious. On-call too, eh? Man, it was absolutely awesome to turn on the cell phone and see "No Service" in the LCD.

Gary: The expression on Nate's face is what screamed B&W to me. He just kinda looks like a pissed off little dirt farmer from the dust bowl days, and B&W sealed it for me.

[Techiechick]

Looks like my kind of place. Great shots. Thanks for sharing.

[Peter Zack]

Wonderful series and reminds me I need to leave the phone home and do the same for a week. I like all the shots but agree the BW lokks excellent. The hummer is great as well and you'd almost expect a horse to be hitched in front of the general store.

[khardur]

as said above: looks like you had a great time.

I like "taking a nap" the best. I don't have any good reasons, other than it strikes me most. Very peaceful.

Agree with Gary on the B&W of your wife & son - very nice, and a keeper to show him years from now.

I could use a bit of time away from the virtual world handcuffs... sounds like heavan.

Being a Califokie, I can relate to Oklarado... The shot of the Tike on a Hike is my fave, love the expression and the B&W... What a nice family getaway.
Thanks for sharing the pics...

The distant oil wells remind me of the old cotton fields back home

[raz-0]

Chalk up another vote for taking a nap as a favorite.

DId you do any post processing, or is that just the lighting and some good old manual soft focus?

[Venturi]

Wow, lots of nice comments. Thank you all.

I didn't think CA allowed Okies to immigrate, Gus. You must have concealed your true origins, huh. "Oklarado" is actually the name of the cabin; not sure if great-great-grandfather coined the name back in 1922 when he built it or if a later generation did. Nice shot, btw.

Raz, I did indeed use a very special filter for the nap shot. It's a one of a kind hand and hand crafted DIY actually. You'll need a sheet of standard steel window screen and a sheet of 3/8" hardware cloth. Attach them to a window and let "mature" for 80 years or so. You can then place them in front of your lens hood for a wonderful soft focus filter. It looks a bit like this stuff on the door when complete...



-Jim

[todd]

I enjoyed your photos! the hummingbird shot especially grabbed my attention.. they are all such exceptional quality! thanks for sharing!

Wow, lots of nice comments. Thank you all.

I didn't think CA allowed Okies to immigrate, Gus. You must have concealed your true origins, huh. "Oklarado" is actually the name of the cabin; not sure if great-great-grandfather coined the name back in 1922 when he built it or if a later generation did. Nice shot, btw.

-Jim

Jim, you are right... they don't let the Okies into CALI. I snuck across the border from Oregon.

The Grandparents were Dust Bowl cotton pickers/cattle runners who came west in the early 30's.
The legend as I tell it is that when Grandpa was deciding on the Willamette Valley in Oregon or the Central/Imperial valleys of CA,
he had asked some friends and they said. "You can work year round in the fields in California and in Oregon you can only work 6 months a year"... So they moved to Oregon, Picked and Planted for 6 months, Bootlegged for 4, and played Canasta, Dominoes and drank for two

Over the years, all of them made it back to OK, but somehow I was able to jump the train in N.Cal...

Let the legend live on!