View allAll Photos Tagged lefthand
Extra photo’s: Lefthand Freddy
De bassist moest vaak checken welke akkoorden de gitarist speelde, omdat hij de last minute vervanger was van de ziek geworden, vaste bassist.
The bassist often had to check what chords the guitarist was playing, because he was a last minute replacement for the regular bassist, who got sick.
A while ago, I slipped down Hover Road to an untested trek along Lefthand Creek on the LoBo (Longmont to Boulder} Trail and parked on a new city street. I started it once before but never got west of Hover Road (here behind me) for the trail route to open onto the trek. Recently, I was curious and tripped down onto the Lefthand river bottoms and snapped this image that sat in my edit directory after others, it seems. The trail actually comes up short of Niwot, let alone Boulder, according to Google Maps. Well, this start is grand. A county planting sits? next to th start of the trail.
There was no fooling the trees into leafing and then jerking the football away. The last autumn already roasted the river bottom tree colors to their max for the season. This spot comes up short of leaves until spring. Spring is chipping away at us now. What does it portend? The sky returned to normal clouding on the day though. The scene is pretty bare now though.
I checked it out on Google maps and in reality the trail really peters out by the time it get to the town of Niwot. I checked out the trail on the maps and it looks like there are interests further along this path along Lefthand. The day was already stretching on so I will have to get an earlier start nexr time. Even with so many snaps in my directories, pictures are stall all around the valley when better skies start to come around. Today I am waiting for decent days and skies before even chancing a photo trek. No skies again today - what global warming? Today hit 61 degrees.
Camille Pissarro -
The harvest [1882]
Tokyo NMWA GAP
**********************************************************************************
Pissarro was the most political of the Impressionist group, who called themselves the Independents. He helped organize them informally along the lines of an artisans union. He was the only one to take part in all eight shows they staged in defiance of the juried annual official Salon exhibitions in Paris.
The Harvest was one of the thirty-six works that Pissarro chose to exhibit at the Seventh Impressionist Exhibition in which all the mainstream Impressionists were represented, with the exception of Edgar Degas. By carefully positioning his figures on and around the receding lines of piles of hay, Pissarro has created a peaceful and rhythmical composition. Eight figures, four men and four women, are preparing the harvest. The concentration of figures on the lefthand side causes an imbalance in the composition, thus making our eye fix immediately on the standing woman wearing a red headscarf. The bushel of hay that she is holding is placed at an angle, leading from the corner of the picture and pointing towards the wide, open landscape on the righthand side.
I am posting another older autumn shot by the Peak-to-Peak Highway on our way home as I dip into old takes considering global warming has done so much fake damage to the American West. This capture is just north of the Meeker Park Lodge and its little store where my grannie shopped back in her day. This high country fall is the pits after our disastrous late summer heat streak and single, quick-shot freeze. We are sitting here praying for as little as a tenth of an inch of rain. Bupkis! Obese probability!
This shot shows falling aspen surrounding a back lane to a high country cabin behind Meeker Lodge where the Peak-to-Peak highway skirts the front range mountains. I found this in an old directory while cleaning out also-rans and off-exposures to really clear disk space when I found this original shot of aspen near the Peak-to-Peak Highway. Now I can chuck this manual HDR in with my categorized, finished edits for storage.
This outrageous shot was on another rather mellow but changeable fallish day. This screams of autumn's slow creep along the Colorado back-country byways in autumns gone by. This weekend, a new forest fire lit up today at Cal Wood on the ridge above Jamestown. Then came another nearer Jamestown and at Ward. Fake global warming all. I keep telling the forest service to buy the orange forest rakes and get busy. This day was covered by an all medium-dark yellow-man sky of clouding and smoke trailing from Lefthand. And yet Ethiopia planted 350 million trees in one day and is taking back their forests and increasing water availability. Who knew? 10 years?
I can't even take any new shots around here anyway. This shows that random life has long managed scenic footholds like this in the high country. This lane is on the way to the local nag stables. These are the finger prints of Colorado-tough, rough and tumble mountain life. Here, I am once again adding to my massive stash of edited captures.
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Longitude Building, Mann Island, Liverpool, Merseyside, England
Hope you all had a great weekend.
My second photo from my trip to Liverpool last week and this is the Longitude Building on Mann Island in Liverpool. The original intention was to do a long exposure on the building which I did manage to get but just didn't work. Although there was a lot of clouds as you can see in this image they tend to blur out during a LE image as they were so fine in detail and there was not much in the way of breaks in the clouds.
It took me a little while to get this all lined up perfectly as you can see the lefthand side of the building is slightly different to the right hand side, something that messed with my eyes even with the Live View and EVF my Sony A99 has. I bet a looked like a bit of an idiot scrambling around on my knees trying to get it all lined up, but which photographer hasn't does this? Come on own up ;-).
I just love the craftsmanship of this building, looks very well put together and all those lines really attracted me to it but my favourite part has got to be those reflections off the glass. I keep finding myself looking at them.
Have a great Monday!
Photo Details
Sony Alpha SLT-A99 / ISO100 / f/13 / 1/125s / Sony Carl Zeiss 16-35mm F2.8 ZA SSM @ 30mm
Software Used
Lightroom 5
Silver Efex Pro 2
Location Information
The Mann Island Buildings are a group of buildings in Liverpool, England currently under construction. They comprise three international style mixed use buildings on Mann Island, which lies on the waterfront between the Port of Liverpool Building and the Albert Dock.
Formerly rundown warehouses and dock buildings, the site directly between two of Liverpool's most historic buildings was heavily investigated before numerous proposals for new builds were submitted as part of a competition to create a 'Fourth Grace'. Three proposals were submitted, all of which received criticism for their appearance and contrast to the city's famed historic skyline.
The work of Alsop Architects was chosen to become the 'Fourth Grace', however, it was beset with difficulties, and was cancelled in 2004 due to spiralling costs. It was only after all of these ideas were scrapped when the £120 million Mann Island Development was chosen to become the new complex to occupy the site.
We’re making a brief trip back to TIA Headquarters to share this image with you.
The first day of November concluded with a beautiful, bold rainbow arching above Seattle shortly before sunset. It remained present for more than 15 minutes before it disappeared forever. It felt rather momentous to witness the remarkable boldness of the rainbow and be in its presence.
The rainbow appeared to start in the Ballard neighborhood (on the lefthand side of the image) and end -- though I’m not certain -- around the South Lake Union district or downtown Seattle!
Have a wonderful weekend, friends.
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Quote from a conversation during break ~ Aus einem Pausengespräch.
Part of: Empty Padded ~ LeerGefüllt - Time at Work. Left handed drawings and writings on the empty left pages of my prompter`s book: Soufflierbuch "Mein Freund Harvey" (Mary Chase "Harvey") Page 58
Drawing: 29.5.
Photo: DMC-G2 - P1620544 - 2013-05-29
I continue my recent investigation of the old railroad grade cut with aspirations of reaching Lefthand Canyon, Jamestown and the western slope of the Rockies. Ah dreams of vast wealth. Realistically, miners opted for mills as close as possible to the mines in order to minimize the costs of (rail) transportation. Processed ore is far less a load than raw ore. I am posting the best captures of the traces I found. It is reasonably visible here on the trail north. This footpath follows the grade, as if trekkers know what are actually following. The path seems to follow the grade all the way to the former Beech Aircraft plant on Google maps. There, they built the Apollo fuel tanks. The B,LH&MP (also seen as B,LH,JT&MP) grade dropped from the northern Boulder bluff behind me where it was slowly gaining altitude from the south. Here, I wandered the footpath north until I found another revealing view. The trail along the route cuts across the foot hills dropping from the hogback and north toward Lefthand Canyon. Early on, Boulder and Longmont graded routes up Lefthand and thence James Canyon to the booming camp of Jamestown. Traces show most of the way into the mouth of the canyon. Longmont was an agricultural community while Boulder had rail access to mountain mining communities and may have had ore mills and smelters. Boulder would have been the more reasonable narrow gauge route to the booming Jamestown mining camp.
The old grade of the Boulder, Left Hand & Middle Park (officially, The Boulder, Leftland, Jamestown and Middle Park RR and Telegraph company, whew) can be seen much if the way from north Boulder, along #36 on the foothills to the west of the highway north from Boulder, Colorado to where it turns into Lefthand Canyon near the Greenbriar Restaurant. I spotted traces into the canyon for a short stretch. Obviously, they fell far short of their goal of Jamestown let alone Middle Park, Colorado which would have entailed an impossible crossing of the Continental Divide. And it fell short of its goal of Jamestown (and/or Ward), Colorado. The lower canyon pinches tightly below the confluence. It did achieve the Left Hand River Valley and through the very best of fortunes retained, rails were never laid on the grade. The canyons uphill from Jamestown are a choice of bad and a much worse grades. They lost just a fraction of the investment they easily could have.
Detail of Hermes’ Left Hand
Roman, Imperial Period, 1st or 2nd Century A.D.
Marble, Pentellic
Copy or adaptation of a Greek stature of the late 5th or early 4th century B.C.
The left hand, tip of nose, and tips of some fingers of the right hand are restored.
Gift of the Hearst Foundation
Accession #: 56.234.15
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, New York)—April 1, 2012
The statue is almost intact, although the surface was strongly cleaned as was the custom in the eighteenth century. During that period, newly excavated ancient sculpture was cleaned and restored in Roman workshops before being sold to members of the European nobility. This work was acquired by the English statesman William Fitzmaurice, second earl of Shelburne, who assembled a distinguished collection of antiquities at Lansdowne House in London. The statue of Hermes once stood in a niche in the dining room at Lansdowne House, serving the same decorative function that it doubtless once served in a Roman villa of the first or second century A.D. The dining room, designed by Robert Adam, is now at the Metropolitan Museum, where it is installed with other period rooms from England.
Large Cottonwood tree falls down and becomes a crossing across Left hand Creek in Boulder County Colorado. Love the texture of the tree trunk and golden color in the background.
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Here we are still on our trek and in my series up to the "headwaters" of James Creek, but making progress, on that dandy autumn day. Al and I trekked up to the meadow - really the original source of James. In fact, we are now above the original source of the James - unless this looks like a mountain stram to you. To me, it surely looks like an irrigation ditch in the mountains, exactly what it is. Who dug this ditch and why?
The meadow is always a good spot to stop and relax and even haul up a tent for a plesant overnight of serious slacking beside a campfire. I could hang there for hours on end. Phil and I trekked up here a few times and each time, we helped build the dam by adding rocks and detritus. Once, we encountered a beaver who didn't seem to need our help at all. Lefthand water district (Lefthand was the name - Ni-Wot - of Chief and son Arapahoes) seemed to have less regard our dam dam work probably thinking that all the water would not eventually drain. Leave the beavers alone, they are the best engineers at preserving Rockies watered riparian habitat,
We were scrambling up that marginal James Creek trail for our project, but too early in the morning without a doubt. This shot makes it look like a tree-dodging trek but the embankment, right was recently cleaned along the ditch. It used to be really rough. I suppose maintenance was required after the big flood that nearly wiped out Jamestown. Boy did this water ever pay Jamestown back bigly during the big flood a few years back!
Al claimed that he intended to do an article for the Longmont Observer about the James Creek water diversion that figured mightily into Western, Colorado and regional water law. Phil and I knew that his all had to do with the diversion at the top of James Creek a spot we visited previously and knew well. The story is well woven into our history. We have a bit of a trek before I can reveal the geography behind the story.
Here's another colorful shot up the James that fall. The trail was a mix of foliage in fallage lush color. This screams high Rockies palette while deep in shade.
This is a multi-themed picture, the main ones being colour, reflections*, music, and impermanence...
A splash of colour in the main street of Murtoa, a small country town in the Wimmera, wheat-growing district of Victoria, Australia.
The piano and the shop have seen better days, but the piano is appealing to be replaced. (On the whole, it would probably prefer to be back in Philadelphia!)
Yellow and blue are RGB complementary, while yellow and purple are RYB complementary, so the three make a sort of chromatic 'chord'.
* A lot of interesting reflecting is also going on here. Apart from the lefthand window reflection, the righthand display area has mirrors in it, and these show reflections of several letters of the alphabet. Some of these are inverted while others are not. There is enough information in the image to explain each case.
That time of year when the day seems to fade away. Drifting further into the darkness with each passing day. Volume 1 - Foreign Stout - Pours black with licorice, espresso bean, molasses, and black cardamom notes that give way to a feeling of self loathing, burnt opportunities and smoked relationships.
DE: Hochbetrieb am Abend des 12.02.2011 im Bahnhof von Briançon. Zwei Nachtzüge nach Paris werden für ihre Abfahrt vorbereitet: Links warten SNCF BB 67432 und BB 67367 mit Corail 5792 und am Hausbahnsteig stehen SNCF BB 67503 und BB 67360 mit Corail 5892.
EN: Heavy traffic in the station of Briançon in the evening of 12th february 2011. Two night trains are prepared for their departure to Paris: Lefthand waited BB 67432 and BB 67367 with Corail 5792 and right stood SNCF BB 67503 together with BB 67360 and Corail 5892.
This, third of the Heil Ranch fencing series, questions what is fenced in and what is fenced out. The grasses don't care. The terrain doesn't care. There are no horses left to fence in or out. On one of the July swelter days of summer I made my way up to the cooler Lefthand Canyon again then turned up Heil Canyon. Even though I have been up to the open space before, I rediscovered the corrals and ranch buildings and trash heaps but I wasn't trolling with my digital camera then. I walked up the road from the old dump at Heil Canyon stables and ranch found shots the working Heil Ranch corrals defining several pastures before BoCo open space absorbed the land and took it out of production,genius. The gully beyond carries only a trickle of water in mid-summer. The corral fencing is made of the most rustic materials ever used for fencing in the Rockies. A few trees are up in the canyon and on the hillside. Folks seem to like the new series. After I opened this capture, I decided I needed to pursue this set as a minimalist series. The fence is almost overgrown by the rich mountain meadow grasses. This hay sells for a premium on the flats but then it is on BoCo UnOpen Space and therefore unproductive. Who knows who might have laid this fence out? This is as close to a straight line that zig zagging Cowboys could manage. The rotting rails are giving up the ghost. So much fencing and no epees! Where's Basil Soupbone when you need him?
This shot is next to and part way up the old road that actually traveled over Red Hill from Lyons along the old rugged route to Jamestown in the canyon and up Deer canyon to the Golden Age, Balarat and Gresham.
I'd had to get a move on, the day is beginning to swelter... the temp was 97 when I got back to town. I came close to melting. The temps were well up for that spell and I am still waiting for a release. We'll, OK I would have turned in the distance at Golden Ponds anyway but here I am wandering about the foothills and this is a fine place too.
We know that this place was an early Hygiene-west area ranch because of a Beaverslide haying rake found on site. It's across from the old Shupe homestead along Hygiene Road. West on the county road is an intersection with Foothills Highway and easy access to Lefthand Road and mountain mining camps thus the reason for local haying. Hay in the mountains fed the livestock used for transportation and the mules used for mining industry. This rough-sawn lumber siding on this shed is extraordinary and must be original to the ranch. It's clear that a retrofit electrified the old shed... and it never caught fire!
Large tracts of land were available to ranching along this tract south of the St. Vrain river, well before so many gravel pits. Local highways now have many "No St. Vrain Mining" signs. Any more gravel mining will remove even more land from production and the tax roles yet upping the risk of West Nile. No big deal, we can plant a lot more people in the valley and feed them with food from somewhere... from somewhere, an industrial plant probably.
There were blank skies near Longmont so I captured some shots without the sky. This is obviously after the St.Vrain flood rolled through the valley and this shed. Water carried weeds plug the spaces between planks. I turned north onto 61st and parked at Ronnie's then walked over to the old abandoned Ramey Place. It's clear that the flood really scoured the ground through here. If you look left, you'll find the new roof on the old Boulder County un-Open Space Ramey house as if it had any value. Any gathering sky suits me; I still keep an eye on this place. I will have to go through them and weed out more also-rans.
This looks a lot like the America that Orangemen would like to bring back to America. I worked away at Ramey as long as I missed Ronnie. I would think that the pastures beyond, (on Boulder unOpen Space Land), would be productive enough to either graze or to mow. It does look brown in the distance but I bet cattle could find the best grasses.
This was one of the McIntosh images I was looking for when I got caught by the skies at Ag Museum. This is a heavier sky on a recent trek.It seems that Jim acquired a wooden tank water wagon for the McIntosh Agricultural Museum. Way back in the latter 1800s, Longmont had an identical wagon with the driver's seat atop to deliver what must have been fresh water. Ditches delivered "dirty" water to agriculture.
I wonder what might have been Longmont's "fresh" water source? Of course, that was when water from the river carried clean, clear water from the Rockies and before modern household products began sterilizing everything in sight. As a youngster, we always drank from mountain streams without a thought. That was before man introduced e-coli and cryptosporidium parvum bacterias to our mountain critters. Would you drink from a stream while wondering what kind of jackass flatlander is up the trail. I'm sure Lefthand Water district uses that "sterilization" concept to remove beavers from their watersheds.
Al Pace was working on an article about an early mountain ditch that determined Colorado water law for Longmont's Observer. Water is Colorado's god and carried about in wagons while it's North Carolina's cloven hooved demon. Dihydro-monoxide! Trump deserves a special glass of Carolina, Duke and Smithfield water, assuming he could quit his soda pop binge for something "special if he wants to try out his air and water policies!"
Otherwise in the Rockies, beavers are Mother Nature's best water reclamation and preservation engineers. If a trickle in the hills crosses barren land, enlist a beaver! That will regrow natural mountain riparian habitat. It's not nice to fool Mother Nature! That's another concept modern American brains can't acquire. People remark at the variety of trees at Thompson, Chicago philanthropist who started the Longmont Colony, and other Longmont parks. Longmont women planted hardwood trees in parks and brought water uphill from the St. Vrain River below the bluff, to water their newly planted trees. At least they originated a balance to all the cottonwoods in the valley. That was a real ongoing project that would interfere with modern cell phone time!
The way I'm eating peanuts, lol... It's all real.
In a Chinese restaurant 5-min walk away. This photo was taken by w.f..
'Savannah Way' (VH-EBK) roaring down 16R Sydney Airport (SYD/YSSY) for Melbourne (MEL/YMML) with Todd in the Lefthand Seat as Qantas 405
Close-up natural-light street portrait (outdoor half-length portrait, seven-eighths view) of Hidayah, a beautiful young Malaysian Malay woman, wearing a modern sun hat with her traditional hijab and posing for the camera (photo shoot: image no. 1 of 3);
Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia.
More context:
Varying the Facial View of Portraits (photo blog),
Adding Context to Street Portraits (photo blog),
Animating Street Portraits with Props (photo blog).
Series of three. The lefthand path/road now has a big bite out of it as there was a massive cliff fall last week but still people are posing on the edge of the cliffs. Absolute madness.
Location, location, location. This choice real estate opportunity and Trans-Pecos celebrity venue offers it all: architectural distinction coupled with an elegant simplicity of lifestyle. What's not to love?
Actually, this property, now part of the Texas park system, isn't for sale. Here I'm facing southeast, in the ghost town (or, more accurately, ghost mini-homestead) of Tres Papalotes. It's located on the eastern side of the Solitario's interior, along the Lefthand Shutup road about 1 mi (1`.6 km) south-southwest of the water gap cited in earlier photos of this series. Despite its minimal impact on urban civilization, it is a listed locality on Google Earth.
This non-town's lovely Spanish name translates as "Three Windmills"—but by the time I got there, only one, lacking its blades, remained. Its upper portion is visible above the shack's corrugated-metal roof.
Behind that windpump pylon is a low rocky spine exposing the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian (Carboniferous) Tesnus Formation. And beyond that, a higher ridgeline topped by very notably folded beds of the Devonian Caballos Novaculite.
For more on this amazing locale, see the other photos and descriptions in my A Magic Circle Called the Solitario album.
After my Halloween tribute to the cruelest scare in the world, I am again near the colorful parking in LeftHand Canyon where I parked and explored. There is good color here so I kept at it! I did find better color over by the stream and here is another good example in LeftHand Canyon. This was shot up the winding canyon next to LeftHand Stream and fisherman's trail at my left hand. I think that I better keep poking around for more possibilities right here.
Boy does autumn always look rich in back lighting especially with their "cloaking" device activated! The flat lands will be coughing up it's color RSN, real soon now.
I am directly down below my unfinished narrow gauge trek. The grade is up the mountain side, nearly ninety degrees to the left of the frame. The color here beats that up on the Switzerland Trail narrow gauge railroad grade although the grade sneaks across this canyon well above here past the Puzzler, at Bloomerville, near its head . This season's color was bit thready probably because of our dry summer. When is Colorado ever really wet? Beside all that, the road is paved down here even though there is limited traffic along LeftHand Canyon. Still, it beats driving the flood-wrecked Jamestown route. We tried that a month ago and will wait for another year.
Agree or not with the Colorado Water Law we are finally returning from our James Creek trek and my James Creek "headwaters" series on that autumn day that really could have used some atmospheric haze. Al and I were back down to the meadow and this is a return shot at the original meadow source of James Creek when the sun was full up. It's always a good spot to stop and relax and even haul up a tent for a pleasant overnight of serious slacking beside a campfire on the hill overlooking the meadow. There are traces. I could hang and have hung here for hours on end. Phil and I trekked up here a few times, once the other way around, and each time, we helped beavers on the meadow dam by adding rocks and detritus. It's a good place to wade for a stretch and cool down, perhaps fly fish. (Psst, Ive caught rainbows, brookies, brown and cuthroat up and down James Creek). Once, we encountered a beaver in the meadow who didn't seem to need our help at all. Lefthand water district (Lefthand was the name - Ni-Wot - of Chief and son Arapahoes) seemed to have less regard for our and the beaver's dam work probably thinking that all the water would not eventually drain downhill. Sheesh! Let the beavers preserve our Rockies riparian habitat, They do good work.
I was documenting the project that caused the trek up James Creek a year ago to dredge up proof of regional water legislation history. I revealed of my best understanding of this watershed. Al and I are scrambling and I saw this showy scene on the way back. This is another meadow shot. How could you miss this next to a morning trail?
We SHOULD have stopped somewhere for a leisurely breakfast then we might have gotten better shots. It's later and the sun is higher over this meadow scene. The meadow is now well lit. This was flat spot that slowly collected water to start the trickle down the creek below the St. Vrain diversion.
Here's my blazing shot of James Meadow that fall. I prefer clouding streamin over the divide for effect. The trail was a mix of foliage in fallage colors. This screams high Rockies palette.
Somewhat worringly the lefthand side of this frame was quite blurred, as though my Tamron 11-18mm lense has taken a knock or something..... Here I've chosen to blur the righthand side too to make a sort of focus vignette but that's not going to work for every subject........
This shot was taken pre-sunrise in the grounds of Blenheim Palace last weekend during a visit with the Freeland Photo Group. Thanks for giving me the impetus to get out and take my first photos of 2016.
It looks like this series is tipping toward barns. I drove southwest of town again but this time to scout scenes out on Niwot Road near the Dodd reservoir. I caught this view toward the northwest and I liked the long shot across the hay field. NOAA Table Mountain mesa is obvious behnd in the background as are the foot hills of the Rockies. The air held some water vapor that day. The foot hills are less than 10 miles away and although they appear lofty but I suspect none you see reach 7,000 feet, starting at over a mile high. A person can jump a fence and walk up. That's not much of a challenge compared to topping the Colorado 14ers. The new record for speed racing up them is a mind-boggling nine days, 21 hours and 51 minutes. He certainly balances me out in bringing up Coloradans' fitness record.
Although still in September, we were suffering August heat, I'd say summer grasses were gone but the shrubs are still green. It often seems agricultural has been sucked from this area. Fortunately, we can buy food from the Sam n' Ella's farm in Mexico. The area is learning how valuable water in the west really is but have yet to learn the true value of watered land and soil and that it certainly doesn't need paving.
Strangely, we had a summer that was closer to normal, if high in humidity, but ignoring climate change or pumping petroleum will make rougher weather go away. This was a summer that was hotter than any on record. This August was hotter then any on record. This September was the hottest on record, all set world wide. perhaps you see a trend. That is at least until the looming petroleum wars are settled and the Koch Brothers and their political tea purchases are put away in their place. Until then CO2 levels in the atmosphere which are at an 850 million year high, will not be turned around. We all live in Kochistan now! Actually, anti-fracking proposals passed in Colorado.
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Viangchan Laos, LPDR.
Notice the two gentlemen on the tuk tuk.
Both are using their left hands, well so am I.
My left shoulder is leaning against a cement
power pole while my left hand precariously
cradles the camera. Who said life was easy ?
Thank You.
Jon&Crew.
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Dragon LNG Plant on the lefthand side, Pembroke Power Station centre background, Valero Oil Refinery on the righthand side.
Canon 5d MKII
28-80mm
AB800 over head 44" Octabank overhead
AB800 Left barebulb
Model: Sarah Sawyer
MUA: Angela Atson
Hair: Angela Atson
Hair piece provided by: Floral Designer Mary Linda Horn AIFD, PFCI
Flowers provided by: CenFlo
THIS DOOR STOPS HERESurely you have seen Dutch doors. I bet those are knots and not bullet holes; if so, that certainly matches the other wood. Talk about leaky doors; there are extra leaks with Dutch doors! Having them on a barn is a head scratcher. Certainly, without a door stop, mice and rats could get in, if not rabbits, prairie dogs, chickens, foxes tracking them and the odd dog or cat! Any critter could crawl in from Lefthand Stream, a skunk perhaps? This is an entrance to the old barn. more of my series but with more detail than the recent ag shots. I like the hinges, saw this and decided I needed to shoot this door and hardware detail. I really liked this old barn door. It had grand hinges and handle. The insulator suggest it once had lighting if not power. This is some seriously heavy patina on the siding.
I have driven Oxford Road before but never really focused in on this scene on the Poet farm until I ran into the family. The place is awash in old barns and sheds with one metal silo. NO triple concrete silos or any old silo, just a squat metal one, but it still has many viewpoints that are not likely to last very long. We found no poets but we did find ducks, dogs, a pig, a cat, chickens and one rooster with his feet tied awaiting a special chicken dinner - winner, winner. Little did he know that his feathers had a pillow waiting. Obviously, this is one of the best spots to corral all your organic eggs and veggies that I can recommend. Saturday was canning day on the old farm as veggies were being collected. Can a lot and want not! The range of light was outrageous with heavy shadows on the heavily patinated siding and dead shadows inside. eDDie and I spent some time finding and shooting the many scenes out here and just as much time chatting with Chris. This day boasted an entirely blue sky so I had to get in close and often. Any EF numbered tornado would send this e barn flying to another county or state although I notice some stainless screws holding siding tightly.
These folks have plenty of firewood laid aside for next winter. I hope it isn't cottonwood but it probably is because Lefthand Creek is loaded and is just behind this lot. It flooded the back of the property almost to the house. The big barn was moved by teams of oxen or horses from the lower farm lands in it's day of heavy use. The woodbine around is signaling autumn but when we travelled out there, it was 90. An October Kochistan harumph. Send the bill to the the Koch Broes when you have to use the train to haul snow to be able to start the Iderod sled dog race.
From my load of autumn shots is another series capture of golden aspen scattered along my favorite snake fence beside the road between Gold Hill and the Peak-to-Peak Scenic Highway, behind me. I used my longer zoom and compressed the fence line. I already posted earlier shots in both directions in crisp backlighting on the grove. The daylite was dulling down at this time. It's difficult to decide what's in and outside the fence... and the difference. All in all, this is a great spot in the Rockies.
This was from my solo trek above Gold Hill, Colorado with aspirations of trekking the grade toward Ward, a mountain-bound mining camp. This day started while searching aspen cloaked in showy fall coats. I headed west from Gold Hill Station toward the Peak to Peak Highway. The color was generally short of peak but does not look like it up here in the open along the fence line. The "snake" fence wanders down the line and I was forced to climb the highest point I could find to shoot this. A split-rail fence or log fence known as a zigzag fence, worm fence or snake fence was due to its meandering layout - Wiki. I looked and looked but never found the line shack that ought to be along here somewhere. Maybe it's not a working ranch but instead a mountain sequester for another private castle.
The Switzerland Trail's goal beyond Gold Hill Station was booming mining camps and pay dirt to pay passage on gondolas. Passengers wanted "cushy" rides up and back teetering 4-6 feet above the ground for the views. Colorado & Northwestern / Denver, Boulder & Western was popularly named "The Switzerland Trail of America." The original RR, the Greeley, Salt Lake & Pacific RR, crashed into bankruptcy when a flood swallowed the trestles and trackage up past Salina. Mine operations already denuded timber on canyon slopes making floods certain. The northern branch to Ward and later, the southern branch to Eldora were built after reorganization. The grade of the Denver, Boulder & Western Railroad grade made it up to Gold Hill station, east of here, to service the town that was already in production for a couple of decades before Croffut toured Colorado. The old railroad grade crested the ridge and headed into Lefthand Canyon where it remains largely intact for trail and some 4X use. The route west from Gold Hill Station toward Ward pinches in pretty good with recent decades of aspen growth. Sawmill Road road, on my left, drops over the edge here and cuts through the old Ward grade in Lefthand canyon.
There was little altitude gain from Gold Hill Station to the grade below to Bloomerville here so the route engineering was successful, well, except for where the avalanche flushed the entire train down a hillside. Gold Hill Station was at 8740 ft while Bloomerville was at 9030 ft. Note that the clip from Crofutts GripSack Guide of 1885 mentions Caribou is 12 miles south from Sunset or “Penn. gulch,” the nearest railroad station. That is false, but George Crofutt wrote that about 1885. That original railroad was named The Greeley, Salt Lake and Pacific around the 1885 date. During the heyday of railroading most paper, coupon and budding lines included the name, Pacific, in the hopes of garnering big funding. This line, too, had Pacific dreams. They started drilling a majestic tunnel through the Continental Divide at Yankee Doodle Lake on the Moffat Line. There is no way they could have climbed Pennsylvania Gulch up to the multitudes at their prospective tunnel anyway. Before the flood, their terminus was Sunset, Colorado, west of Boulder. The Colorado & Northwestern Railroad, The Switzerland Trail, was organized and the company relaid grade and track up to Sunset then switch backed north on the way up to Ward, Colorado then took a break until the reorganization as the Denver, Boulder & Western Railroad. It was then nicknamed the Switzerland Trail. The company started grading and laying rail up a second switchback southeast from Sunset to start gaining altitude on a new branch that headed through the New Cardinal area bound for Eldora. Naturally, Cardinal began migrating closer to the railroad grade and taverns. Usually rail development companies shook down the camps and mine owners for bond sales as they surveyed and graded nearby.
It's still too early in early April for the green up but I have been itching to take a look at the Left Hand Creek Park. There is car parking here and is supposedly the start of the LoBo trail from Longmont to Boulder. I investigated the trail on Google maps and decided to see what I could find. This scene is still in town before it heads west from town. House balconies are visible in the reflections. Although I was still in town, and it is too early for vegetation, there were still some scenes to shoot.
A couple of weeks ago I got a call inviting me to a discussion of plans for the Left Hand water. What water? It's already been corralled by the Left Hand Water District for people and I would not count on supplying more houses with water let alone crop land that has already been turned into gravel pits.
Oh well, it's still a good spot for a walk and quite close access. The day is mellow even though I am waiting for spring. Winter was mostly a dud except for the up in the Rockies.
For my last shot I had to run out to MAC to shoot the heavy depression and pall that set off record lows from California moving in but that didn't really foretell what came later. Then, ice was on McIntosh Lake and hanging thick in St. Vrain Valley air in my last shot.
I listened to the wind blast my bedroom window and screen with ice all night long and decided I better shoot an inside shot of the window with the blinks up. Here it is before the snow was was gone. A day before, I had to peel my coat off when I headed to the market. Again, last Sunday, I made the mistake of wearing my coat for a swing through "historic" Pella Crossing West south of Hygiene. Boy, was it a day for the people to bail for the trails.
Snow in the Rockies of course and a pretty good dumping on the eastern plains during calving season brought us up above normal winter content and slogged Nebraska well before runoff. . Water from the rivers originally carried clean, clear water from the hills and before modern household products began sterilizing everything in sight. As a youngster, we always drank from mountain streams without a thought. That was before man introduced e-coli and cryptosporidium parvum bacterias to our mountain critters. Would you drink from a stream while wondering what kind of jackass flatlander is up the trail? I'm sure Lefthand Water district uses that "sterilization" concept to remove beavers from their watersheds.
Eventually I will add a series on early mountain ditch that determined Colorado water law. Water is Colorado's god and carried about in wagons while it's North Carolina's cloven hooved demon. Dihydro-monoxide! Trump deserves a special glass of Carolina, Duke and Smithfield water, assuming he could quit his soda pop binge and Adderall snorting for something "special if he wants to try out his air and water policies!"
Museo de las Ciencias Príncipe Felipe (righthand) - L'Hemisfèric / The Hemispheric (lefthand) - Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia (lefthand behind) - Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias / Ciutat de les Arts i de les Ciències / City of Arts and Sciences - València - España / Spain
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciutat_de_les_Arts_i_les_Ci%C3%A8ncies
and a roll up shade is also included to absorb winter heat and bring it inside, and in summer the glass skin can be opened to let the heat escape outside!
Only one of these barn doors is still hinged and is an entrance to the old barn. I can add this to my Openings series and album. As I looked at the details and saw this, I decided I needed this door detail. After all, how often do you find a barn door with an iron doily stand next to it? I really liked this old barn door but I don't know if it can possibly be used. It had grand forged hinges and a missing latch. This is some seriously heavy patina on the siding. I have driven Oxford Road before but only really focused in on this scene on the Poet farm after I ran into the family. The place is awash in old barns and sheds with one metal silo. NO triple concrete silos or any old silo, just a squat metal one, but it still has many viewpoints and is not likely to last very long.
This is the place for Boulder County resident to directly purchase their organics thus cutting Sam "Monsanto" Walton from your feed bag! Boulderites will find prices better than at their Farmer's Market. This would be a great background for a farm or agricultural scrapbook page, perhaps later.
We found no poets but we did find ducks, dogs, a pig, a cat, chickens and one rooster with his feet tied awaiting a special chicken dinner. Little did he know that his feathers had a pillow awaiting. I remember making a duck down pillow as a kid. Obviously, this is one of the best spots to corral all your organic eggs and veggies that I can recommend. Saturday was canning day on the old farm as veggies were being collected. Can a lot and want not! The range of light was outrageous with heavy shadows on the heavily patinated siding. eDDie and I spent some time finding and shooting the many scenes out here and just as much time chatting with Chris. This day boasted all blue skies so I had to get in close. Any EF numbered tornado would send the barn flying to another county or state although I notice some stainless screws holding it together.
Lefthand Creek is loaded with cottonwood and just behind this lot. It flooded the back of the property almost to the house. The big barn was moved by teams of oxen or horses from the lower farm lands in it's day of early use. When we traveled out there, it was 90 in Kochistan. An October harrumph and tribute to fossil fuels. Denver just hit 70 in December and I will get in a good stroll today if I get all else done.
I am continuing my recent investigation of the old Boulder, Colorado railroad grade cut with aspirations of reaching Lefthand Canyon, Jamestown and Middle Park in the western slope of the Rockies. Realistically, the small problem of the continental divide gets in the way of that goal... but when does honesty ever get in the way of advertising or stock and bond sales. I once saw a wonderful sheet of bonds issued by the Denver Western RR. None were clipped. I've never seen bonds for the B,LH&MP, chuckle. If there are any, I'm sure they are pristine.
Here is my six stage, three layer pano from the abandoned prestressed concrete parking lot north of Boulder, Colorado along Highway #36. I made a stop there a week before but came away with several problems, even exact view point. I returned and found a better vantage spot to set up the podzilla. I used the longer zoom in landscape mode to image the entire territory of visible grade this pano covers with its six steps across the foothills. I had to include the tops of the hills. Atmospherics are starting to show in the distance. I had to abandon further work on the file because I hit the 2gig file size in the Photoshop I am using. My previous postings were made up the North Foothills Trail. I discovered that there were no historic markers up there relating the railroad grade's history. Tim Ostwald of Boulder and I found a reference in the Robert Ormes Colorado Railroads book. It was named Boulder, LeftHand, JamesTown and Middle Park Rail Road and Telegraph company in that source... but I found another error elsewhere in it.
Ah dreams of vast wealth. Realistically, miners opted for mills as close as possible to the mines in order to minimize the costs of (rail) transportation. Processed ore is far less a load than raw ore. I am posting the best captures of the traces I found. It is reasonably visible here on the trail north. This footpath follows the grade, as if trekkers know what are actually following. The path seems to follow the grade all the way to the former Beech Aircraft plant on Google maps. There, they built the Apollo fuel tanks. The B,LH&MP (also seen as B,LH,JT&MP) grade dropped from the northern Boulder bluff behind me where it was slowly gaining altitude from the south. Here, I wandered the footpath north until I found another revealing view. The trail along the route cuts across the foot hills dropping from the hogback and north toward Lefthand Canyon. Early on, Boulder and Longmont graded routes up Lefthand and thence James Canyon to the booming camp of Jamestown. Traces show most of the way into the mouth of the canyon. Longmont was an agricultural community while Boulder had rail access to mountain mining communities and may have had ore mills and smelters. Boulder would have been the more reasonable narrow gauge route to the booming Jamestown mining camp.
The old grade of the Boulder, Left Hand, Jamestown & Middle Park Railroad and Telegraph Company (whew) can be seen much if the way from north Boulder, along #36 on the foothills to the west of the highway north from Boulder, Colorado to where it turns into Lefthand Canyon near the Greenbriar Restaurant. I spotted traces into the canyon for a short stretch. Obviously, they fell far short of their goal of Jamestown let alone Middle Park, Colorado which would have entailed an impossible crossing of the Continental Divide. Cutting tunnels always slows when granite is hit. And it fell short of its goal of Jamestown (and/or Ward), Colorado. The lower canyon pinches tightly below the confluence. It did achieve the Left Hand River Valley and through the very best of fortunes retained, rails were never laid on the grade. The canyons uphill from Jamestown are a choice of bad and a much worse grades. They lost just a fraction of the investment they easily could have.
Here we are still on our trek but making progress, and my series up to the "headwaters" of James Creek on that dandy autumn day. Al and I trekked up to the meadow, and nearly to the original source of James. It's always a good spot to stop and relax and even haul up a tent for a pleasant overnight of serious slacking beside a campfire. I could hang here for hours on end. Phil and I trekked up here a few times and each time, we helped build the dam by adding rocks and detritus. Once, we encountered a beaver who didn't seem to need our help at all. Lefthand water district (Lefthand was the name - Ni-Wot - of Chief and son Arapahoes) seemed to have less regard our dam dam work probably thinking that all the water would not eventually drain. Leave the beavers alone, they are the best engineers at preserving Rockies riparean habitat,
I was already in the high country, series wise, and switched from St. Catherine and the pool to a water documentation project that caused a trek up James Creek a year ago to dredge up proof of regional history. I will do a reveal of my best understanding of this watershed. Al and I still have a way to scramble and I saw some showy scenes on the way. This is my extra early meadow shot. How could you miss this next to a morning trail? I still have loads of flower pictures from the Denver Botanic Gardens. Light sneaks around the aspen that line the trail. I didn't expect this to show in the high country yet that spring. Spring came late this year but July and August hammered us.
We were scrambling up that marginal James Creek trail for our project, but too early in the morning without a doubt. We SHOULD have stopped somewhere for a leisurely breakfast. It's darn lucky any early sun filtered down into this skinny canyon scene. Luckily, the meadow is always well lit. Boy did this water ever pay Jamestown back bigly during the big flood a few years back!
Al claimed that he intended to do an article for the Longmont Observer about the James Creek water diversion that figured mightily into Western, Colorado and regional water law. Phil and I knew that his all had to do with the diversion at the top of James Creek a spot we visited previously and knew well. The story is well woven into our history. We have a bit of a trek before I can reveal the geography behind the story.
Here's my colorful shot of James that fall. The trail was a mix of foliage in fallage lush color. This screams high Rockies palette.
I left this in the editing directory but should have included it in the series. Here it is in a clean up series. Sometimes, I have simply too many captures to include in a series and, well, I get anxious to turn to new presentations.
This section of the Switzerland Trail RR grade navigated the Rockies but in fact, not withstanding all the curves along this route, the elevation gain is little. Several stops and camps meant slow going before the terminus just after Ward, Colorado. Heavy grades had nothing to do with dogged schedule. It's clear that I need a full day on the grade above here along with a climb to the top of the ridge for the grand view.
This was mountain railroading back in the day of steam power when aspen leaves decorated the train cars.
Admittedly, this shot is not far from the last scene I posted but it shows the best aspen color. I am up the old Switzerland Trail RR grade from Gold Hill Station on the Denver, Boulder & Western RR. Hidden ahead is where the northerly grade curves around to the southwesterly direction, avoiding a precipitous drop into Lefthand (Ni-Wot - Arapahoe Indian) Canyon. It enters thicker stands of ponderosa and aspen along the slope. The grade will climb somewhat into the ponderosas and stands of aspen uncleared by snow slides. This section is driveable and shows tire signs of recent travel when last the Trail was damp. I chose to walk and enjoy the day without electronic eye, ear, nose and throat distractions while listening for birds and rustling. I've watched minks playing and nest building while everyone else, stuffed with personal pods passed as if deaf, dumb and blind to the real world. I parked before the curve cut and left the truck. Snow's interlude may not last much longer from the look of the sky. This aspen stand was as colorful as any up here. Nothing turned orange-red this year after the recent snow and big blow.
Here, we are headed toward the curve around edge of the slope. Though the grade looks tangent here, one of the route's designers admitted at least one curve was too tight for the engines that were on order. They simply changed the labels on the surveys ever so slightly. Apparently, the engine design had that much built in. (source, a mechanical engineering student of one designer) That's why the inner drivers were "blind" and without flanges on the consolidation type engines (2-4-0s) so they could navigate tight curves.
Portions can be driven in high-centered (not necessarily 4WD, it's level) vehicles. Get out and walk for an encompassing experience and a lot of nice shots. Well along the grade west of here it's cut off by the Sawmill road. Find the Switzerland Trail right here on Google maps at 40.057165, -105.465255. Zoom in, many segments of the grade are marked on Google maps as seen here. Driveable stretches are solid grey. Take the camera, a snack and hydration. You need the exercise (the current best way, not Amazon's Echo, to insure longevity), the reason for my excursions. Much is missed from a vehicle; park it in a handy spot. On such a trek on the Switzerland Trail, it is impossible to get lost; follow the grade! You'll find a lot of scenes with the Rockies in the backdrop.
Switzerland Trail and Indian Peaks Wilderness Area up the hill remain... at least until Ryan Zinke sells it off to HIS "flag" ship of logging, mining and drilling big money interests or awards the loggong contract to his son in Montana.