Pictures from yesterday's hike

I put pictures from yesterday's hike in a photo album this afternoon. Most are geotagged. I also have a bunch of pictures that I used Photomatix to enhance. Unfortunately, it also enhances the spots on the polarizer lens. I've about convinced myself that I need to buy it. The only problem is that I also found out that I pretty much need to carry a tripod with me if I'm going to use Photomatix. It takes less than a second for the camera to get the three pictures that serve as input to Photomatix, and Photomatix is able to compensate for some camera movement, but some of the processed pictures from yesterday make my eyes water if I look too closely at them.

I have a small tripod that I use for self portraits on hikes. It takes up very little room in my backpack and weighs almost nothing. I really need a full size tripod for the Photomatix pictures, though. My full size tripod is light, but I don't think it will fit in the backpack. At this time of year, I have to have a water bottle in one hand. If I have a tripod in the other hand, I won't be able to swat at gnats (or bees). Such a dilemma.

I put captions on most of the pictures, so I'm not going to talk about them here.

BC_2008_06_08

Atempts at a self portrait

I've been lazy lately. And don't say, "Lately?". I didn't hike all weekend because it was "too hot". It barely got to 100. By this afternoon I was determined to get outside, even if it was hot. It was only about 93 by the time I parked the truck, though.

I went out to Bulldog Canyon. When I was just about to the place I was going to park, I spotted a large lizard up ahead, furiously doing push ups. I decided I had better take a couple of pictures through the windshield in case opening the door scared him away. It was in a pretty shady spot, and he was doing push ups pretty fast, so the pictures are blurred. Of course, he did run off when I opened the door.

There's a pretty, rocky mountain ridge where I parked. I was tempted to take a picture, but I have hundreds of pictures of it. I decided to just go sit on it. When I got up there, I decided to take some pictures of myself sitting there not taking picture. I set up the intervalometer to take a picture every minute. The first one is when I started it.

Then I got in the picture. When I use the timer to get pictures of myself, I usually don't have time to get in position. These are a minute apart, so I didn't know when the camera was going to take a picture.

I tried counting to 60 and posing at the right time. My eyes were drying out. ...64, 65, 66, what the heck, I gotta blink.

I was almost ready for this one. I forgot about this being the pair of jeans that are really worn out.

I can't count to 60 with these gnats distracting me.

Speaking of gnats, there's one in my nose now!

Working at avoiding dehydration results in other situations. Actually I'm just enjoying the scenery.

Then I got a phone call.

There are lots of sharp things in the desert. Seconds before this picture was taken, a humming bird was hovering in front of me, looking like it was trying to decide if I was a big, ugly flower. I wish it had hung around for a few more seconds.

43, 44, what's that over there? 56, elebenty 23, huh? where was I? CLICK.

I think that was the last picture. CLICK.

It's just darn difficult to get pictures of some people. Even if any of these had turned out OK, it was too late in the day and everything but the sky is red. Oh, well, I'll try again some day.