well here I am after 20 hours of driving I make it the the Antlers of Vail resort. I rented a 1 bedroom condo with full kitchen for a little cheaper than a hotel in Denver. Vail is about an hour and a half from Denver and I’ll have to drive back and forth between the two for my photo seminar but I wanted to stay in the mountains. did I say in the mountains. shit I’m so far in between them that I hear banjo’s playing. any way I think I’ll keep this blog running as a continuous blog and just updated when needed. so on to the blog..
(update) well I took my first day or I should say my first half day and toured lions head. this is the section that my hotel is in. nice little village but right now it is very dead. nothing what so ever to do around here. I am told once the snow comes in it will be very busy. I’m the kind of guy that don’t like big crowds but it seems that hear the only time it gets to be fun is when it is crowded. hmm.
I am going to do some research and I think tomorrow I will get up early and go up to the rocky mountain park and do some site seeing there. Saturday and Sunday ill be in the seminar for digital photography so those days are already set. I was thinking of staying another night here but since it is so dead I don’t think so.
Monday I am to meet an old friend who lives here in Colorado. If so that will take care of Monday. if I get a pass for the Rockies for the whole week then ill might just head north into the Rockies for the rest of the week if not then ?? more updates to come.
(Update)
[Thurs night] its snowing right now. I’m told it could be a foot of snow by morning. WOW..
(Update)
ok so I’m cheating a little. it has been a couple of days now. Saturday and Sunday was just busy and by the time I got out of the seminars I was just to tired to do anything. so here we go…
got up Friday morning and we had about six inches of snow on the ground. I got out around 8 in the morning and am going to go to the rockie national park today. I was hoping to get on the trail ridge parkway or the fall river road. we’ll see.
well I enter the Rockies. these mountains are more beautiful when they have snow on them. the snow gives them the 3D look and they just stick out better. it turns out that you can only go up the trail ridge about a 1/4 of the way for they have closed it already because of snow. WAAAAA. same goes to the falls river road. damn next time I have to get out here in the summer for it.
if you come do it after November because most of the shops are in the dead season until the snow comes. turns out October is the off season between summer and winter stuff. good this is there are no crowds.
so on Saturday I got up early for it still had snow out. it takes me an hour and a half to get from Vail to Denver. and some of the passes on i70 had snow and ice so you had to drive slow or head on off the side of the mountain. up one side and its dry as can be and start down the other and its nothing but ice and snow.
I made it to the photo shoot. which was the main reason I came here for. the first season is for the basics of photography. this class is set up or digital cameras. learned a lot in class. some I already knew from high school but others was new. now I just have to remember what they said and put it to good use.
Sunday came and the drive in wasn’t to bad. they went over on the basics and then they showed up what to do for a photo-shoot. what we should do to compose the picture. setting the right aperture and having the right speed. then after the first half we went to another room. they had four stations set up just as a professional would do for a photo-shoot. they had models come out and pose for us. they were great they were also beautiful. we had four girls and two guys.
the models would dress in different costumes from dresses and old Russian made costume to a cowboy and skateboarder. this was assume, we shot for about and hour and a half. the models would pose for so long the switch out and get redressed into a different costume. some models dress 3-4 different times. the hosts would walk around and change the lighting and explain what and why they were doing it. all you had to do is ask for help and they would help and explain it for you.
after the shoot we had launch and during this time the two presenters were going over all the pics and criticizing them. they were saying that our group had some of the best pics out of the other courses that the had. they pulled up on a big screen and showed us what we did and explain if anything could have been don better. their were some very good shoots.
after the shoot I dove around a little and headed back to the condo in Vail. I was around nine ten o’clock at night. I was driving in the fast lane and lets just say faster the what was posted.(
) and for some reason I decided to get in the slow lane since there was nobody else out except a couple that a screamed by. in a flash I scream by a huge elk just standing in the fast lane. my heart literally stop. this beast was as tall as my explorer. his antlers were as wide as my truck and I just raced right past him. in a split second if I had been in the fast lane there would hamburger galore from both of us. I I looked up and said my thanks right then and there somebody was watching me. I’m pretty sure the elk jumped back into the woods
wow my heart still jumps when I think of it. anyway the next day, Monday, I got up checked out and headed to the southern part of town to meat a friend that we haven’t seen are talked to for almost 15+ years. that was great to get to know him again. need to keep in touch with him more.
well more to come..
[update]
ok now where did I leave off. I have just left my friend Andy and headed to the Rockies again. the first time I went up I drove thru a small town and just found out this second time thru I am driving thru Boulder. hmm nice little town. everything out here is so spread out. to do anything you have to drive for hours to get anywhere. ok so now I’m back in the Rockies National Park. driving into the park there are cars off the side of the road. off the side you see a giant heard of elks just grazing and doing whatever they feel like. I parked, got out and started to take pictures. after that I headed down to bear lake. a nice drive, in and out of the valley’s between the mountains. didn’t see much wild life I guess they are all up the front entrance blocking traffic.
drove back to the entrance. I wanted to drive up on the trail ridge road or the falls road but both are already closed for winter. was told that there is snow already on them and driving is to hazardous so they closed them.
I was deciding if I wanted to drive 2+ hrs. to Colorado springs to see pikes peak and gods garden, which is a valley of red rocks in the middle of nowhere. but decide that I just head on home. since my ac decided to also go on vacation and quite I just started home. I had a nice time out here and drove a lot of miles. I need to get back out here in mid summer when there is more things going on. well that’s it for this blog until next time……
