The Golden Hour

When I started reading up on photography, especially landscape and portrait photography, and I quickly run into a term called the Golden hour.

The Golden hour is the first hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset. The sun during this time is lower in the sky, and thefore it produces a softer and more diffused light. This type of light is more flattering.

A lot of professional photographer swears by this and some even go as far as saying that they only shoot during the Golden hour.

I am not a morning person and there is no way I am getting up at dawn before the sunrise, not even with the promise of a good picture or a cup of good coffee. So shooting around sunrise is out of the option.

A few days ago, I came home earlier from work to a nice golden light around the neighborhood. The sky is blue and clear and the weather was perfect.

I quickly changed, grabbed my camera, and went for a walk.

My Golden hour moment only lasted about 1/2 hour before the sun sets, but it was good for practice and experiment.

Devil's Head Lookout

I am catching up on my post, :).

We took some road trips this summer.

One Saturday we went to Devil's Head Lookout.  It is a US Forest Service fire lookout southwest of Denver. To get to the lookout tower, we hiked this beautiful 1.4 miles, 951 feet elevation trail.

The Wooden Spoon Adventure: Zucchini Bread

Last week, ECL asked me if I want to come out of retirement to be a part of the travelling spoon.

What is the travelling spoon?

A fellow blogger, Kate of A Merrier World, is celebrating her blog's 5th year anniversary and is sending a wooden spoon on a journey around the world. Sort of like the pants in the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, :)).

Wild Animal Sanctuary

We went to the Wild Animal Sanctuary a few months ago.

 

The Sanctuary is about 40 miles North East Denver. We use the GPS

 

It is a non-profit organization, who rescue wildlife from across the US, Canada, Mexico, and South America. The animals rescued come from a variety of situations such as illegal pets, zoo surplus, exotic animal auctions, and from facilities closed due to animal abuse.

 

What's cool about the Sanctuary is, unlike the zoo, the animals are there to stay for the rest of their lives

 

We walked on the tall elevated catwalks to view the animals.

 

 

We saw a lot of tigers, wolves, and bears.

 

.

 

 

A little pond for the tigers to swim and play.

 

 

 

 

The tube behind the sitting bear is actually a tunnel, leading to their underground climate-controlled rooms.

 

 

 

The best part of the trip was to see a cute brown bear, who kept coming over to bother the volunteer workers.