On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
cope
I took this assignment literally so I have chosen pictures covering a span of years and places and subjects that are subjectively beautiful, soothing or calming to me. It was fun work and required actual physical labor (moving and going through boxes) in order to literally dig through the archives (prints and framed pictures).
Until I got home from Sanibel Island and put this picture of an osprey on the computer, I was unaware of the bug on the fish. It’s not sharply focused nor framed very well but, meh, negative space, blah, blah, blah.
I love the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado in general and Mt. Sneffels (14,150’) in particular. I’ve climbed this peak four times and like to think that even at my age, I might still have one more go in me.
This collared lizard certainly sticks out amongst the barren, dry rocks of Rabbit Valley in western Colorado. I presume his color is meant to attract a mate and hope it didn’t make him a target for predators.
I cop to including a picture I did not actually take. My lovely wife did. Her Reiki masters class was given permission to go in amongst the stones. She shot this one as she was leaving. I didn’t have to tell you where this is, right?
I have countless pictures of pelicans flying and floating on and around Sanibel Island but only a couple of pelicans in a tree. It’s just surprised me to see them in a place where I had not seen them before.
Lynn means lake in Welsh. This 1973 picture of Lynn Padarn was taken with a 35 mm film camera. The Moon is rising over the lake in the direction of Snowdon, Yr Wyddfa in Welsh. The slide was made into a print and the print scanned into my computer.
A hawk giving me the finger? That’s what it looks like to me. Shot through the screening of our back porch, it’s not as sharp an image as I would like but you have to appreciate the attitude.
This launch of a ULA rocket from Cape Canaveral was taken from about 45 miles away at the high school where I finished my teaching career. The exhaust trail is alternately illuminated by the rising Sun and in shadow from clouds.
My camera is always at the ready to make another attempt at getting the perfect hummingbird picture. I consider this the best but still with much to be desired. Luckily, they are permanent residents of Central Florida so I get lots of chances.
I took this picture in the late ‘60s with a Kodak Retina IIa Coat Pocket Camera loaded with 2475 Recording Film, ASA 1000. I developed the film and made the print myself. The location is Gillson Park in Willmette, Illinois. This is another scan of a print, a print I made from film I developed.
frosty
Very nice! Sometimes the only chance you get for a wildlife picture is through the screen because they won’t be around after you open the door. I got several Gila Woodpecker pictures last spring that way.
Jealous of the hummingbird pic!
Auntie Anne
I like the last picture – it speaks to me somehow.
Lapassionara
These are lovely. Thank you. I especially like the last one, from the late 60’s. I am partial to black and white photographs.
BigJimSlade
Ahh… nothing is so calming as a raptor’s talons gripping a fish through the face. Lol, but lovely shots!
JanieM
What a wonderfully varied set. I was sure the Mt. Sneffels shot was going to be my fave — it’s beautiful, and very much to the purpose of taking a breath and calming down. Then I came to Stonehenge, and then Snowdonia, and then the last, snowy one…. So I’m giving up the silly notion of deciding which I like best.
The wildlife is delightful too — the lizard is almost not believable as a real critter in that environment, but I’ll take your word for it. As a lover of anything blue, I approve.
*****
Thinking about it before I post the comment — I’ve been to the San Juans, and I’ve been to Stonehenge. The Snowdonia one makes me want to go to Wales so badly I can taste it. It makes me think of Mary Stewart’s Merlin trilogy, among other things.
stinger
For some reason I’m singing There’s a hole, there’s a hole, there’s a hole in the bottom of the sea….
Love all the pics, and can never get enough Stonehenge.
J R in WV
Well… is this great stuff, or what?
I am continually amazed by the great photography I see here. It astounds me.
Thanks to everyone who post their photography here for us all to see!
So fine ~!!~
Thanks especially to Cope tonight for this great set of photos. Great work. Can’t even go to which one is a favorite…
BigJimSlade
Snowdonia and then Sheridan Road – I’m really enjoying the old moody style. So not ‘sharpest pixel modern’ stuff (though I can like that, too).
SkyBluePink
Wonderful collection!
My favorites are the atmospheric Snowdonia, the lizard of many colors and of course, the Tree!
Dan B
The composition of most of these photos is awesome, as is the light and contrast. Technically some are less than perfect but they are evocative. Technical perfection that requires thousand dollar equipment often fails to move us the way these images do. Thanks!
Perhaps they are a metaphor for our presidential candidates, except one set is so far below the minor, humanizing (?), flaws of the other.
different-church-lady
Human beings are a problem.
(DCL, +10,000,000)
Ella in New Mexico
thank you <3
cope
@BigJimSlade: HEE HEE, I had the same thought but my “editor” over-ruled me. She is my biggest fan, always sees more in my pictures than I do and this has always been one of her favorites.
BigJimSlade
@cope: :-) I agree about the negative space on that one. The next one reminds me just at a glance of the Dolomites (if you haven’t been, make a plan to go!), the lizard’s colors are great, I’ve never seen pelicans with their big webbed feet in treetops (unpossible!), the hawk on your fence is changing the channel (? hitching a ride? handing you something or waiting to take something from your hand?), and the hummingbird background is bokeh-licious. (and my favorites are still Snowdonia and then Sheridan Road).
Pete Mack
That first pic makes me think of children’s songs. Here’s one.
There’s a frog on the bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea;
There’s a frog on the bump<2x>
There’s a frog on the bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea.
Benw
This is getting silly. I’ve stumbled into a blog with some of the greatest photographers of all time.
scribbler
Did you grow up in Wilmette? I loved Gillson Park as a kid.
cope
@scribbler: I grew up in Northbrook and didn’t discover Gilson park until I was in college. I loved going there in winter and on one very stupid occasion, my girlfriend and I went out on the ice which had broken up into little bergs but they were all mooshed together so we hopped from one little bobbing ice patch to another. That was one of my stronger applications for a Darwin Award.
Of course, the Baha’i Temple is right next door and that was always a serene spot in better weather. Also, and I’m not positive, but I think the dock from which the Porsche 928 in “Risky Business” fell into the lake is right there as well.