Merry Christmas

I'm grateful for another good year of photographic opportunities; the chance to go different places, to see new sights and for all the flowers!  Thanks to you who have chanced on this site and enjoy my circular visions.  

Hooded Eagle

As the handlers were getting ready to move the eagle they put his hood on, eagle is perched on the handler's gauntlet.  The man had to use both hands to hold the eagle in the air - he's a heavy bird, with very powerful talons.

Double Eagle

Double eagle heads.  This was the largest raptor we got to take pictures of.  He really does have an intense stare. The yellow in the middle is part of his talons.

Screech Owl

This tiny little guy is the  screech owl in my previous mandala.

Yoda

When I first made this mandala, I thought it looked like Yoda,  It really is a tiny screech owl with an intense stare.

peregrine original photo

Peregrine flapping its wings.  Imagine where the triangle is I took from this picture to make the earlier Mandala

Peregrine Falcon different view

The Peregrine posed for us. I liked this one because his talons make up the yellow in the middle. The star that formed was from a stray piece of grass. 

Great Horned Owl

Have always loved the face of the great horned owl.

They look so stern! We had a breeze the day of the shoot so his 'horn' feathers are ruffled.

Barn Owl

Bran owls have such an interesting face.  This one they had sitting in a tree which you can see as the 'V' shape between faces. I liked the speckles on their feathers. There were 6 raptors at this photo shoot, to include 3 owls.

Red Tailed Hawk

Bottom side of the bird. Outer circle is the tail feathers of a red tailed Hawk, his talons and in the center is his breast feathers.

Peregrine Falcon

This one is a bit hard to read at first.  I had an opportunity to photograph some raptors earlier in the fall, above is a peregrine falcon flexing his wings, blurred by motion.

Pink Bells

Back to flowers!  I took a lot of flower pictures this summer.  These were up in the Betty Ford Wildflower Garden in Vail.  On a tall stalk - hadn't seen pink ones before.

Flagstaff Sunset

Sunset in Flagstaff, AZ, off I 40, getting gas.  This was actually going to Sedona, but we take the same highway back to Colorado on the return trip.  The sunsets would be behind us on the way home.  Back home 3 of my Mandalas were juried into the Gateway to the Rockies Show, the opening reception is tonight, Nov 16th, from 5-7:30 at the Aurora History Museum.  Show runs thru December 15th.

Pink Flamingos

This one might be a little hard to read at first - I took it on the fly as we were leaving Jerome, AZ, the mining town on the side of a hill.  They are a group of pink Flamingos wearing hats with sunflowers decorating a mail box.  They were just cute and different!

Kachina

Regular Kachina was in a niche where we were staying - the morning light was shining on him.  Liked the patterns the wings made.  

Coffee Pot Rock

A different view of Coffee Pot Rock, looks more like a rock kachina in this version.  We were in the residential area just below the formation, looking up.

Prickly Cactus

A very prickly cactus.

purple cactus

Have always loved these prickly pear cactus that shade from purple to a teal green.  Above mandala has mostly the purple parts - it was against a tan adobe wall.

Flowers for my birthday

Took a vacation to Sedona, AZ, for my birthday and got a bouquet of flowers to brighten up the place. The Bird of Paradise made a unique structural element in the mandala and I liked the colors.  The next few Mandala will be from that visit.

Halloween hello!

Happy Halloween!  Our thoughts are with all those people on the East Coast who cannot celebrate this year because of the devastation of Hurricane Sandy!  Hang in there!

gold orange and a touch of red

Aspen Gold with a touch of red.  After our last storm the aspen are gone now.  So I try to enjoy the pictures I took while they were at their peak. 

Aspen2

Original Picture.  Never seen such red aspen.

Aspen

The aspen turned bright colors this year, from red to orange to their usual golden colors.  There were 4 trees in a row that had turned a bright red-orange.  They just stood out on the edge of a field near the road. 

cactus tunas

We took a trip to the southwest, saw cactus and lots of red rock in Sedona.  

highland games

As we walked out of the Highland Games

along came a police man on a Segway, with booth signs in part of the background, flags in the other part and the wheels in center, it make for an interesting patterns.

armor

In front of one of the clan tents at the Scottish Highland Games was a suit of armor. It made for an interesting pattern of light, dark and color.

Hammered Dulcimer

There was lots of music at the Highland Games to include the hammered dulcimer player above.  There were bands of all varieties with lots of good music.  

cannon fodder

Bowling balls from the previous mandala were cannon fodder for the hourly cannon shot into Lake Estes, keeping time for the Scottish Highland Games.  I chuckled when I saw the pile, not on a brass monkey - but stacked the same.  

bowling balls

This is a pile of variously colored bowling balls,  They were at the Scottish Highland Games.  I'll leave you in suspense for a day as to why.  

Trail Ridge Visitors Center

While in Estes Park decided to drive up Trail Ridge Road.  This is a picture of the Visitors Center Roof.  The roof has lots of logs because of the tremendous snow load it gets over winter. 

Tuba Reflections original

Reflections in the tuba bell look quite different than the mandala, especially with the green grass instead of the gray background presented above. 

Tuba Reflections

Love the shiny bell of the tuba - you can tell when the end of the marching band is coming.  We were standing at the back of the band on a green field of pipers and military band members, the blue sky, surrounding tents and band members visible in the bell of the tuba.

kilts

One of the things that happen in the fall is the Scottish Highland Games in Estes Park.  With all the various kilt patterns there is plenty of color around.  This person was wearing a red coat that added more color to the mix.

Fall is in the air

Fall is not officially here yet but it is going to feel like it tomorrow with highs in the 70's.  the cottonwood tree next door has been losing leaves regularly over the last couple of weeks.  These landed on my sidewalk. and were sprayed by the sprinkler system.  As they were drying out a halo of moisture formed around them.  The golden leaves are almost translucent.showing the other leaf below.  Enjoy the last days of this long hot summer!

Penstemon

Star shapes appeal to me, this is a close up of a penstemon bloom taken at the Betty Ford Wildflower Gardens in Vail, Colorado.  They are beautiful gardens on a mountain hillside, they constructed a ramp that circulates through the entire garden for handicap accessibility which makes it nice for people who can't climb stairs.

Agave

The geometric feel of this tile and the way the light highlighted the tips of the agave make for an interesting pattern.  It reminds me of the visual optic games that have you star at the dot in the middle while strange things will happen at the periphery of your vision.  To my knowledge nothing will happen with the above picture, but it feels like something might.

Simple bee

 

The simple picture of a bee hovering near a flower against the background of a beige wall struck a cord with me. 

Jimsonweed flower and bee

The bee, although in a depression of shadow, stands up enough to be highlighted by the sun and back lit just a little.  The flower is a big white trumpet shape of the Jimsonweed plant at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

bee

Bee on the lip of a white flower.  I liked this bee he was sitting on the edge of a gorgeous flower, I'll upload the original picture tomorrow. 

National Honey Bee Day

Bees are important to our gardens they pollinate all our fruit trees and vegetables. Saturday is National Honey Bee Day!  This bee whose legs are packed with pollen is on a red cone flower. 

black bumble bee

Here's a black bumble bee.

orange stripe bee

Bee with a big orange stripe.  It always surprises me to find bees in many color combinations. At the Denver Botanic Gardens there must be several different hives around the grounds. 

bee

The bee in this picture is on the edge of a milkweed bloom. 

Bees

Ending the Celtic cross series with bees.  When at the Denver Botanic Gardens the other day every flower seemed to have bees on them, so I will share more of my bees in August.

Bird of Paradise flower

The Bird of Paradise flower has bright red stamen that make for beautiful arching bits of color. Again a flower design is in the Celtic cross shape.  I found a link that gave a very good description of Celtic crosses thought I would share,  http://www.celticbydesign.com/index.cfm/feature/29_153/celtic-crosses.cfm . 

drops of water on a seed head

Another Cross different texture - still plant material.  Totally different from the Mandala posted on July 1st, but from the same flower picture (which I posted on July 9th).   I love to experiment with a versital picture.

swirled pattern

This felt like a carnival swirl painting. It's a filter in PhotoShop that I have fun with every so often.  It started as the same cross shape in July 17th post. Fun is the operative word here.

red and green feathers

A different kind of red and green.  These are the feathers of a tropical bird we saw in San Diego.  The texture is different from plant material in the earlier cross shapes and the circle has a different color feather as contrast. 

another red leaf amongst the green

Another red leaf amongst the green.  By positioning the segment just so you can isolate the color for the circle from the rest of the picture. 

water droplets

Here is a Celtic cross made of water droplets on some blades of grass.  Because of the light color of the outer band of grass you almost do not see the cross shape.  It looks like a square turned on a point.  There is still a circle of twigs and a definite cross in the middle, but the illusion of a square on a point is still there, squint your eyes.