This post is the continuation of yesterday’s post about my visit to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Colorado. If you haven’t read the first part yet, you should start there.

I was telling you that after entering the one way road I saw something unusual – it was a herd of bison. Other than coyotes, rabbits and squirrels I don’t see much wildlife in Irvine, so spotting the American Bison was a treat. I believe that the small birds around and on the bison are European Starlings. These birds pick pests out of the thick coats of the bison.

A herd of American bison at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal

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On Thursday, prior to meeting with a friend for lunch, I wanted to spend some time doing photography. One favorite spot for me is Sawhill Ponds in Boulder, CO, but I felt it was a bit far for this day. I then noticed on the map an area that I only visited once while living in Colorado: the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. When I went in the past, it was in late winter, and there was still snow on the ground. I can still recall that it was a very cold visit.

The weather has been very nice in CO during our short spring visit, and luckily, there is no snow on the ground. I made the decision to give another try to the Arsenal, and am I glad I did! I spent a few magical hours at this huge, 15,000 acre prairie, woodland and wetland habitat. This area first was used by Plains Indians for herding bison, then farming was introduced, later during the WWII it was a chemical weapon manufacturing facility. In the Cold-War era weapons were still manufactured here,  but in 1992 it was transformed into a national wildlife refuge. You can find over 330 species of animals in the area.

Within 5 minutes of entering the Refuge, I got very excited upon spotting deer on both sides of the road and some were also crossing the road.

I took lots of pictures of them; I liked observing this fawn, because she looked a bit confused (maybe looking for mom?), and it sounded like she was crying.

After driving just another minute I found the following deer grazing right next to the road.

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We decided to spend most of Spring Break with grandparents in Colorado. I really like taking images from airplanes, and I got lucky again with a window seat. For the first time I also tried some of my Lensbaby lenses for this aerial photography, and I think I created some very interesting images.  🙂 The one lens I didn’t care for in the air was the Burnside. After a few pictures I switched it out to something else. I liked the Twist 60 and the Sol 45 the most.

Here is a set of images taken between Orange County and Denver, CO. Except for the first four, they are all Lensbaby images. I think the first and last two of this set show a great contrast between where we live now (OC), and where we used to live (CO). The first two images I took moments after we took off, and the last two moments prior to landing. Very different views, aren’t they? (Hover over the slideshow and click the Next arrow to advance the images.)

Just for fun, here are those first and last two images one more time:

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When I was experimenting with the Twist 60, I tried it with my beautiful and fragrant Freesia flowers. The first image was taken at F2.8 from about the minimum distance this lens can handle. Post processing in Lightroom, On1 Effects and Topaz Studio.

For the second image I placed the +4 macro filter on the lens, and this is the image I created (same post-processing):

There is definitely a lot of potential in this lens for me. I’ll share more images in the coming days.

Which image do you like more?