Kathmandu

Kathmandu welcomes us with open arms

These two children were playing at The Great Boudha Stupa World Heritage Site.  There will be more photos from this location later in the blog.

This is a picture of the courtyard at our hotel in Kathmandu.  My room was on the fourth floor.  I share a room with a fellow american from New Mexico.  John was in the Peace Corp in Nepal in 1966-1969.

Since John and I both arrived a day early we headed out for a morning walk to Durbar Square.  Along the way we passed a morning market.

These gentlemen were playing at a temple adjacent to the market. .

You can buy almost everything you need at the market.  The market is setup in the street.  By mid-morning they have to be packed up and gone.  

Durbar square is a holy site.  There were a lot of people making their morning devotional visit.

Pigeons are feed at all of the temple locations in Kathmandu.  There are also two calves in Durbar Square.

I thought these mask were interesting and a little scary.

After we left Durbar Square we stumbled across this little worship building.  It was right along side the road and couldn't have been much bigger than 6 foot by 8 foot.  I could easily look over the roof.  Throughout Kathmandu there are many religious sites along the road or at intersections.

Our photo tour officially began at dinner the first night.  But picture taking started at sunrise the next day. At 5:30 am we headed to Swayambunath.

As the sun rose a little higher it highlighted all of the dust in the air.  Quite a few people in Kathmandu wear a mask over their mouth to keep the dust out.

Swayambunath is also know as the monkey palace.  When we arrived there were monkeys everywhere.  As more people arrived most of the monkeys disappeared.

A monk who is just completing his walk around the Stupa. Swayambunath has many shines as well at the Stupa. The complex is an important site for Buddhist as well as revered by Hindus.  

Bamboo scaffolding at the complex.  One of the vertical poles had a 30 degree bend.

Incense,smoke, and candles are part of the worship practices.   

This is why you shouldn't build your scaffolding out of bamboo.

The Monkey Palace Stupa.

Monkey with a cataract. He doesn't look too happy.

Street vendors at the foot of the temple site.  Food and materials are still delivered by foot power.

Worship candles were sold by quite a few vendors at the foot of the stairs to the Stupa.  The Stupa sits on the top of a large hill.  You can see the top of the Stupa just over the Buddha statues left shoulder. 

One of the candle vendors.

We ate lunch at a roof top restaurant close to our hotel.  Many of the older buildings in Nepal have six foot ceiling heights.  Historically Nepali people weren't very tall.  

After lunch we went to the Great Boudha Stupa site.  

This young lady was at the Stupa with her family.  She was poising for pictures for them and let us photographers capture a few shots.

The dome of the Stupa is a 120 feet in diameter.  Buddhist people believe that the relics of Kashyapa Buddha, the third Buddha of Bhadrakalpa was enshrined in the Dome.

In 1979 the great stupa became a World Heritage Site. Today it is a major destination for pilgrims from the Himalayas, Tibet, and Southeast and Eastern Asia.

Touch up work to keep the stupa looking it's best.

Prayer flags back-lit by the sun. 

People were constantly walking through this smoke.  Many stopping for a minute to say a prayer.

Camera sun flare turns a pigeon into a rainbow. 

Ewen Bell our tour leader does a lot of people photography while shooting into the sun.  So for the next two shot I am trying to replicate his process.

Setting sun putting a warm glow on the buildings around the stupa.  Tomorrow we are off to Bhaktapur which is know as the cultural capital of Nepal.

First Day in Nepal

I arrived in Kathmandu today after a 5 hour flight delay in Istanbul.  Was glad to get to Nepal.  Upon my arrival I discovered it was a festival day and that half of the customs staff decided not to show up for work.  So lines where quite a bit longer than usual.  The good news was that traffic across Kathmandu was much lighter than normal.  So we made good time getting to our hotel in the Thamel district.  After a quick shower I ventured out to the streets for a few pictures.  These should give you a good feel for the immediate area around my hotel.

Kathmandu taxi stand.  The Thamel district is a shopping area that caters to tourist.  None of the shops are very big and all appear to be family run.

Right in the middle of a street intersection they placed this large art mural on the payment.  The artwork is formed by grains and flower petals.  It is a temporary exhibit to celebrate the new year.

Lots of tourist junk up and down the streets.  Cashmere is suppose to be a bargain here but you have to buy it from a reputable shop.

Typical street view. Since today was a festival day a few of the shops were closed. Motorcycles, cars, and pedestrians fight for the same street space.  Horns are constantly honking.  The streets are very narrow.  There is a customary directional traffic flow on the streets but the streets are not truly one way.  So lookout for the crazy guy going against the flow.     

Old meets new.  I like this shot because in this part of Kathmandu you can see historic culture and pop culture in the same space.  This is the fifth and last day of the festival called Tihar. On this day sisters put “Tika of five colours” Paanch Rangi Tika - Yellow, green, red, blue and white on forehead of her brothers, to ensure long life and pray to Yamraja for her brother’s long life and prosperity. The gentleman holding the smart phone has these marks on his forehead.

Our photo tour doesn't start until tomorrow evening.  Looking forward to moving beyond the tourist areas.

Colorful Colorado

Roxborough State Park is located about 45 minutes south of Denver.  The park is relatively small but has some nice trails. 

One of four pictures taken from an overlook in Roxborough State Park.

You can see one of the trails in the left hand corner of this photo.  It is interesting how different the rocks were on each side of this small valley. 

Unfortunately there are a lot of homes just behind these red rock flatirons.  There is a peninsula of private land sticking into the park. 

I focus stacked this picture to try and get it sharp throughout the image.  So five pictures were combine to create this shot.  The initial focus point was the white rocks in the foreground. The last focal point was on the farthest red rocks.

I got up an hour before sunrise to capture a picture at Long Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness.  But I was in for a surprise.  As I entered the Wilderness I hit a snow line and icy roads.  The wind was blowing 30 miles per hour with gusts to 50.  I got blown across an icy parking lot so I packed it in. The only picture I kept was of Rock Lake on the drive out of the wilderness.

I headed to Alamosa Colorado to take some pictures at Great Sand Dunes National Park and capture Aspens on the back roads.  I drove the 4-1/2 hours to Alamosa because the forecast showed mostly sunny skies.  But as you can see by this photo that was not the case.

There are 650 foot tall sand dunes stacked against the mountains in southern Colorado.  There are more sand dune photos later in this blog.

There is a nice drive about thirty miles south of Alamosa that takes you up one watershead, over a mountain pass, and down another watershead.

There were quite a few older buildings along the route.  This building used local building materials, mud walls and a timber roof.

This is an old catholic church.  I like the pattern of the windows on this wall.

Conejos River

I drove up the Conejos River Valley looking for changing Aspens.

I know John Miller has been considering moving to a home with a bigger backyard and neighbors not too close.  I thought this 10x10 cabin would be perfect.

Aspens near Stunner pass.

I like the patterns of green and yellow foliage in this photo.

Upper reaches of Conejos River.

Conejos Peak view with Mix Lake and Platoro Reservoir in the foreground. 

Lookout Mountain.  The runoff from these mountains color the local creeks red. The two local creeks are called Alum creek and Bitter creek 

Alamosa River with the red silt.

Reflection in a small pond along Silverlakes Road.

Recent rains had knocked quite a few Aspen leaves off of the trees.

This stock building was built up against a rock face.  The logs must have been hauled quite a ways.

Back to Great Sand Dunes National Parks for some evening pictures.

If I would have known at this point that the winds were going to pick up to about 40 miles per hour I would have turned around here.  I am about 600 feet up a sand dune.

One of my two $650 pictures.  The sand was blowing so hard my pockets were filling with sand.  You can see my shadow in the right hand corner.  The shadow is cast on blowing sand not the dunes.

Why are these my two $650 pictures? Because that is what it cost me to get my lens and camera fixed after exposing them to a sand storm.

This is my last visit to sand dunes to take pictures.

I hope you enjoyed my Colorful Colorado blog.  The next blog will be from Nepal.