A Wonderful World Surrounds Us

Let's always take time and appreciate the wonderful world that surrounds us.

This picture was selected for a center fold in the Estes Park News. Notice the small rainbow created by the sun shining into the lens.

Aspen in Endo Valley in RMNP. Was on channel 7 news - quip from newcaster was "Darrell liked this picture so much he fell over taking it"

Crags on Chapin Mountain taken from Fall River Road. In 2008 Rocky Mountain calendar.

Darrell calls this the "Texas Hole". This is the Rock Cut on trail to Longs Peak at just the right angle.

Taken from Darrell's home on Storm Mountain with telescope. The camera was just held to eyepiece. Can see the Beaver on the left-hand side.

Cub Lake. Maybe Darrell's favorite picture of this year. He got plenty wet getting this picture framing this picture just right. Notice framing with branches in the foreground to give depth. Taken about 9:30 in morning

Unnamed waterfall in Endo Valley. Long exposure on tripod creates the silky effect of the water. Featured on calendars and magnets available around Estes Park shops.

Palisade Mountain taken from Darrell's home on Storm Mountain. The book Darrell was writing at the time was called "Jaded Sunrise".

Sunset that has the effect available in the west (not seen as much in mid-west). Sunsets are more red because of the motion during the day. Sunrises are more predominately yellow.

Sunset over Lake Estes, converted to black-and-white. Notice the rays coming down onto lake.

Sandhill Crane. Predominately eastern birds and wet habitat. This was along the road on the Western slope. At first sighting they were mistaken for deer.

Western Red Crossbill. Notice the shape of the beak which is adapted for opening nuts and pinecones since birds have stronger jaw muscles that close the jaw than those that open it.

Male Cassio Finch. Quite rare in this area and distinguishable by the red head plume. They live here year-round.

female Broadtail hummingbird. The speed of camera shutter (about 1/2000 sec) stopped the wing motion. Darrell has his camera mounted outdoors pointed at the bird feeder and controlled from his computer inside the house.

Mountain bluebird just as it landed. The flash inadvertantly went off and this was the result stopping the action of the wing. Lucky shot !!

Magpie. The lighting was just right and captured the irridescent color in his tail feather.

male Red-shafted flicker. (a woodpecker) with his tounge out. Taken through bedroom window. Featured in Estes Park News.

Adorable fox cubs taken by Stanley Hotel.

Coming out of their den. Very playful.

Coyote in RMNP. Healthy coat, taken about March along Moraine Park road. This coyote became very human-friendly and had to be put down. An example of why we should not feed the wildlife.

Mule deer by Aspen falls.

Bighorn on hiway 34 by Waltona. Notice how the littler one is looking at the larger one. Also notice the damage to the antler from sparring.

Taken just east of Glen Haven. Bighorn have the most intense stares. Almost spooky.

By Alberta Falls in September. A bit atypical to find elk at that high altitude. This is about 20 yards away.

Elk was not happy about Darrell being there.

Started to charge. Darrell froze in his place - didn't have a place to go besides being frightened.

Darrell got the message to mosey on his way and backed up slowly. Behind was his harem of cows that Darrell couldn't see.

Old Hat Lily at Nymph Lake. Incredibly transparent water.

Elephant' Head. Each flower looks like the name. Often above treeline.

Calypso orchid. Hard to find, but these were right along the road.

Indian Paintbrush. Looking to find Green Paintbrush.

Rocky Mountain Bee plant along CR43. There is a bee in the plant

Columbine along Fall River Road. There is a stand with exceptionally large ones 3-4' tall along lower North Fork trail by the fireplace. Bloom late July.

Larkspur by Trail Ridge Road. The lighting gives a three-dimensional look. Highlights on edge of flowers. Taken late afternoon.

Taken near Hidden Valley

Great photography is still available at night. This is a thunderstorm over Denver taken from Storm Mountain. Scorpio is on left-hand side. The bright spot is Jupitor.

Taken with 10" telescope. The moon rising over Storm Mountain

Used by NASA for article about future mission to the moon.

Northern Lights (Aroura Borealis) with reds and greens. The earth's rotational axis points at the North Star (Polaris), so if you aim the camera at it and use a 1 hour exposure you get these arcs from stars as the earth rotates.

Aurora Borealis. Taken on Nov 7 2004 and have earned a lot of acclaim for Darrell. Can see traffic along FDR28 (Storm Mountain Drive). SpaceWeather.com has lots of info about upcoming events like comets, eclipses, geomagnetic storms.

ImageNova in Canada traded their astronomy software $300 with Darrell for this picture.

Comet Hale-Bop and Twin Owls. Has won several awards.

Comet Hale-Bob. Taken with high-speed film at Fern Lake trail. The was in an international Magazine. Clearly shows two trails. White trail is debris breaking off the comet and shows the direction of the omet to be nearly straight down. The blue tail is the trail from ions that are excited by solar wind and point away from the sun.

Here, the comet is going nearly horizontal. This was after sunset with a timed exposure. See the Andromeda galaxy which is our nearest neighbor to the Milky Way

Can see Andromeda Galaxy very well here. No telescope was used - the camera alone captured this picture.

This comet fragmented into many pieces, only 2 can be captured in this picture. Craters are caused by this type of debris.

Comet Venus is the bright star. Darrell uses a home-made tracker that has the hinges pointed at Polaris and rotates it one revolution per minute and it keeps the stars as pinpoints rather than arcs. This is about a 5 minute exposure.

Comet McNaught. Around sunset in late April. When it went through the southern hemisphere its tail was above the horizon.

Morning shot.

Passing by the 7 sisters. Nebolas (glowing gasses) can be seen.

This comet is visible now. Very remarkable because it exploded on Oct 24 and grew to be the same size as the full moon (can't all of that can be seen by the naked eye).

Taken on Halloween. Called the goblin comet. Corona around the comet is caused by carbon dioxide and other gasses that are building blocks of life. There is speculation that earth passing through the tail of a comet contributed to life on earth.

Perseus constellation can be seen here.

Now called the Jellyfish comet because of the blue glow around the stars as they shine through the tail of the comet.

Estes Park town with their annual Christmas lights.