Pano From 75th St
Mike,
For me, the ideal Rocky Mountain panorama has to have (1) green swards (preferably with grazing buffalo) in the foreground, (2) crystal-clear air, (3) snow covered mountains, and (4) Ansel Adams clouds extending to the zenith. Unfortunately I’ve had to make compromises. Greening up doesn’t happen till May, the buffalo haven’t been around here for a while (though a huge buffalo sanctuary just opened up this year in Adams county to the south of us); the air isn’t so crystal-clear all the time; the mountains lose much of their snow in late May, and Ansel clouds don’t tower over the mountains until June.
So the best I could do was make a pano on May 25 when we had (1), (2), (3), and almost (4). But my tripod suffers from tiltitis, so I couldn’t get a frame on the left with a nice old barn, and the clouds moved fast enough to change noticeably between pictures. The clouds don’t tower as much then as they do now in July. (Boy do they tower!)
{Click on the link below to see the pano, and then stretch your browser window. It is huge which is why the script wouldn’t create a tidy thumbnail version.
But the good news is that I’ve found an even better vantage on Westview Ct, in a vacant lot (!!!) that has the best view in the neighborhood, and somehow hasn’t been developed. Maybe the developer is waiting for multi-dinero from some rich, somewhat reluctant, customer. I’d better move fast.
Perhaps this October there will be an early snowfall, and criteria 1,2, 3, & 4 will be met. So I hope to get another pano then, maybe with a better camera, and a solid tripod.
–rakkity
That’s some mighty fine country in which you live, Rakk! Most of us couldn’t achieve 1 out of 4, so 3 is pretty impressive. I wonder what CS3 (the latest Photoshop) would have done with the repositioned clouds in auto-assembling a pano … Thanks!
Comment by el Kib — July 9, 2007 @ 7:31 am
Wow. That is amazing. What are the 3 stove pipes to the extreme right of the picture? They don’t look like they are connected to anything.
Thanks for always providing such delicious eye candy Rak.
Comment by Jen — July 9, 2007 @ 7:51 am
Those stovepipes are the chimneys of the Valmont steam plant–one of the eyesores of the Boulder valley. Next time I make a pano, I’ll erase them electronically.
Comment by rakkity — July 9, 2007 @ 12:39 pm
The lure of those snow-covered mountains is so powerful!
Last Saturday, Tom Metcalf, a friend and colleague, went cross-country skiing in the snowfields just to the left of Mount Arapahoe (the leftmost one with the huge cirque in the pano). Just this morning I heard that he had been killed in a fall while XC-skiing up near the Divide. No details were given, but I can imagine, since I was XC-skiing myself on nearby trails there last March, and hiking again near there last week. Tom was only 45, but a vibrant, exciting guy involved in all kinds of mountain sports. I’ll think of him every time I see those mountains.
Comment by rakkity — July 9, 2007 @ 1:02 pm
Oh my gosh, that is awful. There really isn’t any margin for error in that terrain, is there. My thoughts are with you.
Comment by Jen — July 10, 2007 @ 3:09 pm
It is awful. Sorry, Ed.
Tom Metcalf
Comment by michael — July 10, 2007 @ 4:01 pm
A better reference to Tom is here.
Comment by rakkity — July 10, 2007 @ 11:46 pm
I read it and I read some of the comments. No wonder you two were friends. In due time there might have been a Fogie’s Five though, given his age, you would have had to rename the group.
Comment by michael — July 11, 2007 @ 9:24 am
The comments by his wife and sister were particularly moving.
This is the kind of person that makes me feel like a slug when I sit in front of the TV. I think I will go build a suspension bridge or bake 30 minute brownies in 20 minutes. I bet Tom could have. I didn’t even know him and he’s inspired me!
Comment by Jen — July 11, 2007 @ 5:03 pm
Actually, Janet was his ex-wife. I’ve never seen such an amicable ex-couple. She worked in the Institute for Astronomy in Hawaii when Tom worked there. Then (I think) they separated, and she moved to Boulder to work at CoRA. Later (in 2005) he moved to Boulder too, probably to be closer to his kids. (I’m deducing this from much 2nd-hand information.) She was the CoRA manager, and Tom was one of the scientists she managed. Very interesting relationship, indeed. Kind of like the Elaine-Seinfeld thing.
Comment by rakkity — July 11, 2007 @ 7:07 pm
Wow. He’s inspiring on every level.
Comment by Jen — July 13, 2007 @ 8:21 am