On Final Approach

A bee gets ready to descend onto flowers of Bell’s Twinpod north of Boulder. (Photo: © Tom Yulsman)

The bees have been out in force in the warm, sunny weather we’ve been experiencing along Colorado’s Front Range. This guy is hovering above some blooming Bell’s twinpod near Boulder. This exceedingly rare plant exhibits extreme endemism, growing on a handful of shale slopes along the Front Range of Colorado, and nowhere else.

A bumble bee at the same spot. (Photo: © Tom Yulsman)

With the emergence of flowers after weeks of repeated snowstorms, bumble bees were also out and about. This fine specimen (perhaps a queen?) is a member of the Hunt’s bumblebee tribe (or the Bombus huntii species, to be more scientifically precise).

Upstairs Downstairs

A lenticular cloud catches fire over Colorado’s Front Range. (Image: copyright Tom Yulsman)

I’ve got a new outlet for my photography: the ImaGeo blog at Discover magazine.

Subtopia

The images in this gallery, all taken on a single walk through my neighborhood on a winter afternoon, were inspired by the landmark exhibition “New Topographics.” The work of those masters still resonates with photographers today, including myself.

Weekly photo challenge: reflection in Santa Monica

iPhone Aquatint Photography

Thanks to the high ISO setting necessary, trees in the moonlight photographed with an iPhone-5 take on the look of an old-fashioned aquatint, an intaglio printmaking technique.

Sunset on the Lobo Trail

Pit D

This lake is labeled “Pit D” on maps. I hope that keeps people away so I can continue to have this secret place all to myself.

Portrait of an invader

Common teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) is an invasive species commonly found in Boulder County’s wetlands. Invasive or not, it’s pretty.

Contentment

Bones

Elevate

For a mother and child, a decisive moment

Emotions were running high at an Obama rally on the University of Colorado campus five days before the presidential election.

Ghost tree

Loner

Point Lobos State Reserve, California

Sanctuary, the theme continued…

Cypress Grove, Point Lobos State Reserve.

Trailer Detail #2

You don’t always have to go to a museum to experience abstract expression. Sometimes it is hidden in plain sight.

Trailer Trashed

The view from inside a derelict circa 1940 Schult trailer, Como, Colorado.

Trailer Detail #1

Abstract expressionist art can be found in surprising places, including the side of a derelict trailer at 9,813 feet elevation in the semi-ghost town of Como, Colorado

Abstracted on Niwot Ridge

A Korean-War-era military van atop Colorado’s Niwot Ridge offers an unexpected photographic opportunity.

American Lust

Luminous decay

A Korean-War-era van rusts away high atop Colorado’s Niwot Ridge. I’ve passed it many times on field trips over the years. This is the first time I fully saw it.