Buckhorn Lakes Expedition, Episode 2, Payette National Forest, Idaho

After a long day in the saddle, I snapped a few sunset pictures and settled in for an audio book.

The temperatures were cool but not cold and with the recent cold rainy weather, no bugs had hatched yet at this elevation.

You might have noticed that I brought a longer lens on this trip. With a full moon, there were not going to be any Milky Way shots and I was hoping to capture some full moon images. At the same time, it allowed me to do some distant photography like the image below.

Up as usual in the middle of the night for a potty break, I grabbed my camera and hoped for a good full moon image. With this light and this lens, it almost looks like daytime…. in fact, I didn’t even need a head lamp.

I totally flailed on the moon images and was only able to capture this relatively weird shot of the full moon. After now trying to get full moon images for about a year, I’ve finally decided that this camera, lens, photographer combination is just not going to work for moon shots. Here are a couple blog posts from last year where I rented a long lens and had better luck: https://davefaitlemonde.com/2019/06/15/full-moon-valley-county-idaho/ https://davefaitlemonde.com/2019/06/17/jupiter-and-the-moon-valley-county-idaho/

Sunrise!!!!! I felt lucky because where we camped, the sun rose directly in the saddle across the valley. Not only that, the sun’s warmth was a welcome feeling on this crisp morning!

It was cold enough in the morning for the ice to re-freeze on the lake.

Shadows across the ice, our camp is below just off the image left.

Now some Ruby shots! She was up early and eager to help me out! I’ve been hiking with Ruby since she was a youngster and it is really remarkable how she has learned to pose for me. Sometimes even before I pull my camera out, she has found a rock or log to strike a pose. She will look around for me and once I start shooting, rarely looks at the camera. It is a skill that I have been trying to teach my hiking partners with no success!