 Spending a good portion of July in the Rockies, opened up a unique experience for me as a photographer... a chance to capture the Northern Lights. I trained with the amazing astrophotographer Rachel Jones Ross during my trip to Sunriver Valley in Oregon in 2019, but that trip was not aligned with the moon phase so we shot images then that played with the light from the moon. This trip I had a much bigger window of moon phases so I was able to select a waning crescent phase to do my night time photographs. The day before our shoot the Space Weather Center in Boulder announced the magnetic wind storm returning which meant a good possibility of capturing the Northern Lights in the Colorado Sky, when they typical only occur in Alaska and Canada. The very first snap of our cameras and stunning lights of green and purple appeared in the long exposures. By the time we made it to our second shoot location the Auroras were really showing off. They were firing all through the night air! This shot captures the much rarer pink tones. Many thanks to Colorado Astrophotography Guide Maggie, she hosts incredible tours for anyone who adventures out to the Georgetown area. She's incredibly talented, gives amazing details of where structures are in the night sky, and is stellar to hang out with for an evening adventure. Want to book a similar trip? The Weather Space Center says solar activity is going to continue to be heightened for the next few years, opening up more chances of the Northern Lights making appearances in the lower 48 states.
 A kitchen garden is a wonderful addition to any home, providing fresh and flavorful herbs, veggies, and fruit just steps away. Here are a few tips to maximize the productivity of your kitchen garden! As gardeners we want to enjoy bountiful harvests throughout the year, and implementing intensive planting techniques, can help you achieve it. Intensive planting involves growing more plants in a smaller space, allowing you to make the most of your garden's potential. One of the key benefits of intensive planting is the ability to grow a wide variety of crops in a limited area.  When I first started in this method, I was shy about it, putting maybe 40 plants in a 4x4 bed. In reality to keep your soil moist and productive you want every inch of the garden bed blooming with no visible soil. So that really means closer to 200 plants in a 4x4 bed. Crazy right? But you can't argue with great harvest and mine tripled once I started using intensive planting. My peppers have onions, garlic, chives, and arugula growing all with in a one foot radius around the pepper plants base. The leaves of the pepper plant provide shade to the lettuces and the onions, garlic and chives not only provide excellent additions to my meals, but also protect the peppers from insects - with this organic method and regular tending I never have to use chemicals on my plants. I use trellises, arches, and hanging baskets, to grow vining plants like cucumbers, beans, and peas and tomatoes upwards, saving valuable ground space. Vertical gardening not only increases your yield but provides an eye catching look in your kitchen garden.  Efficient watering plays a big role in intensive planting. Use drip irrigation or soaker hoses to deliver water directly to the plant's roots, reducing water waste and weed growth. Many gardeners mulch with hay, but I like the compost method instead. I mulch only with mushroom compost every one to two weeks. Place gentle handfuls around each plants base without touching the leaf systems of the plant. At the same time I trim back any leaves that are lower to the ground or touch the dirt to prevent the spread of disease from the soil to the plant. Are you ready? Roll up your sleeves, get creative, and transform a portion of your yard into your own kitchen garden stocked with amazing harvests all year long!
  On a fall weekend, my friend and lifestyle photographer Carly Laine was traveling to the Georgia Canyons for a lifestyle shoot. I tagged along and it quickly became a dicey situation. A Severe Weather Watch had been issued for the day but being a landscape photographer and meteorologist this is what I look for when shooting. We made it safely to the State Park, as warnings for tornadoes started for the counties we were traveling through. Just 10-minutes after getting to the park, a rain wrapped tornado was headed in our direction. We took cover and followed the tornado on radar. It was camera shy with the rain pouring down sideways, but we still found it fascinating to track it as it passed within 1/4 mile of our car. It moved through the State Park and out onto the interstate where it did the most damage. As the threat subsided and visuals become better, we exited our vehicle and explored the top trails looking over the Canyons. This photo was taken overlooking the seven canyons just minutes after the tornado had passed. It was a beautiful adventure, one in which we stayed safe through access to technology. The sky rewarded us with a beautiful shelf cloud as the next cell approached behind the tornado warned cell.  |
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