Fuji S7000 @ 7.8 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200, 9 July 2005, PP Exposure, Highlights/Shadow, Sharpening

In an effort to avoid yard work today, we decided to go hiking in the mountains. We picked a two mile hike around the lower Cataract lake outside Dillon. It a very nice wild flower area and it was a hike we felt was hard enough for us. We haven’t exercised much lately, so we wanted an easy walk. The walk would probably have been easy if we had followed the signs to the trail we should be on. We ended up on another and had to scramble upwards a lot to get to our trail. That consumed pretty much all energy I had and more than twice the energy my wife had…

Anyway, it was one of the nicest places we’ve seen in Colorado and we’ve never seen so many Columbine flowers. The lake and the surroundings are very scenic. It even has a cascading waterfall. We will return to this trail!!!

So with all these views and flowers just begging to be photographed, I decided that the best photo was of dead wood in water? Actually yes. We got a lot of nice views of the lake and pictures of flowers, but I liked the looks of these have-been trees in the shallow water. I realize that to some this is a test photo, meant to be deleted. However, I like the look of the branches and how their shape looks in the water.

This is one of my first attempts at using Photoshop to improve a decent picture. I know I probably went overboard with some things, not far enough with some, and probably forgot to use some tools. Leave a comment if you see something I need to work on.