Project Athena - Day 59 (Landscape)

Pleasant Valley

“ Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.”
— John Muir

I remember as a young child the first time I looked out over this picturesque valley with its quaint, fairy tale farm and gentle flowing river. I felt a sense of wonder at the simple beauty of the green fields nestled up against the foothills and the stillness of everything.

Tonight as I stood here again looking out over a valley that has not changed much in 40 years, I felt pure peace. I watched the long shadows stretch across the green grass and then fade away. I listened to the sounds of the birds chirping and felt a gentle, cool breeze against my skin. I realized that taking this picture has been on my bucket list for many years. I may even go shoot it again when the skies are blue instead of cloudy. Definitely smiling tonight.

Pleasant Valley from Bingham Hill, Bellvue, CO

Nikon D3200 • Nikon 18-55mm lens • 55mm • F/22 • 1/4s • ISO 100

Project Athena - Day 58 (Landscape)

Looking Out My Backdoor

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”
— John Muir

I don't have to travel far to experience the natural beauty I live among everyday.

Foothills, Loveland, CO

Nikon D3200 • Nikon 18-55mm lens • 18mm • F/22 • 1/5s • ISO 400

Project Athena - Day 57 (Landscape)

On Top of the World

“ This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.”
— John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir (founder of the Sierra Club), 1938

A beautiful sunrise this morning on top of Trail Ridge Road. Truly breathtaking. I consider this a bucket list experience and one I will never forget. The stillness was sublime. The colors were palpable. The air was tonic to my soul.

I found no words for the gratitude that overwhelmed me that instant the sun peaked from behind the majestic peak. Simply awareness that every day is born new, every moment is infinite possibility. I am that.

Sunrise on Trail Ridge Road

Nikon D3200 • Nikon 18-55mm lens • 34mm • F/29 • 1/8s • ISO 200