Thursday’s Task

Thursday’s Task: Thankful for this landscape.

While on vacation to the Northwest in late October this year, after visiting South Dakota, my wife and I traveled to Grand Teton National Park, WY. I shot different locations not visited before. Leaving Jackson early morning after our visit we were involved in a hit and run accident by a work truck turning in front of us. I was unhurt but my wife did experience bruised and sore knees and shins. We were both thankful we were not more seriously injured and I was thankful the Jackson police were very helpful investigating our accident. I was also thankful for all the images I was able to record prior to the accident and thought to share one below.

I will not be commenting on members’ posts during Thanksgiving but will the following day. Happy Thanksgiving!

Looking through my collection I have a lot to be thankful for. I have been blessed with the opportunity to see many beautiful places. My wife doesn't usually join me on photography trips, since for a non-photographer it can be frustrating to arrive early at a site and simply wait for the light. Several years ago she offered to have us make our first trip to Glacier National Park since she knew I wanted to see it and agreed to join me on some hikes. On the day we arrived we hiked up to Hidden lake and watched the sunset together, keeping a wary eye on the Grizzly in the field below us. We loved the area so much that we bought a home in Kalispell the following year.

Ever since I was a child I have been fascinated with volcanos so moving up within sight of the Cascades was like a dream for me. I did wander up near Mt. St. Helens quite a bit but found myself wishing it would do at least something I could witness. While I was working in downtown Vancouver getting ready for an after-hours network overhaul for one of our building floors one of the IT managers came in looking a little frantic and blurted out that St. Helens had just erupted. I had a Canon S50 in my backpack so I grabbed the camera and went up to the roof of our 6 story building and propped the camera on the guard rail to get this shot. Current generation processing tools helped my coax a better image out of the RAW capture.

If that manager hadn't wandered in and told us I would have spent the next 5 hours in a wiring closet replacing network switching hardware and never even known this scene existed. Turned out this was a steam eruption and while the volcano did spend the next year or so building a new dome inside of the crater and letting off steam clouds none were as extensive as this first blast.

I am thankful for my last trip to Canyonlands where I did Elephant Hill. That was only last October, but I could not do it today and that makes me grateful that I did it while I still could.

This is a shot from Horeshoof campground which was our ultimate destination.

I am thankful for being able to capture the Aurora last year during the fall colors in Minnesota along Lake Superior. I have wanted to capture it for many years, and had thought I would only be able to capture it by traveling to Iceland or up into northern Canada, etc.. So to have been up in Michigan capturing fall colors and then seeing the alert about the Aurora on an Aurora App, and despite the cloudy conditions in Michigan took the chance to drive 4 hours to get up into Northern Minnesota and find fairly clear skies and the Northern Lights was so awesome! It was just the right place (after a 4 hour drive and the right time. I am very thankful.

I am lucky in so many ways and feel gratitude every day. One of the things I’m grateful for is that I get to live in Bishop, CA. I live in paradise.

This shot was taken on my lunch break the day after a big snowstorm a few weeks ago that forced fall and winter to collide.

I am thankful for more things than I can count. Related to the theme here, my story is similar to Kyles. A lot of my photo excursions are solo. Some years ago my wife accompanied me to a trip to Moab and since then we have done a few trips together. The most recent being my trip to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. She would often point to something I might have missed while I was focused on a different composition. Sharing a sunrise shot from my most recent outing.

I hope this qualifies, since I made it this morning on Figueroa Mountain, CA. Thanksgiving day. Grateful to be able to express these experiences with y'all.

Thankful for meeting my, ever patient, wife more than 50 years ago. This was a grab shot as I finally decided that I had taken enough waterfall images. Ken

To all members who have posted to this Task: thank you for your stories of gratitude and beautiful images shared here on Thanksgiving Day. Furthermore I am thankful to view all the beautiful images shared here each week whatever the weekly task might be. Thank you.

Thankful that my wife lets me go on these sojourns & my brother-in-law collaborates with me
I'm also thankful for visualizing this image months prior.

JimFox said:

I am thankful for being able to capture the Aurora last year during the fall colors in Minnesota along Lake Superior. I have wanted to capture it for many years, and had thought I would only be able to capture it by traveling to Iceland or up into northern Canada, etc.. So to have been up in Michigan capturing fall colors and then seeing the alert about the Aurora on an Aurora App, and despite the cloudy conditions in Michigan took the chance to drive 4 hours to get up into Northern Minnesota and find fairly clear skies and the Northern Lights was so awesome! It was just the right place (after a 4 hour drive and the right time. I am very thankful.

View attachment 54320

View attachment 54321

Click to expand...

Jim, absolutely incredbile, lucky you.

Oliver