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Watchman Peak Trailhead Overlook

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A fter we checked out of our loft suite at Crater Lake Lodge, we chose to do some hiking for the rest of the day before heading back to Klamath Falls.  This way, we would get two full days at Crater Lake National Park.  So, we checked out of the lodge, packed up the van and headed to the West Rim Drive. When we arrived at the park on the previous day, we found that the East Rim Drive was closed.  I had hoped to access this road for some additional photo opportunities but, due to the unexpected road closure, we now needed to adapt our plan.  Instead, we decided to do some sightseeing along West Rim Drive and then head over to Annie Creek Canyon.   On our way to our next hiking trailhead at Annie Creek Canyon, we stopped at the Watchman Peak Trailhead Overlook.  It was still morning so the sun was still relatively low in the sky and the view was great... The Crater Lake Lodge we had just departed is perched on the rim at the right side of the frame in th...
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Crater Lake Lodge

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W hile visiting Crater Lake National Park, we spent a night in Crater Lake Lodge.  Built in 1915, this old timber lodge is perched more than 1,000 feet above the lake on the southern rim of the caldera.   Below, we can see Sheila looking out over the lake near the eastern end of the lodge... As a reminder, here is my reference panoramic photo showing the placement of the lodge...  the lodge is at the yellow box labeled with a "1" at the left edge of the frame. You don't really realize just how steep this 1,000 foot drop down to the lake actually is until you are standing right at the rim looking downward.  Naturally, some areas are significantly steeper than others but slipping off the trail at any location would likely be fatal because, even if you slipped in an area that was just a very steep incline rather than a dizzying cliff, tumbling 1,000 feet down a steep incline would likely be unsurvivable.    This photo, below, was captured looking down to ...
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Panoramic View of Crater Lake

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S hortly after we arrived at the Crater Lake Lodge, I captured a series of photos to stitch together to create a panoramic view of the whole width of Crater Lake.  I knew that this would be a good place to start in explaining some landmarks as well as some of the places we visited.   This panorama is a full 180° wide...  with the lodge on my left and Garfield Peak to my right...  we are on the south rim facing north, roughly... I had an ultra-wide angle lens with me but even that very wide lens couldn't fit the whole crater in my field of view while at the lodge. While on some of the surrounding peaks, I was almost able to fit the whole crater in my field of view but still not quite.  The answer was to capture a series of images, left to right, and then stitch those images together once we arrived back home.  And, even though I shot this handheld, it came out well. To get the full 180°, I needed to capture six images in portrait orientation.  I si...
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Crater Lake Night Sky

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A s I've written here previously, my plan for while we were at Crater Lake was to capture a photo of the Milky Way.  Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate on the single night we had at Crater Lake.   The clouds had rolled in as the sun was beginning to set and, by the time the sky was inky black, the sky was completely obscured by clouds.   I should point out that our original plan was to only do a day trip to Crater Lake and then head back to Klamath Falls at the end of the day.  I got to checking out the lodge online while Sheila was at work after we had talked about this added day trip and luckily fell into a single night availability for one of their loft suites overlooking the lake.  This little change allowed us to cancel one night at a hotel in Klamath Falls and have Adam and Joi join us in the Crater Lake Lodge suite for a night.  This provided us with two full days at Crater Lake but only one night for nighttime photography.  ...
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We Arrived Back Home

Sheila and I arrived back at home last night.  We were exhausted and we're still exhausted.  I suspect I'll be exhausted for a couple of weeks after traveling three weeks across the country lugging around heavy bags.   I had a short hospital visit this morning and I have another short visit next week.  Then I have a televisit with my oncologist the following week.  I'm hoping that televisit is relatively short and uneventful with no new news to report.   Sheila was busy all day today getting ready to head back to work tomorrow but I am still recovering and slept all afternoon.  I have some unpacking to do, a few loads of laundry to do, and I have a few thousand photos to review and then develop the ones worth printing and sharing.   I was sick with some sort of bug resembling COVID for the entire trip home (and still sick) and now Sheila is developing the same symptoms so she is taking a COVID test now and, before she heads to the o...
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Quick Night Sky Photo Session from Rooftop

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I had previously written about doing some practice shooting of the Milky Way from our backyard.  I had some trees and clouds in the way though so I was thinking that I should attempt another nighttime photo session from a different location...  from our rooftop!  This would allow me to get up toward a better height to see beyond most of the trees. My photo of the Milky Way was looking pretty good last night but I wanted to get a bit more practice in before our trip and the weather was cooperating tonight so I ventured outside to the nighttime land of the skunks and bears.  The area reeked terribly of fresh skunk spray but I was safe up on the rooftop (yet another good reason to climb up onto the roof!). I climbed up our ladder onto our rooftop...  used my cellphone to turn off all our outside lights...  then shot a few quick photos.   First, I was pointed south...  this is where the galactic core of the Milky Way is partially visible from ou...
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Milky Way Practice

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W e're getting ready to go on another cross-country trip by rail, from coast to coast, so the past few days have been very busy.  We still have a few loose ends to tie up, mostly related to medical stuff, but other than packing we're just about ready. Part of this stage of preparation has been getting my photography gear in order.  Well...  first, I needed to decide which photography gear I want to carry across the country.   We had some exceptionally heavy bags with us on our last cross-country trip with two of the grandchildren so I've been hoping to travel a bit lighter this time.  Unfortunately, this trip is a bit longer and the weather a little cooler so we'll need some additional clothing and some of that clothing will be slightly bulky outerwear.  I want to limit my photography gear because that is, without a doubt, the heaviest thing in my bag(s).   I've narrowed this down for the most part but I still might make some last minute chan...
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Solar Eclipse

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W e've been extremely busy lately...  There's been a lot of very poor health as well as months of painful health for Sheila...  and, of course, we've had other commitments squeezed in too.  We're hoping now to have a few uneventful weeks and good health leading up to our next big event.  More on that another time.   My health has still had its ups and downs.  One day is good and then the next is miserable with near anaphylaxis, overwhelming fatigue, and simply feeling quite lousy including a lot of extra pain.  Then I take some extra medications to help my body balance itself and then I need a few days to recover.  Fortunately, my health hasn't been poor enough to land me in the hospital.  This constant cellular fight going on in my body is exhausting though.   During all of this, in recent days, we've had some out of town visitors for a short time as well as a solar eclipse that I had forgotten about.   At lunchtime ...
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Caboose Kitbash - Before and After

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I had written a few blog entries about kitbashing this Bachmann Large Scale bobber caboose but I wanted to add a short blog entry just showing the 'before' and 'after' for a quick comparison... Here is a collage showing various angles of some of the new details on the newly rebuilt caboose...
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A Bit More Progress on Caboose

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I made a bit more progress on the caboose project for our garden railroad over the past few days.  I am definitely at a nice stopping point now.  I think I can call this little project "completed".  I'll probably change a few more things in the future but, for now, this project is done. Here is a photo, below, showing the 'before' version of this caboose when I first purchased it...  note that this caboose started life with only two axles and four wheels...  no window panes...  no lighting...  shiny molded plastic with molded-in color...   and, generally, very toy-like...  there really was nothing special nor attractive about it.  It didn't even roll well! My goal was to make it a bit more realistic-looking and I had a lot of ideas.   The first thing I wanted to do was to remove those two axles and replace them with two typical railroad trucks which would make it roll much more smooothly.  This required a lot of cutt...
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