Pentax K20D, a Jeep and a crazy Pentaxian.

Last Monday, I got up early and drove to Silverwood Lake in Southern California. It's about twenty miles from where I live. Once there, I decided to drive up a dirt road that took me all the way to the top of the San Bernardino Mountains. What a nice quiet day this was. I was alone, and I stopped often along the way up to take some pictures. I had my K20D, the DA 16-45, the DA 10-17 and the DA 50-200. The higher I got, the fresher the air got. Only the sound of birds and wind could be heard. It was just me, my camera, my Jeep and Mother Nature. All the stress of the daily grind was gone.

There is nothing like taking a day off and go somewhere away from you job, your family, your town, and everything that you have to deal with on a daily basis. Instead of shooting like I had no time to spare, I took my time and composed the shots carefully. Instead of taking 1000 pictures like so many of us do, I shot less than 100 pictures through the whole day. We live in a ridiculously fast world. We're in a hurry but we don't know why.

Even my pictures taken that day transcend a feeling of peace and tranquility. Of course, it was peaceful and tranquil. I posted some of the shots that were good for pano here and I hope you like them. I might post pictures of the flora at the 8000 ft altiture. It was spectacular.

I had time to use my tripod, check the composition many times before taking the actual pictures, and was not pressed to hurry up at all. I came back home rested and with more keepers than duds. I turned some of the pictures into fake panoramic pictures by cropping the large 14.6mp images that the K20D produces.

All and all, it's good to get away from it all once in a while. You ought to try it. When the stress is gone, your creativity kicks in...I think!

Thank you for reading.

Yvon Bourque