Caught in the Current

My goal this week was to capture an abstract photo, which is quite out of character for me - I usually prefer clear, perfectly sharp images. My only idea was to take close-up photos of Queso’s damp fur, as I LOVE how all the textures POP! when he’s wet. We camped by a lake again this week (more on that shortly), and having a water-loving dog, I knew I’d have plenty of opportunities to photograph him. As predicted, Queso was wet most of the time 💦, but either the lighting wasn’t right for photography, or I just wanted to sit back and enjoy the moment. 🙃

On the morning we were leaving, after packing up, we went to the lake’s shore for one final swim before hitting the road. The water was shallow and clear near the boat ramp, revealing large pebbles beneath the surface. As the current moved, it created a beautiful distortion of the rocks. Just as I decided to exclude a dog from this week’s photo and focus on the rocks, Queso swam back with his stick, laid down in the shallow water, and started chewing his prize. His fur got caught in the current, dancing beautifully just beneath the surface.

“Caught in the Current”:

The (super simple) behind the scenes (BTS) look of how I created it:

And now for a recap of our camping trip to Arapaho Bay Campground in Granby, Colorado (near Grand Lake). It started off with a couple of “oops”es, but we managed them and forged ahead. As usual, hubby Ken went to collect our trailer Millie from the storage lot so we could load it up for our trip. (Our trailer is a Grand Design 22MLE so we ended up naming her Millie – aren’t we just so clever?!? 🤣) It’s a short distance from storage to home, so Ken doesn’t usually attach the optional sway bars for that leg. Whelp, on THIS day he hit a decent sized bump in the road – one he’s traveled MANY times without incident - and the trailer popped off the hitch and disconnected from the truck. 😱 Ken knew something was different, but didn’t immediately recognize the issue, so he pulled the trailer uphill (using the safety chains) for about half a mile before a passing motorist pantomimed the problem to him. Of course, Ken pulled over immediately and assessed how to best proceed. He called me, and I ran over to help however I could (which to be honest, was just moral support). When I arrived on scene there was a lady directing traffic around the truck & trailer keeping everyone safe, and there was a man lying under the trailer manually jacking it up. (The automatic jack buttons were damaged due to contact with the truck.) This good Samaritan quickly helped us get things road-worthy again. We thanked him profusely and I remarked that he had an incredible quantity of tools in his vehicle. Only then did he inform us that he is a mobile trailer technician by trade. WHOA!!! It’s absolutely crazy to me that the first person on scene was the exact person we needed in that moment. 🙏🏻 We’ll FOR SURE be giving him alllllll of our RV repair business in the future! (His name’s Jeff Paulson for all of you Colorado campers, and you can find him at Deer Creek Marine Boat Repair. He deserves all the good karma for helping us out of a pickle!!)

This is what I saw when I arrived.

First hurdle under our belts! We didn’t encounter our next issue until we arrived at camp (after manually raising and lowering the jack), where we discovered that during travel one of our drawers had jumped its track and dumped the contents onto the floor. What was in that drawer you ask?? Syrup. And coffee. And coffee filters. And peanut butter, queso, and salsa. Among a litany of other things. We have no idea when the drawer jumped, but it was early enough to allow for significant “coverage” inside of Millie. And, just in case it needs to be mentioned… syrup is STICKY. 🙄🤣 I didn’t think to stop and take a photo of the mess (what? who AM I anyway??), but trust me when I say it took a little while to get things back in dog-friendly order. 😅 We saved the drawer-repair for the following day, and went straight into Happy Hour. A Fiction Beer for Ken, that endured the same “earthquake” as Mille, wine for me, and a dip in the lake for Queso. 🍺🍷💧 (And c’mon emoji people… it’s been YEARRRRRRRRS – where is the white wine emoji?!)

Our site for the long weekend.

I think Queso likes this spot! 😂

Fuzzy dog problems – their magical fibers of love get everywhere!

A little glimpse inside of Millie, where Queso is gently telling us that although he truly enjoyed his soak in the lake, we are now exactly thirty minutes past his dinner time.

After one last sunset swim, we called it a night. The next morning we left the campground early, encountering a couple of moose on our way out. And you betcha I was bummed that we had to hurry along, because I would have LOVED to hang out and photograph them.

But, we had a rented a dog-friendly pontoon from Beacon’s Landing (https://beaconlanding.com/) for the morning, so we had to get moving! Queso joined us on the pontoon last year too (of course!), so even though this wasn’t a NEW experience for him he was once again a bit apprehensive, preferring to stick pretty close to us. Even though he’s an excellent swimmer, for safety, he’s wearing a Ruffwear Float Coat.

He wasn’t terrified by any stretch, and he would freely walk around the boat – he especially seemed to seeing other boats (or buoys!) in the water, and he frequently went to the back or edge to watch the water spray. Because it makes me happy, here’s some “wind in his ears” footage for your viewing pleasure.

We saw plenty of osprey, but long-lens wildlife photography is very difficult from a moving boat! Even though the rocking was gentle, that little motion wreaked havoc at 500mm. 🤣

After we returned the pontoon, we drove over to the town of Grand Lake to grab a bite for lunch at Firefly Pizza - SO GOOD!! 🤤 It was there that Ken realized he should have a checklist next to his shirt items. LOL.

Back at the campground, Queso kept a vigilant eye on the site’s ground squirrels.

Ken flew the drone to capture an image of our site from above.

And then another sunset swim.

The next morning we were up early again to go on a moose hunt in Rocky Mountain National Park. And we were not disappointed – we saw fourteen and a half and a half (the halves indicate babies, lol)!

Want to know what's too close to a moose? This. This is WAAAAYYYYYY too close. And this mama moose had a baby just out of frame on the right. I took this image from across the road with my 500mm lens, safely behind our truck. This lady was next to her car, on the passenger side, so nothing was between her and the moose. (I'm not trying to single out this person - there were easily 15 people in the same position she was in.) Too close.

The drive up Trail Ridge Road NEVER disappoints, so I stopped to take a quick video of the scenery.

I love photographing pika up there, but on this morning, the marmots were in rare form – they were wrestling all over the place!!

Dogs are not allowed on the trails in RMNP (or in any national parks!), so when I popped out to photograph wildlife Queso had to stay in the car with Ken.

On our way out of the park, we found a big elk.

Then it was back into Grand Lake for lunch… At Cy’s Deli this time.

Then it was back to the campground for more swimming for Queso, and some boating for Ken  - Queso went on a ride too!, and relaxing for me.

We managed one game of cornhole with our friends before some weather rolled in, and we called it an early night (a migraine started to take hold for me 😭, so there aren’t any photos of the afternoon.)

It was a rough night for me, so we slow-rolled our packing in the morning, but we made time for our traditional coffee-mug-at-our-site photo. ☕📷🏔️

Visit this post to read the backstory on the mug.

Then one last quick dip for Queso, where the lead photo was taken, and then it was off to home!

Tuckered out puppy = successful trip!

It’s a beautiful area and we always enjoy our time there!!

Ginger Wick Photography is an award winning dog photographer specializing in creating beautiful custom artwork of dogs & their people. Based in Parker, CO serving the Denver area.