Seneca Creek Photography by Allison Pluda

Photos, thoughts, and adventures from a Geologist, Photographer, Climber, Skier, Tenkara Fly Fisher, Backpacker, and enthusiast for Nature, Life, and the Truth Within

Permalink Afternoon Nap in front of the Snowy Range, Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming, Black and White Self PortraitThe woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before” - Albert Einstein
Permalink Holding a Fresh Caught Wyoming Trout, Black and WhiteHere’s a photo of a nice trout caught the other day. Hard to be stressed after a day of fishing (without seeing another human all day!) the wild rivers of Wyoming
Permalink “There remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion.” - Albert Einstein
Permalink Vines Intertwined, Black and White“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” - Aristotle
Permalink Morning Rain on the Face of a Pansy, Black and White“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” -Albert Einstein
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Morning Sun through a Snow Storm from Laramie, Wyoming, Black and White

“Today we woke up to a revolution of snow, 
its white flag waving over everything,
the landscape vanished,
not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness, 
and beyond these windows

the government buildings smothered,
schools and libraries buried, the post office lost 
under the noiseless drift,
the paths of trains softly blocked,
the world fallen under this falling.

In a while, I will put on some boots
and step out like someone walking in water, 
and the dog will porpoise through the drifts, 
and I will shake a laden branch
sending a cold shower down on us both.

But for now I am a willing prisoner in this house, 
a sympathizer with the anarchic cause of snow. 
I will make a pot of tea
and listen to the plastic radio on the counter, 
as glad as anyone to hear the news”

-Part of “Snow Day” by Billy Collins

Permalink Barbed Wire on the Plains, Laramie, WyomingThis photography may look like a nice pleasant sunset out on the plains of Laramie, Wyoming, but photographs don’t capture wind very well (at least not this one!). In Laramie, where the wind is always blowing, my walk across these plains just outside of town was through 40 mph winds that added a significant wind chill and tested the endurance of the warmth of my cheeks. I enjoy following the long stretches of barbed wire fence east across the wide plains until I am forced to turn south. There is a barrenness to these plains that gives them a rugged beauty and its days like these that when I see a fox or jackrabbit on these plains, I stop to give them a little more appreciation for their endurance as I think about getting into my warm sheltered car. “Although love dwells in gorgeous palaces, and sumptuous apartments, more willingly than in miserable and desolate cottages, it cannot be denied but that he sometimes causes his power to be felt in the gloomy recesses of forests, among the most bleak and rugged mountains, and in the dreary caves of a desert.” - GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO (1313—1375)
Permalink Two Swainsons Hawks in FlightThis summer I had the joy of having a pair of Swainson’s Hawks nest in the big tree next to my house. They would perch on the telephone poles next to my house and search for mice in the large prairie field just to the south. It was very cool to get to sit and observe them from my front porch. I learned they are one of the longest migrations of any American raptor (from Canada to Argentina!), and once the leaves started to turn they continued on south. Amazing animals! For a little more information about them for the curious, head here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Swainsons_Hawk/lifehistory/ac