Posts by Marek

My First Paddling on the South Platte River near Greeley

I discovered the South Platte River for paddling almost 8 years ago in January 2001. I believe it was the first river I paddled in northern Colorado and, for sure, my first winter paddling here. Here is some old writing on these day trips with my CLC Patuxent 10.5 kayak. It was originally posted on Mountain Wayfarer site. At that time, I was shooting slides with Canon EOS 2AE SLR camera.

I was launching my kayak at Mitani-Tokuyasu State Wilderness Area just below the mouth of the Cache la Poudre River. This place is less suitable for paddling now days. It is open only during a hunting season and closes by the end of February. A parking space is limited to 4 cars only. See my GPS/photo river guide for other access points.

Poll: Your Paddling Camera

I am adding polls to my blog. The first poll is about your paddling camera.

What a compact digital camera (i.e., a point-and-shoot camera) do use for paddling? So, this pool does not cover DSLR, prosumer cameras or camcorders.

Multiple answers are allowed. You are welcome to add any comments or remarks, especially, that you have a camera that doesn’t fit into the questions below.

As visible on the picture above I own three models from Pentax Optio line: WP, W10, and W30. However, my first paddling digital camera was Canon PowerShot S40 with a waterproof case.

Do you have any suggestion for future polls which may be interesting for “Paddling with a Camera” readers?

Related posts:
Waterproof Digital Cameras for Paddling and Water Sports – A Shopping Guide
10 Reviews of Pentax Optio W60
10 Reviews of Pentax Optio W30
3 Reviews of Olympus Stylus 1050 SW
3 Reviews of Olympus Stylus 1030 SW

3 Bow Shots from November Sunset Paddling

I really enjoy November paddling in northern Colorado. Evenings can be calm with a glossy water and beautiful sunsets. No mosquitoes! It could be cold with ice on a kayak deck, but this year November is very warm.

Spencer Xtreme and Thunderbolt in November Paddling Workout

Rob was paddling laps in his Spencer Xtreme Canoe. I took my Thunderbolt-X kayak for easy paddling and testing a Flip Ultra camcorder as a bow camera. I attached the Flip grip from Wet Stuff to a suction cup mount from Sticky Pod.

Paddling Photography a Year Ago – November 2007

A year ago I started to shoot hot air balloons. We went to Hot Air Balloon Harvest at Greeley in the end of October, then I drove to southern Colorado for another balloon festival at Rocky Ford. I took for that my Thunderbolt-x kayak and tried to explore a very shallow John Martin Reservoir.

My another paddling trip further from home was Lake Dillon with Sea Wind canoe: cold and windy, but with some interesting light for photography. Horses below were shot from Surfrigger canoe when paddling my local Beaver Pond near Fort Collins.

3 Reviews of Olympus Stylus 1050 SW Waterproof Camera with Tap Control

A month ago Olympus introduced a new model to the line of their waterproof and shockproof cameras: Stylus 1050 SW. It features a brand new digital camera feature – Tap Control. Tap Control is intended to help photographers wearing gloves access camera controls.

I have found three reviews of the new camera. There are rather moderately enthusiastic, but Olympus Stylus SW has its fans.

Flip Ultra Camcorder + Waterproof Case = Video Camera for Paddlers? Part 1

Flip Ultra is the model interesting for paddlers because you can get a waterproof case for it just for $30 or so. Waterproof cases for Canon point-and-shoot cameras are almost 10 times more expensive. Of course, you don’t have so many control buttons in Flip camcorders.

Unfortunately, there is no tripod socket on this waterproof (there is one on a camera) case which limits paddling applications of the Flip from my perspective. I like to shoot movies with a camera mounted on a kayak deck or use it as a helmet cam. There are at least three solutions to this problem.

Paddling Horsetooth Reservoir (River) 6 Years Ago

During two years, 2001 and 2002, the Horsetooth Reservoir near Fort Collins, Colorado, was drained to just few % of its capacity to allow repairs to the main dam. The 6 mile long lake was reduced to three ponds connected by long narrow channels with some whitewater. The flow was supported by water diverted from the Colorado River within the Big Thompson Project.

Paddling was very interesting, but quite challenging in these narrows channels with a strong current. It was quiet, no motorboats since boat ramps didn’t reach water. Low water uncovered many structures at the lake bottom.

Below you can find 10 selected pictures from these dry years on the Horsetooth.

Word Cloud from Paddling with a Camera Feed

I was just playing around on the Wordle.net website. It’s an online tool that creates word clouds from any text provided by you. There are several option to try: different colors, word orientation, shapes, etc. Just a little fun online.

This word cloud was created by using the current feed from my blog. It’s not very surprising that the word paddling is a trunk of my “word tree.”