2014 GNSI Annual Meeting - Boulder, Colorado

University of Colorado - Boulder, with the Flatiron formation as a backdrop (more on this below)..

The annual meeting runs for a whole week, from Saturday to Saturday in mid-July, with workshops, informational sessions, technique demonstrations and meetings. There's also a portfolio-sharing session, a member's art exhibit, a banquet, an auction and field trips.  The field trips usually bracket the week, and participants often arrive early or stay late to get out to see the local sights.

The university's iconic red tile rooftops, and ochre and pink sandstone. This is Kittredge Hall, our dormitory.

The Natural HIstory Museum, where the Guild's member exhibit hangs until September.

The Natural History Museum is open every day and is FREE.  The exhibit space is small, but thoughtfully addresses local, as well as global issues.  There is an inviting space on the lower level designed for socializing and wandering amongst curio cabinets - with comfy chairs, a few work tables, a thermos of coffee, a current exhibit or two and some old taxidermy.

The GNSI exhibit has a lovely hall all to itself, with excellent interpretive signage.

Photoshop class in the new Visual Arts Center on campus.

One of my classes is pictured above, working in the computer lab, equipped with twenty new PowerMacs.  The instructor is a scientific (and medical) illustrator who shared some of her "tips and tricks" for masking in Photoshop. Many scientific illustrators these days combine traditional and digital techniques to produce their illustrations.

Steller's Jays (Cyanocitta stelleri) in the research collection.

During lunch break I skipped out to visit the bird collections, in the lower level of the Natural History Museum.  Vertebrate Collections Manager Emily Braker entertained my questions and requests to see specimens - I loved the Steller's Jays (photo above).

Morning field trip to El Dorado Canyon, a few minutes south of Boulder.

As I mentioned in the introduction, there was a variety of field trips offered to conference attendees. You could visit Boulder's Tea House (imported piece by piece from Nepal), you could tour the NOAA facility, take a brewery tour, visit Denver's Botanic Garden, take an overnight trip into Rocky Mountain National Park or, my option, take the morning hike up into El Dorado Canyon.  It was an easy walk, just enough to gain some altitude and appreciate some higher elevation flora and fauna - and return us to campus in time for afternoon workshops.

A not-so-threatening reminder to respect the rattlesnakes encountered along the trail.

After a great week of workshops I treated myself to a free day to explore Boulder's Chautauqua Park:

"The Flatirons" as seen from Chautauqua Park in Boulder.

Chautauqua Park in Boulder lies on the west side of the city, on the slopes of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains.  It's home to some great hiking trails and the Chautauqua Association of Boulder.  The park's iconic Flatirons are a group of geologic formations popular with the area's rock-climbers.  A network of trails meanders throughout the park, following ridges, creek valleys, skirting the base of the flatirons and bisecting the open meadows.  Spur trails lead climbers to the rock-climbing routes up the flatirons.

My bird list for the day included both Black-capped and Mountain Chickadees, Steller's Jays, Western Bluebirds and Western Tanagers, Common Ravens and Plumbeous Vireos.