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Estes Park Shop Sign #1

Sign quoting the Wizard of Oz outside Colorado Hats and Company shop in Estes Park, Colorado, U.S.A.

The story behind this image

Estes Park, in Colorado, must be one of the most friendly and lovely places to stay in the United States.

My wife Liz and I certainly found it to be so during our two week holiday there, spent exploring the nearby Rocky Mountain National Park and generally wandering around town, drinking coffee, looking at the sights and meeting the local folk.

One thing we noticed straight away while walking through town was the varied and quirky nature of the shops lining the main thoroughfares.

The only recognisable franchises we found were a MacDonalds and a Subway, with all the other shops being owned by the people who ran and staffed them.

This made for a great shopping experience (for my wife Liz anyway!), with a level of friendliness and service rarely found today.

There were also a number of artisan shops, with products being made on the premises, and one of the most interesting was the Colorado Hats and Company with attached hat making workshop.

Hung across the door of the unoccupied workshop was this sign, quoting the Wizard of Oz, which amused me to the point where I had to photograph it.

Not for any outstanding photographic artistic merit, but simply because for me, it captured the quirky, friendly, slightly tongue-in-cheek nature of Estes Park.

Fond memories.

Image data

Filename - estes park shop sign 01

Camera - Canon EOS 6D

Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 73mm

Exposure - 1/60 sec @ f4, ISO100

Location - Estes Park, Colorado, U.S.A.

This image - 800x533px JPEG

Conversion - Adobe Lightroom

Comments - Lens stabilisation used to prevent movement blur with hand held exposure.