Photographer in Colorado

The final leg of our trip was the journey from Dunedin to Christchurch. We left in the early morning, with low cloud at Dunedin. We stopped at Moeraki Beach, where several round boulders may be found on the beach. These boulders are almost perfect spheres, 4-6 feet in diameter.

Here is another image of the boulders.

Several of the boulders had broken in smaller fragments. I included these fragments in the following image.

The next stop was at Oamaru. It was Sunday when we arrived, so the town was busy. We made our way towards the sea and found some parking close to one of the piers. This pier was closed to human traffic and several hundred shags (similar to cormorants) were roosting here. I found this pair that were close enough and not sleeping!

There were the occasional gulls intermixed among the shags. This one had perched on one of the posts.

New Zealand has a relatively small population (about 5 million). However, there are over 70 million sheep and several millon cows. Stopping along the roadside for a driving break, we found these three cows!

We continued on to Christchurch to spend the night, before flying back to Sydney the next day.

During our New Zealand trip, we left Queenstown on our way to Dunedin. This is a really pretty drive that took a few hours to complete — we stopped at several places. At one stop, I found an abandoned farm house, with an NZ flag painted on the wall

Later we stopped in the town of Lawrence, where a discovered a red bicycled stapled to the wall of a building in the main street.

We arrived in Dunedin later that afternoon. The following day we made a trip to the Royal Albatross Center. During the 1930’s and 1940’s, a breeding research program was conducted to study the Royal Albatross. These magnificent birds have a wing span of 8-10 feet and spend much of their lives out at sea. During the NZ birds breed at the reserve during the NZ summer. They return to breed every 2 years. While visiting, several albatrosses made flight passes over the visitor center; I managed to capture one decent image.

After visiting the center, we made our way around the Otago Bay, passing through Dunedin and heading to Port Chalmers. This is one of the ports serving NZ. During the afternoon, we saw one container ship leaving port. I explored the bay, finding several boat houses along the shore. I loved the rusty patina on the roof of this house.

There are several boat houses along the shore, rust included.

In the following image, I created a simple composition the blue and white wall, including the obligatory rusty patches.

I zoomed in to capture the roof detail of this house, with contrasting red, white and blue colors.

We continued along the bay road until we reached the breakwater (or mole) at the entrance to the bay. Here we walked out for about a mile or so until we reached the end of the breakwater. I made some images of the ocean waves crashing onto the rocks.

The breakwater is located opposite the albatross center, we had great views (with binoculars) of the albatrosses, gulls and terns out over the ocean.

Last week, after Aniela’s wedding, we made a side trip to New Zealand. After landing at Christchurch, we headed down to Queenstown. We made a reservation for a trip to Milford Sound. The coach trip to Milford Sound was 4 hours. We stopped at several points along the route. I made this image soon after sunrise, with the sun shining through the remains of low cloud in the valley

We boarded the boat and headed out into Milford Sound. After leaving the port, we passed one of the waterfalls that empty into the Sound.

Milford Sound is actually a fjord. The trip through Milford Sound is spectacular, with the boat sailing along the southern shore of the fjord.

After a couple of hours we reached the entrance to the Sound at the Tasman Sea. At this point we turned around to head back. On the return trip, we headed back along the northern shore of the fjord. Here we stopped near to a waterfall that generates a lot of spray as the water tumbles down the fjord walls.

The pilot navigate the bow of the boat as close to the waterfalls so that the passengers could experience the water spray. Here is Angela appreciating the view from the stern of the boat. That waterfall can be seen in the background with another boat nosing into the waterfall spray!

One of the other boats made the way into bay on the north side. This boat is dwarfed by the height of the steep fjord walls.

Here is an panoramic image that I made near the stern of the boat.

This is the final image that I made just before docking into the the port.

We visited family for a wedding in Tasmania. The event was located in Eaglehawk Neck close to Pirate’s Bay. Here is a panorama looking across the bay.

After all celebrations were over, we took a stroll down to the beach. The day of the wedding was overcast with low cloud hanging over the bay in the late afternoon.

The following day, clouds had moved off. I made this image of the Eucalyptus trees along the path to the beach.

This afternoon I stopped by Harlequin Plaza, just down the street from work. It was below freezing, with snow in the forecast for later in the day, so I worked quickly. The entrance to the plaza is lined with bollards, across a bridge over a pond.

The angular buildings make for some interesting reflections in the pond.

In the plaza, are several theatrically themed statues — all black with brass accents. This one is a lute player, but looks very like an ice hockey player!

Here is a lady with transparent hand mirror.

Around the edges of the plaza are grasses planted in flower beds. The grasses have been pruned back for the winter months. While making some images, I found this line of five grasses. That fourth grass bunch really makes this image stand out!

My fingers started to get painful in the cold weather, so it was off to return home.

After another weekend snowstorm, we decided to head out to the Denver Art Museum. There were two major exhibits; “Jordan Casteel: Returning the Gaze” and “Stampede: Animals in Art”. Jordan is a an artist, originally from Denver, now living in Harlem with amazing pictures of life in her neighborhoods. Animals in Art is an exhibition by a variety of different artists that explore how animals are a part of human life.

Here is one of the pictures that is like a tapestry, but the media is various types of plastic. In this image, I purposely de-focused the artwork; this still shows the detail of the original.

While meandering through the exhibit, I was captivated by the shadow cast by one of the sculptures. It was pretty dark in this area of the gallery. I preferred the monochrome version of this image.

There were several pieces from the Pacific North-West. I could not help but make this image of part of the totem pole. I just love those lips!

The Hamilton wing of the museum has some really interesting ceilings, walls and windows as part of the architecture. I was drawn to the subdued light that streamed in through the tall windows below.

Making one’s way back down to the entrance, there are more interesting architectural lines.

I made another image of one of the skylights above the stairways. I was fortunate to include a man working his way up the stairs to the floor above.

Outside the museum are the “Denver Monoliths”. In this image, these monumental blocks framed the building across the street (the library).

Two of these monoliths are separated by a narrow gap. Looking down the gap, there is one streetlight across the street that is perfectly centered between the two rock faces.

Once again, we had another big freeze in the weather forecast for this weekend. This afternoon, I headed up to Foxton to make some images of the ice that forms during the winter months. With all the big freeze weather that we have been getting this year, this makes it fun to photograph the ice that forms in the South Platte River.

During a cold winter, ice bridges form across the whole river, with water flowing under the ice. In places, the water cuts through forming ice canyons. We even have a Horseshoe Bend!

I explored a few locations along the river, looking for ice canyons.

In the Desert South-West, we find many different canyon types, even a box canyon. The ice canyons are no different…

There are occasional ice caves to be found as well!

There are a variety of ice canyons to be found.

Finally, a slot canyon to be found!

Heading back home, I drove through a snow storm and below freezing temperatures.