Photographer in Colorado

Recently, we made a trip to England to visit family. I have posted images of our family gatherings here. While there, we took the opportunity to visit the British Museum. I particularly wanted to see the “Rosetta Stone” and to visit the Assyrian and Mesopotamian gallery exhibits. At the main entrance of the Assyrian gallery is a pair of winged bulls.

Assyrian Winged Bull, British Museum

Working our way down the gallery are several panels from the ancient Assyrian empire. This is one panel of an Assyrian king (Ashurnasipal), flanked by gods.

Ashurnasipal Flanked By Gods, British Museum

The opposite wall of the gallery depicts the “Seige of Lashish”.

Assyrian Seige Of Lashish, British Museum

One of the main attractions in the British Museum is the “Rosetta Stone”. This area of the museum was crowded, so I waited a couple of hours to return to this area to make the following image. The Rosetta Stone was key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. It is also one of the most visited objects in the museum.

Rosetta Stone

The main courtyard has been covered with a roof and contains a store and cafeterias.

Main Courtyard, British Museum

This museum contains a lot of really interesting ancient artifacts and is well worth visiting. Need to go back again in the future.

We spent most of our time with Susan, who lives in Surbiton. One another day, Angela and I made a visit to Hampton Court Palace, that is a couple of miles away from her apartment. This is the main entrance to the palace.

Hampton Court Palace, Outer Court

However, the main visitor’s entrance is on the left hand side of the main entrance. This leads to the base court.

Hampton Court Palace, Base Court

Hampton Court was the palace that was occupied by Henry VIII during the 1500’s. We listened to an audio tour that detailed his reign and his six wives. After completing the tour, we exited into the Clock Court.

Hampton Court Palace, Clock Court

According to the clock, we arrived here at about 1pm.

Hampton Court Palace Clock

We also visited the gardens at the palace (no pictures here). The Hampton Court Palace Flower Show is located in the palace grounds; preparation for the show was in progress while we visited the palace. However, the show was not yet open to public. On our way back to the exit, we walked through the quadrangle passages of the Fountain Court.

Hampton Court Palace, Fountain Court

Having studied at university in London, Hampton Court was not on my list way back then. This visit was a first for me and was well worth visiting.

Finally, I managed to process the images from our night shoot on Colfax that took place a couple of weeks ago. Our group met at on Broadway and then made our way to Colfax. Soon after arriving on Colfax, we encountered this lady who became the subject of many of our images.

Photographers On Colfax

There are some amazing murals along Colfax. I liked this one that seems to have a 40’s feel.

Argh, Mural On Colfax

This lady was busy on a phone call inside a fast food restaurant.

Restaurant Caller

The sun made its way lower and lower below the horizon as we made our way along Colfax. By the time we got to this location, the sky had turned a dark indigo blue. The lights from Tom’s Diner were a perfect complement to the darkening night sky.

Tom’s Diner, Colfax

The Greek Salad Drive Thru was open for business.

Greek Salad Drive Thru… Is Open

The adjacent building was lit by lighting that cast colorful light on the walls. I made this image to include the building corner with light falling away to either side.

Building Corner Colors

The Fillmore Theater was bathed with purple lights. This was the last image that I made for the night.

Purple On The Fillmore

It had been a long day for me, having done yard work during the heat of the day, so I made my way home after this.

A couple of weeks ago, we had the night shoot meetup group. Here are some images that I made prior to joining the group for the night.

Denver Downtown Building Reflections, No 1

These are some of the building reflections in Downtown Denver.

Denver Downtown Building Reflections, No 2

This curved roof has some interesting reflections.

Curved Roofline

Here is another different roof line.

Building Corner

This final image has a reflection of the “Cash Register” building that is a well-known landmark in Denver.

Reflection Of The Cash Register Building

Sunday was a hot day. This artist had been working in the sun for most of the day. After completing his artwork, I made this candid shot of him relaxing.

Relaxing, After A Hot Day

Of course, I had to make an image of his artwork. Here is some of the detail from his work.

Chalk Art Detail

This lady in yellow, had spent most of the day’s working on a tiger’s image.

Artist, Detailing The Tiger

I found this image really image really amusing. Have you seen a tiger playing with a ball of wool?

Tiger Playing With Ball Of Wool

There were crowds of people in this image that I titled “Art Watchers”. I caught Angela, as one of the Watchers in this image.

Chalk Art Watchers

And here is another pair of Watchers…

Chalk Art Watchers, No 2

Of course, we also have a group of inevitable “Smart Phone Watchers” that I captured in the image.

Smart Phone Watchers

I started this collection of images of the “Chalk Arts Festival” with an image of the “The Chalk Ratz”. Here is a closeup image of the “Chalk Rat” on the sidewalk. This is the closeup of the subject of the first image that I presented.

Chalk Rat

Enjoy.

This last weekend was the annual Chalk Arts Festival, downtown at Larimer Street. This year, Angela joined me and headed downtown on Sunday afternoon. By the time we arrived, most of the artists had completed their artwork. This first image gives the title of this post.

We Are The Chalk Ratz

The “Chalk Ratz” team completed this work of art.

Chalk Ratz Image

In the image below, we see the typical area on the sidewalk behind the artwork; the artist has laid out all the chalks in bowls, ordered by color.

Artists And Chalk Bowls

Several works by the artists are sponsored by various organizations. In this image, the artist is modeling her work — or, rather, herself — for the “Denver Museum of Nature and Science”!

Modeling The Denver Museum Of Nature And Science

After two days of drawing, artists have been taking a break to chat with fellow artists and spectators.

Chalk Artists

This image of Renaissance Artists, who gave their names to “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, was one of the more creative images. When viewed at normal height, looking down, the head appeared stretched vertically. However, when viewed from the artists viewpoint, close to the ground, each of the figure heads looks normally proportioned. Their names are Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael. Don’t ask me which figure belongs to each artist!

TMNJ, Renaissance Artist Turtles

Several artists had taken a food break during the afternoon. This couple were deep in conversation while munching on their food.

Taking A Food Break

Making of photographs of some of the artwork can be really challenging, especially when the art work is in sun and shade. The artist was working on this image under a canopy, where part of the image was in sun. I found this interesting portion, that was in total shade, and shows some of the chalks that were used for making the artwork.

Two Red Heads

More images to come.

Last week, Angela’s birding group headed out to Westerly Creek. After hearing about the birds, I decided to pay a visit on Sunday. Maybe I would get to some of the same species? And get some practice making some images. I heard that Avocets were present along the creek. What luck! They were the first birds I noticed, at the edge of one of the ponds.

Avocet, Westerly Creek

They were a mating pair of Avocets. This was only the second time that I had seen these beautiful birds. I was pleased make some images of the pair.

Avocet Pair, Westerly Creek

Here is another image of the pair.

Avocet Pair No 2, Westerly Creek

Moving around the pond, I found this little guy. After much discussion, we identified this bird as a Western Wood Pewee.

Western Wood Pewee, Westerly Creek

There were two Swainson’s Hawks along the creek. I made this image of one before it flew off.

Swainson’s Hawk, Westerly Creek

Red-Winged Blackbirds were calling all along the creek. I captured this male in mid-call.

Red-Winged Blackbird, Westerly Creek

Cinnamon Teal were pairing up in the creek. I made this image of the male.

Cinnamon Teal Male, Westerly Creek

I was pleased to see all these species, and fortunate to get some practice making some decent images of some of the birds.

Really! Read on. This last month was the biennial “Month Of Photography” in the Denver Area. I took the opportunity to visit several art galleries that were hosting photography exhibits. After visiting CPAC, this green door called out to me.

Green Door, Denver

The next gallery on my list was in the Rino District. This area is full of murals. Here is one I haven’t seen before…

Humming Bird Mural, Rino District

As I was making my way back to the car, I found this dumpster outside the “Cleaners”. I could not help myself. Who knows when the dumpster with this post’s message will be towed away!

I Love A Good Dump Myself

Last weekend, I visited the Helikon Gallery (and Studios). This gallery had some really interesting image on exhibit. Also, there are several studios, rented by artists, in the building. These had some interesting art. This location is well worth a visit.

The gallery is located across the road from some grain elevators and silos. Leaving the gallery, I spotted this reflection in the water that pooled from the previous day’s rain. This pool is not guaranteed to be there for long — so time to capture the image.

Grain Elevator Reflections, Rino District

The day was overcast, so I chose to make these two images as monochrome, with the cloudy sky as a backdrop.

Silos, Rino District

Rounding the corner of the silos, I noticed the ladders climbing up the grain elevator. Those four orange bollards caused me to leave this image in color.

Grain Elevator Ladders