Photographer in Colorado

This is about the time of year when the sunflowers are in bloom on the Eastern Plains. Yesterday, I headed out along 56th Street to make images of the sunflowers.

Sunflowers Along 56th Street, No 1

Now that I have your attention — I started photographing sunflowers at Bennett. Two weeks ago, I stopped here to make images under cloudy skies close to sunset. Yesterday, with few clouds in the sky, I chose to shoot these flowers in infra-red. The best time for shooting infra-red is during the middle of the day. This ensures that the plants send out the maximum amount of infra-red.

Sunflowers In Infrared

I got down low, making sure the sun was right behind this flower head.

Backlit Sunflower Head

Finally, I chose a high viewpoint, to capture the mass of sunflowers disappearing into the distance

Sunflowers In Infrared, Bennett

Later, I made my way to 56th Street.During the course of the late afternoon, some 20 cars had disgorged their passengers. We had to spread out to avoid getting into other photogs images. In the image below, I focused on the sunflower in the foreground. I chose an aperture that would allow the background flowers to render out of focus.

Sunflowers Along 56th Street, No 2

In this image, I positioned myself to capture the three sunflowers in focus, allowing the flowers to go out of focus in the background.

Sunflowers Along 56th Street, No 3

Sunset arrived soon afterwards. After the sun set behind the Rockies, the last rays of sunset left red-ribbons of color in the clouds. In this image, I included the four construction cranes on the horizon with a hint of the sunflowers in the foreground.

Sunset Over The Rockies

Enjoy!

Last weekend, I made a trip to the Eastern Plains — well — near DIA. I was on the lookout for sunflowers, but took the opportunity to make some infra-red images. Close to DIA are wheat fields (that have already been harvested) and corn fields (that have ways to go before harvest).

Corn Field, No 1

I chose the corn fields, because the bright green foliage always makes for a great infra-red images. So what color is infra-red. By definition, it does not have color. So it makes sense that the image is rendered as a monochrome black and white image. The green foliage reflects plenty of infra-red wavelengths; this renders as white.

Corn Field, No 2

In contrast, the blue sky radiates very little infra-red, so it renders as black or a very dark gray.

Corn Field, No 3

Heading south-east, the corn fields are left behind as we arrive on the grassy plains. Heading down one of the dirt roads that crosses a creek, I noticed a bank of clouds spreading out over the ridge behind me. I stopped and made this image.

Clouds Over The Plains, No 1

Water flowing through the creeks, provide a source of moisture for cottonwood trees. In this image, the trees are hiding below the ridge.

Clouds Over The Plains, No 2

As sunset approached, I headed back towards Bennett, to make images of sunflowers. More of that later!

Last Saturday, I attended our night shoot meetup group. The group moved from Meetup to Facebook, so I lost touch with their events for a while. For the meetup, we met on 14th Street. We worked our way from the Larimer Street end towards the Convention Center. As the sun was setting, I captured this pair of conifers catching the last of the sunlight.

Catching The Last Sunlight

It had rained earlier in the afternoon, before our group assembled. Extensive construction work has been in progress for several months. I made this image of some construction work, reflected in the puddle of water remaining from the rain.

Building Construction Reflection, Downtown Denver

We met across the street from this apartment block, that was lit by the setting sun. There is no mistaking where this image was made.

14th Street Apartment Block

Reaching one of the street intersections, I stopped to make this image of a couple enjoying the cool summer evening.

Couple On 14th Street

Across the road is the Hotel Teatro. The roof line is striking, where lights shine on the top floor windows. There were still some remnants of the sunset in the night sky in this image.

Hotel Teatro Lighting

Across the street from the Performing Arts Center, is a yellow wall with a tall pillar that reads “All Together Now”.

All Together Now

Last week, I made a trip to Shrine Pass, to make some images of wild flowers. Early in the afternoon, I stopped along the Shrine Pass Creek. The shade allowed me to make some long exposure images to get the “feel” of water flowing down the creek.

Shrine Pass Creek No 1

I found a location, where there was a waterfall, only about 2 feet high!

Shrine Pass Creek No 2

Shrine Pass work its way down to the town of Red Cliff. This is located close to highway 24. I made this image of the bridge over the creek, placing the sun behind the bridge so that I could capture some detail in the bridge.

Bridge On Highway 24, Red Cliff

Turning around, I headed back up the pass. Stopping at one location, I noticed that the sun was shining through the aspen forest, casting long shadows of the tree trunks. This light would not last long as the sun was sinking behind the valley.

Aspen Forest, Shrine Pass

I made a short hike across the meadow, where this boulder was located.

Boulder In Meadow, Shrine Pass

In the valley above the boulder, I stopped to make this image of the aspen forest with the remnant of some clouds in the blue sky. I made a few images, including the cliff in the foreground before the mosquitoes started biting.

Aspen Forest And Cliff, Shrine Pass

Heading out of the Shrine Pass valley, I stopped again to make some images of flowers. Getting out of the car, the sun was shining through a single pine tree at the side of the road.

Backlit Pine, Shrine Pass Road

That was one of the last images that I made, before shooting some video of wild flowers at the top of the pass.

One of the most interesting artists at the festival create glass sculptures. These resembled hollowed glass ball with open sides. The most interesting feature was found when looking into the reflections on the inside surfaces of the exhibit. These reflections created virtual images of various features, of the sculpture and surrounding environment.

Glass Sculpture, Virtual Image

Nearby, another artist had sculptured pieces that included glass elements. I was intrigued by the color contrast of the blue/teal glass, and the orange/brown rusted components.

Sculptured Patterns

Heading home at the end of the day, we passed a planter that had several summer flowering plants in contrasting colors.

Summer Flowers, Cherry Creek

Besides the banks for the flowing water of Cherry Creek, several milk flowers can be found. In this image, I converted the image to monochrome with Snapseed. This really helped to shown the contrast of the pale pink/white flowers against green background foliage.

Milk Weed Along Cherry Creek

Finally, I found a tall thistle close by. This image was process in the “Mobile Monet” application, which allowed me to exclude the busy background foliage surrounding the thistle.

Thistle Along Cherry Creek

July 4th weekend is the time of the year for the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, that we always try to attend. At one artist’s booth, two young girls were excitedly looking at a wall sculpture that included well-known cartoon characters. This girl had blue and white beads threaded through her hair.

Girl With Beads In Her Hair

Her companion, maybe sister, also had black and white beads in her hair. We could not help but notice both girls’ beads. Of course, both girls could not keep still with the excitement of discovering another cartoon character embedded in the sculpture.

Girl With Beads

Later, we met another lady who was walking her babies through on a stroller. This baby girl was a lot easier to capture… fast asleep!

Fast Asleep, In Stroller

As we strolled through the exhibits, the afternoon sun lit up the fabric walls of a soda stand. I was attracted to the shadows cast by the setting sun. I missed the opportunity to capture animated shadows from the vendor behind the fabric wall. But I did manage to capture the action around the bright red fabric in this image.

Red Booth Wall

Arriving at Santa Fe Blvd on First Friday, I passed by the alleys behind the street. These alleys have a variety of interesting murals. I found this pair of abandoned books located between two alley dumpsters. Leather boots?

Just Another Cow, And Abandoned Boots

Further down the alley, an artist was busy at work with a new mural.

Mural Artist In The Alley

This July 4th weekend, the galleries were less busy than normal for the summer months. Leaving a second floor gallery, I encountered this lady waiting with a stroller at the bottom of the stairs.

Waiting, At The Bottom Of The Stairs

While standing in the gutter, two dudes stepped back in front of me. Seems that this post is all about footwear.

Boots, In The Gutter

Close by was someone’s hat, sitting on top a pole.

Hat Pole

Later a band was playing along the street. The band members had just finished playing a set and were taking a break.

Taking A Break Between Sets