Photographer in Colorado

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

This month, I made two trips to the Eastern Plains. While driving one of the country roads this last weekend, I could not help to stop at this location!

Eastern Plains Air Mail

During the earlier trip, I stopped by a watering hole along county road CR-81 (or was it CR-94?), where approaching storm clouds moved over the plains. Soon after stopping, cattle approached, probably out of curiosity.

Storm And Watering Hole

The stormy clouds were spectacular, with alternating dark and light bands of tones.

Storm Over County Road CR-85

During the second trip, I stopped at this abandoned homestead on another county road. By this time the storm clouds had intensified.

Abandoned Homestead On CR-85

I have visited this same house last year, where there was an abandoned piano inside.

Waltham Piano

While making photographs, several Mountain Bluebirds followed me around. They were nesting in the roof timbers.

Abandoned Room In Homestead

In the late afternoon this last trip, I shot some video footage. After the soon disappeared behind the mountains, the sky was lit with pink colors of the setting sun. I made this panorama of the sunset with my iPhone before heading back home.

Sunset Panorama, CR-81

Recently, Angela’s brother Mike and wife Meg visited the US from England. We took a long weekend break, visiting in Marble while they were here. The first morning after arriving, I took a sunrise walk to Beaver Lake. In this image, sunlight was streaming through the trees and grasses.

Backlit Morning Grasses, Marble

Arriving at Beaver Lake, the heat from the sun was burning of the morning mist that was rising off the lake. I waited for a passing Mallard to capture this image, with ripples to break up the reflections of the mountains in the water.

Duck Paddling Beaver Lake, Marble

Outside our rented cabin were four red garden chairs. I could not help but make this image of the red chairs contrasted against the long green grasses and the sea of dandelions.

Red Garden Chairs Among The Dandelions

Later in the afternoon, we took a fun drive to Lizard Lake. This is located along the 4wd road that follows the Crystal River. The still air allows for great reflections of the mountain backdrop in the water.

Lizard Lake Reflections

On the far bank of the lake are some rocks and tree roots that form an X-reflection in the water. There is just enough hint of a movement in this image to create some ripple patterns in the water.

Rock Reflections, Lizard Lake

Along the near shore, I found these four grasses reflecting in the water.

Grasses In Lizard Lake

On our final morning, I took another walk to Beaver Lake. Water from the lake flows over a spillway that feeds wetlands below the dam wall and then flows into the Crystal River. In this image, I attempted to capture the laminar water flowing off the spillway.

Water Flow, Beaver Lake Spillway

Meandering through the town, I found a truck parked among the long grass. In this image, I like the contrast of the four big tires reflecting blue sky light and the red panel sides of the truck.

Four Truck Tires, Marble

Eventually I got to some images that I made during First Friday art walk on Santa Fe. After looking at the images that I captured, a theme emerged. Visiting one of the galleries, I looked up through the skylight. The evening sky was just starting to take on the colors of sunset. This was framed by the skylight in the image below.

Sky, Framed, By Skylight

At another gallery, three ladies were admiring some artwork. This image captured their reflection framed by the oval mirror.

Through The Looking Glass

Across the street, the door on the storefront at number 753 was framed between a poster and a window of rectangular framed panes.

Framed, 753

In this final image, I made my way through the gallery. The rear entrance door was opened to let some cool air to flow through from the back alley. An artist uses this area for his studio of woodwork pieces. Here the triangular shelves were framed by the door.

Triangle, Framed, By The Door