Photographer in Colorado

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

The Irises in our garden have bloomed again, maybe a little later than usual. Yesterday I spent about an hour making some of images. The long stalks and an slight breeze, make it challenging to capture an image of the irises. Plenty of patient waiting is required.

Blue Iris, 2016

We had cloudy overcast skies for more much of the day, that made for some great light to make images. There was a slight break in the clouds that backlit the edge of the iris leaves.

Iris Leaves

Irises always look great in color, especially the lilac-blue ones that we have in the yard. However, I tried a monochrome conversion for the following image. The blues are so light, that I need some more work to do to show the tones in the flowers.

Blue Iris In Black And White

For this final image, I focused on the edge of the petals to show the S-curves. Also, I opened up the aperture on the macro lens to reduce depth of field and blur the background some more.

Iris Flower, Follow The Curves

Yesterday, I made a trip out to Denver International Airport (DIA) on the new A-Line train. RTD were offering free rides for the opening day. There were crowds of people waiting at Union Station to take a ride out to the airport.

Waiting In Line For The Train

The new Fastracks trains are much larger than the light rail trains, with baggage racks and plenty of standing room. Of course, the train was filled to capacity with seated passengers, taking advantage of the free rides.

Inside The New Fastracks Train

The train pulls into the station under the new Westin hotel at DIA. This end of the line is spectacular. After emerging from the escalators, one arrives on the concourse at the south end of the airport buildings. I fitted a fisheye lens to capture the arch below the hotel and roof above the station below.

Fisheye View Over Station, DIA

Here is a view looking up at the cantilevered roof above the escalators, with the hotel in the background.

Looking Up At The Westin Hotel, DIA

The cantilevered roof is one of the key features at the airport that I managed to capture with the fisheye lens. One really needs to view this structure to appreciate the engineering that went into the roof.

Cantilevered Roof, DIA

This is another view under the roof. The hotel has a lounge above the concourse. I like the color contrast of the yellow interior lights against the blue of the window glass in this image.

Under The Cantilevered Roof, DIA

With all the people who made the trip to DIA, there was a lot of waiting in line for the return train. I took advantage of the waiting time to make some more images. By this time, blue hour had arrived. In this image, we can see the reflections of the DIA tent roofing in the deep blue of the hotel windows.

Hotel Window Reflections, Blue Hour, DIA

In this final image, I captured the DIA tent roof against the blue in the clouds and sky.

DIA Roof Spikes

This weekend we had a huge snow storm in the metro area. Yesterday wind accompanied the snow. This morning, I grabbed my camera when heading for the gym. Returning from the gym in one of the alleys, I found these pink blossoms, covered with snow.

Snow Blossoms, No 1

There were some with icicles…

Snow Blossoms, No 2

And another…

Snow Blossoms, No 3

Enjoy.

A couple of weeks ago Carey and I headed the North Fork of the South Platte River near Foxton. Here we spent an afternoon making photographs along the river. After scouting for a location, Carey selected one spot where the river caught the afternoon sunlight. I made the following image with an ND filter. This allowed me to have a longish shutter speed of an 1/8 second. This smoothed out the water flow.

Curly Water Flow, South Platte River

Later we headed downstream to a location that was on the South Fork of the river. At this location, the river was in the shadow of the canyon walls. At this location, I framed three pine trees against the orange canyon wall in this image.

Three Pine Trees, South Platte River

Shooting at this location was really great with the river in the shade. This made it easier to get long exposures without filters to show the water flow. Carey and I had moved close to the waters edge where we were rock hopping along the river. I decided to convert the triangular arrangement of rocks into a monochrome image, below.

Triangular Rocks, South Platte River

I found a large boulder at the water’s edge. In this image, I chose a near-far composition that included the boulder, foreground river sands and the water flow in the background.

One Large Boulder, South Platte River

We headed back towards to confluence of the North and South Forks, where we had some lunch before shooting the river. I looked for a location where I could include some foreground branches overhanging the water. At this location, I wanted to capture the white spray of the water flow in the river. The river was in bright sunlight, so I made use of the ND filter to capture the water flow in this monochromatic image.

Water Flow At The Forks

When we were heading out from the river, I noticed one location where the river was flowing over rocks in the shade. At this last location, plenty of foamy bubbles were created as the water flowed over the rocks. This would work great with a long exposure.

Water Flow, Over The Rocks, South Platte River

Soon after making this image, we headed back home. I dropped Carey back at home and had an appointment with work!