by Match
on June 21, 2016
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
Tagged as:
beaver lake,
cabin,
chairs,
family,
grasses,
lake,
lizard lake,
marble,
mist,
reflections,
rock,
spillway,
tires,
water
{ }
by Match
on June 19, 2016
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
Tagged as:
art walk,
door,
frames,
gallery,
ladies,
mirror,
oval,
reflections,
sky,
skylight,
triangle,
woodwork
{ }
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
Tagged as:
blue,
green,
iris,
leaves,
lilac,
overcast,
purple
{ }
by Match
on April 24, 2016
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
Tagged as:
a-line,
airport,
blue hour,
cantilever,
dia,
fastracks,
reflections,
roof,
station,
tent,
train,
union station
{ }
by Match
on April 17, 2016
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.
Tagged as:
blossoms,
icicles,
macro,
snow,
storm,
white
{ }
by Match
on April 16, 2016
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!
Tagged as:
filter,
flow,
foxton,
monochrome,
nd filter,
river,
shade,
south platte,
sunlight,
water
{ }
by Match
on April 3, 2016
April Fool’s Day was also First Friday Art Walk on Santa Fe Blvd. The area around the art district on Santa Fe has many murals. These are refreshed periodically with new work, like this mural “Knowledge Is Power”.
Knowledge Is Power
Another new mural is this alley is this gorilla. There were several folks gathered nearby for a smoke break.
Bite Me
After visiting the Spark gallery, I noticed a couple girls making photographs across the street. I could not help capturing this image.
Making My Photograph
I visited several galleries during the evening. This artist was engrossed in his painting.
Artist At Work, No 2
By the time I arrived outside the Denver Civic Theater, “Blue Hour” had arrived. The yellow sodium lighting contrasted nicely against the deep blue of the sky in this image.
Denver Civic Theater, After Sunset
After selecting these images, I realized that all these images contained the color blue!
Tagged as:
art walk,
artist,
blue,
blue hour,
murals,
santa fe blvd,
theater
{ }
by Match
on March 27, 2016
On Monday night, and most of Tuesday, a blizzard passed through the metro area and we were dumped with some 15 inches of wet, heavy snow. After arriving at Arapahoe Station, I made this image while walking down to work in the snow storm.
Snowstorm Near Arapahoe Station
After work, skies had cleared and some of the snow had melted. As I entered Araphoe Station, there were a lot of pretty snow-covered trees that caught the light at the end of the day.
Branches And Snow, Arapahoe Station
There was enough snow to make out the form of the steps that climbed up the stairs!
Stairs Under Snow, Arapahoe Station
In the following image, I liked the contrast of the snow-laden trees against the dark office buildings and the orange “candle”.
Two Trees, Snow, Arapahoe Station
While waiting for the train to arrive, I explored the area around the station. In this image, the blizzard dumped snow against the side of the lights and shelter roof, creating snow textures.
Snow Textures, Arapahoe Station
When I had arrived at DU Station, the blizzard dumped snow on the bike racks. The bikes were almost hidden under all that snow. However, there were interesting snow forms covered the parked bikes.
Bicycles, After The Snow
The skies cleared during the night. With the melting snow and freezing night, we had lots of ice the next day.
Tagged as:
blizzard,
snow,
snowstorm,
station,
texture,
train,
trees
{ }
