Photographer in Colorado

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.

For the last couple of weeks, I have been trying out the “Mobile Monet” app on the iPhone to process some recent images. Returning from a Meetup group downtown, I met Thor at Union Station. After chatting with him, he mentioned that co-workers presented him with Thor’s hammer.

Thor And His Hammer

I made the original image of water that had pooled on our deck. Experimenting with Mobile Monet, I managed to extract some color from the original image. In this image, I confined the color to the interesting features near the center of the image.

Deck Reflections, Monet

Last week, I passed the pond below Tuscany Plaza on my way to work. There was no wind that morning, so there were good reflections of the new offices across the road. As with the image above, I confined color to the pond and building.

Pond At Tuscany Plaza, Monet

Made these images at the ends of the day over the last week. Leaving work, I passed by the pond outside Tuscany Plaza. This office block was reflected in the pond at sunset.

Tuscany Plaza, Reflections At Sunset

Yesterday morning, the fountains at Arapahoe Station cast long shadows on the pavement.

Shadows By The Fountains, Arapahoe Station

This evening, I repeated an image that I made last week of the statue “Mercury”.

Mercury, Reflection At Sunset

Last week, I had a wider lenses that tended to include too much of the foreground grasses and floating debris in the water. Well, I could have waded out into the pond to make an image similar to this one with a wider lens!

Last week, we started the week with a snow storm. You may remember last week’s post that include a table and chairs. During the snow storm, I made this image of the same table and chairs during the snow storm. For this monochromatic scene, I made a black and white conversion.

Tables And Chairs In The Snow, Arapahoe Station

First Friday Art Walk on Santa Fe Blvd was this last Friday. I made this image looking down into the coffee house. Table and chairs seem to be a recurring theme here!

Table and Chairs, Studio 6 Coffee House

In the adjacent building, is an orange staircase. I set the camera down to make this image looking up the staircase. This image seems to work better in monochrome, where the orange renders as dark gray.

Staircase In Orange?

In one of the galleries, I found this white curtain in a remote corner of the gallery. I wonder what is behind the veil?

Behind The Veil

During January, the sun rises soon before I arrive at Arapahoe Station. Here are some images made at sunrise over the last two weeks. At Samson Park, this lake is frequented by Canada Geese.

Reflection At Sunrise In Samson Park

At Arapahoe Station, building contractors recently completed the Cobank building. Several fountains have been installed in front of the building. I made this image of the reflection in the still water.

Reflection In Fountain, Arapahoe Station

Here is another image from a different angle.

Sky Reflections In Fountain, Arapahoe Station

Close by are several tables and chairs. I have always seen empty chairs — probably too cold for people to be sitting outside this early in the morning during winter!

Empty Chairs, Arapahoe Station

Last week, we had some overcast weather. I managed to make this image of the fountain when water was flowing. I am never sure when the fountains are active — on many mornings they are inactive.

Fountains At Sunrise, Arapahoe Station

These fountains appear to use heated water — this probably explains while they sometimes appear misty.

At this time of the year, the South Platte River near Foxton is covered with ice. This year, with the colder winter temperatures, the ice covered much of the river, from one riverbank to the other. I expected to make some images of water flowing past the ice. There were only a few holes in the ice, most of them distant from the riverbank. In this image I found one location where the water flowed close to some boulders before disappearing under the ice.

Ice On The South Platte River, Foxton

Moving to another location, the far bank of the river was reflected in the river. The late afternoon sun reflected the oranges and greens of the canyon walls in the water.

Reflections In Platte River, With Ice

Working this area, I made a few more images of the reflections.

Reflections In Platte River, With Ice, No 2

At one spot, I noticed the trunk of a Ponderosa pine tree reflected in the water that is captured in the following image.

Reflection In Ice And Water, Platte River

In the following image, greens from the pine trees were reflected in a “water hole”.

Hole In The Ice, Platte River

Looking back up the river, the slope with pine trees on the far riverbank were in the shade of the canyon. The low afternoon sun created rim light around a large boulder and created a back-light for the pine trees in the foreground.

Slope With Pine Trees, Foxton

This is a great time of the year to shoot the ice along the river. Will need to head back again when some of the ice has melted.

On New Year’s day, I posted the first image of the pine tree in Kunming Park. For something different, I applied a texture in Photoshop. Here is the final image, where the texture can be seen in the sky. This image, where there there is a plain background, like our blue Colorado skies, makes a good choice to apply textures.

Pine Tree, Kunming Park, New Years’ Day

For this image, I chose two textures from Flypaper Textures; these textures were “Pro Eau de Giverny” and “Pro Ambrosia”. I was inspired to create this image after listening and watching a podcast on the TWIP network with Sean Duggan and Tony Sweet.