Photographer in Colorado

This week I headed to Zion National Park for the Fall Colors. The first day was a trip from Denver to Moab. The next day was a trip from Moab, through Hanksville, Escalante and Zion. The east entrance to Zion is at Mt Carmel Junction, where I stopped to take a break at the White Mountain Trading Post. The north wall of the store is covered with a long mural. I made this panorama with an iPhone, walking parallel to the the wall.

White Mountain Trading Post Mural, No 1

I made a second panorama further along the wall.

White Mountain Trading Post Mural, No 2

Today I made a trip to the Hopi Nation in Arizona. On the way back, I stopped at Coal Mine Mesa, where the following panorama was made near sunset.

Coal Mine Mesa Panorama

Last weekend, daylight savings came to an end. This meant that sunset arrived earlier in the day. Leaving work, I passed the orchids in the lobby of the our office building. With the low sun, these orchid flowers were lit up.

Three Office Orchid Flowers

This week we got our first snow of the season, so the leaves were rapidly falling from the trees. I captured this image of the oak leaves as they were changing from green to yellow to brown.

Oak Leaf In Fall Colors

Last night was First Friday Art Walk. This also marked the start of Art Week in Denver. After arriving on Santa Fe Blvd, I was greeted by this humongous bike, lit up outside one of the art galleries.

Humongous Art Walk Bike

This evening I found a lot of new and interesting exhibits. At one gallery, a videographer had set up camera to shoot a dancer with blue lights. The images were somehow projected back to a screen with a delay. Here is one image that I made of the dancer. The bright lights are from light sticks that she moved through the air while dancing.

Dancer In Blue, Art Walk

I made several images of the dancer. Just before she finished her set, I captured this interesting delayed repeated images of her movements.

Blue Dancer Movements

Finally, leaving this gallery, I noticed a tip jar, lit with red light in the darkened room.

Red Tip Jar

This morning, I spent a couple of hours in our backyard to capture some fall colors before the leaves drop. Our maple tree has made the transition to fall colors. This year, the fall colors arrived late, so the transition to fall colors was very rapid.

Maple Leaf, Fall Color

I managed to find some leaves that had a touch of green — mainly green spots — as in the following image.

Spotty Maple Leaves

We still have cosmos in flower, so I took the opportunity to make some images before these plants are hit with morning frosts.

Pink Cosmos, Before Fall Ends

Wandering around the cosmos, I found some roses still in flower.

Backyard Pink Rose

I was fascinated by the red-spots on this rose.

1678-0154-Pink-Rose-With-Red-Spots

The leaves from the following tree is usually one of the first to drop leaves. Today many of the leaves are still green, but I did find some that were turning. I was intrigued by the yellowing edges of the leaves.

1678-0174-Autumn-Leaves-Green-And-Yellow

This afternoon we headed to Red Rocks Park for a short hike to appreciate the Fall Colors and the great day’s weather. As we climbed up the trail, we met several cyclists on mountain bikes, making their way either up or down the trail. I made this image just before a couple of cyclists bikers entered the frame as they made their way up the trail.

Red Rocks Fall, No 1

The mountain slopes were covered with a wide variety of fall colors in the grasses and low bushes. Also, the recent rains this week added to the color of  the juniper trees.

Fall Colors On Mountain Slopes At Red Rocks

As the sun set, the long shadows crept up the hogs back. I looked for a boulder to add a foreground element in the following image.

View Towards The Hog Back

I noticed bright yellow lichen as we walked past this boulder. I included the pale blue grasses as foreground elements in this image.

Lichen Covered Boulder, Red Rocks

As we headed by the car, I noticed a patch of orange-red grasses.

Red Grasses At Red Rocks

As we headed back to the car, the full moon was rising in the east. Unfortunately, I did not make a decent image of the moon rise.

More images from the 10th Downtown Denver Zombie Crawl.

The Prisoner

Some chess players just continued on.

Chess Players, Not Zombies

Portrait of a zombie.

Portrait Of A Zombie

Orange hair, and hat.

Orange Hair

These two pairs of eyes.

The Eyes Have It

Elaborate hair.

Elaborate Hair Makeover

Two spectators with hats.

I Like Your Hats

This couple had really striking colors.

Red Gown And Lace

Another umbrella girl.

Umbrella Girl, No 3

As usual, zombie fever affects everyone!

All Sorts Of Zombies

Yesterday was the annual Zombie Crawl in Downtown Denver — this is was the 10th annual event — and also one of the biggest events in the USA. As usual, there was a huge variety of costumes. This is the fourth year that I have photographed this event. This year I joined the South West Photo Team Meetup Group for this event. There are more images here. In previous years, I joined the Illuminate Workshops Meetup Group. A couple of days ago I learned that Efrain Cruz, leader of the group, had passed away. Efrain introduced me to the Zombie Crawl, so these images are in memory of Efrain.

Zombie, With Big Boots

As usual, there are as many spectators as there are zombies. Images can be found everywhere!

Black And White Hat

I noticed this umbrella walking by, so I had to investigate.

Umbrella Girl, No 1

Here is the umbrella girl.

Umbrella Girl, No 2

The footwear is just as interesting. Here our umbrella is joined by another lady with heels.

I Like Those Shoes

This is “Just Do It”.

Just Do It

The Spartans…

Zombie Spartans

Clowning around.

Zombies, Clowning Around

And big hair!

Good Hair Day

With her companion — lady in blue…

Lady In Blue

With the trip to Iceland, I missed out on many of the fall colors in the mountains. Yesterday, I headed to the North Fork of the South Platte River, near Foxton. Here I found lots of fall colors, but no aspen. The picked a location along the riverside where I could explore the scenery. In the morning, I was viewing some of Charles Cramer’s images. This gave me some inspiration in capture the following image of the water flowing past the yellow fall colors on the far bank of the river.

Fall Colors On The North Fork

I guess all the rain and flowing rivers in Iceland must have inspired me to make the following image. I chose a long exposure, 1/5 second in this case, to capture the flowing movement of the river.

Water Flow On The North Fork

Further downstream, I found some grasses on the far bank. I was careful to include the boulder, surrounded by flowing water, in this composition.

Fall Colors And Riverside Grasses

It is always worthwhile to turn around while making photographs — in this case I was rewarded with this image. It was late in the afternoon and I found the falling sun backlighting the leaves in the tree as well as creating some catch lights in the water flowing down the river.

North Fork Rushing Past Fall Colors

I continue downstream along the North Fork and then headed up the South Fork of the river. In this image, I found the reds and yellows of the fall colors, mixed with the greens from the grasses, reflecting in the river.

South Fork Fall Color Reflections

The river was busy during the afternoon, probably because of people taking advantage of the recent warmer weather before the cold temperatures return. Passing vehicles kicked up dust that was lit by the lowering sun in one of the last images that I made for the day.

Backlit Dust, South Fork