Photographer in Colorado

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

The last couple of days were spent in the area of Akureyri. A couple of days ago, it rained the entire day. Yesterday morning, we were greeted with snow on the mountains. The wind was really pumping for the whole day. This led to some really great atmospheric images.

Clouds Above Mountains, Akureyri

Later in the afternoon, I captured this image of the sunlight falling on the church in the foreground. In this image, it took a while to find the right spot where the church was not set against a bright sky. The city of Akureyri is across the fjord.

View Towards Akureyri

Close by, I found “Huglist”. I’m not sure of why this guy is here; perhaps this has something to do with the adjacent museum. He stands about 12 foot tall.

Huglist, Akureyri

I made a trip to the waterfalls at Dettifoss. This is an image looking down on the falls. The amount of water flowing over the falls is huge, but this is difficult to appreciate from a still photo. I also made some videos clips, with audio, to record the power of all that water flowing down the gorge. This will have to wait until I get home.

Dettifoss

There are lots of rainbows in Iceland! I made this panorama to that I could include the entire rainbow.

Lots Of Rainbows In Iceland

A couple of days ago, I discovered that Doctor Who came to Iceland! This is actually a monument to commemorate 100 years of telecoms in Iceland.

Doctor Who Came To Iceland

This morning, I found this guy flying high. Both yesterday and today, the wind was really pumping in Akureyri, so this image is an appropriate reminder of the weather.

Flying High

The sheep in Iceland are really skittish. However, I did manage to capture this image from inside the car… a few seconds before the sheep ran away!

Icelandic Sheep