Photographer in Colorado

Yesterday, I headed to downtown, across Cherry Creek from Sunken Gardens Park. After parking the car, it looked like this might be an interesting area to make some images. The following teaser image was made towards the end of the shoot in an alley behind Santa Fe Blvd.

Santa Fe Boulevard Alley Mural

After parking, I made my way across Cherry Creek and picked a street. An apartment block was under construction, where I found these pipe ends. Looks like they are part of scaffolding to support flooring or ceilings.

Pipe Ends

Meandering through the neighborhood, I found street lights that were lit under dark overcast skies.

Downtown Street Lights

The alley ways served as entrances to many parking garages serving apartments. I was intrigued by these two “eyes” looking down at me. The mirrors were located right outside the doors to a garage.

Parking Garage Mirror Eyes

Nearer the art museum was a shuttered building that had some interesting backdoor graffiti.

Backdoor Graffiti

After circling through some streets, I found myself back near the pipe ends. The street and surrounding sidewalks were covered with markings. Someone must know what all those marks mean!

Need More Color On The Street

Later I headed towards the Convention Center and across back to the other side of Cherry Creek heading down Santa Fe Blvd. Here I passed next to “Play and Bark”, a dog boarding house. This mauve/purple color really made this building stand out.

Bark And Play

Heading down Santa Fe, I reached the art district. Here is an area where there are many murals in the alleys. The following is the end of the mural that appears on the top of this post.

Santa Fe Alley Mural, Continued

After heading down the alley, I made my way back to the parked car. Across the street from a school, I found this pair of camping chairs on the porch.I carefully composed this image so that one can see the reflection of the school bus. Also making sure I was not reflected in the window glass.

A Pair Of Camping Chairs

That was the final image that I made before heading out to the airport to meet Angela on her return flight.

Did you know that Denver has so many blue buildings? Yesterday afternoon, I headed to downtown Denver to make find something interesting. As I passed by Union Station, where previously I have made many images — mostly at night. This time I headed up the stairs at the eastern end of the station. The station has an interesting roof that has an oval opening over most of the platform. With a wide angle lens I made this image that attempts to get the roof with the distant buildings.

Union Station, Under Overcast Clouds

The roof is supported by cantilevers. At the base are rows of arches. While walking through the arches, a biker rider following behind me had to make a detour to go around. In this image, I waited until he passed back through the arch in front of me.

Bike Rider, Threading Through Arches, Union Station

Leaving the station, I made this image, with the blue building in the background.

Union Station Arches And Blue Windows

Heading over towards the light rail station, were another two blue apartment buildings. These two blue buildings now became more noticeable!

Blue Buildings Near Union Station

The rows of skylights in the foreground above, cover a below street walkway from the Amtrak station to the light rail station ahead of me. At the end of the walkway, escalators lead back to street level. I waited patiently outside the exit for a pedestrian to emerge. Shooting through the glass, I made this image.

Leaving The Escalator, Union Station

Crossing the mainline rail tracks, I stopped at the top of the bridge. Those blue buildings caught my attention again. Here is the blue Da Vita building across the street from two newer blue buildings!

Da Vita And Another Blue Building

I headed over the the skateboard park, where I attempted some poor attempts of capturing skateboarders and then crossed the Platte River. Walking back through the park, some more blue buildings!

Blue Apartment Buildings, Downtown Denver

I wonder why I never noticed all these blue buildings before. Then I remembered that I passed by them either at night or during the day with blue skies. Of course, yesterday was overcast, so the blue of the buildings really contrasted against the gray of the overcast skies!

Last night was the monthly Illuminate Workshops night shoot. This time we met at the Denver Art Museum, the same location that we did last year. I arrived early, before sunset, to make some images before dark. The Art Museum has pointed roofs. In this image, it looks like the roof has pierced the cloud!

Art Museum, Piercing The Cloud

Close to the museum, is one construction site where a redbrick build is being renovated. After walking around the block, I made this composition where the red brick contrast against reflections of a blue sky.

Red Brick And Windows

Clouds lit by the setting sun were reflected from the Alps building in the following image.

Alps Building At Sunset

While waiting for the photowalk to start, I made several images in the sunset light. In the following image, I used a longer lens to compress the perspective and included the clouds.

Public Library With Sunset Refections

The streets of downtown Denver have been offset from the remainder of the city by 45 degrees. This allows some interesting reflections to be captured. In the following image, the “Cash Register Building” (Wells Fargo Building) is reflected. I included the glow from a window in public library for this image.

Reflections Of Cash Register Building

Finally we got started with the photowalk. After making group shots, I made this image of the columns of the public library, making sure to include the sky at “blue hour”. Traffic lights were reflected off the side of the building, so I waited until the lights had changed from red to green for this image.

Public Library Columns, Blue Hour

In the following image, I used a wide angle lens, closing the aperture down so that the lights are rendered as starbursts in monochrome.

Denver Public Library Columns

We crossed the street to get to Civic Center Park. The amphitheater is lit with a mixture of tungsten and sodium lights.Lighting with different color temperatures provide for some interesting night shots. In this image, showing the curves of the granite steps, these were lit by orange from sodium lights above mixed with cooler tungsten from the side!

Civic Center Park Amphitheater Steps

The Denver City and County building was lit in red, white and blue. After making several images from different vantage points, I was intrigued by the building as seen through the trees. I made this image of the trees, with the tower of the building in the background.

Denver City And County Building Through The Trees

This was the final image that I made that night. It was time to get home for something to eat!

Yesterday, after work, I headed out to the First Friday Art Walk along Santa Fe Blvd. The alley behind the main street was adorned with several murals. This was one that I have never seen previously. Obviously an employee hard at work!

Employee Parking!

Several musicians were playing in the street. Here are two Hang players. I have never seen or heard these instruments before, so I had to do some research to find the name of the instruments. They are percussive instruments that sound vaguely similar to steel drums.

Hang Players, Santa Fe

Passing by the store, several people were viewing works of art and antiques.

Gallery Store Window

The Michael Warren gallery had some interesting photographs of crystallized minerals. However, tucked away behind a barrier, was this exhibit.

I Am The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit

Inside the Denver Art Society building, there are always interesting and amusing exhibits. I had to laugh when I saw the bowler, below.

The Bowler

In the basement, there are some more interesting exhibits. I bumped into these clothespins and decided to make some images.

Clothespins On The Line

Yesterday afternoon, I headed out to Red Rocks. With the recent warm weather, many people had the same idea! Eventually, I found some parking space and headed up one of the trails. Proceeding up the trail, I had just entered the shadow cast by the sun. Moving to just the right spot, I made this image of the silhouette of the tree, with the sun obscured by the skyline.

Tree, In Silhouette

I proceeded up one of the trails and noticed that in the last few years, many areas had been closed off for restoration. All the areas that I used to visit previously are now closed off! I made my way down the trail, when I heard voices below. I waited until some folks emerged from behind the rock into the S-shaped bend of the trail.

S-Curve Steps, Red Rocks

Working down, I eventually arrived at the entrance to the Red Rocks Amphitheater. Here there are three flags, that represent Denver, Colorado and USA.

Three Flags, Colorado, USA, Denver

Below the Grille, is a patio where tables and chairs had been laid out. I created a tight composition that only includes three tables, below.

Patio Tables And Chairs, Red Rocks

Scores of people came to visit the amphitheater this afternoon.

Saturday Afternoon, Red Rocks Amphitheater

Some people came to exercise or run up the steps. Others came to sit and admire the scenery, like this guy.

Tattoo And Pony Tail, Red Rocks

A the left side of the amphitheater, these folks were sitting and watching the action!

Rock Face At Red Rocks Amphitheater

Yesterday, after checking the weather forecast, I decided to head off to a different location along the South Platte. Heading down to Sedalia, I then turned towards the mountains to Deckers and the South Fork of the Platte River. It has been a few months since visiting this stretch of the river. This fork was flowing more gently than the North Fork that I visit more frequently. Most of the snow had melted since this stretch gets more sun. At a narrow section of the river, the water flows over coarse granite rock and boulders. At this section, the flowing water had gouged the rock, leaving water-filled hollows that looked like giant footprints.

Gouged Rock Pools, Like Giant Footsteps

This section of the river is very narrow, with a vertical canyon wall that plummets down to the water. The granite wall has some interesting features that I captured below. I also included two giant foreground boulders in the composition.

Granite Rock Face And Boulders

Further upstream, I found this water pool with a reflection of the giant boulder in the background.

Reflections In Rock Pool, South Fork

Last night was the Illuminate Workshops Meetup group. This month we headed to Washington Park. I made sure that I arrived well before sunset so that I could make images in daylight. Just as the sun was setting, I some images of trees reflecting in the Washington Park lake. When I looked at the image in Lightroom, I noticed that the foreground shadows were lit with blue from the sky. In this image, I increased the saturation of the blues and oranges to create some more color contrast.

Sunset Reflections In Washington Park Lake

As the sun sank lower in the sky, the orange skies from the setting sky were reflected in the lake. The park (and lake) has scores of Canada geese at this time of the year. I waited for the nearest goose to enter the frame before making this image.

Geese Silhouette, Washington Park

I headed around to the other side of the lake, to be closer to the meetup location. Here I made some image blurs. Horizontal blurs were not working at this location — too many long dark streaks — so I tried some vertical blurs. I made several vertical blurs that included the top of the trees and the bottom of the trees (reflected in the water). In Lightroom, I applied some negative clarity. This increased the “blurriness” of the trees in this image.

Island Blur In Washington Park Lake

After meeting the group of photogs, we made our way to the northern side of the lake. I made the following image that includes the reflections of the streetlights in the water.

Streetlights, Washington Park

The main attraction that was planned for the meetup was to create sparks and firewheels. In this image, Efrain was spinning the firewheel to create an orb of light. As the sparks fly, they leave trails in the night sky.

Orb And Sparks, Washington Park

The firewheel is created by putting steel wool inside a whisk. The whisk is attached to a chain or rope and lit before spinning the whisk. Be sure to have fire extinguishers available before attempting this. Also, stay away from trees and dry grass!