Photographer in Colorado

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!

After gym this afternoon, I headed down to the Platte River, close to Mile High Stadium. It has been a few years since I last made photographs in this area. With the light rail running through the area, there have been many changes. One of the river trails has moved! As I walked along the trail, the afternoon sunlight lit up various buildings and structures; these were then reflected in the river. The light rail bridge was reflected in the relatively slow flowing water.

Reflections Of Light Rail Bridge

The orange/brown steelwork reflecting in the water made the image above come to life. In the image below, I composed the lines of the steelwork against the blue sky.

Light Rail Bridge Steelwork

Farther along the trail, the power generating station was reflected in the river.

Power Station Reflection

The I-25 highway crosses the Platte River close by. After a couple of weeks of frigid weather, many people took to the trails to enjoy the sun. Under the I-25 bridge, I capture a lady in red walking the river trail.

River Trail Walker

The highway bridge was supported by several Y-shaped supports. In the following image, the sun was reflected by the river, lighting the underside of the bridge. This made an interesting image when converted to black and white.

I-25 Bridge Supports

I headed back towards the car through a construction yard parking lot that contained many pools and puddles from the melting snow and ice of the last week or two. In this image, the towers of the power station were reflected in the pools. There were some interesting clouds in the sky, that I included in the composition.

Tower Reflections In Parking Lot Puddle

Nearby was an alley that was decorated with some colorful murals, also reflected in the pools.

Mural And Reflecting Pool

This last week was a frigid one with plenty of snow. On Thursday night, I-25 was busy with traffic. While waiting at the Arapahoe Station, the Light Rail train came over the bridge. As it arrived at the station, the train emerged from behind a cloud of snow!

Light Rail Train Emerging From The Snow

On Saturday, I headed down to Bear Creek. Along the side of the creek were snow fields with shadows cast by surrounding trees.

Snow Field Near Bear Creek

Close by was a children’s playground. Here I found icicles growing from bright red colored seats.

Icicles On Playground Seat

At a nearby table, several icicles were growing upwards out of the table top. I wonder how they grew up? Maybe from water dripping from a tree?

Icicles Growing Out Of The Table

Close up, these became “Icicle Towers” in the following image.

Icicle Towers

This morning, I was at the Denver Art Museum for a National Geographic Traveler seminar. After arriving at the museum, I found some more icicles growing on the sculpture located outside.

Icicle On Sculpture, Denver Art Museum

Yesterday, I was listening to the TWIP (“This Week In Photo”) podcast. As one of the picks of the week, Ron recommended some iPhone apps — Waterlogue and Tangled FX — both of which I have used. This morning I made an image of a vase with daffodils, that I gave the Waterlogue treatment; a watercolor effect.

Daffodil, Waterlogue-d

While visiting the iTunes store, I found another app, Glaze, that gives an oil painting effect. This app has several oil effects that I liked. So, I thought, I wonder what oil paintings look like in black and white (50 Shades of Grey)? I took the same original photo into Glaze and then processed in Snapseed as a black and white image. After a little burning and dodging, I got the following image.

Daffodil, Glazed Monochrome

Friday, after work, I changed the route to return to the light rail station. This time, I headed towards the Orchard Station. The walk takes me past Harlequin Plaza. On the south side, a bridge crosses the pond to connect the office buildings to the parking lot. I stopped here to make this image that was converted to black and white. This building is great fun to photograph since it has angular roof line and plenty of glass windows that reflect the surrounding.

Bridge To Harlequin Plaza

Walking along bridge, I stopped to make this image.

Harlequin Plaza, South Side

Last weekend, I was experimenting with some images that I made at Harlequin Plaza last July. These can be found on Ello. One of the images was similar to the one below, but without the overcast skies.

Glass And Sky, Harlequin Plaza

Finishing up at Harlequin Plaza, I headed over to the Orchard light rail station. This station has benches with colorful opaque backrests. While waiting for the train to arrive, a lady sat down on the sunny side of the bench. The sun emerged from behind the clouds, picking up her shadow in the backrest.

Backlit Commuter, Orchard Station