Photographer in Colorado

This month we made a trip to Massachusetts, where we were to meet family in Boston. For the first three days we stayed in Salem. Soon after arriving in Salem, we made a trip to Salem Commons, where we walked down to the ocean. It was low tide in the late afternoon.

Low Tide, Salem Commons

Walking among the streets, we reached the rocks along the shoreline where we encountered these homes with an ocean view. Many folks were busy in their yards, preparing for the summer.

Homes With An Ocean View, Salem Commons

As the sun setting, we headed back to the pavilion. The low sun was casting long shadows at the pavilion. I waited for these two children to come running over to play.

Children At Play, Salem Commons Pavilion

Looking out across the river estuary, I made this image of the setting sun.

Sunset Over Estuary, Salem

Later during the trip, we returned to Salem Commons, where I found kelp growing among the rock pools.

Kelp At Low Tide, Salem

No visit to Salem is complete without making a visit to the Salem Witch Museum. The story surrounding the hanging of the witches in 1692 was retold here.

Salem Witch Museum

Finally we stopped at the National Park Association. I made this image looking up at the skylight at the entrance as we were leaving.

National Park Association Skylight, Salem

Saturday night was the monthly Illuminate Workshops night shoot. This month we met at the Denver Art Museum. After meeting fellow photogs, we proceeded to make images around the museum.

Dustpan And Brush, Denver Art Museum

More images may be found on the Meetup website here. Across the road is the Denver Public Library. In one of the windows was this huge orange paper flower.

Orange Paper Flower

The library building has some interesting angular and curved walls, contructed with a variety of build materials.

Denver Public Library, At Night

Looking back towards the art museum, I spotted the steel tent poking above the roof line.

Steel Tent, Denver Art Museum

We made our way to Civic Center Park and past the State Capitol building. Stopping near the Supreme Court building, I found these shadows that were cast from the buried lighting.

Shadows, Supreme Court

Near the end of the photo walk, the Supreme Court building was reflection from an adjacent building. This created some interesting reflections.

Building Reflections

First Friday was Art Walk along Sante Fe. This month there were a lot of new exhibits and new artists showing their art. Really inspiring. Here are some images that I made during the evening. I found one gallery that had these cool Lumin lamps. This one cycled through various colors. I waited for red to make its appearance.

Lumin Lamp, In Red

There were some interesting exhibits in this gallery. Lumin lamps are made from a heavyweight paper with folds alone scored lines. This yellow one shows have the folds give the Lumin’s their unique shape.

Lumin Paper Folds

One of my favorite galleries has steel ceilings. Here the lanterns are reflected in the ceiling.

Lanterns And Reflections In The Ceiling

I found the mannequin in the antique store’s window.

Mannequin In The Window

Enjoy.

This morning we were greeted with some 5 inches of fresh spring snow. On the way to work, I pass by Tokyo Joe’s, where several inches of snow had accumulated on the tables. There was just a hint of red showing from the umbrellas.

Tokyo Joe’s Snow

At the weekend, powerful wind gusts were reported in the metro area. On Monday morning, many of these umbrellas and tables were blown over by the wind. Also, several umbrellas were damaged, bent, destroyed and blown down the street. I liked the patterns made by the snow covered railings in the image below.

Snow Railings

Spring has been with us for a couple of weeks. However, very few flowers have blossomed. One exception was this forsythia, where the yellow flowers were poking through the covering of snow.

Flowering Forsythia In The Snow Storm

As I made my to work, I passed under the avenue of snow laden trees near Tuscany Plaza. Several footprints from fellow travelers left their tracks in the snow.

Tracks In Snow Under Avenue Of Trees

Outside the plaza, the sunny medallion was have covered in snow. I was captivated by the contrast of the lumpy snow stuck to the railing.

Snow And Medallion, Tuscany Plaza

During the course of the day, we got more snow interrupted by spells of sunny blue skies that started the melting process. At the end of the day, many puddles of water and muddy patches lined the sidewalks and open areas.

During the winter months the banks of the South Platte River are often lined with ice and snow. Last weekend, I spent an afternoon near Foxton on the banks of the river to make some images before the ice melts at the end of the season.

Sharp Ice, Platte River

As the sun dipped below the hills, sunlight was reflected off the rocks to create golden reflections in the river.

Golden Reflection, Platte River

Working my way along the riverside, I found several places where the flowing water created tunnels through the ice.

Ice Tunnel, Platte River

Water flowing down the river creates smooth milky surfaces when tumbling over the rocks.

Water Flow, Platte River

Water splashing up from the river freezes along the river banks to create icicles. Here the boulder has accumulated enough ice to create a skirt with icicles hanging down.

Ice Skirt With Icicles

Last night about a dozen photogs from our meetup group (Illuminate Workshops) met at City Park to brave cold. We met at the steps looking towards the city.

Denver Winter Skyline From City Park

After the sun went down, I went down to one of the balls that surrounded the circle. In this image, I got down low to emphasize the long shadow and included the park bench in the background.

Ball And Bench

The city lights lit up the overcast sky with a pale orange light.

Orange Sky Over City Park

We made our way down to the lake. By this time, the sky had turned a deep blue. In this image the orange sodium light contrasts with the blue of the snow and sky. Snow continued to fall, leaving trails and a glow around the streetlight.

Light From The Lone Streetlight

Nearby this tree had many branches trimmed and removed. This tree greeted us with limbs spread wide open.

Here Are My Branches

We stopped by the playground where the park benches had a light coating of snow. In the background, one of our fellow photogs was making an image of the playground. My image below was exposed for 13 seconds — I was amazed that this photog had stayed so still for the duration of the exposure!

City Park Bench

Several paths in the park had frozen footprints. I stopped to make an image of one area, where the snow had accumulated on the ridges of ice to outline the prints.

Frozen Footprints, City Park

That was the last image of the night. By this time it was so cold that feet and fingers were frozen… So I headed home for a hot dinner to get warm again.

This last week has been one of the coldest weeks in 2014. We had sub-zero temperatures for a couple of days and below freezing for most of the week, with a snow storm or two thrown in! Walking to work, I pass by a landscaped bank that is lined with bushes. During the spring and summer, the bushes are covered with leaves. When it snows in the winter, the leafless bushes are half-buried under snow. After leaving the shade cast by an office building, the sun casts shadows that reveals the texture of the snow covering the bank. In the following image, the sun revealed the ridge line that I used as a leading line to the buried bush.

Snow Ridge

Further on, I found a red “cone” that cast a long shadow from the low angle of the sun. The sunlight also brought out the surface texture of the snow bank. In reality, the cone is a red flag planted in the ground to indicate the presence of a cable running underground.

Red “Cone”, Buried In Snow

During the week, the snow slowly started to melt creating icy conditions. At the light rail station, an area was marked off for construction with red “Danger” tape. Again, the low sun revealed the texture of the snow and footprints.

Danger

A traffic cone was planted nearby to warn commuters of potential dangers. I made this image looking straight down over the cone. During the commute, I tinkered with this image on my iPhone. This was given the “tangled” treatment with Tangled FX. This app also boosts the red and orange colors during processing.

Tangled Cone