Photographer in Colorado

Last night, I joined the Illuminate Workshops meetup group for a night shoot at Red Rocks. We met well before sunset — but there was no sunset — it was overcast. This month there was a large crowd of photographers at the shoot. We met in the amphitheater where we did a group shot. Check the meetup site.

Red Rocks is pretty big so we soon spread out. Working my way around the amphitheater, I eventually ended up on the stage where I made this HDR image. Several areas of the amphitheater were roped off for repairs with marker flags. The red marker flags were flapping in the wind.

Red Rocks Amphitheater After Dark

Spotlights at the theater light up the rock walls on either side of the amphitheater. Walking up the stairs, I was intrigued by the lines formed by the blue sky reflecting from the railings.

Rock Wall, Stairs And Railings, Red Rocks

As the night got darker, I started making images of the the seating in the amphitheater. Several photogs were doing light painting. This upset the images that I was making, but I was rewarded with this one image that included their flashlight and the reflections from the seating.

Light Painted Seating, Red Rocks

Working my way the amphitheater, I noticed the pair of spotlights that was lighting up the north rock wall. These left beams of light against the deep blue sky.

Spotlights Shining Into The Night

Leaving the amphitheater, I noticed this lone pine silhouetted against the night sky that was lit by the lights of the city. This was balanced by the theater lighting on the rocks.

Lone Pine Against The Night Sky, Red Rocks

More images from this night shoot may be found at the meetup group site here.

For the last couple of weeks or so, I have experimented with tangled images. Last night I made a trip to the Art Walk on Santa Fe, where many art galleries remain open till late for this monthly event. Returning home, I noticed some murals in a nearby alley. We had several inches of snow last weekend. In the alley, this had been moved away into a pile in front of the mural. When lit by street lights, the snow took on the color of the orange sodium lighting. After processing with Tangled FX, this was the final image that I made.

Alley, Snow And Mural

Earlier, I viewed art work at several galleries that I had not previously visited. These were mostly 2nd floor galleries. Blue street lights line the street along Santa Fe. At one gallery, a line of water bottles was arranged along the window sill. With the blue light from the street lights shining through, I could not help but make this image.

Tangled Water Bottles

Last week, before the snow storm, clouds had gathered above Samson Park. Stopping by on the way to work, I made an image that included one of the several outdoor art structures under the storm laden clouds. This image was converted to black and white with Snapseed, and later given the tangled treatment. There was a distant bright patch of sky that lit up the branches behind the dome. I especially like the effect this gave in creating white branches against the dark clouds.

Samson Park Structure

One evening this week, the snow in Samson Park had been cleared from the path. I was working late that evening and was rewarded with a bright, colorful scene lit by the street lights. Snow does not usually stay around for long periods at this time of the year, so I made an image of the scene. Returning on light rail, I processed this image with Tangled FX.

Street Lights, Samson Park

Recently, when returning from a trip downtown to a software meetup group, I passed a gated yard where some statues and sculptures were located. In the yard was located a pair of statues of horses, lit by mixed-color street lights and outdoor lighting. Aligning my iPhone to shoot through the fencing, I made this image. This was given different effect by the tangled application. The sodium lights mixed with the other lights improved this image by filling the shadows with orange light.

Wild Horses, Lodo

Enjoy.

Last week, we made a Birding Trip to southern Texas (near McAllen and Brownsville). Angela has been interested in birding for the last few years and attends various birding trips in the Denver area with the Audubon Society. This year we did a really intense birding trip with some members of the local Audubon. Visit this page for a description of our trip. This includes some of the images that I made.

On our last day in McAllen, we visited Quinta Mazatlan for the last birding trip before heading out to the airport for our return to Denver. I made several iPhone images in the gardens around this mansion. In the garden, I found this table with an ornamental bird cage surrounded by two pot plants. Recently I downloaded the Tangled FX app for the iPhone. So this image got the Tangled treatment.

Tangled Flowers, Quinta Mazatlan

There were many Queen butterflies in the flower beds around the garden. After several attempts at capturing images of butterflies during the week, I managed to make this one image with the iPhone.

Queen Butterfly, Quinta Mazatlan

Inside the mansion, I found this lighted corridor, that also got the Tangled treatment.

Tangled Corridor, Quinta Mazatlan

We really enjoyed our trip to south Texas. Go visit this page for more images.

Having completed Project 52 at the end of 2012, I took a short break from weekly blog posting. Last week, we made a trip to Barnes and Noble. Outside, after sunset, the sky had just turned a deep blue. This contrasted nicely with the green of the Modmarket next door. I like the effect of bright streetlights at night with the iPhone — the iPhone’s lens is pretty good at rendering star-burst rays from bright light sources without flare.

Modmarket

Earlier this week, the rising sun lit up the trees in the alley behind our house. In this image, I positioned the iPhone where there was a clear streak in condensation on the window. This image was tweaked with Snapseed to add more saturation so that the condensation was “on fire”.

Condensation, On Fire

This week, we had a few clear days when walking from the light rail station to work. On one morning, the sun was streaming through windows, casting nice long shadows on the floor. After passing by the orange umbrella cover, I turned around to make this image of the sunlit windows and the long shadows.

Streaming Sunlight, Arapahoe Station

Further along the road, sunlight, reflected from an office building across the street. As I passed by the pedestrian crossing, the light was also reflected off the pavement. This image was made in between gaps of passing cars.

Pavement Reflections

This week was full moon. While waiting for the train, there still plenty of light in the sky to make a reasonable exposure of the sky and the moon. I moved around the station to make this composition that includes the sweeping curve of the overhead bridge. This image was processed with Snapseed, where I converted to black and white with a yellow filter. I decided to title this image in a similar manner to Ansel Adam’s famous image “Moonrise, Hernandez”.

Moonrise, Arapahoe Station

Finally, here is an image that was made at Thanksgiving last year. We were invited to dinner at our neighbor, Chris. She had laid out green dinner plates with silverware laid across the surface. I was attracted the intricate patterns cast in the handles.

Silverware At Thanksgiving

This image has been sitting in the phone until earlier this week. This was processed with Snapseed, where a simple black and white conversion created this great image that shows all the intricate patterns in the silverware.

The climber on our garden fence still has plenty of dried leaves hanging from the branches. Yesterday, this gave me the opportunity to try some macro shots with focus-stacking. When photographing outdoors, a slight breeze can create big issues when making a single image. After making several unsuccessful images outdoors, I decided to bring some of the leaves indoors. I created a set with a black background and lit the leaves with a speedlite and shoot-through umbrella.

Dried Leaves

I shot three images, focusing on the nearest point on the leaf, the furthest point of the leaf and a middle point. The three images were stacked with Helicon. I then converted the color image to black and white for the image above.

Snow was in the weather forecast for a White Christmas this year. This Christmas morning we were greeted with a few inches of snow during the night. Gazing out the window, one of our bushes had accumulated snow on the remains of dried flowers. These looked like snow caps on the end of every branch!

Snow Caps

Here is another image of the snow caps.

Snow Caps, No 2

During the next few hours, the sky cleared and the warmth of the sun melted the snow. Later in the afternoon, we visited our neighbor Chris, where she had prepared a meal that we all enjoyed. A couple of bottles of wine and lots of laughter made for a Merry Christmas!

Yesterday I returned home after completing a trip that included Death Valley and Zion. After leaving Page in the rain, it soon started to snow. Then there was a section of overcast weather to Farmington. The rest of the journey to Alamosa was in snow and blizzards. After staying the night in Alamosa, I made an image of my truck in the parking lot. The entire read of the truck was coated with 2 inches of snow.

Snow Covered Truck

Passing Mount Blanca, a blanket of cloud was depositing fresh snow on the mountain.

Mount Blanca Under Cloud

When I drove through Fort Garland, I passed Hit-R-Mis. Stopping here I mad this image at the front of the store.

Hit R Mis

Here is another image of the Trading Post.

Hit R Mis Trading Post

Continuing on through Walsenburg, I was greeted by this happy snowman, delivering a happy message outside April’s Attic.

Happy Snowman, April’s Attic

This morning I was greeted by a snow storm. This was the view from the hotel room.

After leaving St George, I pulled over the highway for a break. Exploring some Joshua trees, I found Santa.

He seemed very out of place!