Photographer in Colorado

As mentioned last week, I broke my truck while attempting maintenance. This provided an opportunity to ride the bike and take a walk. What a concept! On Saturday, a storm passed through accompanied with welcome rain showers. After the storm cleared, I strolled out for a fast-food dinner. The tail-end of the passing storm contained mammatus clouds with a rainbow that formed a complete arch. I captured this image near one end of the rainbow with my iPhone. Later, I applied the ShockMyPic app that I have been trying out recently.

Mammatus Storm Clouds And Rainbow

On my return from fast-food, I passed by this Chevy truck. It looks like the painted hood has suffered from some heat damage.

Chevy Truck Grill

Here is another image of this same truck. The original image was not as sharp as I would like — probably a result of the iPhone auto-focus. However, after the GlowMe app helped to improve the image.

Glowing Chevy Truck

Here is one puddle of water that also received some shocking treatment.

Puddle After The Storm

As the sun was setting, the clouds behind this house were lit up. The burnt out highlights are compromise caused by auto-exposure.

House After The Storm

The “shock” treatment helped to improve this image.

This week, it seems that I have got ahead of the calendar again — it is still week 25. Here are some different images made with an iPhone. While having breakfast on Saturday, I took out my iPhone to make an image of my favorite coffee cup.

Favorite Coffee Cup

To echo Chase Jarvis, “The best camera is the one with you”. Here is an unusual view of the underside of the saucer sitting on the patio table.

Under The Saucer

This glass plate was a recent home for some muffins, before being liberated by breakfast! Here is another view of the patio table with the glass plate. The short focal length of the lens and the small image sensor gives a huge depth of field.

Glass Plate On Table

The apps on the iPhone, allow some creative processing to be done. Here is that glass plate with a few remaining crumbs from recently consumed muffins.

Glass Plate

Here is a “Shocked” variation that was created with ShockMyPic. The app’s help screen calls this “coherence enhancing shockfiltering”. This gives the appearance of image created with paint brush strokes with a large paintbrush.

Shocked Glass Plate

Here is another treatment done with GlowMe. This app performs edge detection and does coloring. With the right choice of subject, the app will render an attractive colorful image.

Glowing Glass Plate

After finishing breakfast, I resumed my task of replacing oil lines on the truck. Unfortunately I damaged a critical component that rendered the truck immobile for now. That is another story.

Today we watched the World Cup match between USA and England that ended in a 1-1 draw – Go USA!. Following the match, we headed to the Annual Summer Market held by the Art Students League of Denver.  Many artists exhibit their work for sale at this event. Our daughter, Nicola, also attends classes here regularly. She publishes her exploits on her blog Plum2Paint. During the night and this morning we had several inches of rain, so we did not know what to expect at the market.

Along the way, we met Marygael. Angela thought she may be in a hazmat suit! But no, there were bees “swarming” in the neighborhood, according to one of the residents. She had arrived to remove the bees.

Marygael

Here is the tree that was wrapped in bees.

Wrapped By The Bees

Marygael proceeded to give us interesting information about bees. She is a member of the Bee Keeping Society. You can find more information at DenverBee.org. The bees had wrapped around the tree due to the cold weather — they were most probably looking for a suitable place to setup a hive. Here is the vacuum cleaner with hoses that is used to recover the bees.

Vacuum Cleaner And Hoses

Marygael attached the hood and donned a pair of gloves.

Marygael Suiting Up

Earlier this week, she had cleared out the bees from speakers at the Sting concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater, where she needed to use the small hose. Here, she removed the small hose and proceeded to vacuum the bees with the larger diameter hose.

Vacuuming The Bees

After completing the operation, Marygael recovered two of the bees; a worker and a drone. The drone is the larger of the two bees and is a male that fertilizes females — they do not have a stinger. The workers are female bees and do have stings.

Drone And Worker

The bees were vacuumed into the vacuum cleaner. Marygael opened the box to reveal the bees, safely sucked into their temporary home.

Bees Safely Stowed

There are an estimated 14,000 bees here that Marygael will relocate near Fort Collins. We said goodbye to Marygael and proceeded to view the artwork and meet the artists at the market.

Last Saturday, I was looking for the spare set of car keys — looked all over the house but could not find them. So all that pile of empty boxes and other stuff in the basement got my attention. Maybe they are somewhere around there? After sorting the stuff out, most of it went into the recycle bins. But still no keys. I got the camera bag and headed up to Mount Evans, the closest 14’er to Denver. Also, the highest paved road in the US.

By the time I got to Mount Evans, storm clouds had moved in. There were still snowbanks at the side of the road with interesting textures that were picked out by the mountain light. I got out of the truck and proceeded to hike back to the snowbank. Along the way, I was distracted by the reflections of the clouds in Lincoln Lake, a few hundred feet below the road. The clouds were moving from right to left, reflecting off the deep dark blue of the water.

Cloud Reflections In Lincoln Lake

The skies were filled with amazing atmospherics. A gap in the clouds allowed the sun to shine on the city — that’s Denver in the distance.

That's Denver In The Distance

Back to the snowbanks… The snow was gradually melting, forming long laminar streams of water running off the snow. This was one of the more interesting images that I managed to capture.

Mountain Snow Melt

Back towards the summit, the storm clouds had been building up, with patches of blue sky. That white line near the bottom of the image is the route that the road takes up the mountain, accompanied by a snowbank.

Distant Storm At Mount Evans

I proceeded up to Summit Lake, which was still partially covered by ice. There were few open patches of water. I maneuvered around to an open patch to pick off reflections from the clouds in the blue sky and waited until the evening breeze calm down, to capture the golden reflections from the approaching sunset.

Cloud Reflections In Summit Lake

By this time is was getting late. I did manage to capture this image of the sunset on the back of Mount Evans. The low angle of the sun at this elevation allowed for some golden red light to reflect off the storm clouds. We don’t often see the deep reds of the sunset in Denver, because the mountains obscure the sun before we get the red colors when the sun sets.

Sunset Behind Mount Evans

It would be about an hour to drive back home, delayed by construction work. Highway 6 was closed for construction of a bridge.

After leaving Corfe, we arrived at Weymouth to discover that we had the wrong destination for the youth hostel. The hostel was not scheduled to open until the following day. Realizing our error, we had dinner and then proceeded to the hostel at Lulworth cove. The next morning, I made my way over the fields and the ridge that separates the hostel from the ocean. Looking down from the ridge, one can admire the view of the eastern arm of the cove. In centuries gone by, this cove was popular with smugglers!

To the left of this image is a fence that demarcates the boundaries of an army firing range. Flags were flying to indicate that the area is off limits to hikers.

Lulworth Cove

Returning to the hostel, we had breakfast and then set out for the day. We headed to Lulworth Cove and then hiked to Durdle Door. There are some strange names for various landmarks and villages in England! Looking through “the door”, one can see the headland of Portland in the distance.

Durdle Door

Later that evening, we enjoyed another dinner at one of the local pubs. After dinner, we headed outside. “These Chess Pieces Are Not Toys” proclaimed the sign on the wall behind the chess board.

These Chess Pieces Are Not Toys

These tables had been vacated by earlier visitors to the pub that were lit by outdoor lighting.

Outside The Pub

We headed down to the cove passing the chess pieces again.

More Chess Pieces

At the cove, we watched some folks launching some miniature hot air balloons before turning in for the night.

Continuing from Beachy Head, we headed towards Weymouth that was supposed to be our destination for the day, with a brief stop at Cirencester for coffee. As we headed west towards Dorset, the overcast weather gradually gave way to sunshine. We had decided to take an extended break at Corfe, where the remains of a famous castle that dates back to medieval times. The castle is situated on the top of a knoll or hill that is a couple of hundred feet above the surrounding countryside.

Corfe Castle Ruins

We explored the castle with the aid of a tour map. The castle had an interesting history that may be found in more detail on Wikipedia. The castle was a Royalist stronghold back in Cromwell’s era. The Parliamentarians ordered the destruction of the castle in 1646 to prevent the castle being used again.

Corfe Castle Ruins No2

Despite the destruction, there are several windows and arches still remaining.

Corfe Castle Window And Gate

I asked Susan to walk through one of the arches.

Susan At Corfe Castle

Nearby the castle is the village of Corfe. After destruction, the castle provided many of the construction materials for the village. The railway line to Swanage is a later addition that served to the village. This line is no longer connected to the rest of the rail network due to dismantling of a section. This remaining section of line is now run by volunteers and steam locomotive enthusiasts that now serves tourists. Earlier during the day, a steam locomotive was busy working the line hauling several coaches full of excited people.

Corfe Village And Station

We made our way down to the station where we learned that the last train was scheduled to stop in a few minutes.

Corfe Castle Station

I made my way to the railway bridge that is located in the distance. This bridge is a recent addition to the line, having been relocated from the London area.

Corfe Station Railway Bridge

The platform on the far side was decorated from several metal trunks dating back to an earlier 20th century era.

Trunks At Corfe Station

Finally the train pulled in — One coach only! This is a diesel powered unit, similar to many units that I saw during my school days in Taunton. I am reasonably familiar with this part of England since I was incarcerated in boarding school. However, Corfe is one location that I have not visited previously.

Train To Swanage

I managed to catch the driver in his private abode as the train pulled out of the station on its way to Swanage.

Private, Driver

Looking back towards the castle, it must have been very foreboding during the middle ages.

Corfe Castle From Station

We made our way back through the village. We stopped at one store when a variety of wines were displayed in the window.

Wines In The Window, Corfe

Once inside, sunlight streaming though the window made a colorful display. On closer inspection, I noticed that the wines were grown (raised?) in the west country of England. This must be the product of a new vineyard — I don’t recall vineyards in my youth. There is even one bottle of mead at the extreme left of this image.

West Country Wines

We made our way back to the car to continue on to Weymouth.

Last week we were in England for a family reunion. After arriving in London, Angela and I took the train to Eastbourne, where we met our daughter Susan. Susan had made her way from Brussels by ferry from Dunkerque to Dover. During the visit, our accommodations were mainly youth hostels. After checking in at the hostel, we took a walk along the foot path that began at the hostel. This path climbed up through a lightly wooded area to the South Downs.

The Downs are characteristic of the rolling hills of Sussex and are sparsely populated with trees. Emerging from the wooded area, we came across these windblown trees. Being close to the ocean, the wind has left its mark on these trees.

Windblown Trees At South Downs

Looking inland, these tracks follow the fence and lead over the hill and across the rolling hills under overcast skies.

The South Downs

Soon we had to return to get supplies. We return along this path that leads down through the wooded area back to the hostel.

Follow That Path

We stopped at one of the local pubs for dinner. After parking the car in narrow streets, we passed this house to get to the pub. Many of the older houses in the southeast and southern parts of England are constructed from flint. Here is an example of one using brick and flint.

Flint House At Eastbourne

We ended the day by having dinner and picking up supplies from the local supermarket in preparation for our the trip across the south coast.

The next morning we were greeted by rain under overcast skies. After breakfast and packing the car, we stopped at Beachy Head, where one can look out over the white cliffs and the English Channel. There is drop of several hundred feet in places to the rocks below. The Beachy Head Lighthouse is a well known feature of this coast.

Beachy Head Lighthouse And Chalk Cliffs

The chalk cliffs were originally formed by the accumulation of calcite from micro-organisms. The flint that is common to the region, is trapped in the chalk. Here is a closer view of the cliffs, where the black stones are most probably flint entrapped by the chalk.

Beachy Head Chalk Cliffs Up Close

The Beachy Head Lighthouse is not the original lighthouse that was built in this location. The original lighthouse was built at the top of the cliff illustrated above. Due to the stability of the cliffs, remains of the original light house were recently moved back from the cliffs. The original lighthouse has been incorporated into a private residence.

The day we were here (May 29) marked the 70th anniversary of the Evacuation of Dunkirk. Several thousand British soldiers were evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk (Dunkerque) starting on this date during World War 2.

After our stop here, we made our way to Dorset under overcast skies.