BeaKeR's Brain

The Point

2011-10-31T22:57:00.000-06:00

On our way out of town we stopped off at Dead Horse Point. We always get up before sunset, just to get a jump of the day (yeah, right).
I have no idea who that fellow on the rock is, but I’d like to thank him for spending about 10 motionless minutes on that rock, looking out over the cracked, faulted, destroyed mess that is the topology of the southern Utah.

I mean really, look at that. It’s amazing there are any roads there at all, or that anybody can live there now, much less before the invention of air conditioning and Camelbaks.

Cowboy Pants Arch (again)

2011-10-26T20:31:00.001-06:00

I did manage to talk the mountain biking duo into taking a trip to Cowboy Pants Arch. (I still like that name better than the more-popular “Delicate Arch.” It seems so bland, and really, what’s delicate about 300 tons of sandstone? ) So I got another crack at it, this time with snow on the mountains.

That place is such a mess at sunset. It’s like a beach party. Once again there were 30+ photographers there, all silently cursing the never-ending stream of people who just have to stand in the middle of the arch.

After a few minutes of that, some wag yelled out “That’s perfect! We’re glad you could make it, because we all came here to take a photo of you in the arch! And we’re glad there’s a line because we wouldn’t want the arch to be empty before the sun goes down!” (or words to that effect). He got a pretty good laugh – and then the arch pretty much cleared out.

Despite the irony-lashing there were still some people hanging around on the left side of this frame, so I did some Photoshop work there. Very little though - Content-Aware Fill makes it incredibly easy to rub people out. Where'd they go? I don't know. Maybe they're sleeping with the pixels.

Pocket Desert

2011-10-25T20:21:00.000-06:00

While I was waiting for the right light at Navajo Arch, I passed the time shooting this macro.

I think I confused a lot of people while I was shooting this. They'd walk up to this beautiful arch and see my standing right there - looking at some damn tree branch. Sometimes photographers just make no sense at all, you know?

Navajo Arch

2011-10-24T22:10:00.000-06:00

This was the one shot I really, really wanted to get out of this trip. I had read about the cool light at Navajo Arch. I went there in July, hoping to get this shot. Unfortunately the light doesn’t hit until mid-morning, and I wasn’t able to wait around for it. So this time I was determined to get it.

I hung around for almost 90 minutes, tried out just about every possible position, and then went and shot some macro for a while waiting for this shot. Finally I got it. I think it was worthwhile.

Another Moab Trip

2011-10-23T22:36:00.001-06:00

A couple weeks ago I took another trip to Moab with Walker and Kelly. (By the way, thanks Walker!)

Those two were out for biking. I’m not much for biking, and I couldn’t talk them off those bikes for anything. Well, except for food, hot tubs and to unload footage from their video cameras. But that left me with some more time to poke around Moab.

This time I took a guided canyon tour. There was a little scrambling up rocks and a little bit of wading through smelly, cold water. The truly fun part was the three rappels in there. It was my first time doing that. It is definitely a charge. In my opinion dropping yourself off a cliff is even more, hmmm, interesting than jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. I was so hyped up on the first one that I barely noticed that the rappel device had burned a dime sized hole in my hand. So I’ll probably be doing it again sometime.

I also did some more photos in Arches National Park, and visited Dead Horse Point. So I’ll have more photos up over the next few days. Though if you’re really interested, and don’t mind digging through lots of vacation photos, they’re all up on SmugMug already.

Dedication

2011-10-10T21:46:00.001-06:00

After our early morning photo session we decided we should do a sunset shoot too. We headed out into the wilderness, trekking for hours to a vantage point for sunset. We pushed through high temperatures and blazing sun, then waited for hours for the perfect light. I think it turned out OK.

Oh, and all that trekking stuff was just bullshit. We actually went to the Red Cliffs Lodge, got a table on the veranda, and waited. To get this shot I put down the gin & tonic, rested the camera on the railing and shot a few shots. Then put down the camera and ate some steak. It’s really the only way to photograph. I think I might do a project consisting entirely of photos shot without leaving the dinner table.

A Photo Geeky Tangent

2011-10-09T20:47:00.001-06:00

If you’re like most computer users, you probably assume that any given photo looks the same on all monitors. It’s the same photo, right? Yeah, not so much. Computer monitors almost all look different due to different settings, different manufacturing, the backlight changing colors as it ages, and probably other factors. If you’ve got a computer with two monitors you can probably check it yourself by moving a windows from one monitor to the other and watching the color shift.

Similarly, not all pieces of software handle colors properly. So just like monitors different programs can show different colors. I spent a few minutes this afternoon trying to figure out why my photos on the web look different than the same photos in Photoshop. It turns out that the Google Chrome browser does a lousy job of color management.

That’s a screenshot of my laptop. On the left is Chrome, on the right is Photoshop Lightroom, both on the same machine. Oh, and unless your monitor is calibrated, neither of them looks like mine. Ah, the joys of computer monitors.

PS: For the record, Firefox seems to handle color management properly. It probably won’t matter in most cases, but you might see differences in some cases.

A Little Moar Moab

2011-10-09T14:58:00.001-06:00

Since it’s now just over 3 months since the Moab trip, I figured I should put up a few more photos. Wouldn’t want to go too fast with this stuff, you know.

One of the important lessons from our first day in Moab is that the desert is hot. Startling, I know. Thankfully, Arches is open 24 hours a day, so we decided to head out early in the morning to avoid the heat. Also because our incredible dedication as photographers made us willing to forgo sleep in order to get good light. Yeah, that’s it, dedication.

So that’s how we ended up in the park at 5:30 AM. Which was actually worth, both from photographic and thermal perspectives.

We even got some clouds, which is good for the photos. Otherwise those skies get to be pretty dull looking.

And the cool temperatures led to a moderately happy Wendy, which is conducive to a good trip. Note that the misfocus here is entirely my fault. It turns out that autofocus works remarkably poorly when the idjit behind the camera has turned it off. I know, almost as startling an insight as “The desert is hot.” I’m full of them.

After we were done with sunrise we had scheduled a tour through The Fiery Furnace, one of the more remote parts of the park. It’s a confusing maze of rock passageways. The park rangers are very tired of people getting lost in there, so they strongly encourage you to take a tour group in there.

It’s probably my favorite area of the park overall. It’s a bit like the slot canyons I hiked last summer, but shorter and less intimidating. If you’re in the area I’d recommend it.

The main path is pretty tame, but there are some fun little scrambles off to the sides. I thought they looked fun; the guide commented that I could do what I wanted, but he wasn’t obligated to carry me out. So of course I climbed them. That’s my leg at the bottom of the photo there, looking 30 or 40 feet down. Some teenager kept following after me – I think he didn’t want to be shown up. I’m such a bad influence.

Amazingly enough we even got Wendy to do some climbing. Usually she doesn’t like dropoffs, but something got into her. I think it was the threat of leaving her behind, lost in the maze. But it might also have been the promise of a cooler full of ice water waiting back in the van.

More photos…

Wait, You Forgot What?!

2011-07-17T14:32:00.002-06:00

The drive from Denver to Moab is about 6 hours. I checked the odometer on the way back – 355 miles door-to-door. It was about 4 hours into that, maybe 250 miles from home, when I remembered something. Something I had forgotten. My hiking boots. Yeah, I’m just that smart.
Thankfully, Moab is enough of an outdoor sports mecca that we had no problem finding a shoe store. I ended up with a nice pair of Five Ten hiking shoes that have got the stickiest soles I’ve ever experienced. I could actually feel them peeling off of the slickrock.

New shoes acquired, we headed straight over to Arches. We stopped at Park Avenue, one of the first trails in the park. It’s a walk down a corridor of impressively large rock fins, reminiscent of the concrete canyons of New York City. Thankfully it had some shade too, because it was 4:30 PM and about 95 degrees in the shade.

It must’ve rained fairly recently, because there were a few little pools in the rocks. I can’t imagine they would last long in that heat and dry air. We certainly didn’t – just a quick jaunt down the canyon and then we headed back to the car.
It was getting towards sunset, so we headed off the Delicate Arch. That’s the park’s marquee attraction, the best known of the arches. It’s on the billboards for Moab and the Utah license plate. It’s an easy-to-moderate hike in my book, though the heat and lack of any shade made it much worse.

Unbeknownst to us the last 50 feet of the trail has a sharp dropoff right on the side. Wendy is not a fan of edges. Even when I can at least reassure her that an apparent drop is really just a 5 foot tall ledge, she still doesn’t like them. This one actually is a hundred foot drop, so I didn’t really think she’d make it. Much to my surprise, she actually did get around it and up to the top.

It was a mob scene at the top, with at least 30 people already there and more arriving as sunset neared. Everyone apparently needs their picture taken standing under the arch, usually while making some stupid face. There was actually a line for that at one point. It was exactly the kind of thing that drives me nuts about “touristy” destinations. We stuck it out for a while, but eventually decided to get back down that walkway before sunset caused the mass of people to rush down the cliff face like a swarm of lemmings.

I’m glad we went to Delicate Arch. It’s one of those things you just have to do at Arches, and we got that box checked right off the bat. But I think my favorite part of it was when we learned that it used to be called “Cowboy Pants Arch”. I think that’s a way better name for it. Maybe someday a Vegas casino will buy it and put a giant neon cowboy torso on top of it, but until then you’ll just have to use your imagination.

A few more photos from that day (click for larger)

Moab Adventure Complete

2011-07-05T02:15:00.001-06:00

Despite the three month lull in posting, I have not actually fallen off the face of the Earth. Not for lack of trying though; we're just back from a trip to Arches National Park which has plenty of places to fall off of if you're not paying attention.

It was a short trip, but long enough. Two days of staying up late to catch summer sunsets, two more days of getting up in the dark to catch those early summer sunrises, and plenty of 100 degree desert days in between will take it out of a guy. I wouldn't be up now except that the neighborhood kids apparently decided to celebrate the birth of our fine country by blowing up a small part of it. Well, many small parts of it, over the course of several hours. They apparently have a lot more money to spend on fireworks than I did in high school. Damn kids (mutter mutter mutter)…

Anyway, it really was a great trip. The getting up early was justified by temperatures that approached tolerable, and a few shots like this.

We spent a little time in the unique, slot canyon-esque Fiery Furnace section of the park, which I loved. (note, that little speck at the bottom of the wall is yours truly).

And finished up with minor luxury of a nice dinner and the major luxury of high-powered air conditioning at a little resort on the Colorado River.

We did pretty damn well for a four day weekend! Most of the credit for that goes to Wendy, who managed to plan most of the trip in one evening.

Naturally we took lots of photos, but that was the easy part. The hard part is making the time to do something with them. But I'll try, really. Oh yeah, and I need to get through photos from San Francisco, New Mexico and a couple other things. Yeah, I've been a little busy with some other things lately.

Traveler Arrives… finally

2011-03-10T20:22:00.001-07:00

A few of you may recall that way back around this time last year, I wrote that National Geographic Traveler had called me about one of my photos. Well, it turns out that was a bit optimistic. They had space constraints, so the article with my photo got pushed back. And then pushed back again. But it’ll be published some day! Really!

I had pretty much written it off. Plans change, that’s life. I’ll get ‘em another time. But lo and behold, they finally got around to publishing the article! It’s “Beyond Mesa Verde,” in the April issue. This time I’m pretty sure it’s for real, because they mailed me two copies, and the photo on page 90 looks real familiar. It’s not a giant print, just a few square inches in the middle of the page, but I’m still happy about it. Go buy an issue and take a look! OK fine, I know some of you are a little cheap, if you just take a look and put it back on the rack I won’t tell anyone.

Just in case you forgot, here’s that photo again.

Oak Alley

2010-11-22T20:50:00.001-07:00

And here we have another shot from downtown Denver…

Yeah, actually this is another flashback to Louisiana. We took a day to drive around plantation country and take a few tours. Oak Alley is the classic Graceful Southern Plantation, dripping in graceful landscaping and old world furniture. Interestingly, the trademark oak trees were actually planted by some unknown person before the plantation was built.

Tech Denver

2010-11-17T21:20:00.001-07:00

I call this shot “Tech Denver” because it makes me think of dystopian science fiction: William Gibson cyberpunk novels, gritty neon movies like Bladerunner, or maybe Shadowrun for you gamers out there. There’s probably a giant AI supercomputer in one of those corporate spires, and some deckers trying to hack in from another. Maybe there’s a rigger and a team of hired guns in that lit up car, waiting for the “go” signal. What it really needs is a few nice hovercars flying around up top, but there weren’t any out that night. Maybe I should just ‘shop some in there…

Public Parking

2010-11-15T22:02:00.001-07:00

Another snowy morning in Denver gives me another excuse to pull out a snowy photo! I like the tire track patterns, and the obvious spots where people left early, trying to beat the downtown blizzard rush hour. I also noticed that the tracks at the exit, combines with the two arcs to right to form two letter P’s, which makes me think of the Public Parking signs I see around. Not my best photo ever, but at least it’s a bit different.

This was shot last spring. I took off a bit early from work and went for a long walk around downtown. After over an hour of getting pelted by big, wet snowflakes and chill winds I had just about had enough. I decided to head up to the roof of a parking garage, partially for a new perspective but mostly for a couple minutes in a heated elevator. The roof hadn’t been plowed, so it had drifts up to my knees. After slogging my way to all four corners in search of views, I’d had enough. I went straight to the bar to get a few pints of warmth before heading home.

Spearpoints

2010-11-14T19:48:00.001-07:00

If you hike in the front range, you see a lot of dead pines. I got up nice and close to a bundle of needles still attached to a fallen branch to get a look at these little spearpoints.

Step Up

2010-11-09T22:14:00.001-07:00

We had a frigid early-winter storm today in Denver. I love these gray, rainy days – the light is nice and soft, I don’t have to change exposure settings much, and everyone looks more interesting when they’re miserable. Of course I’m out there getting miserable too, but it’s worth it.

This is actually from a storm during the spring. I spotted the new stairs at the Pavilions leading off of the 16th Street Mall. It took just a couple minutes waiting around before a few people obligingly went up on the stairs.

Maple

2010-11-08T21:41:00.001-07:00

On Sunday I walked out the door to head to the coffee shop. I made it about halfway down the block before I decided the leaves were just too good to miss, and headed right back to the house to grab my camera. It took me an hour to make it to the coffee shop, but it was worth it.

Red & Gold

2010-11-07T13:51:00.001-07:00

Yes, more fall color! Well, not exactly… I actually shot this last April, before the winter snow had entirely melted. These leaves somehow survived all winter and came out still looking good. I’ve been sitting on this photo since then, because it just didn’t seem appropriate to publish it during the spring or summer.

Das Leaves

2010-10-26T21:31:00.001-06:00

A Resting Place

2010-10-25T20:13:00.001-06:00

On the drive down from Independence Pass we stopped for some shots. Actually, we stopped so I could get a different shot, but luckily we parked at the top of a slope covered in aspens. At the bottom were these dark rocks with leaves fallen all around. I shot for probably 20 minutes, until Wendy finally shooed me back into the car. I'll definitely be going back to that spot next year!

Ready for Halloween

2010-10-24T14:13:00.001-06:00

We took a trup to the Denver Gardens pumpkin patch near Chatfield. Most of the pumpkins were already taken, gone to some home to be turned into a jack o'lantern or a pie. Just a few were left, waiting for someone to take them to their destiny.

Sunday Drive

2010-10-19T21:26:00.002-06:00

This was taken a few miles down from Independence Pass, on the Leadville side. We had driven up to the pass and not seen anything worth stopping for. But on the way back down the leaves were backlit from the sun, so they looked just amazing. Halfway down we drove through this corner and I just had to stop for some shots. We couldn’t find parking there, so I ended up walking a few hundred yards back up the road, but I’m glad I did.
I gave this one a bit more impressionist look than I usually do (it might show up better if you click through to the larger version). I thought it worked out well for this one, but I’d be interested in hearing what all of you out there think.

UPDATE 10/24:
Based on the feedback I got here's an updated version.

News

2010-10-18T21:59:00.002-06:00

I’ve been busy lately! Just a couple weeks ago I hung photos at Sports Optical for October’s First Friday. Then just yesterday I hung another set of photos at The Delectable Egg on Market Street. I'm very pleased with it; they’ve got a great space for photos. I also got to meet Glenn & Jane from Firemoon Images, who were hanging some of they’re great photos on the opposite wall. You should come down and check it out! Oh, and I think they may serve some sort of food there as well. (Actually, they’ve got great food, and if you sign up for their mailing list they’ll send you a buy-one-get-one breakfast coupon).

Both of those shows will be ending by mid-November, which means I’ll be looking for somewhere to hang photos after that. Do you have a favorite restaurant, coffee shop or other hangout that hangs art? Drop a note in the comments and let me know!

In the meantime, I’ve also been uploading a few images to Hotshoo, a new architectural stock photography agency based out of Boulder. They chose the photo above as their Editor’s Pick for October. Which I’m frankly a bit amazed by, considering the caliber of photos on their site.

Brett

2010-10-15T22:11:00.001-06:00

Walking down the 16th Street Mall I hear a lot of different music. There are the bars, the street performs, the occasional boombox. Most of it’s pretty standard, unremarkable. The hippie drum circle, the itinerant guitarist, even the bagpipe player isn’t that remarkable anymore. But tonight I caught something remarkable, both in kind and quality. Blues guitar, really good blues guitar, coming out of an alley between Champa and Stout. There was just the one guy down there, with a little amp. But that guy, Brett, played a mean guitar. Not a lot of people are willing to wander into a dirty alley on Friday night, but at one point there were 15 people down there listening to him, and more standing at the mouth of alley. In 30 minutes I’d guess over a hundred people stopped to listen to Brett play. He told me he plays every Friday while it’s warm enough. I’d go have a listen, if you get the chance.

Blue Smile

2010-10-11T22:07:00.001-06:00

Another somewhat-delayed post today. These shots were taken at the 2010 Larimer Square Chalk Art Festival (technically Piazza del Arte), just a few days after the last set of photos I had shot. We got home from our road trip halfway through the first day of the festival. Honestly, having just shot thousands of photos on the road, we almost skipped it. But I’m glad we didn’t – we got some decent photos this year!

Apparently I had a bit of a thing for chalk faces.

Anyway, hope you like them! There are a few more below – as always click through for the full size.

Rainy Day

2010-10-10T21:19:00.001-06:00

Today is a gray, rainy day in Denver, so I thought I'd post photos from another gray, rainy day from our spring road trip. After New Orleans we headed west through Louisiana towards Breaux Bridge, LA. We had scheduled a swamp tour for the morning, before continuing on towards Texas.

Before we even got on the water we could see thick storm clouds blowing in from the coast. There hadn’t been any lightning, so our guide took us out anyway.

He was a pretty good guide, rambling on about cypress trees, the local wildlife and the ridiculous local politics.

Not too far in we managed to get very close to a gator, almost close enough to touch, before it slide off into the water.

Unfortunately it was only half an hour before we started seeing lightning. None of us liked the idea of sitting on the water in a metal boat during a thunderstorm, so we headed back in. I think everyone was a little disappointed, but overall it was still a nice time.

Side story: We got a bit turned around finding the tour, so we stopped off at the local tourist information office. The ladies there knew all the local guides and where they launched from. It still took a while to figure out where were supposed to be, because their thick Louisiana accents were a little hard to understand. They finally decided that we probably needed to talk to a Mr…. umm, well it sounded like “Shaum-Pine”. That’s the best I could figure out after 3 or 4 tries, anyway. On our way out the door they found his business card; his last name was spelled “Champagne”, but apparently they pronounce it a bit differently.

Inversion

2010-10-05T21:05:00.001-06:00

This is the first of my photos from a morning aspen-hunting session near Twin Lakes/Independence Pass. The nice light initially attracted me to these two leaves. But I notice that they’re basically mirror images of each other. One is yellow with green spots, the other is green with yellow spots. They also have the exact same shape and vein pattern, though I suppose that’s not too surprising since they’re on the same tree.

Showing This Friday

2010-09-28T13:14:00.003-06:00

I unexpectedly lucked into a showing for First Friday! It'll be this Friday, October 1st, 6-10PM at the Sports Optical near the Tennyson art district. Stop by for some munchables, drinkables, and some nice photos to look at!

Update: The show went very well! I was very happy with the space, and absolutely amazed that we found somewhere to show all 25 prints. Thanks to everybody who came out!

Otherworldly

2010-09-20T22:34:00.001-06:00

This is a quick teaser from my trip to Utah last weekend. This is part of our group winding their way through a section of Little Wildhorse Canyon. It's an amazing place. The shapes and colors of the rock feel truly otherwordly much of the time.

Blue Berries

2010-09-15T20:52:00.001-06:00

My parents were in town last weekend. My mom shoots photos too – in fact she inherited my trusty first dSLR, the Pentax K10, after I upgraded to the K7. The two of us snuck off for a pleasant afternoon of photographing at the gardens. There are fewer flowers blooming in the fall, but instead some of the plants are fruiting. We spent 20 or 30 minutes orbiting around this pretty berry bush.

Cataract

2010-09-09T20:37:00.001-06:00

I passed this wild little waterfall on a long springtime hike near Rollins pass. There was still lots of snow on the ground and tons of snowmelt flowing in the river.

Photographically, I reallyI like all the texture. I think it conveys how energetic this part of the waterfall was.

Hideaway

2010-09-08T21:52:00.001-06:00

This is a nice spot in Denver. The sound of the falling water echoes off all the walls and drowns out the city noises. You can sit in the cool spray, watch the water rush by an almost forget that you're in the middle of the city.

Scott

2010-09-07T21:05:00.001-06:00

This is Scott, a coworker of mine. We both happened to be heading out of the office at the same time in the same direction. While we stood on the mall shuttle I snapped off just this one photo. He asked me for a copy of it, but I haven't gotten around to doing anything with it in over four months. Uh, sorry about that Scott. Here you go!

Stairs May Be Slippery

2010-09-06T22:12:00.001-06:00

Vase Escape

2010-08-30T21:45:00.001-06:00

Traffic and Spire

2010-08-29T21:26:00.001-06:00

Normally I hate traffic. It drives me totally nuts. About the only time I like traffic is when I can stand above it and take some nice long exposures of it. I'm just a sucker for watching other people in traffic.

The Gods Demand A Sacrifice

2010-08-24T20:26:00.001-06:00

This shot puts me in a mind of some sacrificial altar. The orange/red light, the shrouding halo of mist (or is that smoke?) and the stepped stone monoliths - what else could it be for? The altar's acting up again, time to toss another virgin into the volcano!

Coffee Under the Stars

2010-08-23T22:16:00.001-06:00

A group of night owls having a late drink and conversation under the "stars." I had an absolutely great time shooting at the gardens tonight. I’m really annoyed at myself that I this is the first time I’ve been there since the spring. I’ll definitely be going back before they switch to their winter hours!

Sunflower

2010-08-22T21:13:00.001-06:00

I picked up some sunflowers a couple weeks ago, and couldn't resist making a few photos. I’m still trying to hone my macro photography skills, particularly with controlled lighting. It’s a fairly standard shot, but I still like it, and it was good practice.

Picture in Picture in Picture

2010-08-19T21:28:00.001-06:00

A nifty architectural abstract - shot through a window, at windows, which are reflecting other windows. This was shot standing in the atrium of 555 17th Street, looking up through the skylights at the tower itself.

Water Past and Future

2010-08-17T21:14:00.001-06:00

Water vapor reflected in water liquid. The liquid came from a cloud, and someday will evaporate and return to the sky. (cue song "Circle of Life")

Planted in Red

2010-08-16T21:56:00.001-06:00

Party time New Orleans

2010-08-12T21:15:00.002-06:00

Once we got past the mysteriously appearing Interstate Mattress the drive to New Orleans was uneventful. Just mile after mile of that lush greenery that’s taken for granted in the south, but looks shockingly green to refugees from the semi-arid mountain regions. After that we hit a few (dozen) miles of causeway over the swamp, drove through a nice thunderstorm, and took a quick jaunt down some narrow streets to our hotel. Wendy scored us a very nice place just off of Royal Street, which is about as close to Bourbon as we really wanted to be anyway.

Of course the first thing we had to do in the hotel was get out of it and go see the city! We took off for some real New Orleans food, three kinds of fried seafood with a side of French Fries and beer. Oh, and none of those scary green vegetables, if you please. This delicious grease-fest was served under the typically hyperactive New Orleans air conditioning, the kind that makes you wonder whether the hostess accidentally seated you in the freezer. After that, we were off to Wendy’s favorite Bourbon Street dive.

Yes, the (in)famous Pat O’Brien’s! We scored a seat in the courtyard, not far from their signature flaming fountain. But burning water is merely a sideshow, the main attraction at Pat’s is the firewater, for it’s home of the Hurricane. That fruity yet intoxicating concoction is possibly Wendy’s favorite drink of all time. She loves them to death – or would if she didn’t pass out first. It was my first encounter with the original article, and I liked them, but not with quite the same fervor. So I explored all the offerings of their bar. Since we didn’t have a menu, I’d just name a color and the waitress would bring me a neon alcohol in that color. Of them all I think I liked Green the best, though Blue was pretty good too.

We were seated next to a little strip of plants and trees bordering the courtyard. Apparently it’s a popular disposal location for the maraschino cherries and little slices of orange that come in the drinks. Unsurprisingly there are a lot of animals in the near-tropics, and they’re not above eating cast-off orange slices.

So a little while into our drinking we discovered a good sized rat had joined us for dinner. I’d guess he weighed at least a couple pounds. We caused a bit of commotion, which attracted some other patrons who caused even more commotion. Soon enough one of the bars roving party photographers wandered over, squealed, and started snapping photos. By then there were actually two rats there, doing a little dominance dance over the prime feeding grounds. The south can be such a charming place sometimes. Somewhere along the way another couple was seated nearby. Since we were at a four seat table we invited them to join us. Thus did we meet Brian and Nadine. They were visitors like us, in town from Detroit to experience the local music scene. Having been to the Big Easy a few times before, they knew some of the spots to go. Since we were at loose ends and had no agenda, we tagged along with them.

First, to Fritzel’s, certainly the first German-themed jazz club I’ve been in. Pretty good music too, and a decent vibe. But we stayed for only a drink. It turns out that they’re big fans of zydeco music, so we caught a cab to a zydeco club somewhere away from Bourbon Street.

Things get a little hazy at this point. You could say the photo matches quite well with the way I remember things. After a while we caught another cab back downtown and went to some other random Bourbon Street club. Then we staggered out into the street and continued to the only place we could go.

Cafe du Monde, of course! Because after a long night of drinking there’s nothing quite like ~~donuts~~ beignets and coffee. Oh, and a truly frightening bathroom – if you ever get the chance I definitely recommend avoiding it. After our sugary drunk food we wandered back to the hotel and collapsed into bed around 3 AM. We got some good New Orleans flavor our first night!

Sun. Flower.

2010-08-10T21:50:00.001-06:00

I caught this on a Meetup photo hike in Mayflower Gulch. We came upon the ruins of an old cabin, probably a mining cabin. There was lots of rusty metal lying about, including this bit.

Lush

2010-08-06T22:39:00.001-06:00

I took this shot last summer in the Lost Creek Wilderness. It’s an uncharacteristically lush setting for Colorado – that’s what I liked about it. Tomorrow morning we’re heading up to the mountains for some shooting, and I’m hoping to find something just as pretty. Maybe posting this will fetch me a bit of good luck.

Step Away From The Camera

2010-08-04T21:22:00.001-06:00

I went for two short photowalks today, and was confronted by security personnel three times. That’s a new personal record! But really, it’s pretty understandable. I am a pretty suspicious, scary lookin’ dude with my little camera bag and dirty orange baseball hat. And just look at these photos I took! Clearly they would be of inestimable value for corporate espionage, terrorist planning or your next Project Mayhem meeting.

If only they hadn’t caught me, I would’ve been able to proceed with my plan to cut the support wires for this glass sculpture, dropping it on the fenced-off, deserted floor below.

My next dastardly scheme was to hide banana peels on these stairs, thus injuring unsuspecting passers-by. Then I was foiled by the security officer asking me if the support pillar (not pictured) was really that fascinating. Curses! (Though he didn’t actually ask me to leave, and admittedly I was sorta asking for it by taking pictures directly in front of the security desk.)

Here you see my most evil, villainous plot – picking all the pretty flowers so no one else could enjoy them! Mwaaahahahaha! Sadly my planning was again foiled by alert security personnel, who arrived a mere ten minutes after I started taking photos. Curses!

P.S. Despite my humorous tone above, I should point out that the security staff today were all very polite, apologetic even, and they’re just doing their jobs. Also, the property owners are well within their legal rights to disallow photography on their property. Today’s incidents were not nearly the most over-the-top encounters I’ve had with security – none of them shadowed me down the sidewalk or threatened to arrest me. Still, I think the restrictions are just a bit silly.

Gettin’ Out of Memphis

2010-08-03T20:23:00.001-06:00

After recovering from the assault of zombies and frozen drinks in plastic trumpets we still had a little bit of the morning in which to explore Memphis. We wandered down to the Civil Rights museum, which is -next door to the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot.

They’ve restored the hotel, and brought in a pair of cars that are identical to the ones that were actually there. It feels odd standing there - different than the other historical site I’ve visited. Usually historical sites are vague and fuzzy – a battlefield, a building, even a city. I’ve never been to one where you know that the precise spot where history turned is right up there, on that balcony. It makes the event a more concrete.

They have a large museum there, but we didn’t have time to see it. Instead we hopped the streetcar back to the hotel just in time for checkout. Afterwards we spent a little more time wandering Memphis.

I discovered they’ve got a thing for big shiny metal sculptures. Like pyramids.

And… um, whatever this thing is. I have no idea what it’s called. It looks like the kind of bizarre shape a cosmologist would use to describe the shape of a closed universe in 42 dimensional spacetime. Or like two witches’ hats joined at their tops by a tornado. In any case, it big, sinuously curvy and made out of shiny. So whatever it may actually be, to Wendy & I it’s your basic photographic playground, a veritable cornucopia of wacky reflections and abstract shapes. Hmm, actually it looks a bit like a cornucopia too…. oh whatever.

Anyway, the kids seem to spend more time playing with it than thinking of weird ways to describe it. Which probably makes them smarter than me.

Unfortunately it’s also a little warm. OK, a lot warm. Actually, I think it may be a prototype for a solar power plant – the kind where they focus a thousand mirrors on one spot until you can boil sodium. You can also use it to get a sunburn in roughly seven seconds.

After reluctantly leaving the pretty, shiny thing behind (there are more photos!), we headed south out of Memphis. Not long after we got onto I-55 someone carelessly left a mattress lying on the freeway. The car in front of us had the misfortune to cross paths with it at about 75 mph. A sudden gout of stuffing blew up over the top of the car, like they had hit an entire flock of geese. They ran over part of the rest, which I narrowly dodged. Still startled, I blew past them at full speed – they had dropped to perhaps 35 and were still pushing a skeletal frame of wires in front of them while trying to find a way to escape the middle lane with cars flying past at 75 MPH on both sides. It must’ve been an interesting call to the insurance company.

Washout

2010-08-01T15:00:00.001-06:00

Another one from the 2010 Worldwide Photowalk. Mostly I just liked the warm areas of color in this one. Some sort of message was chalked on the sidewalk – it’s been partially washed away. Sunset light is reflected in the remaining puddle.

Photowalk 2010

2010-07-29T19:57:00.001-06:00

Last weekend was the 3rd annual Worldwide Photowalk. This was actually my first one. It was a blast, I wish I could’ve caught the previous two!

We started near the Pepsi Center and wandered toward the Auraria campus. For such an urban area it has a surprising amount of plant life in a series of small gardens and plantings. It’s really quite nice.

The Memphis Zombie Blues

2010-07-14T21:29:00.002-06:00

The second day of our trip we managed to escape Kansas. After a brief trip through Oklahoma and a turn onto I-40, our directions simply said "Pass through Arkansas." That's it, for an entire state. And that pretty much sums it up. Sure, we saw some pretty landscape, made a few jokes about stopping off at the Bill Clinton Presidential Library to see if it was anything like what Frank Caliendo said.

Our destination for the day was Memphis. We were only there for an evening and a morning, but it was a heck of a good time. We headed down to the party district, Beale Street and snagged a nice patio table outside BB Kings. After some tasty Memphis barbecue, the place was overrun with the undead!

Through a bit of luck and a lot of good research & planning on Wendy’s part, we were in the perfect spot to catch the Memphis Zombie Massacre. They put on a great show – it was even bigger than Denver’s Zombie Crawl.

Suffice to say we took a photo or two. Thousand. Anyway, I don’t want to go overboard here, but click through to the gallery and there are a ton of zombie photos.

The police seemed unconcerned about the zombie hordes. Unconcerned enough to strike a pose full of attitude, anyway.

Afterwards we wandered Beale Street. It’s a mini-Bourbon Street, minus the porn shops and about 95% of the stench. Most importantly, they do have walk up bars with bigass frozen drinks. Through another luck/research/planning confluence it was the tail end of the Memphis in May music festival. The street was packed with musicians, party people, and street performers.

There was a stage down every alley, or at least every alley we walked down. This particular one had a good blues band (with a keyboard player from Wisconsin!) Part way through the singer you see here came up from the audience and sang a couple songs. She was actually really good! The girl’s got some soul!

At some point we stumbled back to the hotel to prepare for day three of vacation. Yes, I know, at this rate it’ll take me until roughly Halloween to make it through this vacation. I’m trying here, OK? In the mean time, check out some more photos.

Rolling (Through) Hills

2010-07-06T21:57:00.001-06:00

IT’s time (well, was time) for another road trip! Our longest yet, down to New Orleans – 1600 road miles from Denver.

There’s some really interesting terrain between Denver and New Orleans. There’s just not a whole lot of it. We spent the first day just getting to the other side of Kansas – it’s a damn big state!

Although it’s maybe not the single most interesting bit of the US, I actually enjoyed Kansas. It’s actually pretty in a wide-open sort of way, and not quite the Cartesian plain everyone says it is. The only real downside was that the sun turned the car into a greenhouse. After a while we were cruising along shirtless. But I’ll spare you those photos.

But we did get to see a little bit of roadside Americana in Kansas. We just happened to pass by this big (12 foot?) Buffalo Bill statue so we pulled off on a whim. They’re actually very nicely executed sculptures, and they look right at home on the Great Plains.

We also stopped off at the infamous Dodge City. Dodge City is not the archetypal Wild West town it once was, but they do have the Boot Hill Graveyard Museum and Tourist Trap. It was mildly interesting, but also unsettling. Not due to the (now empty) graves, but because there were three times as many staff as customers. Every time we went into one of their little shops there were a bunch of bored employees in Old West period dress staring at us. It’s gets unnerving after a while.

After escaping the vortex of tourism we continued across southern Kansas to Wichita. Along the way we got some pretty decent barbecue in a dusty no-name restaurant, and some miserably bad Mexican at a crappy “family” chain. Not the most exciting day of vacation ever, but not too bad. And they only got better from there.

A few more random photos:

City Park Fountain

2010-07-02T22:10:00.001-06:00

I ran over to City Park the other night for a quick sunset shoot. The clouds didn’t deliver, but just after sundown the fountain really lights up.

In other news, I was planning to get back to posting more regularly this week. Then my laptop decided to become really unstable – it’s crashing randomly. So I haven’t been able to get any real work done. Hopefully I’ll get a new machine soon and be able to get back to posting. Fingers crossed!

Evening at City Park

2010-06-15T21:51:00.001-06:00

I got home tonight and just couldn’t sit inside. It’s just too damn nice out there! The perfect temperature where you don’t need a jacket, but don’t start sweating immediately. And of course the ever perfect lack of humidity and mosquitoes that I love about Denver.

Thus, a bike ride around City Park. It turned out there was a pretty good sunset too. I didn’t take the camera, but did take the new phone. That little camera actually does a pretty solid job! Good work HTC.

Back Home

2010-06-06T12:49:00.001-06:00

We just got back last night. Back from what? Road Trip 2010 of course! This year’s destination was New Orleans (or the Garden of Eatin’, as I’ve come to call it), which led to over 3200 miles of driving through eight different states. Along the way we visited cowboy graves in Kansas, dodged zombies and box springs in Memphis, went to a New Orleans zydeco club with a dancin’ German and her husband, stayed at a famous river plantation, checked for oil on the beaches of Louisiana, got up close with a ‘gator in Breaux Bridge, power washed the car in 35 miles of torrential rain near Arklatex, visited the grassy knoll in Dallas, and returned to Colorado under a beautiful cloudy sky only to find a bat in the kitchen sink. And a few more things I forgot to mention.

It’s been a busy trip. More notes, and possibly a few photos, to follow.

Vehicular Irony

2010-05-23T21:34:00.001-06:00

I spotted this tiny Smart Car parked in a lot downtown. There's nothing much remarkable about it, except for the license plate - "Huge". On a car that's probably 6 feet long. Nicely done, smart car owner.

This car frequently parks near my house. I wonder if the owner understands the irony of his bumper stickers. "Consumerism is an attitude - DON'T BUY IT!" right next to the logo of a consumer electronics company.

And lastly, a totally unrelated photo of me being goofy. But it does involve a vehicle – that’s a tiny little motorcycle I’m riding. I think I may have bottomed out the suspension though.

Bench Reflection

2010-05-19T21:56:00.001-06:00

Another reflection photo from the rain storm on Monday. Much like the previous photo, I like that this one takes a minute to “figure out,” or at least it does for me. I purposely flipped it to bring the reflection right side up, but that leaves the bench upside down.

Trade Center on Wood

2010-05-18T21:27:00.001-06:00

I caught this reflection in a bench after a rainstorm. I like the quasi-abstract nature of it - I think it's a bit confusing on first blush, but you can actually figure out what it is after a minute.

Gimme Shelter

2010-05-17T21:57:00.001-06:00

One of those freakish, 10 minute deluges rolled through Denver while I was on the mall. Everybody fled to the nearest doorway or umbrella for a bit of shelter. Wendy lent me her little point-and-shoot camera for a few shots.

Nobody likes getting caught in the rain - but he takes it to a whole new level with that snarl and the crooked glasses.

Under My Umbrella

2010-05-09T20:26:00.001-06:00

I was actually almost to my destination when I spotted this girl. I'm a sucker for a good umbrella, so I dug my camera out and stalked her for a block.

I got a second place for this last weekend at the local Mike’s Camera spring photo contest. Which is pretty cool!

I got a $50 gift card from the contest, but Mike’s is having their tent sale this weekend so I just gave it all back. I thought I was doing pretty well, but Wendy managed to score a lens with no marked price (Pentax DFA 50/2.8 Macro) for $220 under list, over 50% off! Now that’s a heck of a deal.

Emperor’s Fans

2010-05-04T21:35:00.001-06:00

Not Quite Sheltered

2010-05-03T21:17:00.001-06:00

Since Denver has swerved back to the chilly side of the thermometer, I figured I’d post another chilly photo. I guess Thursday would’ve been a better day to post this, but I’m running a bit behind.

This was taken during one of Denver's frequent spring blizzards. This poor guy was so close to being inside that warm coffee shop - but instead he had to stand outside in the wind and snow waiting for his bus.

... if you show me yours

2010-04-28T20:55:00.001-06:00

I don't feel like doing anything serious today. So, mannequin butts! Oh, but pretend I said some artistic sounding stuff about tonalities and study of the human form, or something.

Serpentine

2010-04-27T22:09:00.001-06:00

Valentine's Day

2010-04-26T20:38:00.001-06:00

I spotted this girl waiting for her light rail in front of the courthouse. She saw me taking her picture and gave me a big smile, though I think it may have really been for whoever was on the phone.

Fugitive Photons

2010-04-25T20:15:00.001-06:00

Audiophile

2010-04-23T21:56:00.001-06:00

Today was another lovely spring day in Denver – cold and rainy with a brief bout of snow. It wasn’t quite this bad though – this photo is from the storm about a month ago.

Snow Removal

2010-04-22T20:36:00.001-06:00

I think it’s time for a little break from all the green leaves. Something a bit on the lighter side. So here you go!

I was out shooting during one of Denver’s many spring snowstorms. Several inches of wet snow had stuck to every flat surface. Just after I finished shooting some photos of this cafe this guy walked by. He swept all the snow off of fifty feet worth of railing. I think it was just for the fun of it.

I wish he'd left some of that snow for me!

Rain Collector

2010-04-20T21:17:00.001-06:00

Chlorophyll Superhighway

2010-04-19T20:38:00.001-06:00

Green Cobra

2010-04-18T18:30:00.001-06:00

Tree in Green

2010-04-13T21:32:00.001-06:00

A close up of the veins in a leaf. The veins reminds me a bit of the trunk and branches of a tree, hence the name. But my favorite feature is probably the water droplets. They look a little soft here - that's because the shot was taken from the bottom of the leaf, while the droplets are on the top. So they're blurred by the leaf itself.

Galactic Intersections

2010-04-12T21:36:00.001-06:00

Over the last few months I started playing with closeups of plants and especially leaves. This one is quite close. I like that it's almost an abstract of lines and shapes, but not quite.

The leaves also have a constellation of tiny texture - lots of dots and sworls. I've been told it's reminscent of galaxies and stars, hence the title.

This is the first in a series of six. I know some of you want more variety, so just be forewarned that you ain’t gonna get it for a while. ;)

The Lizard Returns

2010-04-10T12:14:00.001-06:00

I posted this photo of an Eastern Collared Lizard a while back. It’s from the Ute Mountain Tribal Park that I visited last fall.

Earlier this week I was contacted by National Geographic Traveler magazine. They want to use my photo for an article on the park in their July/August issue.

Needless to say I’m pretty psyched about this whole thing. But don’t worry – I won’t let it go to my head. I’ll still only be charging $20 to autograph a copy of the magazine. :)

Denver Skyline from Speer

2010-04-09T03:51:00.000-06:00

The Denver skyline seen from Speer Avenue. In the foreground is the Wynkoop Street bridge over Cherry Creek. You can also see the big white spire on the building that should've been called The Spire, but is actually the Four Seasons (I think).

This was from the February night photo walk organized by Efrain at Illuminate Workshops.

By a Thread

2010-04-07T20:10:00.000-06:00

The window washers seem to be constantly at work downtown, so this is a very common sight. They must be very comfortable with heights after the first few weeks.

Saddening

2010-04-07T19:54:00.001-06:00

I took a long, wandering walk home from work today. Not far from Coors Field I passed a pay phone kiosk rooted to the sidewalk. The phone was ringing, so I picked it up.

I heard a voice, but couldn’t make out the words. My knit cap was still over my ears, muffling the sound from the receiver. The voice was female, old, weary, a bit throaty. She spoke slowly, distracted or maybe a touch senile. Perhaps an old woman who had tried to call her grandchild but pressed a wrong number.

I adjusted my hat, held the receiver to my ear, asked her to repeat. Hearing her voice again I adjusted my estimate. She was distracted, but not senile. Certainly old, but not in years.

She said “You want to get some head tonight?”

I hung up the phone and walked away.

Beagles

2010-04-06T20:46:00.000-06:00

Leaving work I happened across this car full of beagles. The owner (not pictured, shockingly) was kind enough to let me do a quick portrait session while they waited for his wife to arrive.

Undergirding

2010-04-05T20:53:00.000-06:00

The support substructure for the Delgany Street pedestrian bridge over Cherry Creek.

Millenium Bridge Escape

2010-04-04T20:30:00.000-06:00

A light rail train leaving from Union Station whizzing past a stopped coal train. In the background the Millenium Bridge and the Glass House apartments stand out

Taken on the day of the 2010 St Patrick's Parade, so the light rail was probably full of drunken leprechauns.

Apparently I've been sitting on this photo for a month. It's from the March night photowalk, and the April one was just last night. Hopefully I'll get through this month's shots more quickly. :)

Lightroom Color Mismatch

2010-04-03T14:16:00.001-06:00

(Note: If you don’t use Photoshop and Lightroom on Windows don’t read this. You’ll be really bored and annoyed that you wasted your time.)

I just solved a problem with Lightroom that’s been bugging the heck out of me for a couple of weeks. Maybe I can help someone else if they have the same problem – and there’s a good chance that’ll be me in about 6 months when I’ve forgotten about this.

The problem was that the colors I’d see in Lightroom and Photoshop just did not match. Not even close. I wandered around the web and tried many solutions, such as ensuring that they’re using the same color space (ProPhoto) and making sure the Proof Colors setting was turned off in Photoshop. I tried reprofiling the monitor a few times, even though that shouldn’t affect colors shown on the same computer and screen.

The solution was in my Windows Color Management control panel. I had a profile in there which had been created by my Huey color profiler – but it wasn’t being used. I used the first pane to set that profile as the default, and under the Advanced tab set that profile as the Device Profile. Restart Lightroom and voila – perfect match.

All I can figure is that Lightroom doesn’t pick up the profile for some reason, while Photoshop does. Go figure.

Tea Party Report

2010-04-01T20:41:00.003-06:00

I didn’t know there was a Tea Party protest in Denver yesterday. Not until Nick & Glenn started asking if I was going to make a misspelled sign and start screaming about birth certificates. Even then I didn’t plan on it. There have been things done at them ranging from ridiculous to alarming, and they’re generally reported to be convocations of racist, militia crazies brandishing moronic, misspelled signs and assault weapons. That’s not my scene, and not something I want to be involved with. But after all was just a mall ride away, and I figured I could go in the spirit of amateur photojournalism. And when it comes to a controversial subject there’s no substitute for seeing it yourself.

I got there fashionably late, about 45 minutes after it started. Just in time to catch the bus pulling out to park elsewhere.

I’d guess there were about 400 people there. I’m not great at estimating crowds though. I heard estimates from other non-experts ranging up to 1500.

I actually came across the counterprotestors standing out by Lincoln before I reached the main crowd. There weren’t too many of them – just these four, a pair of girls with a “Yes We Can” sign, and another guy with a “Support Our President” sign. I think these guys stood out by the street for the entire time.

I later came back down, and the guy with the “I [heart] Nancy Pelosi” sign told me Nancy Pelosi was “hot.” I laughed at that – I thought it was a joke! I mean come on, really? Nancy Pelosi hot? But he wasn’t kidding. I said it was a matter of opinion – he got a little snippy and agreed with that.

I didn’t want to record the whole thing live, so instead I made a point of photographing every sign I could. I figured that would capture some of the overall tone. By far the most common “sign” was the flag, followed by variations of the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag, and then everything else.

I only spotted three signs with misspellings - the one above ("Ronald Reagen") and the two pictured below ("shreded", and, well, several).

For the most part the signs were concerned with taxes, big government, and “vote them out” themes. I expected more crazies – the Tea Party last April definitely had some. As it turns out, I saw two Birthers, and a one other crazy (shown above). If you want to check for more, I’ve posted at least one copy of every sign I shot on SmugMug.

I thought the tone generally was restrained for a political protest. There was a lot of cheering and such, but I didn’t hear anything violent, racist or otherwise out of line. Considering that protestors are by definition unhappy about something, I really expected more anger.

I spent a while talking to this vendor. He’s out of work, so he printed up some shirts and stickers and has been following the Tea Party Bus Tour around. I asked a few questions trying to compare this demonstration to the others he’s seen. It sounds like they’re generally comparable – about the same size and generally the same tone. Admittedly a limit sample, but still interesting I think. Since I wasted some of his time, I should at plug his website, LoseTheBluesBS.com. I figure about two of my readers might actually be interested.

The main takeaway for me was that by and large these people did not look or act like crazies. There was no frothing at the mouth, screaming, racism, or anything like that. Maybe that sort of thing was going on at some of the other protests, but I didn’t see anything like that here.

Obviously many people disagree with the political points these people are making. But based on my experience I’m going to be more skeptical about the negative reports about the Tea Partiers.

P.S. The was mostly written immediately after the protest - I delayed posting it because SmugMug was having network problems so I could not host the photos until tonight.

Bolts

2010-03-29T22:27:00.000-06:00

This was taken on the Delgany Street bridge over Cherry Creek. I've spent a lot of time around Cherry Creek so I have a hard time finding anything that seems interested. But the exposed girders on the bridge are falling into disrepair, which makes them interesting in my book. What I like most about this photo is the texture of the peeling paint - I think the roughness of it really came through nicely.

Travel by Train

2010-03-28T15:06:00.000-06:00

The light rail train passing through Union Station. This was taken on the Saturday night after the Saint Patrick's Day parade. The trains were running for free, to get the drunks safely out of town. As you might imagine, there were some interesting people there. There was Guy Puking On Bench, Drunk Chicks Wearing Kilts, Guy Trying to Start A Fight (with added benefit of yelling "Fag!" as the other guy walked away... until well after he was out of sight).

Thankfully none of them bothered me this time. Instead I talked to a cheerfully soused new father who had wrangled a kitchen pass for the day. He had tried to break his Chicago dog eating record (six), but fell short by two. Should've had less Irish beer, and more Irish whisky. Better luck next year.

The Shy Performer

2010-03-24T19:40:00.000-06:00

There are a lot of odd and interesting street musicians on the mall. This is the only one I've ever seen that was shy.

I've seen him on the mall several times, perhaps half a dozen. I tend to shoot street musicians as a matter of course - they're interesting people! Every time this guy spots me he hides away his trumpet and looks the other way.

I have no idea what that's all about. Does he think he needs a license? Is the MPAA after him? Is it a stolen trumpet? I don't know. One of these days I'll ask him.

All Aboard

2010-03-22T20:54:00.003-06:00

A light rail train at Union Station with its doors open for boarding.

Untitled Flowers

2010-03-21T14:14:00.000-06:00

Nothing too deep today - just some flowers. Hope everyone's enjoying the re-emergence of spring :

Quiet Reflection

2010-03-18T21:17:00.000-06:00

This photo is from a short camping trip last Memorial Day. This was taken in one of the dry spells between otherwise-constant rainstorms.

Honestly, I'm not that crazy about this photo, but I've gotten varying opinions on it so I figured I'd publish it anyway. What do you guys think?

Studded

2010-03-16T22:04:00.000-06:00

This is a sort-of closeup of one of the snow sculptures at the Breckenridge Snow Sculpting contest. This one was a giant hand studded with pyramids.

It's only a "sort-of" closeup because it has nothing to give it a sense of scale so it feels like a closeup to me, but the photo probably covers 8-10 square feet of area.

Stylin

2010-03-14T20:34:00.000-06:00

At the awards ceremony for the 2009 Larimer chalk art festival I was standing near this girl. She was standing on her skateboard to see over the crowd. She had a lot of personality, but I think the shoes had even more. I still can't figure out why she wrote "Gummy Bears loves the Cobra Commander" on the side though.

Embedded

2010-03-11T20:10:00.000-07:00

I took one of the not-uncommon nice winter days to poke around the Denver Gardens. They still had their Christmas-season ice sculptures up. There were very few people around, so I got up close to one of them and found this leaf embedded in the melting sculpture.

Cold Hands

2010-03-11T20:02:00.004-07:00

This is a closeup photo of a snow sculpture from the Breckenridge Snow Sculpture contest. It seemed appropriate for this cold spring day in Denver.

Left Luggage

2010-03-04T20:18:00.000-07:00

I like to get to the airport early. It saves on stress getting through security. Unfortunately, I end up with lots of time to kill. While wandering the airport I spied this bag awaiting departure in the C Concourse at DIA.

Painted Desert

2010-03-01T19:56:00.000-07:00

View over the Painted Desert in Arizona. It's a pretty place from a distance, but I can see why they call them "badlands."

Darkened Depths

2010-02-27T14:53:00.000-07:00

Sunrise over the Grand Canyon. My favorite part of this isn't the sky or colors, but rather the series of barely-visible ridgelines in the darkened canyon.

Grand Canyon Sunset #3

2010-02-26T17:58:00.000-07:00

Today is the Grand Canyon's 91st anniversary as a National Park. Happy anniversary giant hole in the ground!

Canyon Snowstorm

2010-02-25T18:52:00.000-07:00

A snowstorm blowing through the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The day went from warm and sunny to snowing very quickly. You could watch the clouds flow up the canyon like a low-speed flood.

4 Wild & Crazy South Africans

2010-02-24T21:18:00.000-07:00

We spotted this van in the Watchtower parking lot at the Grand Canyon. Apparently this was the last of their stops - hopefully they found those girls they were looking for too.

Pink Is Power

2010-02-22T20:14:00.001-07:00

Graffiti on the back of the derelict Twin Arrows Trading Post. No idea what it means though - girl biker gang maybe?

UPDATE: Apparently this is by a well known artist, Buff Monster. Thanks Shannon!

Thrash Nasty

2010-02-17T21:43:00.000-07:00

Graffiti by the now-abandoned Twin Arrow gas station in Arizona.

Wasteland Gas #2

2010-02-16T21:34:00.000-07:00

Another shot from the abandoned Twin Arrows Trading Post. I think it looks post-apocalyptic, like it belongs in "Mad Max" or a zombie movie.