My World Tuesday:The Tenacity of Life

This photo was taken the same time and place as the Classic View shot. I spend a lot of time in Garden of the Gods. I love finding different perspectives and seeing new things.

This is one view of my world. To see others from around the globe, visit My World Tuesday

Also, be sure to join me tomorrow for a very special Blast from the Past.

Blue Monday: Abstract

This is my first post for Blue Monday. This abstract shot is of a very concrete (pun intended) object - the Folsom American River Bridge. While I was living near Folsom, CA last year, this bridge was the subject of intense photographic study. I had just obtained a near new DSLR. To learn the camera I decided to study this bridge from as many positions, lighting conditions and weather as possible. Taking on such a study is a great way to not only learn the camera, but also to learn to "see" differently and grease the creative wheels.

Happy Blue Monday!

Classic View

Here's a classic composition of Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. This shot has been done by many people. I've lived here for quite some time and decided that I finally needed to attempt it. Given the snow storm this week, I decided that this was a great time. I got to parking lot just before 6 AM. I discovered two other photographers had the same idea. Two or three others joined us in the next 1/2 hour. Like I said, it is a popular shot.

While I was there I captured a few less obvious shots. I'll share them in the coming weeks.

Click the link for other great shots from Scenic Sunday.

Skywatch Friday: Pikes Peak or Bust

Pike's Peak dominates the western skyline of Colorado Springs. The peak can be seen from many miles around, and served as a landmark for settlers making their way across the Kansas prairies.

The phrase "Pike's Peak or Bust" was a common motto of prospectors during the 1859 gold rush. There is a toll road that you can drive to the peak. Humorously, you pass through the "town" of Bust, CO (population 2).

Click the line for more great photos from SkyWatch Friday.

Sunset Red Granite

This is my first entry in the Thursday Challenge. This weeks theme is "BUILDING" (House, Hut, Tent, Skyscraper, Green House,...).

In Texas, they brag that The State of Texas capitol building is largest state capital building in the US - everything is bigger in Texas!

This Italian Renaissance Revival building was opened to the public April 21st, 1888. The building is constructed with "Sunset Red" granite quarried from Marble Falls, TX.

Click here to see a photo of the dome from inside.

Blast from the Past: Hohenschwangau from Neuschwanstein

A view of Hohenschwangau from Neuschwanstein Castle (Schwangau, Germany 2002). Neuschwanstein was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria and is said to be the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland. Bavaria is a beautiful place to visit: beautiful views, tasty food, nice people, wonderful beer.

T'would be Lonely without friends...

Here's another shot from my last trip to Paint Mines park. This little knob of a hill has a great vantage point over the entire park.

In other news, I'm still still having problems with the PC :( Turns out a lot of data on my drive was corrupted. I suspect it was caused by Elements crashing so often. Luckily, I have a backup. I can't stress enough that you must back your data up!! A few years ago, I lost years of photos on a drive that crashed. Now, I have a dedicated disk to back the data up. I also back up a lot of favorites to my SmugMug Vault. Redundancy good - lost data bad!

Young buck and PC issues

I use Photoshop Elements 6 to manage my photo catalog, convert RAW format to JPG, manage uploads, and occasionally edit photos (I'd like to learn more of this skill). Unfortunately, I run Elements on the Vista OS. I've had tons of problems. I've finally given up on this and have decided to setup my PC to dual boot XP. Hopefully, this will fix the issues I've been having.

Which brings me to this photo. I'm have serious problems with Elements/Vista and cannot upload my planned photo. So, instead, here's a shot from a few weeks ago of a curious young buck. He wondered into our backyard as I was refilling the bird feeders during a lull in a snowstorm. He gave a few poses, hoping I'm sure, for some samples of the bird food (don't feed the deer!).

Geologic Layers

Earlier this year I spent some time shooting at the Paint Mines Interpretive Park. I got there early on a clear morning. Although the light was gorgeous, it was unsuitable for photographing the canyons. In retrospect, I realized that I what I really needed was diffuse light. I reckoned that it would fill in the shadows. Friday, I got the chance to test this hypothesis. This time, the sky was overcast. I arrived at the park around 11 AM. The light was bright and very diffuse, lighting up the interior of the canyon nicely. Overall, I think the light was easier to work worth. I can't wait to try again - in this canyon and others. I will be back to the Paint Mines as I don't feel that I've captured it adequately yet.

Follow this link for other scenes from a very Scenic Sunday

Skywatch Friday: Training Cadets

I live fairly close to the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Very often one can hear the buzz of the small aircraft for training the Academy cadets. This shot shows a glider being hauled up to altitude. With the clear sky, it looks like a perfect time to glide. Check out this cool video of a glider flight.

To see other shots of the sky, check out at SkyWatch Friday.

Welcome to Bridgetown

The Pikes Peak Greenway is a trail that runs through Colorado Springs from Air Force Academy south along Monument and Fountain Creeks to El Pomar Youth Sports Complex. It is also part of the Front Range Trail System. I’ve spend many hours running, walking and biking along this path.

At one point, the trail goes underneath a bridge at Garden of the Gods Road. Under this bridge are the murals of “High Rise Low Ride City” (or “Welcome to Bridgetown”). According to the mural itself, the “mural program is run by Workout Limited and Public Art Associates. It is free and open to all area youth”.

This picture is one small section of the mural.

If you like these pictures of graffiti and murals, go check out Sandy Carlson’s Strange Attractions: Exploring Graffiti blog. Edit: I thought I was being somewhat original when I started shooting murals and graffiti - then I ran across this very Sandy's very interesting blog.

Blast from the Past: Statue and shadows

This shot was taken from the back of a tour bus in London, UK (2002). Thus, I don't know what the statue is, nor what the buildings are. I liked the play of light and shadows, and luckily got the shot. To me, the shadow on the far right has always seemed ominous - it looks like the shadow of hawk's beak, heading towards the cute little kid.

Abstact: Red and Blue

I live on the northwest side of Colorado Springs. At lunch I often take walks in Ute Valley Park, Garden of the Gods, along the Santa Fe Trail, etc. I, of course, take my camera. Familiarity and harsh noon light, makes it a challenging time to take pictures. But it is a great way to exercise, both physically and creatively. In a week of lunch time walks, I may take around 100+ pictures. Most of the pictures are experiments. Playing with different angles of familiar sights, unusual subjects, new techniques. Most of the are utter failures. This photo, I think, works. I like the simplicity of form and color in contrast with the great texture of the rock.

The North Face

No, not that North Face. This is a 5-shot panorama of the north face of Pikes Peak. I was out early driving around Woodland Park, Co, scouting locations for just a shot. I've been by this location along the Rampart Range road many times in the summer. However, there is always someone camping in this spot.

The Rampart Range road is a dirt road winding though the mountains west of Colorado Springs. It was built as a public works project during the Great Depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The gravel road goes from the Garden of the Gods to Sedalia by way of the Rampart Range Reservoir.

Fat and Happy

Is this hippo dreaming of the next meal? Looks to me as if he forgot the sunscreen.

Skywatch Friday: Smoky Sunset

This is my first post for SkyWatch Friday - a blog that catalogs various blogs featuring photos of the sky. Check them out at SkyWatch Friday.

This picture was taken at Mono Lake California in the summer of 2008. The sunset is particularly vivid because of the forest fires burning in and around Yosemite that day.

Prospect Lake

Memorial Park in Colorado Springs includes a fitness center, an ice skating ring, velodrome, skateboard park, various football/baseball/softball/soccer fields, and Prospect lake.

For awhile, Prospect Lake was drained, it was a big muddy hole. Here’s an interesting article about Saving Prospect Lake.

Here’s a shot of some art at Prospect Lake in Memorial Park with Pikes Peak looming in the background.

Blast from the Past: Gimmelwald, Switzerland

I've decided to try something new in this blog. Every Wednesday, I’ll feature a photo that I took in the past. Many of these will be from old low-res point&shoot digital camera or scanned from film. The quality of the photo may not be the best, but hopefully the image itself is interesting. Hopefully, this will inspire me to digitize a bunch of old slides and film.

This picture was taken near Gimmelwald, Switzerland during my sabbatical in 2002. I got interested in going to this area thanks to Rick Steve’s European travel series on PBS. Apparently, I’m not the only one. While in Gimmelwald, we stayed at Walter Mittler's Mittaghorn Hotel. After dinner one evening, we all asked for Heidi Cocoa (a hot-chocolate with peppermint schnapps). Walter grumbled something like “damn that Rick Steve’s and his Heidi cocoa!” I don’t believe we ever mentioned Rick Steve - it just appears that Walter has been asked for Heidi cocoa too many times and knows who to “blame”. We had a wonderful time there and that was one of the funnier moments.

Crusty Old Cowboy

When we were growing up, my brothers and I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. My grandfather, Bill Chick was a wood carver. He would spend hours out in the garage carving stuff, and I would spend hours watching him.

This picture is of one of his little carvings that I have. In the background, is a windmill that either my grandfather, or my Uncle Gary made. If you know, please let me know.

One of my projects is to photograph the arts and crafts created by my family. At least as long as I can do it justice. Some of these items will be a challenge. My uncle Tom writes stories - how do you photograph one of those?

The shot was taken in my little DYI studio. The main lights are a couple of diffused fluorescent lights. The background is white poster paper lit by a halogen lamp (to give it sunset feel). In post-process, I opened up some shadows and sharpened the image some.

Birding

Yesterday, Kelly and I got up super early to do some hiking and birding.

First we went to Bluestem Prairie Open Space. We saw lots of water fowl, rabbits and a number of small birds. We couldn’t get a good look at any of the birds. We then stopped off at Prospect Lake in Memorial Park in Colorado Springs. Here we saw lots of duck, geese, and gulls (as well as the ever present crows and pigeons). This shot here is of an American Wigeon. We both thought they sound like asthmatic squeaky toys.

I'm really new at birding. I'm finding it to be a lot of fun: hike around, listen and look for birds, try to snap an artful picture, peruse the guidebook, do some research on the web, etc. I started a check list for the birds I've seen and identified since I've started this hobby. I'm up to 20 birds - including the 5 I was able to identify this weekend. I’ve seen at least 10 members of other species that I’ve been unable to identify.

West Side Tattoo

Apparently the mural painted on the building that houses West Side Tattoo was controversial when it was first painted. Some people considered it graffiti. Personally, I like it. What do you thing?

Pikes Peak

I've always loved black & white photos. I've tried numerous times to take them, or to convert color photos to black & white. It is an art or skill that I do not possess. Here's my latest attempt. I think that its OK, but not great. The photo is of the a ridge that shoots off of Pikes Peak to the South East.

The Skier

Downtown Colorado Springs has lots of art including this statue of a skier at the Pioneer Museum.

Early Saturday morning, I walked around downtown taking photos. There are a number of other shots that would work better in late afternoon light. I look forward to taking them.

Click on this picture to see other pictures from downtown Colorado Springs.

Town Lake

Here's another shot I captured in Austin. Town Lake goes along the Colorado River through downtown Austin. When I lived here before, I used to spend a lot of time running along the paths around the lake (T can't imagine now how I did that in the humidity!).

As I was on a business trip, I did not take a tripod. So, this is a hand held shot. One of the aspects I like about this shot is how the tree on the left (has leaves) contrasts with the tree on the right (no leaves).

Wild Fires at Fort Carson

When I went out for my lunchtime walk, I saw a huge column of smoke. It turns out that there is a wild fire burning at Fort Carson here in Colorado Springs. The smoke from these fires dominate the southern skys.

Here's a link to the story as covered by a KKTV.

Update 3-4-09: The photo above is a four-shot panorama. Click here to see a more dramatic photo of the smoke from the fire.

State of Texas Capital

During a recent trip business trip, I took the opportunity to visit the State of Texas Capital Building. I used to live in Austin, but never went inside of the capital building. It is very impressive. This photo is of the dome.

Shrimp

Here's a picture of a shrimp that I took at the Monterey Bay Aquarium back in September. The aquarium is one of my favorite places to visit. The exhibits are beautiful. I've always loved aquariums and used to keep a few myself.