Summer Days

Roots

Past and Future

At the Colorado Cattle Company.

Main Entrance

Cottonwood

Backlite cottonwood in the Garden of the Gods

Breaking the Pattern

On October 19th, I blogged about hiking up to Angel's Landing in Zion park.  To reach the top of the plateau, one needs to climb up "Walter's Wiggles".  The wiggles are a set of 21, sharp and very steep switchbacks (zig-zags).  It was named Walter's Wiggles after Zion's first superintendent who helped engineer the this section.

This photo is one section of the retaining wall.  Even building something as mundane as retaining wall, the builders add a touch of art by breaking the pattern of the regularly shaped sandstone blocks with this strange looking rock.

Be sure to visit the Monochrome Weekly meme for other great monochrome images.

Johnny O

Late post today. Here it is the first day of my sabbatical, and I spent all day doing chores. Included in that was processing some pictures taken at the 2009 Belvedere Blues Festival. As stated in Saturday's post, I was invited by one of the organizers to take pictures of the event. The organizer knows my wife, and I sent him some pictures that I took at the Brew Ha-Ha festival from earlier this year (click here for one photo). I guess he liked them.

It was very flattering and a very intimidating. I think that I'm a good landscape photographer, and I'm trying to learn how to photograph people. But the idea shooting three days at a festival was a bit overwhelming.

All in all, it has a great learning experience. I also got to see some great bands as well.  This is by far the best musical experience I've had since leaving Austin, TX. This photo is of the very talented Johnny O Band out of Boulder, CO.

Be sure to visit Monochrome Weekly.

My Ears are still Ringing

Last night, I went down to Belvedere Blues Festival in Canon City, Colorado to take photos. The goal of the festival is as fundraiser dedicated to improving the quality of life in Fremont County, Colorado.

The first band I saw was Colorado Spring's Jake Loggins Band. Jake Loggins, the lead guitarist is an amazing guitarist and singer.

I took around 600 pictures of the first two bands (and crowd). This photo of Desmond Washington and Noel MacFarlane is my favorite so far.

Before I head down today, I think I'll buy some ear plugs. Its tough standing in front of those speakers!

Past and Present

While in Cripple Creek, CO this weekend, I found that I walked into the middle of a war zone. Ok, a re-enactment of one. Cripple Creek honors the United States Armed Forces with their military appreciation weekend, during which there were a number of WWII battle re-enactments. This photos shows spectators and actors between battles.

Be sure to visit Sepia Scenes.

Stark

One of my learning processes is to take some concept or technique and concentrate on it for awhile. In photography, that means that I look for images which enforce the thing that I'm working on. For example, over the last few months, I've been working on getting images with back lighting. That doesn't mean that I ignore other principles and techniques that I've learned. For example, I few months ago, I was concentrating on monochrome. I think this example successfully incorporates the two.

I think that the next concept I want to play with is minimalist landscapes. I ran across this idea on flickr (see Best of Minimalist Landscapes). Very interesting stuff.

Is that a camera in your pocket?

One of the first things we did during our recent vacation was to take my parents to the Mollie Kathleen mine near Cripple Creek, Co for a tour. You can ride down a very packed elevator car down 1000 feet (305 meters) and have a guided tour through the mines. And I do mean packed. We had 6 people crammed into this tiny elevator. Luckily I knew three of the people already. The other two, I soon became acquainted with during the two minute descent.

It was really an interesting tour. I found the demonstrations of the machinery really interesting. They also played a recording of how the blasting would sound in the mine. Very spooky. I've been on a number of mine tours, and this was by far the best.

Even through I drive by it fairly often, I have never before stopped at the Mollie Kathleen. It's funny how one ignores local attractions until visitors arrive.

This photo is an old truck left in the mines lot. According to the paint on the door, it once belonged to the Woodland Garage of Woodland Park, CO.

Be sure to visit Sepia Scenes for more great sepia images.

The fun is just starting!

I'm back from vacation. We had a great time. I really enjoyed getting away from it all. Later in the week I read no emails, had not one cell phone call, nothing!

Now I'm back in the real world. I've got a bazillion emails to catch up with at work (as well as meetings - ugh!).

I've also have a lot of blogs to catch up on, as well as comments in my blog. Please excuse me if it takes me awhile...

While on my travels, I took over 1000 photos. I hope to spend some time over the next few weeks removing the chaff. Hopefully there is one or two really good shots in there somewhere.

This photo is the only picture from that set that I've worked on. It is of a store front in downtown Leadville, Co. EDIT: Apparently, I've forgotten how to do this while I was away - I left off the photo on the original post!

Check out Monochrome Maniacs for more monochrome images.

The View

Today's photo is a continuation of yesterday's series. This is the view from the Devil's Head Fire Lookout towards the south at Pikes Peak. Sure looks small from this distance.

Be sure to visit Sepia Scenes to view some other sepia-toned images.

The Road

A dirt road near the Taylor Park Reservoir (Crested Butte, CO area).

The title I gave to this photo made me think of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road". What a book. On the surface it appears bleak and hopeless, but it's actually a story of incredible hope. I see that a movie is being made of it. Although the cast looks impressive, I'm cynical about them actually doing this story any justice.

Click on the link for other Monochrome Maniacs.

Drinking Man

This is the Drinking Man, who, originally from England, now resides at the Musee Mecanique in San Francisco, Ca. For a quarter, he drinks liquid from a bottomless cup (by re-circulating the liquid through a tube in his arm back to the cup.

The Musee Mecanique is a huge collection of Ed Zelinsky's coin-operated mechanical musical instruments and antique arcade machines. It is really an interesting, and noisy, stop on a tour of San Francisco.

Go to the Thursday Challenge and put a quarter in to see all the photos from todays theme: "MACHINES" (Watches, Computers, Cars, Vending Machine, Washing Machine,...).

YAPP: Yet another Pikes Peak

Generally, I like Blogger. However, I really wish it had a better system to allow communications between people - maybe something more like Wordpress where you can have threaded comments. I've considered moving to Wordpress to get that feature, but their version of comment threads is only a partial solution (imho, it needs the ability to subscribe just to a thread) and I don't have the time to learn and create a new blog just for a partial solution. Anyway, I find it very, very awkward to maintain conversations.

This image is another shot of Pikes Peak. I never get bored of looking at the ever changing view of this beautiful Peak.

Be sure to point your browser over to Monochrome Maniacs for some great monochrome images.

Red Rock in Black and White

Here's another shot from Red Rock Canyon Open Space. The textures present in this rock formation look a lot like wood.

For other monochrome photos, visit Monochrome Maniacs.

Edit May 21: Some how I had the wrong link to Monochrome Maniacs. It is now fixed.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

Here's a shot of my brother practicing his guitar. I think I surprised him, because he jumped when the flash went off. He also makes some pretty tasty beer - it's hard to capture that because I'm too busy drinking it!

For other great monochromes, use your keyboard and play Monochrome Maniacs.

The Trade Room

Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site is a reconstructed 1840’s adobe fur trading post on the Arkansas river along the Santa Fe Trail near La Junta, Colorado. Traders, trappers, travelers, and Plains Indian tribes came here for trade.

The fort now has living historians recreate the sights, sounds, and smells of the past. Many of the rooms in the fort have been laid out with items that one may have seen in its heyday. This room is the fort's general store, or trade room. It carried merchandise that was traded or sold to trappers, Indians, and travelers.

If you'd like to see more of my photos of Bent's Old Fort, point your browser here.