"Fall Aspens"

Fall has arrived in the Colorado Rocky Mtns." And no where is it more evident than in the Aspen leaves at high elevation. This photo was taken on Mt Evans and the yellows and gold were magnificent! But rather than show the brilliant color display, as so many other do, I decided to portray the bright and warm Fall light with a Duotone. Here you can experience the brightness of our high altitude light and the warmth as it illuminates the leaves on these trees casting a subtle cool blue shadow.

Two New Photos

These are two Photos that were taken a year or so ago but have been lying dormant in the computer. One is obviously of a mining site, a gold mining site in the mountains above Idaho Springs in Colorado and the other is a pic that was taken just a few blocks away from where my woodworking shop was located close to downtown Denver.

Heritage Square

We visited Heritage Square this past weekend and I was able to get a few photos that I thought were worth keeping! Here are the ones that I have on so far.

Suggest a Title

This one begs for a more creative title than I can immediately come up with....so perhaps those of you stopping in to look might have some suggestions. This was taken on the rim of Castlewood Canyon, soth of Denver, on an obviously cold wintery day. Elements that stand out for me as deeper symbolism are the two large, heavy and unmoving boulders in the foreground against a backdrop of two tall, growing and vibrant trees behind them. Then for even greater symbolic interest is the old, mature and perhaps dead or nearing that state, tree in the background. I would really like to hear from viewers as to what they see and think might be an apt title for this.
I will select the best title that is recomended and that person will recieve a free print of this picture. This is a limited edition print of 100 printed on archival paper and is 8" x 10" unframed.

"Rail Yard Relections"

While photographing in the Platte Valley in Denver, I found not only the "Oil and Gas" structure shown in two different views below, but nearby I saw these old railway passenger cars that had been "mothballed." Their shiny stainless steel exteriors reminded me of the "skins" of Air Stream trailers which must have been popular at about the same time.

"Oil and Gas" Front View

This photo is of the same building as the next post but from the front side. Also I went a bit out on a limb with some creative liberties on this one. I like it alot....it expresses the feeling that I had about it (the building) when I first came across it. That is: it's a throw back to a previous time when gas was pennies, not dollars per gallon. Oil was puchased in quantities that gas is now purchased. And oil cans had to to "tapped" with a spigot to pour the oil into the engine. And the cigarettes that I purchased at the cash register (mechanical, not electronic) from the attendant who was wiping his hands with a real cloth shop rag were only 20 cents a pack. But I digress....this photo was taken with an Olympus D-360L 1.3 digital camera, and modified in PhotoShop CS2.

"Gas and Oil"

I took this photo 4 years ago as a reference photo for a painting. I completed the painting but the photo has been languishing in a computer file ever since. Today I revisited it and came up with this print after some manipulation in PhotoShop. This old building is now gone and in its place, in the Platte Valley of Denver, now stands a high rise Loft complex. I am glad that I got this photo when I did.

Manitou Springs

In the next posts below I have posted some pictures of Manitou Springs and the Cliff Dwellings nearby. Here are two more pics that I took while strolling through the downtown area of Manitou. I am always looking into yards as I pass by, watching the play of light and how it defines the space and its contents.

Cliff Dwelling Photos

On the trip to Manitou Springs this weekend we visited the Cliff Dwelling and were treated to a real delight. If you are interested in history, culture and architecture this is certainly a site to be seen. It was dificult to take pictures because of all of the people that were there sightseeing, and because we were there midday and the site faces south under a cliff overhang. The sun was lighting the foreground but left the facade of the dwelling in shadow. Plus the day was overcast and occasionally the sun popped through. Anyway, here are some pics that I was able to shoot.

Manitou Springs

Today while visiting Manitou Springs to see the Art Show of a friend ( Nancy Rynes) I was able to take some pictures of the town and also some of the Anasazi Cliff Dwellings nearby. Here is one that I took while walking through the downtown area. This one I left as a color picture because I felt that it worked much better than as a B/W. I have some more of Manitou and the Cliff Dwellings that I will be posting in the next few days.

"Value, Texture and Shape"

These three images are really just about value, texture and shape. And how these three things work together for creating an interesting composition. With composition to be understood in this case as design.....a balance of the parts to create a unified and interesting whole. Each of these three photos was taken with an Olympus 1.3 MGP digital camera and modified in Photo Shop to produce sharp and distinctive images of 8" x 10" at 300 DPI resolution.