Those Colorado sunsets
Sunsets in the Western US always seem better to me. Here’s a pair from a trip to Colorado last year. Those high altitude sunsets can be beautiful!
I don’t know what it is about Colorado and New Mexico, but each time I am in either place, there always seems to be an interesting sunset or two. Not sure if it’s the weather patterns, or the mountains, or just some happy coincidences, but the light just seems better out West.
These two shots are from last summer. We took a week-long trip up to Durango, CO to hang out in nature. Due to all the Covid stuff, it wasn’t really possible to go anywhere on a plane (or at least to feel comfortable doing so), so that left us with finding a place we could drive to.
Coming from Austin, and driving to Durango - that is a LONG day. Like 16 hours, door to door. But, we were able to get it all done in a single day, and enjoy the great outdoors (and some nice sunsets) for a week!
Mornings in Denver
Here's a baker's dozen pics from one of my trips to Denver. I got up early and caught a magical sunrise, which made it all worthwhile. And by the way, these pics are from 5 years ago. Why am I sharing them now? Well, there are a couple of reasons, so click on in and have a read!
Here's a collection of photos from a morning in Denver (and some thoughts on why I am just now sharing photos that were taken almost 5 years ago)
I really like Denver. It’s a beautiful city. I am sure some folks think of it as a place to fly into before heading up into the mountains, but I don’t think of it that way. It’s a destination unto itself. Obviously I take a lot of photos of cities, because that’s where my travels take me, and so I have really come to appreciate what each city has to offer.
Now I love shooting landscapes as much as anyone. In fact, I think if you ask 100 photographers what they like to shoot, you would probably hear “landscape” most of the time. Probably almost all of the time. It’s just what people think of first...including me.
But shooting in cities really gives you a lot more variety.
There is just so much to see and shoot in any city - they are all a veritable photographic goldmine. Given the time, I would shoot even more cities than I have already. I like it that much. I’m getting kind of fired up just thinking about it!
Thomas Hawk has an ongoing project to shoot the 100 largest American cities. The work he produces from these trips is fabulous, varied, and interesting. It’s quite an inspiration to me, and is a great example of finding interesting subjects among the “everyday stuff”, looking way beyond just landscapes.
(But of course, given the chance, I will shoot landscapes to my hearts content!)
In cities you have the typical cityscape and skyline stuff of course, which are among my favorite things to point the camera at. But you can also shoot individual architectural elements and details in buildings and other structures, signs, graffiti, street scenes, museums, train stations, cafes (I’m thinking of Europe here), and of course street photography (something I have really never tried). Heck, you could even shoot food, though I don’t do that, and that “feels” more like an Instagram sort of thing to me. :-)
So yeah - lots of stuff to shoot in cities...and it’s all great!
My travels have taken me to Denver twice - not nearly enough, though I have been able to get out and shoot there on each trip, and I really liked it. I hope to return. There is plenty more for me to do there, and a couple of my photography friends are there too.
I must admit though that I have not been to the Mile High City recently - in fact, these pics are from all the way back in July 2010 (my last trip there was in Oct 2012). So you may wonder why, nearly 5 years later, I am getting around to posting them now? I have shot so much since then, in so many different places. Shouldn’t I publish the more recent stuff?
There are a couple of reasons, actually.
I stated back at the beginning of this year that one thing I am going to focus on in 2015 is to increase the volume of what I create. In other words, I am going to publish more work.
So while that does mean getting out and taking new photos (which I have been doing quite a bit, and have several big trips coming up), it also means getting in the archives and processing many shots that have never been touched - and there are a LOT of them. What good are they just sitting in my library? No one can see them there. It’s like they don’t exist.
I have a library of over 130,000 images, but only had about 2275 images that were published/shared on Flickr (where I keep a copy of everything) as of the start of January. That’s just a rounding error. I’ve got a lot to do!
And while there are plenty in there that are junk and won’t ever be shared (we all take a lot of crappy photos), and some of that volume is due to bracketing multiple exposures to create an HDR - there are still plenty more that are worth getting out there. I have made it my mission to get a LOT more published. As of right now, my Flickr stream is over 2650 photos, so I am making good progress thus far in 2015! that's nearly 400 photos added this year!
So that’s reason #1 for publishing older shots that haven’t yet been released into the wild - my plan for the year is to up the volume, and there is a lot of untapped volume in the archives.
But all of that also ties in with my recent post entitled “old photos, new results”, wherein I discovered the joy of going back to previously overlooked shots and processing them with the skills I have acquired since the last time I saw them. So much has changed in the last few years in terms of my style, my capabilities, and the capability of the various software programs that I use.
Many of today’s shots were just sitting there in my library, untouched, because I passed over them in favor of others that were easier to process or that better caught my eye, or I gave them a try and couldn’t get them processed to my liking, either through lack of effort, lack of time, or more likely, lack of skill.
So that’s the other reason - there really are some diamonds in the rough. When you come back and look at your older RAW files - but you bring your new skills and vision with you - you quickly realize how you can take something you didn’t like years ago and turn it into something you do like today.
So don’t hesitate to dive into the old stuff - you may quickly find that you can produce some really nice new stuff out of it!
Well, I guess that’s about it for today. I appreciate you following along on this creative journey with me - I’m having a hell of a good time with it. And of course, I hope you enjoy these “old” photos from Denver. My two trips to Denver have resulted in about 1000 photos in total, so that’s another way of saying you will probably see another post like this one someday. :-)
And in case you are curious, every single photo today is a single exposure - no HDR on any of these. Things really do change, huh?
And last thing - have you ever heard me say how great it is to get up and shoot sunrise? I obviously had some great light that morning - well worth the early rise!
Denver architecture
Denver is a cool town, though I assume it gets overlooked a lot by folks who fly in there and immediately drive up to the mountains. Can't blame them really, those are some great mountains! But, I think the city is well worth a visit too. I always find cool stuff to shoot when I am there.
This is one such example. There is a large complex downtown which is the Center for Performing Arts, and it appears to house several different event venues. I've been in here and shot twice - once to avoid the rain, and once to avoid the snow. :-)
This was on the "avoid the rain" night and I was out shooting with Justin and Rick. The rain was coming down pretty good, and since we were nearby, we popped in here for some shots (and to dry off a bit). I can't resist shooting interesting architecture, so I was pretty happy to have the wide angle lens all set up and ready to go! Cool place huh?
Sunrise in Denver
I am a big fan of shooting at sunrise - I know, it’s hard to get up! But more often than not, I am rewarded big time for my efforts. Sure, I have my share of wasted mornings but generally I find that I get great light and of course there are no people around. That makes it worth the risk for me. I prefer to have empty scenes, especially because I normally shoot in cities, which are obviously full of people.
This photo is from a nice wintry morning in Denver, CO. I had been up and about before most everyone else, firing off shots here and there and generally enjoying the hell out of it, despite the reasonably cold temps (it had been snowing).
As I was making my last little stop on my route back to the hotel, I came up on the 16th Street Mall just as the sun was trying to break through the thick clouds. The snow had melted, which left a nice wet sheen on the pavement, and gave me a lot to work with. That’s one of the great things about shooting in HDR - you just can’t get all this sort of stuff in a single frame.
Sunrise on the 16th Street Mall
Do you ever find yourself in absolutely the WRONG place when the light gets all awesome? It happens, and it never stops sucking when it does happen. You don’t really get over it, or used to it. It always sucks. But what can you do about it?
I know what I do. I fire away at anything I can so at least I feel like I am being photographically productive. The pictures don’t end up being remarkable, or special in any way, but at least I made an effort. You have to capture some light.
That very thing happened on this cold, wet, and otherwise miserable morning in Denver. Don’t get me wrong - I love Denver - but I was cold, wet and miserable. I had fired some nice shots prior to this, such as this one of Union Station. So the morning wasn’t a total bust.
But a while later I found myself on this street corner at the bottom of the 16th Street Mall, and the sunrise light was getting all fabulous, and I literally had no where I could go to get a great subject for this shot. So I just fired away from the street corner, and had to deal with it. It happens.
I also went ahead and did a quick Before & After comparison on this shot. Normally my comparisons are a bit more dramatic...cause you know, I like moving sliders around LOL...but in this case I feel like the changes that the HDR brought out (and of course, my processing choices) were a bit more subtle. Just thought I would share.
Denver busy-ness
This was a fun shot to process, but I realize there is all kinds of crap going on here. It’s very busy, but what the hell, right?
I took this one in Denver, CO on a rainy afternoon. I had been in the Convention Center shooting with Justin Balog and Rick Louie, both talented local photographers and great guys. After finishing there, we started walking down the street, stopping at this little train station thing.
Since it was raining, we of course stayed under the covered area and shot at some of the passing commuter trains running by. But at some point, I turned around and decided I would shoot this scene. Yes, it’s a busy mess but I really like how the left side seems so cold, and the right side is so warm. There are a lot of lines going this way and that, and though it’s busy, I thought it worked.
What do you think?
Towards Union Station
I grabbed this shot on a cold, snowy morning in Denver, CO recently. I love getting out and shooting in the early morning for a lot of reasons, but one of the primary reasons is that you can capture scenes without all the busy-ness of the day. Things are still quiet and calm and you can enjoy your creative time without the distractions of lots of cars or people walking into your shots. :-)
For this shot, I was really drawn in by the long colored reflections of the various lights shining on the wet street. I just love how those look. I was also making my way towards Union Station, which has that wonderful “Travel by Train” sign in bright neon on top. I just love that sign. Plus I love train stations, so it’s like a double-dip of awesomeness, first thing in the morning!
If you want a closer view of that sign, or of Union Station, you can click here.
Christmas tree lights
Oxford blues
Anyone remember the movie “Oxford Blues” from back in the ‘80’s? It starred Rob Lowe as an American scamming his way into Oxford University to pursue a girl. It was pretty dumb, as I recall. Most ‘80’s movies were not memorable, except the ones made by John Hughes. Those were awesome. Well, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. That was awesome, too. Hang on. I also loved Fletch – but every guy does – and I am digressing so let me get back on topic here. This isn’t a movie blog.
Anyways, that movie is where I got the title of this shot which I took recently in downtown Denver on a cold, snowy morning. I had just shot their Union Station and was walking back towards my hotel when I passed this scene. The morning blue hour was beautiful, and the reflections and colors just caught my eye. I love shooting in cities and sometimes you just get all the right elements in a scene.
The Denver Performing Arts Complex
Here's another shot from my recent trip up to Denver, CO. As I mentioned in this previous post, the weather kept us essentially inside that evening, and as such we ended up shooting at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
This space is a great one to shoot in, namely due to this incredible arched ceiling. I love stuff like this, and was glad to have the chance to shoot here. At one point early on there were a couple of security guards who told us we could shoot anywhere on the ground, but not up on the parking structure which gives this nice view you see here.
Of course, we just waited for them to be out of sight, and Justin led us sneakily onto the elevators…and moments later we were up here. Rick and Justin (both being locals) were kind enough to let me go shoot this spot first, since once we were in position to take this shot we would easily be seen by the security guards, and likely asked to leave.
So, I ran out to this spot, set up and fired away a few brackets quickly. As I was wrapping my last set of shots, I saw the security guards walking along the ground way down below, but they never seemed to notice me. It's nice when you get away with things like this. :-)
Blue hour at Union Station
There are two things that I really love to shoot: train stations and neon signs. Union Station in downtown Denver has both, and is a real beauty of a structure as well. On my recent trip up to Denver, I knew I wanted to catch this place in the morning, either before or during sunrise. I definitely wanted to get a shot with that fabulous neon sign all lit up. It's just so cool.
So, I got up early and walked in the cold about 10 blocks down to the station. There was a light snow blowing in the air, and having just come from warm Texas, it felt like I was in the depths of winter. When I arrived and saw that construction barrier I was a bit disappointed, but the light was excellent and I knew the HDR process would give me some nice light across the streets as well. It ended up being pretty awesome, actually!
Blue hour at the Denver theatre
Last week I had a quick trip up to Denver, CO. I like that town, and had the pleasure of meeting up with Justin Balog and Rick Louie to get out one evening and shoot a bit.
Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with our plans (it was raining), so we were somewhat limited in what we could shoot. But, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts is a great spot to explore and is fully covered, so since we were near it, we went there.
I am a fan of architecture anyways, and this place has a lot of interesting angles and a killer vaulted ceiling (only a small piece of which is shown here). So despite the rain, we found a way to get in some photography. Good times!
Above the mountain
Continuing with the winter theme, today I have a shot from atop a mountain in Beaver Creek, CO. I had arrived there and had some spare moments, so I was of course driving around and looking for things to photograph - which isn't hard when you are in the mountains, and it has been snowing. Everything is beautiful. I originally took a 5 bracket set for this one, but instead opted to take a single exposure and convert to black & white. It's probably a cliche, but snowy scenes do look great in monochrome.
Happy Holidays to all!
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a wonderful Holiday Season! Thanks so much for the visits, the comments, the Likes, and all that stuff. It’s been great fun for me and I plan to keep bringing you nice photos to look at each week!
I took this shot a year ago when I was in Beaver Creek, CO. This is a single long exposure (30 seconds) and the reason I wanted to share it today is that it has three elements in it that represent Christmas to me: the first being (quite obviously) the trees all lit up, the second being the snow (though it is not looking too good here due to the blurred cars passing by), and the third being the light trails of those passing cars, which to me symbolize how rapidly the Holidays come and go - they just whiz by!
Hope you enjoy your Holidays and thanks again for stopping by! I’ll be back next week with more exciting and beautiful pictures!
Winter stream
I love wintry shots from the mountains, and doubly so when you can find a nice quiet stream babbling through the scene. I caught this one in Beaver Creek, CO last winter, and felt it was appropriate since it is winter again. Plus, there just aren't many winter-looking shots to be had down here in Texas! Hope everyone is excited about the upcoming Christmas holiday and enjoying some quality time with your friends and family!
Also, I wanted to mention a new website I just got introduced to - it's called http://www.photowhoa.com and it is a daily deal site for photographers - check it out! It's really a great idea and I signed up for future notices - you should too! Currently, they are running a promotion on Easy Canvas Prints, which I recently reviewed here as well. You can find that review here on my site. Thanks and let me know if you have any questions.