Vern's

This place looks like it has a lot of character. I wouldn't know, I haven't been inside yet. I'll get to it eventually.

Odd Flower

I came across this odd looking flower pod bud thingy while going for some shots of the big birds (below).

The Park

This is the most awesome park I've ever seen! We take our two year old son here all the time. I love that Fort Collins takes it's parks and recreation areas seriously.

Humming

Just another of a gazillion hummingbirds who frequent our house.

Banjo

I love the look the guy on the left is giving me. Just kinda "What's with the dude with the camera?" Didn't think they even noticed me until I looked more closely at this shot today.

Bridge To Grey Rock

This bridge crosses the Poudre River to start the trail to Grey Rock. Little did I know when I crossed it that the next several miles would totally kick my ass as I boogied up the trail to beat the sunset. I lost, the nice light was gone when I got to the top.

Grey Rock

The trail to Grey Rock is (understandably) the most heavily hiked trail in Poudre Canyon. I hiked it for the first time last night, starting the 3.6 mile trek around 8 PM. By the time I got to the top of the trail, it was around 9:30 PM, and the sun was just about gone. There was just enough light to grab a couple photos like this one.

The 45 minute hike down was done in complete darkness, just me and my companion, the flashlight.

Monkey Rings

I don't know exactly what you call these. I call 'em monkey rings. Cause the little monkeys like to climb on them. And, you know, they're rings.

Big Birds

I went to Riverbend Ponds Natural Area in Fort Collins for my lunch break to try and capture some bird photos.

What I found were a lot of Canada Geese, and a few crane type birds. Could be herons, I don't know, I'm no bird expert.

Columbine

The Colorado state flower, the columbine. Young Gulch, Poudre Canyon, CO.

There's Smoke In The Water

Okay, so I know that long exposure photos of moving water is totally cliche. But I don't care, I like 'em, and I've never done one of a nice tranquil stream.

This was taken on the trail up Young Gulch in Poudre Canyon, outside Fort Collins.

Poudre Blur

The Poudre River in all it's fury. I'm lucky enough to stare down at this spot in the river every day from home.

Hay

Big round bales of hay with the foothills beyond. Took this shot in Bellvue, CO, across the road from Vern's store.

Needles

Got this shot at Lory State Park, just outside of Fort Collins.

Pivot

A pivot, farm irrigation equipment. Across from Ted's Place north of Fort Collins, Colorado.

I pass by this field every day on my way to and from home. This pivot irrigates the field in a circular pattern, with the center of the circle at the furthest side of the photo.

For weeks I've been waiting until two conditions were met to take this photo. 1) The water had to be turned on. 2) The pivot had to be positioned just right so I could actually get into a position to take the shot. It was worth the wait...to me at least.

Ishihara

As a colorblind guy, I see a lot of Ishihara dot tests. This painting in an alley in Fort Collins looks like one to me.

Colorblind photographer you say? Yep.

UPDATE: A fellow photographer in Fort Collins just let me know that the power transformer that this painting is on was painted by a local artist, Amelia Caruso. While her main web site seems to be down, I did find this web site where you can see her other work. Amelia, if you see this blog, nice work!

Aspen

I really, really love the aspen trees in Colorado. I love that combination of white bark and green (or sometimes gold) leaves.

And I really love the pattern that the bark makes.

Old Wood

Some gnarly old rotting wood. This was the root system of a tree that fell long ago in Young's Gulch, Poudre Canyon.

Poudre Sunset

Sunset on Poudre Canyon. Took this from my front yard.

USDA

The entrance to one of the US Department of Agriculture buildings in Fort Collins. I work in a nearby building.

Blue

I was taking a photo of this drainage ditch near work. I noticed the way the light was glistening off the water and thought a defocused shot would look cool. I tinted it shot blue in Lightroom.

Pokey

Meet Pokey. My son goes nowhere without Pokey.

Pokey is also known as "Bear?". Also "Bear!", "BEAR!", "BEAR?!", and "Beeeeaaaar! (whining)".

Loved the light coming in the window with the rain in the background.

Sculpture

Another from the sculpture garden in Loveland.

Metal

The Benson Sculpture Garden is in Loveland, just south of Fort Collins. It has this really awesome sculpture garden, and there are sculptures all over the city. This one caught my eye as something I could play with.

I put my Vivitar flash on the ground on the opposite side of the sculpture, pointing up at it. Brought down the ambient exposure a bit, and well, there you have it.

U CAN DO IT!

Here's the sign. Underexposed the scene, and popped my flash at the sign to make it stand out a little.

U CAN DO IT!

This little guy made out of tiles is atop a sign on a bike trail that says "U CAN DO IT!". Located near the USDA complex in Fort Collins.

Baffled

This was the cooling baffles for a big piece of electrical equipment at a middle school.

Though it was mid-day and bright, I overpowered the sun with my Vivitar 285HV flash held at the top of the frame, just so the light skimmed those plates. In post I cooled down the colors, as the original was brown.

Bell

Found this cool green bell at a local middle school.

I underexposed the ambient about a stop to bring attention to the light in the bell.

I put my Vivitar 285HV on the back side pointing up into the bell to make it glow. In post I converted the WB to fluorescent, which made the background go magenta and evened out the (extremely) green light coming from inside the bell. The inside is clearly painted green just like the outside.

My Keyboard

This is the keyboard for my computer at work.

Lit with a Vivitar flash at camera left, diffused with a piece of copier paper. I tinted the whole thing blue in Lightroom.

My Phone At Work

This is my phone at work. Fancy eh?

Lit with a Vivitar 285HV flash to camera left. I held a piece of copier paper over the flash to diffuse the light.

Aspen

This little stand of aspen trees is in my front yard. Each one is about four inches in diameter.

The Cake Is A Lie

Wha?

Near The Bridge

This little shack was about a 100 meters from the bridge in the last post. This little offshoot from the river stays really calm and glassy all the time. Heavy foliage and lots of floaties in the water make it look cool all day long.

Another Bridge

This is starting to become a theme the last couple days. This bridge goes over the Poudre River, but down in the flat lands, away from the mountains where I live. I really liked all the cool angles that the support beams made.

Bridge Over (Sometimes) Troubled Water

This is a little bridge that crosses the seasonal creek next to my driveway. I thought it looked nice and serene after we got a couple inches of fresh snow.

Rocky

A scene from Rocky Mountain National Park in September, 2007. Just below the frame is a herd of elk.

Work

This field is just outside my window at work. This stream (AKA ditch) runs next to the building. I saw this cool sky the other day and decided to snag a photo from work.

Flower

This flower was on our dining room table for a couple weeks (until we killed it). Lit with a single 430EX flash held above and slightly left.

Chrome

Another shot from today's car show. Don't know what model, but I know it was a Chevy :-)

Hot Rod

Went to the Old Town Car Show in Fort Collins today. Lots of cool abstract shots to be made at a place like that. Lots of chrome, cool colors, and neat patterns to work with.

Since I'm no hot rod junkie, I couldn't tell you what kind of car this was to save my soul. It sure was cool though.

Poudre

This is an HDR image looking down the canyon from my front deck.

Self Portrait

I drove by this cool hay barn and stopped to take a few photos of the farm equipment. I took this shot of myself in the window to the cab of a big backhoe.

Milk

Just to camera right is a dairy farm located about 8 miles from my house at the entrance to Poudre Canyon. That neat looking landmass in the distance looks like some of the earth was simply peeled up like a can of fruit. It almost looks alien depending on your vantage point. I've been wanting to get a good photo of it for a while, but needed to find a good foreground element. I think these logs and the cows do OK.

When I got out of my truck to take this picture, the smell of the cows was almost unbearable.

Dream Lake 2: For Jim (365,000 Words)

Jim(365,000 Words) left a comment on my last Dream Lake photo saying he wished there was more of the foreground in the shot.

Well Jim, here you go. This ice I'm standing on in this shot is a frozen small stream that continues on down the mountain from Dream Lake (about 50 feet in front of the camera). It froze in place, with ripples and all. It was just begging to be a strong foreground element.

I only wish I'd had a wider lens that day, so that I could have done this shot in a landscape orientation.

By the way, now that summer is here, I plan to go back and get this same series of shots in a different season, though the mountains above are still under snow.

$148.18

Anyone want to buy a print? Signed copies. Shall we say, oh, $148.18 for one?

Ay yay yay.

Dream Lake

Back in February we went showshoeing in Rocky Mountain National Park, about an hour away. We came upon the most incredible view, Dream Lake.

The temperature was around 10 F and the wind was blowing ice so hard that I had to shield my face whenever I wasn't looking through the viewfinder. Snapped a few photos and bailed to more sheltered terrain.

College

Seriously now, how bad is this guy's job?

Kids...go to college.

Finches

Now that the weather is warming up, the bids have been going crazy for our feeders. Though you can't see it from this photo, there are a couple dozen birds down below on the deck waiting for their turn.

Foundations

We're having a garage built, and this is one of the trenches that were dug to lay the foundation. Behind me is a 10 foot tall wall of granite. This was all blasted out with dynamite and all the rubble dumped over the hill. This is a HDR image made from a single RAW file.

Hydraulic

This is a shot of my dad's tractor. I use it to plow snow from our 1/2 mile long driveway during the winter. Lucky for me I only had to do it once.

What you see here is the hydraulic piston that makes the front bucket rotate up and down.

I like photos of tractors and want to stop and shoot every one I see. The older and more rundown the better.