Walking On Water

While out at the Sand Dunes in November I was able to capture this image of a man pointing his camera at the setting sun. The image was a last minute one that I hadn't planned on shooting, but the man's silhouette just sold the scene for me. Instead of merely a darkening sky and the reflections of the creek breaking up the blackened foreground, I have a man enjoying one of the country's great wonders at dusk.

I didn't catch his name, or if I did, I can't recall his name, but I did give him the address to this blog, so perhaps he'll peruse on by one day and see himself the way my camera saw him.

Dusk at the Dunes

Holy Great Sand Dunes, Batman!

Between computer problems and just plain laziness (oh, and some part-time work) I haven't been updating this blog very much. It's sad, really -- I haven't even been updating from mobile with mobile shots. Of course, in my defense, I haven't been been uploading to Streamzoo, Google+ or anywhere else from mobile, either. For some reason I just haven't been able to capture a good picture with my Note II, even with the assistance of Snapseed.

However, I have taken pictures. I wish I could say hundreds, nay, thousands of images, but I haven't been that active with the camera recently. A couple of weeks ago I did go to The Great Sand Dunes National Monument and while I captured a few good images, nothing spectacular crossed my lens. What stopped me from getting a great shot? No clouds or color to the sky other than blue; footprints in the sand marring any sense of natural wonder and my dog. Yes, I said 'my dog.'

How does Rufus prevent me from taking great shots? Simple, I had a leash in one hand and a camera in the other -- there was no room for carrying a tripod. That means as the sun inched closer to the horizon my ISO had to steadily creep higher until the images were grainy, even after converting to jpg.

Anywho, here's a picture. You came here to see pictures, right?

Arrakis

Tug-o-War

I haven't posted recently since my computer went kaput, but I've been wanting to, so here's a couple of Android shots of Charlie playing tug-o-stick with Willow, the pit bull mix at the dog park this morning.

These are, of course, edited with Snapseed.

I [Heart] Brains

Zombie Girl with a Flower

There's a not-so secret in Denver, Colorado. Every year, for one day only, a feral outbreak hits the city, spreading a plague of the undead across the Mile High City, specifically along the 16th Street Mall and Skyline Park. For eight years now, the EyeHeartBrains.com zombie crawl has traversed the core of downtown Denver, bringing record breaking numbers of zombies to the city and leaving blood and bloody carcasses in it's wake.

Zombies of all shapes and sizes, ages and backgrounds crawled along the walking outdoor mall and where there are zombies there are zombie hunters, survivalists and, yes, looky-loos. I, once again, was one of those looky-loos. Camera in hand -- this is a photography blog after all -- I buttoned up my courage and drove downtown to the heart of the outbreak. As it turns out, there's a zombie for just about everything: zombie Star Wars characters, zombie Jesus', zombie fishermen and a plethora of zombie nurses.


 Below are a handful of zombie pictures, some of my favorites from the day and then a link to some more. Enjoy!

What do zombies need more than a Brainz-on-a-Stick Vendor?

A Big Zombie with Hot Pink Hair

Obligatory Zombie Nurse and one of my personal favorite shots of the day

Always Carry (Zombie) Protection

Click the Above Image for the Full Album

The Dogs

My dog Rufus and my roommate's dog, Charlie. I haven't shared pictures of them recently, at least not on this blog and these Android shots were sitting on my phone collecting electronic dust.

I have some pictures from last weekend's Zombie Crawl to upload as well and will hopefully get those out in the next day or two.

As always, these were edited with Google's Snapseed mobile app before sharing.

Fall in Colorado

As the saying goes, there's gold in them thar hills and last week I had a chance to grab a  few shots of the changing leaves. Years ago, I used to head into the mountains regularly, at least a few times a month, but when gas prices started becoming ridiculously high and employment started becoming ridiculously scarce, spending $60 just to drive into the mountains became a luxury, not a necessity. Let me be clear, $60 doesn't fill my 28 gallon gas tank, it merely provides enough gas for me to drive up and drive back and doesn't include any food I might purchase, lift tickets or overnight stays, etc.

Beer City Mountain

A year ago I took the motorcycle with me, thus reducing the overhead costs significantly, but I couldn't bring along my tripod or dogs, so this year I decided to take my truck, improving my capacity to bring long canine companions, extra gear, food and drinks. Normally, I'd ask to borrow a friend's extra car, since it gets roughly 25 miles to the gallon while my truck peaks out at 15mpg, downhill, with a tailwind. However, the car wasn't being very reliable and I was left with no choice but to take my gas-guzzling behemoth.

My first thought was to go for a short hike on a trail I know barely an hour outside of Denver, but after stopping to take a picture and sinking nearly up to my knees in some mud, I decided to forego being on my feet all day and just drive around.

Without a plan of action now, I headed up Guanella Pass near Georgetown, CO. to see what there was to see. And it was great. Aside from all the brown of leaves already gone, there were whole patches of vivid yellows against backdrops of deep greens.

I grabbed a few pictures before heading up higher and higher, essentially rising above tree line and arriving at the highest point of the pass: the Mt. Bierstadt peak viewing lot. With dogs in tow, I exited the vehicle, grabbed my tripod (even though it wasn't needed on a bright sunshiny day) and set out walking just to grab a few shots before moving further along the pass and then on to Kenosha Pass. However, I soon became distracted and kept wanting to move forward to take another picture and then another picture and then another picture and so forth. The next thing I know, the dogs and I were miles from the truck and we turned to head back before it became too cold.

On the way back down the mountain pass I pulled over at a scenic viewing location only to find a trail system majestically covered by aspens. I was very shocked and awed when I saw this trail leading off away from the parking area and will eagerly go back again in the future perhaps next fall, perhaps in the spring and perhaps this winter after it snows.

Anywho, here's one of my favorite shots from that unexpected jaunt:

Green, Gold and a Yellow Road

In the Mirror

Last night I had dinner at the Lumber Baron Inn, a bed and breakfast in an old mansion on the west side of Denver. The entire place was decked out in the macabre, skulls and other ghostly attire, draped just about everywhere as many places are this time of year.

In the upstairs men's room, above the urinal, this skull stared back at those of us relieving ourselves. Naturally, I snapped a photo.

There was some glare and reflection in the image so I had to use some creative editing to reduce those impurities before deeming the image shareable.

Here it is, my final product, edited solely with Snapseed for Android.

Does it scare you?

Canon City, CO and Thereabouts

A few months ago I went to Canon City, CO to go camping in the area with a friend. Naturally, I grabbed my dSLR and brought it along, but unfortunately there were more days of bad light than good light. What's "bad light" you might ask? Well, Timmy, "bad light" is flat and boring. 

Fortunately, though, I was able to grab a couple of decent images, even more fortunate are the others I was able to save with some creative editing.

Click Collage to go to Album

My friend had plans our first day in the area and I was left to my own devices. I took the truck and the dogs up into them thar hills and lucked across this old GMC sitting in someone's front yard. I pulled over and snapped a couple of shots quickly before jumping back into the Explorer and moving on. 

One our way back to the campsite from the city my friend suggested taking this very short very scenic route along some sort of ridge. The top might have been three car lanes wide, leaving only one lane's width for people to actually travel upon: Youtube video (NOT MINE). 

I love geology and even thought about studying it in college, so when I see these sorts of layers in the rock I become a little excited. 

Also up there are the underside of some donosaur footprints. You don't see the impression in the the rock, what you see are the underside which looks like a bunch of rock-bubbles clinging on. It's very surreal, especially at this height, reminding us that this wasn't always a ridge and some animals traversed here regularly.

While at the top, I pointed the camera back out towards the valley and snapped a surprisingly good image of the road winding it's way westward.

The day we left was the worst day, by far, weather-wise. It had rained all night and off and on throughout the day. We wanted to see the world famous Royal Gorge suspension bridge before leaving but as luck would have it, the earlier Colorado wildfires ravaged the area and the bridge was closed to visitors. Instead, we hiked up a small trail where we could see the bridge from afar.

Same Road / Different Photo

This is a couple of photos of the road as you come into Roxborough State Park taken from different points.

One I treated in black and white while the other seems like a march made in heaven for sepia tones.

Both of them are Android shots and edited with Snapseed.

A Few More Pics from the Dog Park

I went ahead and edited some more pictures from yesterday's outing to the dog park. All of these are edited with Snapseed and were captured with my Note II.

Cherry Creek State Park given a, what I hope is, an old timey vintage look.

Charlie being Regal

Rufus, Being Rufus

Charlie in the Creek

Rufus Trying to Figure Out What's so Important That I have to Kneel down in Front of Him With My Camera

Cloudy Afternoon at the Park

Rufus Found a Crawdad (well, I Found a Crawdad, but Rufus Took it From Me and it Pinched Him)

More Cloudy Skies and Sandy Shores

Rufus

I Already Posted This Image, but in Color. I like the BW as Well.

At the Dog Park

For the first time in weeks I brought Dumb and Dumber to the dog park. They're having a blast however neither one of them wanted to model for me. Plus this Android's camera is slow.

Here are a couple of shot of the two dogs, edited with Snapseed, for your comedic pleasure.

Rufus Hating the Camera in his Face

Rufus in Black and White

Looking Down on Charlie

Charlie Sitting Pretty

After the Flood

Here are a couple of pictures from the hail storm that rolled through eastern Denver/western Aurora, CO this afternoon.

The water in this is actually a park that flooded with more than 6 feet of water height, going so far as to cover signs and guard rails. The sidewalks were, and are, underwater, however the water covering the playground has since receded.

As always, these were edited with Snapseed.

Rufus looking for ducks, or something else to kill

The mist forming from the warmer water hitting the cooler air, with a old photo twist

A young girl separated from the playground by flood waters

Rufus of the Mists

Google+'s New Photo Editing Features

Google decided to roll out new old features to their cloud photo editing options. To be honest, I'm not sure if they retired PicNik or just buried it somewhere else, but the new features are desktop (well, Chrome-top) versions of their popular on-the-go Android app, Snapseed. Why Chrome-top? Apparently the feature is not available unless you're using the Chrome web browser, or presumably the ChromeOS.

 Maybe the Picnik features are still available to other browser users? I'll have to check and update this post.

To find this feature, using Chrome, log into your Google+ account. On the left hand side, choose Photos and then a photo. Once the individual image is open in the lightbox, there should be an Edit option on the top row above the picture. Then edit away... just like Snapseed.

Here's the first image I decided to test this feature on and below I'll post the image from when I edited this with Snapseed on the go many, many, many moons ago:

Originally, I edited this image using the Snapseed app on my Note II.

And here's the unedited original Android shot:

Fire in the Sky

I went out to catch something completely different from this, but once I saw the rays of light shooting up under the dark clouds, I couldn't help but turn the camera towards the mountains.

That darker straight line is the Cherry Creek Dam and those mountains are more than 30 miles away.

Where the dam meets the water, off to the left of the image, is the Cherry Creek marina and if you zoom into the image you can see the boats floating there as they spend another night tethered to the piers.

I really wish I would have known the sunset was going to be this magnificent as I would have sought out a better view. As it was, this was a happy accident. My only wish was the dam wasn't in the image. However, the walk back to the truck plus drive time, would not have given me enough time to catch this with the rays shooting up and out like they are and that made all the difference between this sunset and hundreds of others.

An Evening at the Dog Park

I didn't bring my dSLR to the dog park and I really wish I had considering the amazing sunset I witnessed.

These were taken with my Android and edited with Snapseed.

I especially love the one with the last ray of sunshine escaping over the mountains, red against the bluish clouds behind.

Sunsetting

Here's another sunset in Colorado. Why? Because we've been having some great cloud work during the evenings and I've been wanting to get great pictures of the sunsets.

These are Android shots, edited with Snapseed.