Solstice Fire

Went to a Solstice party last night hosted by my good friend, Glenda, the Good Witch of the North.

Some fire dancers gave us a little show as they whirled and twirled bowls of fire in the night. I have some video as well, but I haven't seen them yet, so I can't tell you if they're good or not.

Hot Rod

Found this little toy car at the dog park this morning while out walking the dummies. So, being who I am, I decided to take a picture of the little thing. Now, I should mention, this car is about the size of a Monopoly piece.

The first image is the original; the second being edited with the Snapseed app on my phone; the third is the Snapseed edit run through the Tsu photo editor powered by Aviary; and the final, edited by the Flickr mobile app.

Original: Straight Out of the Camera

Edited With Snapseed

Snapseed Edit Through Tsu

Flickr App Edit

As you can seen, each image has it's own merits. Well, except for the first one, that one's just terrible. I'm still trying to get used to the new camera on the new phone.

First Photo

Did you know I got a new phone the other day? Yeah. I did. And naturally, my first photo with the new phone is of my dog, Rufus.

Here he is edited with Snapseed and then filtered through EyeEm's filters.

Motorcycle Riding Pictures

You know, it occurred to me the other day that I hadn't written or posted anything here for far too long. I guess that's the price of trying to keep up with four different blogs.

Anywho, last weekend I took some pictures while out riding motorcycles with some friends. The trip was an overnighter and I didn't bring my dSLR because I didn't think we'd be stopping as much as we did, but I did have my handy-dandy Note II and GoPro.

If you want to read about the ride, click this link

This was our group at the top of Independence Pass between Leadville and Aspen, CO. This was actually one of those happy accidents that seem to pop up now and again and bring some unexpected joy into our lives. I had the GoPro mounted to the front of the motorcycle to record the winding twisties up and down the pass only to have it take this still instead of recording video. I still don't know what caused that since the camera is set to default to video, but it happened and it turned out pretty gritty and real. It's a fave shot on our club website.

Another of my favorite shots was this one of Sydney's bike on the side of the highway. She's parked it there while some of us pulled on colder weather gear and I happened to catch it with perfect light - perfect everything. I gave it a little edit with Snapseed to give it this vintage photo look. 

There are some of our bikes parked out in front of a restuarant - okay, okay, a saloon - in Leadville, Colorado. Leadville is considered the hightest city in the country if not the world and is a shadow of it's former self. Aside from passers-through, there really isn't much to this old mining town but some 19th century buildings and old west memorabilia. The black bike 'up front' is mine, the blue one belongs to Deb and the red is the same one from the image above. What I love about this image is the symbology: horses lined up in front a saloon. Modern internal combustion technology in front of a building built in the late 1880s. Dichotomy is amazing. 

  For fun, here's another edit of the CBR from above.

Motorcycle Friends

Some friends of mine came to town this August and I had a chance to go riding with them while they were here. Steve and Sash are a married couple who divested themselves of all their belongings and hit the rode. They live almost exclusively on their bikes, traveling around the county, making friends and enjoying the good life.

I didn't take a lot of pictures while they were in town but these are a few I was able to grab.

The first image is of South Park County, Colorado from Kenosha Pass. Then Sash's Vstar 650, my SV and a picture of Steve and Sash.

Not a Fire

Grabbed this little gem while out walking my dog. Once again I didn't have my dSLR on me and had to grab this with my Android.

The image is of a dead tree's branches reaching for the sky.

This was treated with Snapseed, as usual for photography on the go.

Cathedral on the Plains

While returning to Colorado from a funeral in Florida I took a little side trip to Victoria, KS and the Cathedral on the Plains: http://www.kansastravel.org/cathedralofheplains.htm

It was about 100° F out and we had dogs with us so we didn't stop for long. Just long enough to pop our heads in, grab a couple of shots and then walk the dogs around the grounds.

I'd hoped to grab a shot of a lonely church settled out amongst the rolling fields of Kansas, but the village of Victoria got in the way. Instead, I only grabbed these couple of shots with my phone.

Interesting story, according to a church employee, the area was settled by German-Russians. In the seventeenth century (?) Germans were invited to Russia to cultivate the land with the promise of no taxes and no military service for 100 years. When that time was up those families, who never assimilated, left Russia for the New World and promised of no taxes and free land to farm. Some of them came to Kansas.

This church was built by their descendants and has enough seating for nearly everyone in town.

The third image, the one of the tower, seems like it has that HDR halo around it commonly found in terrible HDR. None of my images are HDR. What you're seeing is the sunlight from the backlit tower making the sky around it a little lighter.

Dock of the Lagoon

Came down to Florida for a funeral and haven't been taking too many pictures. Luckily I had my phone on me when we went out to dinner at a waterfront restaurant in Sebastian, FL.

The first is the full color version and the second is the sepia styled image. I know it's not fashionable but I really love how the sepia one came out.

Dark Side of the Sun

Haven't been taking too many photos lately. I don't know why, maybe its the heat or the rain or just my being too tired.

Or, maybe I'm just being lazy. Who really knows?

Anywho, here are two pictures from yesterday. Once again I failed to bring my dSLR and once again the lighting was perfect. These two I grabbed with my Android.

One, a sunflower from behind because the light was better that way. The other, a number of flowers with a wire fence given a vintage look and feel (I hope).

Tower One

Took the Pentax out for a while today and filled the memory card (a couple of times). That is, I didn't start off with an empty one, made some space by deleting a bunch of images, took a bunch of photos and then had to delete some more, etc.

The image below, however, was captured and uploaded from mobile. The sky had some great texture tonight and I happened to be at the base of Plaza Tower One. Unfortunately, my dSLR was full so I grabbed this little gem with my Note II. I wish I'd left a bit more sky at the top, but what are you gonna do?

As always, edited (not much) with Snapseed and uploaded on the go.

Having Lunch

Went to lunch with a friend and grabbed this little gem without her knowing. I've since sent it to her and she was very pleased.

As always, edited with Snapseed.

Goofygus

Goofygus

Just like the nearly 365 other days of the year, I took Rufus for a walk about an hour or so after his evening meal. We didn't go far, just to a nearby park where I let him run around off leash for a few minutes.

While he was rolling around in the grass I saw something I'd always wanted a picture of but have never been able to get. Rufus hates the camera. He really does. It doesn't matter if it's my Pentax or my Android. As soon as he sees the camera in my hand he turns away.

Today I didn't have my dSLR, just my Android, so I grabbed a couple of quick shots, much to his dismay. I had to hold him down with one hand while I snapped with the other (which isn't easy to do on a 5.2" touchscreen, by the way).

Anywho, this is one of two images I captured that I liked enough to share.

Why Goofygus? Years ago Rufus was acting goofier than usual so I gave him a slight nickname.

As always, edited with Snapseed.

Purple Flower

I keep forgetting to post my images on here. I'd been without editing software for my dSLR (Pentax K5) for a couple of months and sort of got out if the posting habit.

However, with mobile photography there were still gazillions of options. My most commonly used is Google's Snapseed by Nik Software.

Anywho, here's a flower from this morning while out walking the dog.

Reaching the Sky

This is a tree I photographed with my Android while out walking the dogs at the dog park. Edited on the go with Snapseed.

Cycloramic for iOS

Great new app, unfortunately it's for iPhones only. My version of Android can't even get Photosphere as I'm still on 4.1.2.

However, if you have an iDevice and $1.99, this looks like a fun app to grab, especially for those of you who are travelers and like to share your experiences.

The Night Sky

+Darryl Van Gaal has a great Google+ post with plenty of resources for shooting the night sky. Take a look at his post (seen below) and follow the links to his resources.

Rufus in the Snow

I know I've been neglecting this blog for a month or more and there's no one to blame but myself. Not only have I been very busy, but I've also had, and recovered from, a cold as well as ending up on some sort of weird sleep cycle where I'm tired all day, sleeping all night and tired again the next day.

To be honest, I think it's the cold that upset my sleep cycle. Last night seemed to be the first night in weeks where I slept through the entire night and woke up feeling refreshed.

Anywho, about a week ago it snowed in Denver (again). I mean, it's winter and snow isn't uncommon during this time of year. Naturally, I took Rufus to the dog park. He loves the snow and has a blast running around in the icy cold goodness. I think he agrees with the cooler weather and the snow just makes everything smell new and wonderful. Could you imaging being a dog? Science says they're sense of smell is hundreds or thousands of times more sensitive than a human being's olfactory senses. Imagine always being bombarded with hundreds of scents, many outside the scope of what a human can detect, and when the snow settles down, all those scents are gone. Just gone. It's a brand new world.

Rufus loves it and as a good dog owner, I take him out and let him romp in the snow.

So, here's a couple of images of Rufus at the dog park the other day with the snow coming down around us. Luckily, the Pentax K5 can work unhindered in colder weather than it's Nikon and Canon counterparts.

Rufus Hates Posing

Rufus in the Snow