A Creek Runs Through It

Grabbed this shot while out walking the dogs earlier today. Couldn't figure out how I liked the edit best: color, black and white or with the green tint.

What do you think?

This is a mobile shot 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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Denver

Had a chance to grab a couple of (android) shots of the Denver skyline.

The images were edited with Snapseed and then two of them -- one of each -- were given some extra treatment. You know, for fun.

Unfortunately,  I didn't know we were going to be allowed on the 7th floor garden terrace or I would have brought my tripod and Pentax.

The Shell

"The Original" SOOC

I know I've been ignoring this blog for a while and I apologize for that indiscretion. While I haven't stopped taking pictures, both with Android and with Pentax; and while I haven't stopped sharing them on both Google+ and Streamzoo, I just haven't been in a place to sit down and type out posts.

Today, hopefully that changes.

The image to the right is one I snapped at the dog park a few days ago. This shotgun shell was just sitting out there on the walking path in a place designated for dogs, horses, cyclists and runners.

It's not really a place for shot guns or their shells. Now, granted, this area used to be a gun-dog training area, but casual dog walkers eventually took it over from those trying to teach their hunting dogs not to fear the sound of a shotgun firing and to retrieve on command. Occasionally a shotgun shell is found in the park, some older than others.

For giggles I played with a handful of photo-editing software options and differing techniques to create the images below. Since this image was simple, had some depth of field and a foreground subject matter it was an easy image to experiment with in this manner. This first one, How the West Was Won, I edited with the online service, PicMonkey. There are strong similarities between PicMonkey and Google's Creative Kit (formerly known as Picnik) and that can be ascribed to PicMonkey being the pet project of those developers who originally created Picnik and left Google after their program being acquired by the search giant.

On to the edits!

Winning the West

 I decided to give this image an "old west" or sepia feel since the lonely shotgun shell lying on the ground just shrieked "leftover from the OK Corral" to me. It's not from anywhere close to Tombstone, AZ, but Colorado was also a part of the western expansion of the late 19th century and that was good enough for me. In order to complete the feel of the "old west" I rounded the corners and darkened the edges.

Edit on the Go

Since this was an Android original, my first edit was using Google's (Nik Software) Snapseed Android app. While far more feature filled than many image editing Android apps, Snapseed is still just a mobile app and therefore limited. The image, which I stated before, screamed old west and instead of creating a sepia image, I just boosted the contrast, made the image black and white and then added some texture --  hopefully to give the image a classic feel, perhaps a little nostalgia from the 40s or 50s, before color film became widespread and monochrome still ruled the world.

My impression of the final edit is an image found in an old newspaper or magazine, accompanying a story about murderers on the run in New Mexico, Utah, Texas or the Mojave Desert.

Like PicMonkey before, Google's social network, Google+'s, online image editing software is easy and convenient. While this image edit became the template look for the above wild west look I settled on above, I used Creative Kit because... well, I was bored. That's right, I was logged into Google+, became bored and decided to play with Creative Kit.

Aftermath of the zombie apocalypse

This edit was a little different, instead of  "old west" I saw the final image and immediately thought of the what the world would look like in the aftermath of the impending zombie invasion. Not the zombies running around trying to get at our brains, but rather what the world would look like once the last zombie has been dispatched from existence. It won't be sunshine and rainbows, I think, but a wasteland devoid of humanity with the ground littered in the shells of bullets giving proof to humanity's fight for survival. Sure there will still be people, but perhaps a tenth of the population of any given geographic location, I think.

Yesterday's End

Taken with my Android device and edited with Google's Snapseed app. 

This image is of the Cherry Creek Lake in Colorado, looking west. 

A Walk with Rufus

I took my dog for a walk earlier this evening and didn't bring my dSLR along with us. I know, I know, bad Magic Elf Box.

To be honest, unless Rufus is off leash he's usually just in the way: pulling on my arms while I'm framing an image, nudging the tripod/monopod, getting into pictures I don't want him in or not into pictures I do want him in.

Today I just decided to bring along my Android. I'm sort of like Luke Skywalker like that.

All images were edited with Snapseed.

The first image, to the right, is of a pair of shoes I saw there at the park months ago, the last time Rufus and I walked over there. I saw them still sitting there under a bush and decided to take them down to the lake shore and use them as a prop. 

The picture of shoes is something I've been wanting to do and this was just a serendipitous moment.

What really surprised me was the number of dead fish on the beach and in the water. A ranger (or was it the Park's GM) once told me this was natural but I've seen too many stories on the news about swimmers getting rashes and mutant fish to trust that line of spin.

This fish was just sitting there and I think I might have stepped on him before noticing him lying there. There was still a little bit of snow near his tail (that's the white stuff back there) and you can see the line in the sand where I removed a twig that served no aesthetic purpose what-so-ever. Not that a dead fish is aesthetic at all, but the twig didn't fit the image I wanted. 

Remember, I went out with only my Android and Rufus to keep me company. While the coyotes were howling and Rufus was sniffing the dead fish I was able to capture this image of the Cherry Creek lake, Denver Tech Center and what can be seen on the mountains in the background.

At one point we saw (I say "we" but I mean "I" -- Rufus doesn't notice these sorts of things) a bicycle chain dangling from this gate post. I have to conclude, since this is a very active bicycling route, someone's chain broke and they either field replaced their chain or called for a ride and left this dangling for a good Samaritan or park ranger to dispose. 

To be honest, with Rufus pulling on the leash eager to move on, I only had a chance to take this one picture before he dragged me in front of a father/son duo of bicyclists. Not the greatest shot, but I like juxtapositions and this one has metal and wood, man made and natural.

I have noticed, though, the images appear better on my Android with Snapseed than they do displayed here. For some reason the colors aren't jumping out and the sharpness doesn't seem to be as prevalent as it appears on mobile. Is it the screen? Hm.