An even colder day!

It was only eight degrees (-13C) when I woke up this morning. It's supposed to dip below zero tonight! Here's a footprint in the snow on the sidewalk in front of my studio. I think the postman must have left it.

A cold and windy day

It was only 18 degrees out (-8 Celsius) when I took this picture in front of my studio today. Brrrrr!

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I love red! It's my favorite color. What's your favorite color?

The giant orange paper clip

One of the great things about living here is the abundance of art on the streets downtown. This giant paper clip was installed in front of the Plaza of the Rockies fairly recently. I don't know who the artist is, but it reminds me a little of Klaes Oldenburg. Good stuff!

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Part 2

Another great zoo photo taken by my friend Jennifer last weekend, to complement yesterday's post. This is an Asiatic bear named Beezler. Cute!

To my U.S. readers, Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

Did you know that our Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is one of only two mountain zoos in the country? In fact it's one of the highest altitude zoos in the world! My friend Jennifer visited there over the weekend with her sister Paula and niece Samantha. Since we have a good friend who's been a zookeeper there for many years, they got the "insider's view" of the place. Jenn took this picture of a spectacled bear named Osito. Isn't he cute?

More tomorrow! Thanks Jenn for sharing your pictures!

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As I was photographing the portraits at my best friend's brother's wedding in Denver a couple of weekends ago, I noticed how beautiful the twilight sky looked and grabbed a shot just before the sun disappeared.

Zeb

Here's Zebulon Pike with his namesake mountain in the background. This statue lives in front of the El Paso County Courthouse, and you have to stand in just the right place to be able to see the mountain.

(Sorry for the cheesy Photoshopping job! He was more than a little backlit.)

Jury duty

Yesterday I did my civic duty and appeared as Juror #1492 at the El Paso County Courthouse at 8:30am sharp! This was the farthest I've ever gotten along in the jury selection process. Other times I was dismissed by 10:00am; yesterday, however, I went through the entire grilling process with both attorneys and the judge. It was 2:30pm before they decided I would not be a suitable juror for the case at hand. An entire day, gone! Oh well. It was really interesting and I enjoyed learning about the process anyway, even though I was anxious to get out of there.

This photo was taken in the courtroom during a lull in the selection process. My fellow jury candidates and I thought it was quite hilarious that they had to post a sign asking jurors not to put their feet on the wall. Who does that? Especially in front of a judge?!? I think that would be pretty foolish! Also, the ridiculously polite wording of the sign was comical in itself. If it were up to me, the sign would say, "What, were you rasied by wolves? Get your damn feet off the wall this instant!"

Happy Birthday Colorado Springs Daily Photo!

That's right, today is the anniversary of my first post! I started this blog a year ago and it's brought me so much creative fulfillment, not to mention making wonderful new online friends and seeing many other cities around the world through their eyes. I would like to thank Eric of Paris Daily Photo for welcoming my little blog into the City Daily Photo community and for inspiring me to continue this wonderful journey.

Today's photo was taken on November 5th at the Fountain Valley School. I was on assignment to photograph a charming antique gate on their grounds that's strung with Christmas lights. They plan to use it for their annual Christmas card. As we were packing up to leave, Pat asked me to take a picture of the building behind us -- I believe it's called Casa Serena, and it's one of the many beautiful hacienda-style buildings on the FVS campus, most of which were built in the 1920s. For the curious, this image was shot with a Nikon D300 at ISO 2000, f:3.8 with a 2.5 second exposure (yes, I used a tripod). But beyond the technical stuff I think it's just a gorgeous building, and thanks Pat for asking me to make this one last exposure before leaving! If you look closely you can see the stars.