Flowers in the sky

One of my favorite things about living in Colorado Springs is the abundance of public art. The downtown area is dotted with sculptures, many of them by local artist Chris Weed. This particular piece of art is probably my favorite because it's so cheerful. It's several colossal sunflowers (or are they black-eyed Susans?) that sit in the median between the north- and southbound lanes of Cascade Avenue, right in front of the Antlers-Hilton. I've always wanted to photograph them. They seemed like a great subject for my end-of-the-year post, so yesterday I pulled over, ran across traffic and took a few snaps agains the bright blue sky.

Chris used to be a friend of mine but I haven't spoken to him in years. I still have a small table he gave me in 1995 (he makes furniture too). It's one of my prized possessions.

Happy New Year everyone! Thanks to all of you for your visits and comments in 2008 -- I'll see ya in 2009!

A different perspective

A different perspective indeed: from atop a large horse! As a little girl I was absolutely fascinated by horses and I read all the books -- Misty of Chincoteague, Black Beauty, National Velvet, all the Black Stallion books. I had horse figurines and toys. Even my Barbies had a very nice horse. I was obsessed, just ask my mom. Since I was a really artistic kid too, I filled sketchbooks with drawing after drawing of equines. Now of course this meant that I was never allowed to ride a horse ever, since the intensity of a child's desire to do something is inversely proportionate to her parents' resolve not to let her do whatever that thing may be. They never did relent, so I reached adulthood with that huge gaping hole in my list of experiences: never rode a horse. (Except for when I was six and my mom let me go on a pony once around a ring -- but that doesn't count!) Stood on the lip of an active volcano, check. Camped on the beach, check. Climbed a 14,000 foot mountain, check. Rode a horse? Nope.

So at some point I added it to my list of Things I Want To Do Before I Die, and last year I let Pat know that it would be great to go riding sometime. And bless his heart, for Christmas last year he gave me a gift certificate to Academy Riding Stables. I love this man! I was so excited to finally get the chance to fulfill a lifelong dream!

We wanted to wait until there was decent weather, but then wedding season kicked in and there was never any time to redeem my gift certificate. Finally, at the end of October, we made a plan to go horseback riding. This was very exciting indeed. Let me explain that Academy Riding Stables is more of a tourist thing than a serious rider thing; they are situated at the western edge of the Garden of the Gods and they do guided horseback tours through the park. They don't do riding lessons or anything like that. It's pretty much a dude ranch experience and they'll take any level of rider, even someone like me who's never ridden before.

So that's what we did! We went on a one-hour, touristy, guided tour of Garden of the Gods on horseback, and I had the time of my life. I didn't have to do much of anything but keep my butt in the saddle. My horse, CJ, just followed the horse in front of him. I swear I had the silliest grin on my face the entire time. CJ was so large that I had to stand on a platform to mount him, at one point he made a half-hearted attempt to scrape me off, my back was aching by the end of it, but I didn't care because I did it! I rode a horse! Thanks Pat, I love you!

Vintage signs

Colorado Springs has an awesome array of cool vintage signage concentrated in certain areas of town -- this is just a small sampling of them (click on the image for a larger view). These particular signs are located in downtown, the Old North End, Roswell, the west side, Nob Hill, Ivywild and Manitou, and many of them are local landmarks. I took all of these photos on April 13th as part of a personal project that I have yet to complete. It's only just now that I've had the time to look at them and play around! I should know better than to start personal projects during wedding season.

Pat and I are obsessed with mid-century modern design and architecture, and I particularly love all things vintage. I have lived here a long time and have always loved all the signs you see here (and more). I'm glad I finally took the time to photograph them.

Red Rock Canyon

Red Rock Canyon is an open space project that sits between Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs. By "open space project", I basically mean it's a park that's open to one and all. It's a pretty large area and for most of our city's history it was privately owned. A few years ago the city acquired the land and converted it to public use.

I love going to Red Rock Canyon and I don't get there nearly enough. It's incredibly beautiful and has some great hiking trails ranging from "fluffy" to "pretty darn challenging", so anyone can come and enjoy this great open space. For most of its history, Red Rock Canyon was mined for all kinds of different stone and gravel needs. It gave a lot then and it's still giving a lot now, only in kinder-to-the-environment ways. Every time I go there I see happy people enjoying the great outdoors! We're so lucky to have this lifestyle in Colorado Springs and I try not to take it for granted.

This photo was taken in July of 2007 while I was doing an engagement portrait shoot. I just remember how HOT it was that day! One of the quarries had at some point been filled in to make a large pond, and it looked so inviting on that scorching afternoon. Colorado Springs is such an arid climate -- whenever I see a body of water I have to take a picture of it!

Coal Mine Dragon

Coal Mine Dragon (1720 W. Uintah St.) is my favorite Chinese restaurant in Colorado Springs. And it's cheap! Tonight we had dinner for three and it came to a little over $24. That's a good deal! I'm pretty sure that every town in every country in the world has got their version of Coal Mine Dragon. I saw something on TV about that not too long ago -- there are Chinese restaurants in every country on Planet Earth. I hope they all serve that weird hot pink gooey "sweet and sour" sauce that looks like it comes in 50 gallon vats and has a half-life of 26 trillion years.

I love Coal Mine Dragon and my favorite lunchtime dish there is curried chicken. From the dinner menu it's always chicken with cashew nuts. In fact, I don't even have to tell the waiter what I want, they already know. Pat and I have been going there regularly for over a decade.

I took this picture of Coal Mine Dragon's plastic golden carp because, well, they may have great food but their decor leaves a little bit to be desired! This is the most photogenic thing in the place!

Christmas night city view

After enjoying a Christmas feast at my brother Chuck's house then going home and opening our presents, Pat and I took a drive up to Old Stage Road to take in the breathtaking city view. It stretches on for almost as far as the eye can see! We don't have skyscrapers in Colorado Springs because there is a city ordinance that prohibits blocking the view of Pikes Peak. What we do have is lots and lots of land, so the city spreads out endlessly across the plains.

From Old Stage Road you can see the entire city at night and it's simply amazing. This is just a small portion of it. You can see the Broadmoor Hotel at the bottom right, reflected in its lake. You can see the major north/south arteries: Nevada, Academy and Powers. You can see the far eastern edge of town, but even with a fisheye lens it would be impossible to capture the northern and southern borders in the same photo because they are so far apart.

I love this view and never tire of it. I don't get up to Old Stage Road nearly enough.

Merry Christmas to all!

Joyeux Noel!

Maligayang Pasko!

Mele Kalikimaka ame Hauoli Makahiki Hou!

Feliz Navidad!

Milad Majid!

Glædelig Jul!

Feliz Natal!

Shinnen omedeto!

Buone Feste Natalizie!

Nollaig chridheil huibh!

Hristos se rodi!

Prieci'gus Ziemsve'tkus un Laimi'gu Jauno Gadu!

Selamat Hari Natal!

To all my friends and loyal blog followers at City Daily Photo and around the world, I wish you warmth, companionship, love, happiness, peace, contentment and joy this Christmas day.

Tamera

Fire and ice

The subject of this photo is a little hard to identify, so let me explain it to you: it's a fountain in the heart of Vail Village that has flames shooting up from right out of the water! I took this as the snow wafted down, and it was extremely chilly out there (I think it was about 10 degrees Fahrenheit). I was curious about this fountain so I looked it up. Supposedly the thing cost upwards of $1.8 million. Holy cow! Well it is a pretty damn cool fountain, I'll have to admit. How the heck did they do that?!?

Vail Village by night

Nothing much to remark on here other than the fact that Vail Village at night around Christmastime is absolutely charming! I took this photo last Thursday night while foraging for dinner with my friends.

Once my Christmas rush is over (just a couple more days now!) I'll be able to get out there and take some new pictures of Colorado Springs to share here. Until then, it's beautiful Vail, Colorado.

Cheers!

Vail at Christmastime

I had to go to Vail with another photographer for work for the last couple of days, and on Thursday night we walked through Vail Village for a bite to eat. Vail is always beautiful no matter what the season is, but it's especially wonderful in December when it's all dolled up for the holidays.

There was a ton of snow, which shouldn't be any surprise. After all, it's a famous ski resort! As we strolled around looking for just the right restaurant we came across this statue honoring the ski patrol. I thought the mushroom cap of snow on his head was quite funny!

Wilkerson Pass

The last couple of days I've been in Vail to help my friend Charlotte shoot a wedding, and her parents came along for the ride. There are two ways to get from Colorado Springs to Vail: you can either drive north on I-25 to south Denver and then west on E-470 to I-70 and up Vail Pass, or you can take the scenic route, which means driving west on Highway 24, taking you through some cute little towns with names like Florissant, Hartsel, Fairplay and Alma (and for you South Park fans, that part of Colorado is South Park), then through Breckenridge, Frisco and up Vail Pass. You also have to go over three mountain passes: Ute Pass (which is just outside of Colorado Springs), Wilkerson Pass and Hoosier Pass.

We took the scenic route! Ute Pass is no biggie, I drive it all the time. Wilkerson Pass is pretty wimpy too (as you can see from the photo, the summit is only 9,507 feet), but Hoosier Pass is a little more challenging and it's even worse when there's weather! And as you can imagine, in Colorado, in December, at 10,000+ feet, there's going to be weather. It was a little scary -- strong winds blowing snow, creating white-out conditions in spots -- but Charlotte's dad thankfully took the wheel and drove us safely up and over Hoosier Pass. Thanks Bill!

I took this photo at the summit of Wilkerson Pass, which was snowy but passable. I love how the fire danger indicator, in sub-freezing temps and inches of snow, says "moderate". Hmmm, a little bit of an understatement there, don't you think?

The figure skater

Figure skating is a huge sport in Colorado Springs, right up there with cycling. Many Olympians have lived and trained here, and the US Figure Skating Museum and Hall of Fame is here in Colorado Springs, as well as Headquarters. I've only been there once and that was to see a client. Shame on me! I really should visit the museum, since like practically every other female on the planet I love to watch figure skating. During Olympic years I definitely become a figure skating nerd. I've even gone to competitions when they're held around here (I have friends who work for Figure Skating and my mom's a USOC volunteer, so I get free stuff like tickets to skating events).

So anyway I like this sculpture! It's graceful and pretty, and she has a nice view of Pikes Peak if only she'd turn her head to the right ;o)

Olympic Strength

Here's a close up photo of the big sculpture at the entrance to the Olympic Training Center, "Olympic Strength" by Jon Hair. It's a pretty big sculpture and you have to stand way back to take it in with a normal lens. I was more interested in getting some of the details close up. The sculpture depicts several heroically scaled athletes holding the earth on their backs. I like this guy -- I don't know who he is (or if he's just a product of the artist's imagination), but I think he looks like George Foreman!

The Olympic Training Center

December's theme day was circles and spheres, so I went to the Olympic Training Center to snap a shot of the Olympic rings. While I was there I couldn't resist taking a few shots of the other things scattered about, especially the statuary. This one looked nice from the front but even better from the back with the sun flaring through it.

I'll share a couple more in the coming days. I'm going to Vail until Saturday so the next two blog posts will be "canned" -- more Olympic Training Center. But hopefully I'll come back with some cool pictures of Vail!

Stay warm everybody! Tamera

The Cornerstone Arts Center at CC

This rather interesting structure is the newest addition to the Colorado College, which has its campus in the heart of downtown Colorado Springs. It's called the Cornerstone Arts Center and it's just a few doors down from where my studio used to be located. I moved to a new location about a mile north of here in May, so it's been a while since I've spent any time on foot on this particular block of real estate in my city. On Saturday I decided that the Cornerstone Arts Center would make a nice subject for my blog, so I took a little walk around it and snapped a few photos. It's the first time I've ever taken a good look at this building. It really stands out in our downtown full of old Victorian mansions.

One of my brides (I'm a wedding photographer) is actually a construction worker believe it or not, and she helped construct this building during the time period surrounding her wedding a couple of summers ago. She didn't have much of an opinion on it -- to her it was another day's work. I heard it was kind of a controversial structure because it's so modern and different looking, but I've decided I like it very much.

Pigeons in flight

I took this photo in the arts district on September 1st. I was actually in the middle of a senior portrait shoot at the time, but I can never resist taking photos of birds in flight so I pointed my camera skyward and snapped one shot.

When I was in college and just learning photography, one of my professors took care to introduce his students to the works of the brilliant photographers that shaped the art form. We learned about Paul Strand, Stieglitz, Man Ray, Cartier-Bresson... so many great artists. When you're 19 you think you know everything, so it's a really amazing feeling to be struck dumb by a work of art that you've never seen before. My photography class took a road trip to Denver to see a show by the late Andre Kertesz at the Denver Art Museum, and though I had heard of Kertesz I couldn't say I knew anything about him or had seen any of his work. That day I saw an image he had taken of a pigeon in flight, and I was dumbfounded by its astonishing beauty and timing and precision. Its sheer perfection. After that I was utterly in awe of Kertesz and his talent. His ability to take the most mundane object -- a fork, a chair, a pair of eyeglasses, a pigeon -- and just see and understand its form and its beauty, and to capture that so perfectly... it still leaves me speechless. To this day, so many years later, Kertesz's images still move me like no other photographer's.

This explains my fascination with photographing birds in flight. It's my own little homage to my biggest inspiration.

The Broadmoor at Christmastime

The Broadmoor is a gorgeous belle epoque resort and hotel in Colorado Springs, rated five stars. It's probably one of the most beautiful structures in our city (if not the entire state) and always spoken of with a little bit of awe and reverence, mostly because it's bloody expensive! You can spend up to $2000 for a night at the Broadmoor. Even their most standard, mundane rooms are extremely luxurious. I love shooting weddings there -- you can't get a bad picture at the Broadmoor. And the food is awesome!

The neighborhood surrounding the hotel is also called the Broadmoor. If you say, "I live in the Broadmoor," it doesn't mean you live in the hotel itself, but it does mean that you live in a pretty darn nice house! And when I say house, I mean mansion. It's fun for us middle class folk to drive around the neighborhood and look at all the magnificent homes and maybe daydream a little! Especially at Christmas, when many of them are so beautifully decorated.

Here's a photo of the Broadmoor Hotel taken Saturday night (I celebrated my birthday at the Golden Bee, one of the Broadmoor's many watering holes). They really do it up and make a big deal out of the holidays. I just love to go there at any opportunity during Christmastime. It's nice to see the old girl all gussied up.

The William I. Spencer building

This is the back side of the William I. Spencer building on the southwest corner of Tejon and Cache la Poudre streets, across from Wooglin's Deli. It's really a beautiful building; it's even listed on the National Register of Historic Places. From the front it looks a little like the Broadmoor. I've always loved this building.

When I was in college there was a little nightclub in the basement of the Spencer Building called the Climax Cavern. It was THE place in town to see live music, and since I was friends with practically every musician in town (for better or for worse!), I was a regular at the Cavern. Basically it was just two small rooms, one of which contained the bar, a stage area and a tiny dance floor, the other of which contained the pool table and restrooms. When there was a band playing, the Climax would be stuffed to the limits of the fire code with sweaty, drunk, dancing bodies. It was SO MUCH FUN. Many of my happiest memories are from the few heady months of the Cavern's heyday, listening to punk, surf, ska and rockabilly, drinking 3.2 beer and dancing like crazy until they kicked us out! Some of the best times of my life were spent in that little sweatbox of a nightclub. I'm sure you have a place just like this in your past too.

Unfortunately the Cavern had a bad ending. The very last night of its existence it was hanging by a thread financially. It was wintertime. A friend's band was about to play and there were only a few people in the bar as it was still early in the evening. Somebody threw a tear gas bomb down the stairs and into the club! Now why they would do that is still a mystery to me, but I just remember running with my friend Janet to the bathroom and holing up in there until the police and paramedics saved us. If you've ever been tear gassed you know how awful it is, there's a reason they use it to control and disperse riots! The next day there was the tiniest blurb about it in the paper (which I cut out and saved); just a paragraph mentioning that an unknown person had thrown a tear gas bomb into a local bar. And that was it for the Climax Cavern. Whoever threw that bomb caused the end of an era!

The last I heard, that space down in the basement was a storage area crammed with unused chairs and desks. Too bad.

A portrait of the artist

Today's my birthday so I'm going to break the rules and do two blog posts. Oh the nerve!

Here's a self portrait that I took about half an hour ago over by the Colorado College. I'm taking the rest of the day off. Cheers everyone!

Tamera

Sunset over Cy's

We're fortunate that there are a few landmark restaurants here in Colorado Springs to get a really good burger. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that the Springs had a big growth spurt in the 1950's. Cy's Drive In Restaurant is one of those places. It's been on the corner of 19th and Uintah since the days of bobby socks and Bobby Darin, and if you park outside and honk your horn a carhop will come out and take your order. We always eat inside, though. It's a little old and crusty but it's retained its authentic 1950's charm. The burgers, fries and shakes are really good at Cy's. Oh and for you vegetarians out there, they do serve a veggie burger. So you can get the Cy's burger experience without the guilt. I highly recommend it!

Christmastime in the land of plenty

I had to go to Sam's club the other day to pick up a few things. For those of you not in the US, let me acquaint you with Sam's: it's an affiliate of WalMart (which I'm sure you've heard of, even if you live in the furthest reaches of the Amazonian jungle), and the basic idea of it is bulk shopping. It's an enormous, warehouse-like space. Enormous is an understatment. You could probably park a half dozen 747's in there. It's completely no frills, so you're not going to get a white glove shopping experience! In fact it's quite the opposite: it's extremely loud because there's relentless muzak playing, echoing off the cement floors and cinderblock walls while people shout to be heard over the din. It always smells like food because they're constantly trying to feed their patrons with free samples that they cook in little toaster ovens at the end of every aisle. It also smells of rubber because they sell tires for every possible kind of vehicle. I like the smell of tires. Don't ask me why! Every time I go to Sam's I take a great big inhale. I know, it's weird but I like the smell!

Sam's sells everything from cigarettes to vitamins to jewelry to hot water tanks, all in huge quantities. You can't just buy a four-pack of toilet paper at Sam's -- you have to buy half a year's worth because that's the smallest quantity they sell! I think their motto is "if it's worth stocking, it's worth stocking it UP TO THE CEILING." Everything there is excessive. I can't imagine what someone coming from another country must think when they first walk into a Sam's. They're probably speechless!

I came across this display of extremely large televisions the last time I was there. This is only a small sampling of what they had on display. Pretty amazing when you think about it.

The tower at Glen Eyrie

Just another view of Glen Eyrie (see yesterday's post). The low winter sun was making it impossible for me to get a good shot of the whole castle. I promise to go back during the summer, with a real camera (not a point and shoot!), and get a really good picture to share here!

High tea at the castle

Did you know that we have a castle here in Colorado Springs? Kind of hard to believe when you consider that our city was founded in the 1870's -- a little past the, uh, golden age of castle building, and on the wrong continent entirely! It's called Glen Eyrie and it was actually built by our city's founder, General William Jackson Palmer, for his wife Mary (affectionately known as Queen) in the late 1800's. Unfortunately she didn't get to live in her castle for very long; the altitude of Colorado Springs affected Queen Palmer and she relocated to England, her birthplace, after a mild heart attack. General Palmer subsequently lived trans-Atlantically during those years, until her death in 1894, aged only 44. He continued to live in the castle until he passed away in 1909.

General Palmer was a bit of an Anglophile. He founded Colorado Springs on the premise that it would be a resort destination for the wealthy, and he nicknamed his city Little London. His fortune was built on the railroads and he lived to see Colorado Springs grow into one of the most popular resort destinations for the well-heeled. Palmer's Colorado Springs is truly a jewel, with beautiful Victorian mansions marching up and down the broad downtown avenues, the grand, belle epoque Broadmoor Hotel (to this day boasting five stars), and of course his private home, Glen Eyrie, a castle fit for a general and his Queen.

Glen Eyrie is now owned by the Navigators, an evangelical Christian organization. They have lovingly restored and maintained the castle and its grounds, and they welcome the public. You can go on tours or hike the extensive grounds (which are very wild once you leave the immediate parameter of the castle itself -- there are lots of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep up there!); you can rent it for conferences, retreats and events, including weddings; you can even sleep there because it functions as a hotel too. Glen Eyrie serves High Tea by reservation on weekends and it's always a treat -- it's a Colorado Springs tradition. I went there with my mom on Sunday, along with some of her friends. I don't even like tea very much, but it's so much fun to drink it in a real castle!

Here's a photo I took as I was leaving. I'll post another tomorrow that shows the tower. I like this particular doorway because it looks pretty gothic and you'd never guess it was taken in Colorado Springs! Unfortunately the light wasn't very good and I was in a hurry to leave, so I don't think my photos really do it justice. I'll try to get some better images of it in the summer and post them here!

Festive biker ladies

I was invited to judge the photography entries at a student art contest on Saturday. My boyfriend Pat, who is a news photog at a local TV station, was invited to judge the film/video entries, and my good friend Angie, a gifted artist, judged the visual arts (i.e., paintings and drawings). This is an annual contest held by the PTA for students from first through twelfth grade. The judging took place at a large church across town. When we drove up and parked our car, for some reason there was a group of biker ladies with some very impressive looking Harleys in the parking lot. Upon closer inspection I could see that their bikes were decorated to the hilt for Christmas, and the ladies themselves looked very cool in their leathers, ready to ride. I immediately asked them if I could take their picture! They were happy to oblige and struck this pose for me. Thanks ladies!

ETA: On January 7th one of the ladies in the above photo e-mailed me to say that later that afternoon, as they were enjoying their ride, they got into a terrible accident! Apparently the lady in the lead bike decided to pull over and put on some gloves; the rider behind her didn't notice and accidentally plowed into her. The first lady broke her neck, the second lady broke her back, and the lady who wrote to me (Roxana) suffered from emotional harm from witnessing such a terrible accident. She attached a few photos of the accident, the rescue, and her friends in the hospital. It looked horrible and scary. But it could have been much worse -- I'm glad they all survived to tell the tale.

The rainbow and the crow

I took this picture on August 31st of this year, on a random drive through the Garden of the Gods. I've been meaning to blog it for a while now so there's no time like the present! Pat and I like to drive a lot -- grab a cup of Starbucks then cruise around randomly and chat. On this particular evening our drive took us to the Garden of the Gods for some reason, and as we were nearing the bottom end of the park I noticed two things: a rainbow and a crazy bird perched atop a tree, seemingly enjoying the view. I have never seen a bird sitting literally at the top of a tree like a Christmas star. He really seemed to be contemplating the rainbow. I found this at once curious and hilarious, so I pulled over the car to take a few snaps of him with the rainbow in the background, and I'll be damned if the bird wasn't posing for me! He was vogueing! I think in this shot he was giving me his best side.

A few tourists drove past as I was snapping away, and looked to see what I was so avidly photographing. I don't think they found it as funny as I did though. Don't you think he's hilarious?

I'm done rovin'

This is my boyfriend Pat walking toward the Dun Rovin' Motel. Pat and I were there a couple of weekends ago to get some cool portraits taken by our friend Charlotte -- I always wanted to be photographed there! We absolutely love midcentury modern design and architecture, and there is plenty of it in this area of Colorado Springs known as Nob Hill. Built in 1950, the Dun Rovin' is a great example of that space-age midcentury look that we love so much. Look at those awesome blue arches and the super cool sign!

Unfortunately the Dun Rovin' closed its doors recently (I guess it got pretty shady in recent years, so maybe that was a good thing). I hope it doesn't get torn down! I would love to do a photoshoot there with some models before that happens.

The very decorated house (Part 2)

Here are a couple more views of yesterday's house. Click on the image to see it larger. You can see how much blood, sweat and tears went into decorating this home, and I couldn't even capture all of it with the lens I was using. To the left (out of the frame) are more trees, giant snow globes, an enormous penguin... you get the idea. It must have taken a week to do all this! When you consider just the lights on the roof alone you can see how much work it must have been. And I can't imagine how long it will take to tear all this down and pack it away after the holidays. Now that's dedication!

In Colorado Springs we like to say "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes," because it can change dramatically in a matter of minutes. The running joke is that you can have all four seasons in the same day. So yesterday as you can see was frigid and snowy all day, and today was the exact opposite: it was warm and sunny, and all that snow is completely melted away now!

The very decorated house

Today was the first appreciable snow of the season, and it was very cold! Around 8:00pm Pat and I had some errands to run and I decided to bring my camera along to see if we couldn't find some picture-worthy Christmas decorations around town. I think Christmas lights look especially beautiful at night when there's snow on the ground. Pat had heard about this house over by Sky Sox Stadium on the east side of town so we decided to go and check it out. Wow! Here's a tight shot of the candy canes that lead up to the garage and front entrance to the house. Tomorrow I'll post a photo of the whole shebang. You've got to see it to believe it. This homeowner really went nuts, the house must be visible from outer space! There's even Christmas music playing! (Those who know me well are aware that I can't stand Christmas music, but for some reason the music playing at this house didn't bother me. Probably because it wasn't very loud.)

I thought these guys did a wonderful job with their crazy Christmas house -- I can't wait to show you the rest of it. Check back tomorrow!

Manitou Springs

My brother Chuck and I took a little drive through Manitou Springs on Sunday to see if there was anything photo-worthy going on. Manitou is a little town directly west of Colorado Springs -- there is no separation between the cities, you just drive under an arch and you're in Manitou. You'd think that, since the two cities are literally side by side, there would be no real difference between the two, but that's not the case. Manitou has a certain ultra-liberal, "anything goes" vibe that isn't as prevalent in Colorado Springs! Its residents, affectionately known as "Manitoids", are sometimes characterized as hippies and bikers but it's actually very diverse (there are plenty of "yuppies" there too!), which is great. There is even a witch coven in Manitou. This little town celebrates its funkiness with events such as the annual coffin race around Halloween, the annual fruitcake toss (post Christmas), old-time melodramas and stage shows, many different art fairs, shops and galleries, and myriad tourist attractions.

During the winter months things get noticeably quieter in Manitou. This photo is of the town clock right in the heart of downtown. I like this particular angle on the clock with the church in the background. Except for the road sign, it almost looks like it was taken in England. Very Charles Dickens!

The drippy dinosaur

When my brother Chuck and I drove past the Sinclair gas station in Manitou Springs (just outside of Colorado Springs) on Sunday afternoon, I saw icicles dripping off the dinosaur's chin and I just had to turn the car around and get a picture. I thought it was so funny. Apparently he's an apatosaurus named Dino (I got that info from the Sinclair website), and he turned out to be a rather tough subject to photograph! He looked like a green, drippy camel instead of a dinosaur in almost all the pictures! I'm sure the gas station attendant thought I was crazy to stand out there for five minutes taking various pictures of their dinosaur in 28-degree weather. So I gassed up my car to make up for it.

Chuck's new camera!

My brother Chuck has been a film holdout for so long, I was surprised when he called me Saturday and told me he'd bought a DSLR! It's a Nikon D80 and it's very cool. We went out on Sunday to take it for a test drive. This photo was taken by Chuck in the Garden of the Gods, the classic view looking southward. It's a beautiful scene, even in 28-degree weather and snow flurries.

Nice shot Chuck!

December's theme day

I'm still new to City Daily Photo, so this is my first theme day and I'm so excited! When I heard the theme was circles/spheres, I immediately thought of the Olympic Training Center. Many people don't know that the US Olympic Committee and the Olympic Training Center are located right here in Colorado Springs -- only about a mile from my house. I drive by it every day on the way to my studio. For me it's not such a novelty because I've been there many times (heck, I was even an extra in a movie that was shot there when I was in high school!), but I was kind of excited to pay it a visit and be a tourist for a few minutes in order to capture this image.

As you can see, the circle motif repeats itself a lot at the OTC. It must have something to do with the Olympic rings. I'm proud to have the OTC in my city, it's probably one of the coolest things about Colorado Springs: we produce champions!

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