Guest blogger Zofia Waig

It's Monday again! This means I get to feature an awesome photo by guest blogger Zofia Waig, a very talented wedding and portrait photographer who lives on Nantucket, off of Cape Cod (lucky her).

According to Zofia, this photo was captured from Steps Beach on Memorial Day Weekend at the Figawi boat race. Imagine having a view like this every day. Wow!

Zofia, thanks for lending me this wonderful picture for the blog!

Another cool building

This building is right next to the one in yesterday's post. I'm still trying to figure out what it houses (maybe it's someone's art studio?). I just fell in love with the big red door -- so much so that I went back again today and used it as a location for some senior portraits!

The Smokebrush Gallery

I took a quick detour into the Arts District today and grabbed this shot of the east side of the Smokebrush Gallery building. I love this mural. It's been there a few years. I don't know who painted it but it's really cool! Every now and then I use it as a location for a shoot. It just looks great!

Depeche Mode at Red Rocks

Last night I went to the Depeche Mode concert at Red Rocks with my friend Jennifer. This was my fifth DM show. I have loved this band for many years and I jump on every reasonable opportunity to see them live. My first DM show was at Red Rocks in 1986. It was awesome to see them again, 23 years later, in the same amazing venue.

From where we were sitting it was really hard to get a good shot of them, but I did the best I could. What a great concert. They rocked!

Summer's rewards

I haven't been a very good gardener this season, but I did manage to coax a potted tomato plant to produce some luscious goodies. I've been enjoying these little tomatoes very much of late! Pat was nice enough to be the "hand model" for this shot yesterday.

Blondie concert

Last night's show was awesome! Since we had front row seats, I was lucky enough to get a few great shots of my idol, Debbie Harry, and her killer band, including guitarist Chris Stein and drummer Clem Burke. At the end of the show, Clem walked up to me and handed me one of his drumsticks. I was dumbstruck! Later on, I managed to get his autograph as they were leaving. Lucky me!

Here's Debbie doing what she does best. It was a great show.

Blondie tonight!

Blondie is playing tonight at the Pikes Peak Center, and I can't wait! I'm a huge fan. Hopefully I'll get a good picture of them to share with you here tomorrow.

Cheers! Tamera

Guest blogger Robert Alvarado

Another Monday, another guest blogger! Today the talented pinup photographer Robert Alvarado* has shared a cool photo of a Cobra that he took at the 15th Annual Orange Plaza Car Show in Orange, California on April 18th. Thanks Robert! Awesome photo!

*Careful clicking on that link! It might not be safe for work. Robert's pinup photos are wonderful, but they are also a little hot to trot!

To the victors go the spoils

The awards podium at the cycling championships Thursday night. These guys are in their 60's and 70's, and any one of them could seriously kick my butt in any kind of race!

The Masters National Cycling Championships

The Masters National Championships are going on at the velodrome this weekend. How exciting! I've never been to a cycling event before, I've only watched them on TV, and let me tell you it's very exhilarating. Our 7-11 Velodrome is one of the fastest tracks in the world (I've heard it's actually the second fastest), and these cyclists are so incredibly focused and dedicated. And fast! The races we witnessed on Thursday night were for "senior" cyclists, meaning the competitors were in their 30's, 40's, 50's and upward. There were even athletes in their 70's, including a guy from the 1952 Olympic cycling team!

The above photo was taken during the cool-down lap after a race. The lady waving her hand in the middle looks so happy because she has just won. And boy was she impressive!

A night at the races

Pat and I went to the velodrome at Memorial Park last night and hung out at the bicycle races. Here's a shot I grabbed during one of the women's events. More to come tomorrow...

A very patriotic citizen

If you're not from here, you might find the sight of an RV festooned with gigantic flags a bit over the top.* If you are from here, however, you probably wouldn't think twice about it. This is, after all, a military town -- lots of Army and Air Force in Colorado Springs, and lots of military retirees, and they like their RVs and displays of patriotism! Here we have the POW flag, the American flag and the Colorado flag. Very patriotic indeed!

*Another one from the vault. This photo was taken on November 26th of last year.

Untitled

I had to dig into my archives for today's photo because I'm so swamped with weddings and portraits at the moment. It's a good thing I'm such a shutterbug! I have lots of random pictures lurking around my hard drive. This one was taken on January 6th; it's a weathered barn out by Falcon, a few miles east of Colorado Springs.

New lens!

Just testing out a new lens that I bought last week (Nikkor 80-200 f:2.8). Pretty sharp, eh? I like it! This photo was taken in front of our house; these cosmos live in the gravel median at the edge of our yard, next to the street. They're so cute and cheerful that Pat couldn't bring himself to weed them out. I'm glad he didn't -- they make a nice subject.

Guest blogger Nick Palliser

It's Monday again, and that means another guest blogger! Today's contribution came from the very talented Nick Palliser of Draig Photography, located in Houston, Texas. This is Salisbury Cathedral in Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK, very near where Nick grew up (he may live in Texas, but Nick's a Brit!).

In his words: "I actually attended school only 100 feet from it. It contains the oldest working clock, circa AD 1386, and has one of the only four surviving copies of the Magna Carta."

I think it's amazingly cool that he grew up surrounded by such a rich history. Thanks for letting me use this great photo on the blog, Nick!

Cache la Poudre Street mural (Part 3)

Here is artist Steve Wood's dedication in thanks for his mural on Cache la Poudre Street. I think it's nice that he did this, naming names for all of posterity, and I think it's especially nice that he painted it instead of sticking a bronze plaque up there. It just seems more heartfelt.

Cache la Poudre Street mural (Part 2)

Here's the south section of Steve Wood's street mural, "Now & Then", on Cache la Poudre Street downtown. I like the snowboarder!

Cache la Poudre Street mural

If you drive west on Cache la Poudre Street downtown, just before you get to El Paso Street you'll drive under a footbridge that's been there for ages. About a decade ago, local artist Steve Wood painted a mural on both sides of the concrete butresses that support the footbridge. Even though Steve is a friend of a friend, I must confess that, although I've admired the artwork as I sped past, I never took the time to really look at it, so today I stopped the car and took a few snaps. Apparently it's called "Now & Then", and it depicts images of early Colorado Springs juxtaposed with the present. Today's photo shows the north side of the street.

Steve's painting style is playful and sort of primitive. His mural is a whimsical addition to the Shooks Run neighborhood.

A gorilla on a motorcycle

About six weeks ago I had an e-mail from my mom urging me to go to the corner of Boulder and Union, across from the Olympic Training Center, to take a picture of the gorilla sitting on a motorcycle. Huh? What gorilla on a motorcycle? No matter how many times I drove by that intersection, I didn't see any gorillas! I guess I just had bad timing because eventually, after about a month or so of looking for him, he finally turned up! Today I managed to get a shot of him. He sits there to bring attention to the motorcycle shop behind him.

Hey ho, gorilla, nice to finally meet you!

Untitled

Pat and I are about to remodel our kitchen, and our quest for cabinets took us all over Denver last Thursday. Many of the cabinet companies we sourced were in industrial areas. I found this empty lot next to one of them, at twilight. It's nice how flowers can find a way to plant themselves in such neglected spaces. They cheer everything up.

Untitled

I'm blogging this image just because I like it. It doesn't depict anything extraordinary or unusual, just rush hour traffic in Denver last Thursday evening, as viewed in the passenger side mirror of my car.

Guest blogger Petra Hall (Part 2)

Another wonderful image from my friend Petra Hall in Sweden. This image was taken around the same time of year (April) as the photo that I featured last week, but in Petra's hometown of Piteå in the northeast. What a contrast to Sweden's west coast!

Rush hour Denver

I took this through the car window on Thursday afternoon as Pat and I eased our way down Broadway in the worst of Denver's rush hour traffic. At 5:10PM, to be exact, and that is the worst time to be on Broadway and 18th, trying to get anywhere!

Since Pat was at the wheel and I didn't have anything else to do, naturally I took pictures. In this image I love how just a tiny sliver of light separates the two buildings on the left, even though they are actually across the street from each other.

Red Rocks

Red Rocks Park and Ampitheatre is located in Morrison, Colorado, west of Denver. You've probably heard of it -- it's only the best place in the whole world to see a concert! (Not that I'm biased!)

I have a client who's asked me to take family portraits there this weekend, so Pat and I did a little reconnaisance mission on Thursday to check it out. It's the first time I've ever just driven around the park for leisure. It's gorgeous! Very much like the Garden of the Gods here in Colorado Springs. Even though it was gloomy and raining (and yes there was a concert going on, poor fans probably got soaked!), you can see how beautiful the park is. I can't wait for the portrait shoot!

Pin-up Car Wash

My new friend Jeff Kallaus took this photo at the Pin-up Car Wash in the parking lot of the Rocket Room last weekend, which I missed. Good stuff! I always seem to hear about these cool photo ops after the fact. Thanks for letting me feature your photograph today, Jeff! Very cool!

This empty, tiny building sits deep on the west side, on the city limits just before you enter Manitou Springs. Don't ask me why I am so fascinated by it. Maybe it's the bright colors.

2009 Best City!

Congratulations to beautiful Colorado Springs, just named by Outside magazine as the #1 best city in the United States for 2009! You can read the article here: http://outside.away.com/outside/destinations/200908/best-towns-america-colorado-springs.html I can vouch for it -- Colorado Springs is a great place to live.

Today's picture was taken yesterday while I was on a senior portrait shoot (for my non-American readers, this is a milestone portrait taken to commemorate your final year of secondary school -- usually it's a big deal, more important than other annual school portraits). We were on location in the arts district, and while I waited for my subject to change his clothes I spied these two pigeons spying on us! I just loved the industrial curve of the overpass, and the grey forboding skies. Minutes later the rain came down and we ran for cover!

Blissfest 5

This is Pat's friend and coworker Michael Bliss, artist and curator of the Blissfest, a month long art event that encompasses all media (including film, poetry, music, performance art and traditional media), benefiting Angel Eyes. We went to the opening last Friday at the new Cottonwood space, and it was great! It's essentially a large office building in which all the offices have been converted to artists' studios, which are rented out to a multitude of different, talented individuals.

Friday's opening was a lot of fun -- tons of cool people and lots of great art to look at and listen to. If you live in town, check out the Blissfest, it goes all month long! Here's a link to the events schedule: http://blissfest333.com/

Guest blogger Petra Hall

My friend Petra Hall, who is a talented professional photographer residing in Sweden, volunteered today's picture. This image was captured around sunset outside of Gothenburg, in April 2009. According to Petra, "These small fishing cottages are so typical for this area, and can be found on almost all islands on the west coast. They are typically not looking the same in the north or the east coast, but they too have these fishing cottages where the fishermen kept their gear. Larger fishing boats have of course larger cottages, but these are very typical for this region."

I have always imagined Sweden to be impeccably beautiful, and this image proves it. It looks like a postcard! Thank you Petra for your gorgeous contribution to my blog!

Tamera

Sonic Youth

Just another shot from Friday night's Sonic Youth show in Denver -- here's Thurston Moore holding his guitar up to the stacks to get more, louder, LOUDER feedback at the end of "Death Valley '69". It was awesome! We were pretty far away and it was dark in there, so I was lucky to get this shot. They put on a killer show for us!

August Theme Day: Night

It's the first of the month, and that means Theme Day for City Daily Photo bloggers! August's theme is night. I was at a concert at the Ogden Theatre in Denver last night (Sonic Youth), and grabbed this shot of a very fashion-forward lass as we were leaving. I like her look!

To see more theme day participants around the world, click here to view thumbnails for all participants.