Triple portrait

I nabbed a shot of this guy through my windshield last Friday evening, as we were on our way to one of our favorite local coffee haunts, Rico's. I had to grab my camera quickly before the light changed -- had just enough time for one shot! I liked the way his face was perfectly, symmetrically reflected in both mirrors.

Howdy Mr. Squirrel!

One last snap from my afternoon in Monument Valley Park. I'm sure Mr. Squirrel thought I had some peanuts for him. Sorry Mr. Squirrel, all I have is a camera!

Another park picture

It's been a while since I posted a black and white image. I took this photo in Monument Valley Park on Friday. It looks good in color too, but I like it in black and white.

Little Miss Ladybug

Or is it Mr. Ladybug? I found a few of these little guys in Monument Valley Park yesterday. Couldn't resist snapping a few pics -- they're so cute!

An elegant bird

I have been chasing down this heron for years! He's lived at Monument Valley Park, in either of the duck ponds, for quite a while now, and I can't tell you how long I've been waiting to get a picture of him. It seems like he always appears on the day that I don't have a camera at the ready. Well today I had one at the ready! I was at the park giving my new assistant, Allison, a crash course in photography, and whaddya know the heron made an appearance! I had just enough time to switch to a long lens and get a handful of exposures of him before he flew off.

I'm happy. I finally got a picture of the elusive Monument Valley Park heron. Stupid bird. Well he's actually very elegant, don't you think?

Denver punks

I was doing a shoot in downtown Denver a couple of weekends ago, when these kids walked right through. I thought they were cute. They reminded me a little of me, a long time ago!

New skate park

The city recently built a new skate park at Memorial Park, which is only a few blocks from my house. It has proved to be very popular with skaters of all ages. Here's my friend Kris going at it last Friday. He pretty much shreds, even at 40 years old! In fact he kicks all the little skaters' butts. I took this photo with a Nikon D300 and a 14mm F:2.8.

My mom's roses

My parents went on vacation to the Poconos so my mom asked me to take some photographs of her climbing roses, since she was going to miss their brief period of bloom. I went over to their house three times before the roses were photo-worthy! Actually they're probably at peak bloom right now, which is a good thing because my parents are on their way home today.

Here is a short girl's view of my mom's rose arbor. They smell even better than they look, if you can imagine that. Enjoy!

Be prepared for extra energy

Thursday night I had dinner with Pat at our favorite Chinese restaurant, Coal Mine Dragon. I never eat my fortune cookie but I always crack it open to see what's in store for me!

Mailboxes, Part Deux

Here's another shot of the mailboxes featured in yesterday's post. I couldn't decide which image I liked better, so I'm posting them both. Which one do you prefer?

Get the mail, man

When you live way out in the sticks in the U.S., they don't deliver your mail to your house. Typically you have a mailbox just like this on a country road, in a group with all your neighbors' mailboxes. I wonder if you see this in other countries? Or do they have a different system for delivering mail to their rural customers?

It's a ranch, dude

When people think of Colorado, I'm sure that ranching is one of the first things that spring to mind (right after mountains). Well you're right, this is cattle country. Drive a few miles out from Colorado Springs in any direction, and you'll find a ranch. This one is on the South Peyton Highway in Hanover, Colorado.

Fountain, Colorado

Today I had a photo shoot that cancelled at the last minute. What to do with an unexpected day off? Pat had an errand in the afternoon that took him to Fountain, a little town just to the south of Colorado Springs, and I went along for the ride. Afterward, we decided to continue southward just for kicks. I think this highway is called Old Pueblo Road -- it's east of and runs parallel to I-25 and is a little rough in some places! There is a lot of ranchland and open space on this route, and not a lot of people, which is great on a sunny day. It's one of our favorite drives. Of course I had my little camera at the ready for anything blog-worthy!

A few miles outside of Fountain we came across this tire that was hanging from a barbed wire fence. I have no idea why anyone would put a tire on a fence, but I thought it looked like a good photo subject, so here you have it.

More pictures to come!

Not a dud

On Monday night Pat and I went in search of a smoothie, but found that Jamba Juice was closed (call me crazy, but closing your smoothie shop at 7:00pm in the summertime is probably a dumb move) and Keva Juice had gone out of business! So we decided on Starbucks instead, since they have Frapuccinos. We decided on one of the downtown Starbucks and I'm glad we did, because this sunset, seen here from the intersection of Bijou and Tejon streets, was our reward. Definitely not a dud of a sunset.

An Uber Amazing Blog!

Today I was proud and tickled to be given an Uber Amazing Blog Award from Frank at Tampa Daily Photo! Thank you so much Frank, you made my whole day! I had to get up early and do a shoot, and everyone knows I'm not a morning person ;o) So having that in my inbox definitely helped.

An Uber Amazing Blog is one that:

• Inspires you
• Makes you smile and laugh
• Provides amazing information
• Is a great read
• Has an amazing design

Or any other special and unique reasons that makes a blog Uber amazing! The rules of this award are:

• Put the Uber award logo on your blog and post how proud you are
• Nominate 5 other bloggers and invite them to accept the award
• Go to their blog and let them know that they have received this Uber Amazing Award
• Share the love and link to this post and to the person you received your award from

To that end I am nominating five of my favorite blogs for the Uber Amazing Blog award, as follows:

Larchmont, NY, USA

St Kilda, Australia

Tallahassee, FL, USA

San Diego, CA, USA

Verona, Italy

They are all Uber Amazing!

Tamera

Van Briggle Pottery

Van Briggle Pottery is one of the many things that help make Colorado Springs cool and unique. I think it's a very interesting and wonderful part of our history. Many of our beautiful downtown Victorians and Craftsmen bungalows have Van Briggle tiled fireplaces. It's something you won't see in any other city.

Here is the basic story: In 1899, an artisan named Artus Van Briggle moved to Colorado Springs with the dream of establishing his own fine art pottery business. Van Briggle Pottery opened soon thereafter, with Artus and his sweetheart Anne at the helm. Artus was a gifted artist (yes, his name is a homonym!); his award-winning pottery had all the hallmarks of Art Nouveau style and a distinctive, matte-green glaze that he personally developed. Artus and Anne were married in 1902, and as a couple their artistic collaborations in pottery earned them accolades and worldwide fame. They developed a unique logo of two mirrored A's to symbolize their initials, which I think was very sweet. It's an instantly recognizable hallmark of Van Briggle Pottery to this day and is incised on the bottom of all Van Briggle pieces.

Unfortunately Artus succumbed to tuberculosis in 1904 at the young age of 35, and Anne was left to carry on the trade. Van Briggle's first location was somewhere on Weber Street (or maybe it was Nevada Ave.), very near where I used to live. I once went on a search for the building, armed only with the street address, but could not find it -- it must have been demolished at some point. In 1907, Anne collaborated with city founder William Jackson Palmer to erect a distinct new building, a detail of which is shown in the photo above (and in yesterday's photo as well), designed by Dutch architect Nicholas Van den Arend. It's a really cool building! As you can probably tell from my pictures, it's uniquely adorned with decorative tiles. It looks particularly beautiful in the late afternoon.

Anne remarried a few years after Artus' death and moved to Denver. In her absence, the Van Briggle building and business eventually fell into disrepair until she sold both. Van Briggle Pottery perservered through the years under the ownership of the Curtis family, and later the Lewis family. It has continued to produce beautiful fine art pottery in the Art Nouveau style.

Van Briggle relocated to an old railroad roundhouse on 21st and Cimarron in the 1950's, leaving the fantastic Van den Arend building empty and unused. It was eventually sold to the Colorado College in 1968, and CC now uses it as the plant! By that I mean it houses heating and air conditioning stuff. I'm not kidding. Though for years it was apparently just used as a junk room. Yes, this beautiful building was filled with castaway office furniture and the like! It kills me to think of that. At least they didn't tear it down. In fact, it's still gorgeous, having seen a bit of restoration after 40 years of neglect. Well, no matter what's inside it, the old Van Briggle building is just stunning.

Van Briggle recently relocated again; it took me some months to find them but just the other day I discovered that they are now on South Tejon Street near Black and White Auto. So the tradition perserveres, which makes me happy. I am very proud of the single piece of Van Briggle pottery that I own, a vintage piece (circa 1930's) that Pat bought for me. It's one of my prized possessions.

The Van Briggle building

Just a quick shot of the Van Briggle Pottery building on the CC campus adjacent to Monument Valley Park, taken a few days ago. More about Van Briggle tomorrow...

Bonnie Brae Ice Cream

Today I was in Denver for a photo shoot, and afterward I had dinner with my friend Jenn, who lives there. After dinner we made our way to Bonnie Brae Ice Cream for a scoop. Bonnie Brae is a Denver institution; it's been there for years and there's always a line out the door, for good reason! Their ice cream was named one of the top ten in the nation by People Magazine (read the article here). We each had a scoop of triple chocolate death. It was divine. Ahhhh, the joys of summer!

My favorite street

I have a favorite street in Colorado Springs: Cache la Poudre at Prospect. I much prefer it going westward rather than eastward (though that's nice too), and I especially love it in the summertime in the late afternoon/early evening. There is a section a few blocks long that is like a peaceful green tunnel. I have always loved this short stretch of Cache la Poudre, ever since I discovered it when I was in college. When I was in my 20's I lived just a few blocks west of here, at Cache and Weber, for seven years. I do miss the neighborhood even though I love where I live now.

Today I took my vintage BMW for a spin and went down my favorite street. (This photo was snapped through my dirty windshield!) Can you see why I love this section of Cache la Poudre Street so much?

Cousin Itt!

Do you remember the character of Cousin Itt from the Addams Family? The one with the long hair that completely covered his entire face and body? When I saw this giant, vine-covered stump across the street from my friend Walt's house the other day, I had to laugh because it reminded me of Cousin Itt. Must get photo for blog!

Untitled

Here's the weathered fence bordering the west side of my friend Walt's front lawn. I like how the late afternoon sunlight is peeking through the leaves of his neighbor's hedge.

Feed the hungry

I was down by my friend Walt's house today, returning a camera and lens that I borrowed over the weekend (that actually belong to another friend of ours). All told, the two pieces of equipment I had in my hands had a value of about $5,000. After shooting a wedding with it and seeing the results I got, I was absolutely PINING to own this camera and lens. I mean, equipment lust to the extreme. That is, until I pulled up in front of Walt's house and noticed that the Salvation Army mobile kitchen was across the street, and there was a long queue of homeless waiting to receive a hot meal.

That kind of put things into perspective for me. Maybe I can live without the new camera for now.

A flowery interlude

Last week I had a rare chance to enjoy a few minutes of down time at Hudson Gardens in Littleton. Usually if I'm at Hudson Gardens I'm there to shoot a wedding -- I've never gone there to just hang around and enjoy the sunshine. I felt all my stress just slide away for the half hour or so that I had alone with the flowers.

Pauline Chapel

Pauline Chapel is a picturesque mission-style Catholic church that sits behind the Broadmoor Hotel. Built in 1925, it retains all its charm from that era, plus a couple of uncharming things such as lack of adequate air conditioning! I was there on Friday afternoon for a wedding rehearsal (the wedding was yesterday and I'm still recovering). Here's one of the two pictures that I surreptitiously snapped at the rehearsal.

I'll post some photos from the wedding on my professional blog soon, and put a link here when that happens.

7/2/2009 ETA: Here's the link to the wedding, as promised: http://click-photography.blogspot.com/2009/06/john-loves-gretchen.html

Colorado and Nevada Avenues

Took this one on Wednesday night as I was heading to pub quiz at McCabe's, around 7:45pm. This is heading westward on Colorado Avenue, waiting for the light to change at Nevada.

Rivulet

Here's the gutter next to the library after a storm. I noticed it just after I took yesterday's picture and thought it would make a nice black and white image. It had been rainy and grey nonstop for over a week when suddenly the weather made a complete turn for the better in a matter of minutes. This was the first time I had seen the sun in days. It made even a gutter look pretty.

I know it kind of looks like the water is running toward you in the photo, but actually it's running the opposite direction, "upward" -- an optical illusion.

A little outnumbered

I caught a snap of this little Smart Car yesterday afternoon as I was leaving the library. You might notice he's outnumbered by the three large SUVs around him. Sigh. That's the way it is in Colorado Springs. People feel like they just cannot survive here without four wheel drive gas guzzlers, when in fact we don't get nearly as much snow as, say, Ohio, and it's so sunny that the snow generally melts away the day after a storm. But noooo, if you don't have 4WD you're going to DIE! In fact I think the opposite is true: I can't tell you how many SUVs I've seen wiping out on the roads during snowy/icy weather. It happens all the time.

I have lived in Colorado Springs for 30 years this month, and in that time I've owned nine vehicles. None of them were four wheel drive. I assure you that a regular car works just fine.

Orpheus

This statue of Orpheus has lived in front of the downtown library since I can remember. The edifice in the background is called the Holly Sugar Building, even though it's been several years since Holly Sugar had its headquarters there. Interesting factoid about Colorado Springs: there is a city ordinance forbidding buildings from blocking the view of the mountains. Therefore, our tallest buildings are maybe 13 or 14 stories (I think Holly Sugar is 11). Because of this, even though we have over half a million residents, visitors tend to think of Colorado Springs as a "small town", simply because we have no skyscrapers!

Fleur de lis

I'm not a big springtime person; my favorite time of year is autumn. Spring at 6,000 feet above sea level is especially challenging. It truly comes in fits and starts. Today was freezing, but tomorrow is supposed to be 80 degrees! We've seen nothing but rain in the last week or so. I'm looking forward to seeing the sun. It's June and I still haven't turned off the heat in my house!

The one thing I love about spring in the Springs is that, like everywhere else, the flowers finally come back. We have such long winters here that it's really nice to see the daffodils make their appearance, followed by lilies of the valley. Last come the irises. There are purple irises everywhere in our city -- they seem to really thrive here. I noticed these beauties today as I was driving home from my friend Jeannette's house, and had to pull over to get a snapshot. Pretty!

Fish for dinner

Yesterday I was in Denver all day to see various clients and to do a portrait shoot. Afterward I had dinner with some old friends (and a couple of new ones) at the Denver aquarium. The restaurant there features an enormous, 150,000 gallon aquarium filled with an amazing array of specimens, including five different species of shark. As you sit there at your table next to the aquarium, you're mesmerized by the schools of large fish swimming endlessly to and fro. Jenn remarked that it's the quietest restaurant she's ever been to. Everyone is so busy watching the fish, they forget to have a conversation! Small children, especially, seem to fall under the spell very easily. We were seated next to a family with two toddlers and a newborn, and never heard a peep from those kids!

Unfortunately, during dinner some of the sharks decided to attack and eat one of the large fish. Oops! Oh well. As our waiter said, it's the nature of the beast.