Happy Halloween!

Here's a photo I took in Evergreen Cemetery on Saturday. I know it looks like it's 100 years old, but I swear I took it two days ago!

Hope you get lots of candy and other delicious goodies. Trick or treat!

An angel named Debbie

Halloween is nearly upon us! In honor of all things macabre, I made a visit to Evergreen Cemetery for a little photo expedition. I quite enjoyed it. In fact, it's the most quiet, peaceful afternoon I've spent in a very long time. I tried unsuccessfully to locate my grandfather's grave, but I did find a number of interesting, poignant things to document. And a few things that made me feel unspeakably sad. For instance, this melancholy angel has the name Debbie inscribed at her feet. Lovely and sad.

While I was wandering among the graves, I couldn't help but notice a high number of stones with death dates in 1918 and 1919. I realized that these individuals must have been victims of the Spanish Influenza epidemic that swept the country during those years. If you'd like to read about how Colorado Springs, Denver and other Colorado towns were affected by the Spanish Flu, read this interesting article in the Denver Post: http://www.denverpost.com/perspective/ci_12268042

A man in a skirt

After watching THIS great documentary the other night, and having been an avid follower of THIS blog for some time now, I've become inspired to photograph any interesting-looking and/or well-dressed, stylish people I come across. Less than 24 hours after I resolved to do this, I found this fellow, Jeff, at McCabe's Tavern, where you can usually find me on Wednesday night for pub quiz. I saw him pass through the bar a couple of times and I couldn't help but notice that he was wearing a skirt! He wore it with absolute confidence and aplomb. As I was leaving, I asked him if I could make a photograph of him. He was standing outside by the door, so I took his picture where he stood. It was cold out there! And yet he was perfectly comfortable in his kilt, hiking boots and fisherman's sweater. Thanks for being the first of my "interesting people" subjects, Jeff!

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The border next to the sidewalk in my front yard is filled with river rock. I thought it looked pretty the other day with a layer of snow filling the crevices between the stones.

First snow of the season

We had snow on October 8th, but it wasn't much to get excited about (less than an inch, and that was a good thing because I had a wedding that day). Yesterday, however, we got about four or five inches in my neighborhood. It was pretty. I ventured out of the house for a few minutes to grab a couple of pictures. Here's one of the gardens in my front yard. It looks totally different in the snow.

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A parking garage downtown, off Cascade Avenue. I think this photo has a perfect balance of light, dark, pattern and texture.

Corpus Christi Catholic Church

Here's Corpus Christi Church on North Cascade Avenue, captured last week. I've done many a wedding here! It was built in the 1950s, and if you're a regular reader of this blog you know what a fan I am of midcentury modern architecture. But for some reason I usually don't like a midecentury modern church. It probably has something to do with all those art history classes I took in college. When it comes to churches, I prefer something like THIS or THIS. Still, Corpus Christi is very impressive in its own right, don't you think?

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During a photo shoot at the Colorado College the other day (see yesterday's post), I grabbed this quick shot of the afternoon's last golden moments. What a beautiful day. Indian summer is my favorite time of year.

Fountain VFD fire truck

My regular makeup artist, Pamela, was invited to a Halloween party, and she thought it would be fun to have me do a few portraits of her in costume. So yesterday afternoon found us at the Colorado College, in front of very gothic Shove Chapel, with Pamela dressed as Wednesday from the Addams Family. This beautiful antique fire truck was parked in front of the church. What a gorgeously restored vehicle! You can see the proud driver standing at the rear of the truck, giving me the stink eye. (Hey, I did ask for permission to grab a shot!) In my defense, I actually took the picture for Pat, since he was once a firefighter on the Fountain VFD. I thought he'd appreciate it :o)

A few minutes after I took this, Pamela and I moved off to another area to continue our photo shoot, and it's a good thing we did because a bride and groom soon emerged from the church and posed for a series of portraits with the truck. What would they have thought if they'd run into Wednesday Addams? Ha ha!

We built this city on... tuberculosis?

Look at this cute little building! What can it be? Is it a gazebo or tea house? Perhaps it's a tiny play cottage? I hate to break it to ya, but this is a tuberculosis hut. That's right, tuberculosis! What on earth...? Colorado Springs is known for many things, but I'm sure disease isn't the first word that comes to mind for most people! This is a part of Colorado Springs history that I'll bet you didn't know about: many early residents, especially the wealthy, moved here because of the sunny, dry climate, in hopes of being cured of the dreaded consumption. At one time, these little huts were commonplace outbuildings in our downtown area and in the many sanatoriums in the Pikes Peak region. There are still a few to be found here and there. And if you take a close look at the beautiful Victorian mansions that line our downtown boulevards, you may notice that quite a few of them have sunrooms on their second floors, especially on the south and west sides of the home. That's a sure sign that a tuberculosis sufferer once lived there.

This particular TB hut was put in place in the Margery Reed Memorial Park, right in front of Penrose Hospital, in July (BTW the giant smokestack belongs to the hospital, not the hut!). It's only a couple of blocks west of my studio. Take a minute to look at this rare film I found on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yft_uoglRzM . It shows the Woodmen Sanatorium in 1933, and you can see the many huts they had for all their patients, all exactly like this one (there's also really cool footage of Colorado Springs way back when!). And did you know that the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, my alma mater, started its life as a sanatorium too? The building we know as Main Hall was a fancy TB clinic for the well heeled long before it housed classrooms. I remember attending classes there, knowing full well the history, and wondering if it was haunted by long-dead tuberculosis patients!

The trees they are a changin'

My sweetie Pat took this awesome picture yesterday afternoon from the overlook at Palmer Park. Isn't it gorgeous?

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This nice moment brought to you by Mother Nature :o) I snapped this photo as I was doing a senior portrait shoot in Green Mountain Falls about three weeks ago. So pretty. This is my favorite time of year. Are you getting nice fall colors where you live?

Occupy Wall Street protest continues in Acacia Park

I took this photo on Saturday, October 15th. One of the blogs I follow, The Big Picture, featured photojournalistic coverage of protests worldwide yesterday. Click this link to view it -- there are some stunning, emotive photographs here: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/10/occupy_wall_street_global_prot.html It's pretty amazing how much traction this movement has gained in a such a short time. Hopefully it will bring about positive change, and soon.

The Cherry Cricket

On Saturday night, my brother Chuck and I went to Denver to see Howard Jones in concert (it was great!). Before the show we stopped for dinner at the Cherry Cricket, a Denver institution. They make the best burgers in the world, seriously. And there's a dartboard to help you decide what toppings to have on your burger. Fun! They also have a great selection of beers to go with your burger.

If you happen to be a fan of the TV program Man v. Food, you might have seen the episode featuring the Cricket in 2009. In the photo below you can see where Adam Richman, host of the show, autographed the ceiling.

The Modbo, Part II

Another image from the art opening at the Modbo on Friday night (see yesterday's post for details). This musician is named Rence (a.k.a. Dear Rabbit), and I would best describe his music as gypsy nihilsm ;o) I loved it! He had such great energy. Below, by suggestion of Randy at Santa Fe Daily Photo (thanks Randy!), a snap of the artwork I bought, a small acrylic called Happy New Year by local artist Phil Lear.


And here's a video snippet of Rence doing his thing.

The Modbo

Last night my brother Chuck and I went to an opening at a local art space called the Modbo. (And I bought a painting, yay! I love collecting local art.) One of the bands playing the opening was the Bottesini Project -- improvisational jazz. And it was great. I haven't had the pleasure of hearing live jazz in such a long time, and these guys blew my mind! I grabbed a few snaps of them while they played, and for you jazz lovers out there I snatched a few seconds of video (below; warning, not for the faint of heart!). Enjoy!

Self portrait

Well hello there! I couldn't resist an opportunity to photograph myself in this doorway in Casper, Wyoming.

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I found this cool building in Casper, Wyoming while I was there to shoot a wedding. Upon closer inspection I realized that the entire "exoskeleton" of the structure is poured concrete. Wow! It must have been quite an engineering challenge to design and build. Very 1960s!

P.S. I'd like to give a shout out to my trusty assistant Allison, who walked through the frame on cue, oh so casually, to complete the shot ;o)

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A shot I took in Casper, Wyoming while I was there last week to shoot a wedding.

Casper, Wyoming

A couple of weekends ago I traveled to Casper, Wyoming to shoot a wedding. While there I had a chance to hang out with my friends Russell and Sara, longtime Casper residents. They insisted that we dine at the World Famous Wonder Bar, as I understand it the oldest bar in town. I liked it! The food was great, they had my favorite beer (Fat Tire), and the joint was jumpin'. I highly recommend it!

Occupy Wall Street

I haven't blogged in over two weeks! Sorry faithful readers, but my wedding and portrait workload got so heavy that I basically had to temporarily give up All That Is Fun in order to get caught up, including my beloved Colorado Springs Daily Photo. I'm still not caught up, but the good news is that I can pay people to help me get there ;o) So I'm back! I may not be able to blog every single day until I'm in the clear, but I'll do my best.

On to today's photo. I shot this a couple of days ago, actually. You may have heard of the Occupy Wall Street protests that are going on all over the country. Generally when there are protests and street demonstrations going on in Colorado Springs, it's happening in Acacia Park, and this is no exception. Pat and I were downtown on Thursday and spotted these guys on Bijou and Tejon. I thought it'd make a good picture for the blog. I admire their tenacity and strong belief in their principles, so much so that when we saw them still out there late Friday night while we were out on an errand run, we bought them some hot coffee -- it's cold out there!

The protestors are still there. In fact, they were just featured on the local news. Good for them!