A Human Touch

As soon as I saw that this week’s prompt was “Connected”, I thought of this photo. I rarely take photos with human subjects, but when my friend Jenny and I were roaming around on a photo field trip, this sculpture begged for a human touch. Jenny kindly posed along with the artwork so I could get the shot.

I’m ready for my closeup!

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Close Up.”

A macro prompt? Fantastic! As we know, macro is my very favorite type of photography, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what everyone posts this week 🙂

For mine, let’s start with one of the first shots I ever took where I was playing with depth of field. This one was during a meander around downtown Pueblo, CO using my trusty old Lumix.

This one is much more recent and courtesy of my Nikon, my current go-to gear. One of the fun things about the annual Renaissance Festival is seeing all the details of the clothing. I could probably spend half a day just photographing Ren. Fest clothes. Lovely.

 

Annual Denver Botanic Gardens Trip

This year, the Botanic Gardens are featuring sculptures by Deborah Butterfield as their art installation.  The horses were interesting, but not my favorite.  The Chihuly art last year was pretty spectacular, and the bamboo sculptures two years ago were also very cool.

This shot is one of my favorite pictures of a horse sculpture at the gardens.  Overall, I didn’t take too many photos of sculptures this year.  They imitate wood, so they tended to blend in, and they were roped off so I couldn’t get close enough to do some macros.  I think Deborah’s work is beautiful, but I had a hard time shooting it.

Of course, since we were at the botanic gardens, I had plenty of other subjects at my disposal.  I loved finding a collection of tentacled planters in one section of the garden.  These were both beautiful and quirky – a great photo find.

I found some lovely delicate flowers.

As well as a few specimens made of sterner stuff.

This was our third year in a row visiting the Botanic Gardens, and we still managed to find a few side paths and nooks & crannies we had never explored before.  I’m impressed at how much they’re able to fit into the gardens.   Looking at the place from the street, you wouldn’t think they’d have so much inside.  I’m already looking forward to next year’s trip.

Classics, Street Rods, and Lots and Lots of Headlights

On Saturday, we went to the National Street Rod Association show in Pueblo.  Like last year, I had a grand time taking  photos of the cars.  Also like last year, 99.9% of my photos were of car bits rather than shots of whole cars.  I’m a sucker for macro & classic cars with unique details are prime macro fodder.

One of my favorite finds was this detail on what I believe was a Ford Galaxy.  The star emblems were very cool, especially popped against that vivid yellow.

As we walked around, I kept gravitating toward headlights.  I took heaps of headlight pictures.  Here are two of my favorites.  Along with headlights, I have a soft spot for cars that are a bit beat up.  I love the patinas & texture of the worn paint.

And, of course, the emblems are always great to take snaps of.  They’re a subject where shallow depth of field can really be fun.  I like having the bright pops of color behind the emblem to contrast against the chrome.

On the whole, I took 400+ photos on Saturday, and I have too many favorites to count.  It was a very productive trip!

Numbers & Letters: Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge

Cee’s latest & greatest Fun Foto Challenge is “Numbers and Letters.”  As it happens, this challenge came at a perfect time.  This past weekend was the National Street Rod Association show in Pueblo, and those classic cars provided some great material.

One of my favorite shots of the whole show is this one, a proud V8 hood emblem.  I love the weathering & the contrast between the birds egg blue paint and rusted metal of the hood.  I’m a sucker for the cars that show some wear.  I find the different textures & colors very enticing.

One of my favorite things to photograph at the show was headlights.  These classics have such a fascinating variety of styles & colors & shapes… I took dozens of headlight photos.  I like the pop of red against white in this one.

Manitou Springs Pinwheel

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “ROY G. BIV.”

I’ve been thinking about rainbow colors a lot lately, so it’s fun to jump back into the weekly photo prompt on this theme.  One of my favorite rainbow-themed photos is this one of a pinwheel in Manitou Springs.

Plumb the Depths: Photo Challenge

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Depth.”

For this week’s challenge, I thought of this photo of the canyon outside of Grand Junction, Colorado.  Classic Colorado reds and greens.

Recently, we’ve had some weather that’s perfect for photos.  I love the look of frost-covered things.  My patio chair took on a whole new vibe and I had got a nice result with a shallow depth of field.

In the Shadows

These two seem like fitting photos for this week’s photo challenge: Shadowed.

This silhouette took me a few tries to get it just right.  It was just me and my camera, so it was tricky to get this shot in frame while holding my camera at about waist height and at the right angle so my holding it wouldn’t make the shadow look weird.

 

The play of the shadows and the bamboo makes for layers of interesting textures at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

 

 

New Year’s Fondue

This is how we’re celebrating at my house 🙂  Chocolate + lots of things to dip in it.  Happy New Year’s!

Dog Burrito

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Warmth.”

Sherman puts a premium on cozy spots for napping, and my husband thinks it’s hilarious to wrap her up.  It’s a win-win.