jackson hole 2009

when i'm on the road in distant places sometimes the only thing i can do is go out and take photos. did these while i was in jackson late last year just walking all around town after having run around town to select some subjects first. i couldn't do much this night though and not many of them turned out because it was so cold. i think it was in the 20's that night.

central wyoming treasures

random manual photos

i decided to dig deep into my vault of photos for this new post to find some photos that i haven't seen for a very long time. most of them were taken back in 2001 or 2001 before any of us were running around with dslr's that take 90% of the skill out of photography. these were done with my old pentax camera that was bought by my parents in the early 80's then shelved for over 20 years only to have 2 rolls of film ever pass through it's shutter. if it hadn't have been for that camera and the artistic lenses my parents bought back in the day with no clue of how to use them, i wouldn't have any clue on how take photos now and would have little to no interest. these are some random shots i took that were developed in a dark room in oregon. it's hard to take manual photos with digital cameras because of the lens configuration and the lack of user feedback you get from the camera. it's almost better just to take automatic photos with a digital camera and then tweek them in cs3/lightroom rather than try to take manual shots. the red felt pool table belonging to my friend andrew was a favorite shoot of mine because of the pool ball shots that i'll post later. one day i will make 6'x8' copies of them to put in our house in all their grainy glory. the goat is marcia moore's that we used to take care of along with many other goats and animals. the red chair was given to us by julia's mom and was on its last leg before i refinished it. we still use it but it's looking pretty shabby right now. during this time i was shooting a lot of t-max 1600 speed b&w film while manually push processing it 2.5 times (about a $12 roll of film!). that's what shooting in almost complete darkness looks like with no flash. i can't remember what the exposure was on these but it was in the neighborhood of 8 seconds.

october moon in wyoming

last night i decided to venture out into the cold once again to try and capture a perfect moon shot of a near full moon. the past few nights there have been a subtle haze in the sky that can ruin a clear night shot. i think the colder it is outside the better that moon shots turn out. this is probably the best one i've taken yet. once we get our new lens for the camera we'll be able to take much clearer shots than this one. there may even be some more detail and definition in the lower part that i'm becoming more interested in photographing.

cars of los angeles and hawaii

cheyenne winter night

i've been meaning to post these pictures on here for oh, about 5 months now. my photo log is getting kind of backed up so i thought i should post these before too long. i ventured out on a super cold winter night to take these when the rest of the city of cheyenne was most likely asleep or cuddled up by a fire with a cup of hot chocolate. it's so fun just to run around town while the street ligts are flashing, the stores are all closed, and the only cars you see are police or taxis. it was probably 11:00 and in the low teens so i could only stay out for roughly a half hour before i started to shake so much that trying to manipulate camera equipment was turning into a dangerous task. these photos will give you an idea of the kind of town we are living in by highlighting some of the more historical buildings.

Light Side of The Moon

these are some of the earlier pictures of the moon that i took back in may of last year. i'm planning on taking some better ones soon. night photos have been a big interest of mine lately and i have quite a library of night photos around cheyenne and denver. denver is a night photographer's playground.

denver at night

this shoot took place back in december of 2008. i was in denver at a training for several days and had my nights free to do whatever i wanted to do. when i'm away on business (depending on where i am) there are several things i can go out and do. usually i go on runs around different places to explore and see what the city has to offer. sometimes i'll take myself out to a nice dinner all by myself which is very awkward to say the least, but it is a nice finish to a long day of meetings or classes. lately i've been taking the camera with me just in case i find some nice photo opportunities to capture. i've always thought denver is a very intriguing, classy, and romantic city with a lot of beautiful history as well as unique architecture. one night i took myself out for a night on the town for fun and excitement only i can enjoy all by myself. this consisted of nice long night run, a stroll through REI (my favorite store), and a long drawn out session of night photos. usually doing all these things would take multiple nights over several months, but this night i was able to cram them all into one night of endless amusement. first i went to REI and did nothing but dream/window shop and enjoyed the warmth and serenity of the denver REI because it's probably one of the most beautiful stores ever made and literally feels like you're on an adventure. then i went back to the car and got my equipment (camera, remote, lenses, tripod, flash, etc) and walked about a 5 mile loop around downtown just scouting out different photos while receiving many blank stares and looks as to why a guy was setting up a tripod all around several busy 30 degree denver hot spots. occasionally a passerby would stop and look at what i was photographing, or jump in front of the camera posing as a model. all the different shots i found to take made me feel like a kid in a candy store with the many buildings and features i found to be photo-worthy. later on i walked back to the car with my equipment and a memory card containing more than 150 photos. then i changed my clothes into some warm running gear and ran back through the city on a 7 mile loop of many areas i had just photographed. part of me wanted to re-explore what i had just photographed to see what things look like as an invisible runner as opposed to the conspicuous photographer. nothing is more fun to me than running through the streets of a new place to explore, see, smell, touch, hear, and experience from a totally different perspective. after that, i went back to the car again and drove to the last place i could find open to get some dinner which happened to be subway. a perfect healthy end to a perfect healthy night.

wonder wall behind cal state san bernardino

this set of photos was a long time in the making! for probably 3 years i wanted to get back behind cal state san bernardino to take these shots. usually when i'm out on a run or ride i discover new and interesting things to use as subjects for shoots, and this was very intriguing to me. behind cal state is an enormous flood basin designed to catch storm floods before they reach residential areas. approximately 500' to one side of this wall is the beginning of the san bernardino national forest, and 500' to the other side is about a 75' high concrete barrier/levee with various flood containment devices that look like they were installed back in the 60's. access to this area is very limited due to the mountains, the high walls, and the terrain itself. adding to the peculiar environment is an old house standing only as brick walls that was burned out by previous fires. this area in the foothills is a fire zone where building has not been permitted for many years, nor would anyone want to build there due to the limited access and sense of isolation. navigating the terrain is like walking through the dry sand on a beach for close to a mile. the walls create a guantlet-esque voyage from the main campus to this area with the intention of preventing trespassers (and photographers :) from entering without a good purpose. i found this area when we first moved to san bernardino, but never had the time, day light, or opportunity to get back there to take some shots. i finally decided one day that i was alone with the girls that it would be a perfect time to take shots of one or many of the large rusty walls of corregated steel, probably constructed as a kind of wave supressant for any large floods decending the mountainside. jules was at work for the majority of the day, so i packed up both the girls in the bike trailer, the camera equipment, some sippie cups, the big glass head i've used in several abstract shoots, and my running shoes and we were off! only until i got to the concrete levee did i realize what a mistake that was. trying to push the girls with the camera and the bike trailer ended up being a lot heavier than i thought, especially in deep sand. the trailer has a tiny front tire that kept digging into the sand, it weighed about 100 lbs total with the girls in it, the wind was picking up, it was 90 degrees, AND just getting to the wall was a 3 mile trek one way. the return run home was harder than the run there because now i was heading uphill to get back. the girls were getting impatient, hot, tired, hungry, and missing their mom too. it was without a doubt the hardest shortest run i've ever done, but i'm happy with how the photos turned out which made the trip worth it. i would've gone back to do some night shots another day if it wasn't for the difficult trip. at night it can become a snake and coyote-fest behind cal state as i've been followed by coyotes in the past, only on my turf on the developed side of the wall. who know what could happen at night on the other side of the levee between wildlife and criminals.