I’m looking forward to the new year and all that it has in store. I am looking forward to hearing from my new friends, and reading what they have to say. You inspire.
Category Archives: Photos
I Am Not Alone
Yet another critter. I don’t mind these guys, though. I’m not fond of scorpions, mice, or roaches—all of which I have to deal with periodically. But this picture was taken about 19:00 yesterday, and it’s now 10:12 today and he is where he was when I took this picture. No doubt, I interrupted his hunting expedition. How can a poor spider be stealthy while a 150# woman with a camera on her face flashes light at him? He’s probably lost a couple of meals, and I imagine he’s yelling, “YOU CAN’T SEE ME!!” His confidence in his supreme spiderness is probably injured, too; perhaps destroyed.
I’m on SmugMug
I’m on SmugMug now. I’ve uploaded full-res images of photos and I’ve also been using software to make some of them artful. I’ve had a blast. I invite you to check out what I’ve done thus far. There are a couple of new images and there will be more soon. Mostly I’ve re-saved old images in full-res format and posted them there. I got pretty frustrated not long ago when I decided I wanted to buy myself a print or a book—I’ve been looking around. The only problem was, to save room online and to allow for faster loading of images, I have made them all about 500 pixels wide. They’re fine for online viewing, but not for much else. When I started uploading images and files to a website, we were still all on dial-up, and at that time it was important that the files be small. Now—not so much.
Once the holidays are over, I hope to go somewhere once a month to take pictures. And I have decided, I am not a successful point-and-shooter; I have to use a tripod. But I have new tools that I’m excited to try, so stay tuned! Meanwhile, I’m staying busy with a new job (where I’m learning lots), an old job (that I love), two dogs, a house, baking cookies for Christmas gifts, a little social life, and until last week, school. It keeps me out of trouble, I suppose. But what fun is THAT?!
This is my balcony that overlooks Grand Junction, Colorado. I used Topaz Labs’ Star Effects to exaggerate the shimmer on the Christmas lights. The result is more interesting than the original photo.
Do you notice it’s snowing here on WordPress?
Black Canyon, East Portal—Topaz Labs
This is a photo I took in October. I filtered it using Topaz Labs’ Impression. The first photo is the original picture. The following are the same picture, filtered differently in Impression.
To see detail, click on an image. A full-size image will open in another window.
What fun!
The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.
—Pablo Picasso www.brainyquote.com
Unaweep Canyon
Here’s another photo, an iPhone 5s photo, that I applied some Topaz Labs’ Impression filters to. There doesn’t seem to be a limit to the number of looks you can create. I shot this looking toward Grand Junction.
Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.
—Twyla Tharp

Unaweep Canyon. Wildcat Trail, May 2014. Looking toward Grand Junction, Colorado.
Cloudworks
I get to see a lot of storms push through here and many of them are pretty impressive. Black and white is even more dramatic. The one thing about digital that’s really nice is the ability to shoot LOTS of pictures of nothing but the sky.

Grand Valley Cloud Works
Moonrise
Played with camera this evening while the moon rose. Sure would like to figure this out. I have such a nice view.

Moonrise

Moon
Color at Mud Springs
I took this picture on a Saturday run to Mud Springs above Glade Park, Colorado. My camera settings were off; these were the lowest quality photos I could be taking. Not sure how that happened, but I was not pleased to discover that AFTER ending the day. I still got a few pretty pictures, though. This was one of the better shots.

Colorful Quakies
Black Canyon, South Rim
Oct 26
This gallery contains 9 photos.
“Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms you would never see the true beauty of their carvings.” —Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Spring Hike, 2014
I took these pictures with an iPhone 5s. I think it takes pretty respectable pictures. Once I learned not to use the zoom (and I still forget) I am getting pretty consistently good pictures. I’ve also watched a few videos aimed at teaching how best to capture photos with the that camera.
This was a fun hike with my friend, Carol, on May 23, 2014. I believe she did some geo-caching along the way. And she knows stuff. I saw yellow flowers and greenish caterpillars. She saw [insert correct names here]. A hike with Carol is always informative and fun. We sat toward the top and ate lunch and enjoyed the view.
Unaweep Canyon is one my favorite places. It’s pretty every season; in rain, snow, or sunshine.
Getting Close to Sunset
Driving home from Black Canyon yesterday, this is what the sky looked like just outside of Montrose. Nice, huh?

Just Before Sunset. Montrose, Colorado.