regrets of photographs

i love this time of year.

most of the leaves have fallen leaving graceful skeletons in their absence. the sun sets quicker tucking itself behind the mountains hastily, but leaving inexplicable beauty in its wake. almost every evening the sky is transformed into a canvas of oranges, pinks, reds and purples...but only for fleeting moments. even during the day the sun seems warmer. not temperature-wise mind you...i'm talking color here.

i went shooting last week one afternoon after i got off work. it was about 2pm which really isn't that great of a time of the day for light, aesthetically speaking. but because of the time of year that it is, the sun was unusually low in the sky and the light was almost golden. too lovely not to try and shoot something. anything.

here are some results from that day...












i started a new job this week. it's full time which means that now i'm working until 5 and don't have the opportunity to catch the sunset if i so choose. however, our offices face west and from my desk i am afforded a view of the sky. it's almost not fair.

the sky tempts me and begs me to try to capture it...even tho i know it's not possible even when i am able to try, but that doesn't stop me from trying. but i sat at my desk this evening watching the sky move from lovely to brilliant to indescribable as i worked thru reports.

whitney even texted me to get outside and start shooting if i could. i just told her that i was working and didn't have the opportunity. i didn't have the heart to tell her that i had watched the whole thing unable to do anything about it. but maybe this will make her be on the ready. now that i don't have the same opportunities that i did before.

whit: first lesson should be this weekend.

photo of the week

reflections...

holy goose crap, batman.

so i get a frantic call from whitney tonight asking me where i am and what i'm doing and do i have my camera handy. apparently the sunrise was unreal...i was just chilling at home and had no idea. i peeked out the window and saw immediately why she was being so spastic.

the red in the sky was overwhelming and the first color to register to my brain. the clouds were a lavender edged in bright red, orange and fuschia...it was incredible. i immediately began regretting where i live. too many houses...too many light poles...too many whatever. i jumped into my car and drove to the closest "open" area i could find which was sloans. i knew i didn't have much time, i've missed capturing an incredible sky by minutes many a time.

my sight was still pretty impeded because the majority of the incredibleness was south of where i was and there was just too much in the way.

then there were the geese. lord knows i have a problem with birds, but i really really really don't like geese. they are quite unkind.

the area of the park where i needed to stand to get a decent view was covered in a flock of geese. at least 50 strong. but the sky was just too lovely. so i took the leap.

i walked amidst the hoard and they did well at moving aside at first and i went along taking pictures and murmuring threats to any of the fowl who thought it might be fun to start something. for a few minutes we had this uneasy balance of me in their midst and them not starting trouble...but i could see the deviousness lurking behind those beady bird eyes. i was snapping away when i heard a rush of wings and not 5 feet from me a large portion of them decided it was time to fly. i let out a little "woah there", jumped to the side and skipped out of the way. i could see the others had the same intent so i slowly moved away from where i was to let them fly away. after a moment they did, and i was able to get on with it.

oi.

i got a few shots. but not anything that did the sky any kind of justice...the oranges and reds just didn't translate well. plus, had i the forethought and the time, i would have brought the tripod. as it was, most of this was shot at 1/25 or less (usually less).

*full view is highly recommended*




this one, i was facing north and using my car as a tripod...

photo of the week

photo of the week...


and a bonus...

i love texture and when i was roaming around downtown last sunday, i saw this peeling paint and thought it looked pretty cool.

last weekend...

last weekend was a lot of fun. my grandfather and his wife came into town for a visit and it was really nice to be able to spend time with them...i haven't seen them since my brothers wedding, so needless to say, it's been a while.

we went downtown for dinner on friday night and totally spaced out that it would be crazy down there due to the fact that it was halloween. there were tons of people down there, but the people watching was quality. (c; i can't remember a halloween in colorado that wasn't freezing...but this year was abnormally warm. it was great for my grandpa and lynne because they live in mesa, so they're not used to the crazy cold.

on sunday, james brought nelson over to meet them. our house is by no means big and i always feel sorry for nelson when he comes to visit because a small living room + a great dane = tight quarters. but he entertained us for a while, then he cleared the room with his atrocious gas. it was good times.

here are a few pics from the weekend...

grandpa and mom (looking sweet)

grandpa and mom (looking more natural)

grandpa and mom...with lynne's head. (c;

nelson being a princess...


this weekend...or at least saturday...was kinda busy for me. i had two shoots scheduled, both very young babies. the first was the newest verdecchio, charlie and his parents andy and mindy. (c: the second was with little caleb evans and his parents josh and marcy. they both did really well considering how young they are, though caleb was able to last a bit longer. here are my favs from each shoot...they're both asleep, but still cute. (c:

caleb, the next bronco...

charlie, holding on to dad...

i rented a few lenses and an off camera flash for these shoots and i had fun playing with the new lenses. i got a 24mm, a 26-135mm zoom and a 200. i mostly used the zoom lens, but i used the 24 for a couple of shots too. the 200 was just too long for the spaces i was working in. i have the lenses until tomorrow evening, so after work i'm going to go downtown to just go on a shooting frenzy. (c: the photo of the week was one i shot right after the shoot with caleb, josh and marcy. i walked out of the house and saw the moon covered in a light mist of clouds and it was just begging me to shoot it. so i did. (c:

hopefully i'll get something interesting tomorrow...

photo of the week