Best of 2011

Some artists are content to work by themselves and have no one appreciate or critique their creations. For better or worse, I’m not one of them. If I lived on a desert island with no hope of every sharing my work with others, I would still want to create art. But I’m not on a desert island and there’s the internet, and I want my work to be seen, so like it or not, one way is through best of lists.

Maybe not the best one to start with, but one that I like a lot at the moment. This was taken in a heavy snow storm. I loved the contrast the color of the Willow added to the image.

Walking down a road in the Sierras, these aspen limbs caught my attention.

The first thing I do every morning when I get up is look at the sky. I’m still working on new ways and locations to capture these amazing sunrises.

It’s been many years since I lived in an area with a real winter. It was still fall, but the morning was frosty and I was taken with the light frost on the newly dead leaves and grass.

Probably my most unique photo of the year. I was told that I should be looking to take more like these, and I would like to. We’ll see. I can’t plan it. I need to see something and be inspired.

We have maybe two foggy days a year here. I was very lucky to choose this location this morning and have a hint of the flatirons at the top. That light horizontal line behind the trees is actually the morning sun shining on a meadow.

Even after the sun is up the skies keep giving.

When I posted this online, most viewers wanted to see it warmer. I tried a warmer version and to my eye, the colder version has more drama. This is near Long Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. I love this place.

I’ve photographed this tree in all seasons and light. This one is the best.

Another attempt to capture the amazing winter mornings.

Thanks for looking. I’m much more interested in looking forward than back so I want to leave you with something from this week, the first week of 2012.

Colorado Skies

The sunrises here on the Colorado front range are amazing. I have never seen patterns and colors in the sky like I have here. I used to photograph a lot of sunrises, either at the pacific ocean or in the Sierras. My images followed what unfortunately has become a pretty standard format. They were shot with wide-angle lenses and the colored sky was there usually as a pretty backdrop for a mountain or seascape. I no longer seek to make those kinds of images.

Instead, I’ve been making images where the sky is the dominant part of the photograph. What foreground there is, is there to complete the composition.

I’ve added a new gallery to my webpage, Colorado Skies, and I’ll be adding new images to it regularly. Regularly at least for the next month or so. The best skies are in the winter. Here is a link to Colorado Skies.

Merry Christmas — May There Be Peace on Earth

Wonderful Philip Hyde Video

This is a just over three minute video of a Philip Hyde exhibit at the Lumiere Gallery in Atlanta. If you don’t know much about Philip Hyde’s career, this is a wonderful introduction and with some awesome photography.

Philip Hyde from Lumière on Vimeo.

Boulder City Club Exhibit

I having an opening at the Highland City Club in Boulder this Friday.

It runs from 5PM-7PM

The address of the City Club is:
885 Arapahoe Avenue
Boulder, Colorado 80302

The show runs through February 7th, but if you can make it to the opening, stop by and say hello.

Local Color III

We’ve already had two snowfalls, but I love the fall color here so much, I just had to post some more.

Now I can concentrate on winter images.

Thought Provoking, Not

I was at a juried photography exhibit recently and was struck by something the juror had written describing how he made his selections. He said that he looked for images that were thought provoking. I saw a similar point of view expressed in a photographer’s blog that’s been making the rounds. In it, the photographer says that he’s decided that he wants to move away from making pretty pictures and do images that are more thought provoking.

I like movies that are thought provoking ⎯ the same with literature. However, when I listen to music or look at visual art, I don’t want more thoughts. I want the music or art to take me out of my thoughts and pull me in.

Mankind is hard at work destroying this planet and in the process destroying himself. Unless you’re living in the wilderness, you can’t help being reminded of this constantly.

I don’t need art to tell me this.

There seems to be a strange view in the world that beautiful art is just escapist and doesn’t accomplish anything. Is it escapist to listen to Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins and be so totally absorbed in it that by the time it’s over, you’re in tears? It’s that’s escapism, I’m all for it.

I go out into nature because it gets me out of my mind. If I’m thinking too much, I don’t see anything. If I quiet down, I can appreciate the beauty. I try to capture that quiet beauty in my photographs.

Rather than thought provoking I would like to think of my work as thought relieving.

Emily’s Video

My wife, Emily, worked on this video for a long time. She discovered the music of Robert Coxon and crafted the images to evoke the feelings in the music. When she was all done, she tried to contact the composer to no avail. Finally she contacted his publisher, but only got information about the licensing fees required to place the video on YouTube. I was against spending the money, but enter Emily’s 89 year old mother, Reba. After Reba saw what Emily produced, she insisted on giving us the licensing fees for our birthdays.

Thank you Emily and thank you very much, Reba.

Here’s the link to see it.

Local Color II

I’ve made a number of visits to the high country but none of them have been as productive as my morning walks.

This is Boulder Creek, just blocks from downtown.

Now that’s it’s starting to get cold here, the sunrises are getting really good.

Not much color, but I loved that cloud.

Local Color

Fall in the west means that photographers run to the mountains to photograph the changing Aspens and Cottonwoods. I’m no different. But, on mornings when I have to work, and I don’t have time to go to the mountains, I have the opportunity to discover the color and beauty of Boulder.

The Aspens in the mountains have been beautiful this year but I seem to be having better luck in my back yard.