I recently shot a portrait session with Denver video artist, Peter Strange Yumi. Peter wanted both some formal and environmental, editorial portraits for his updated artist's bio.
We met at his home and shot a series of natural-light portraits, which I've converted to black and white using the Alien Skin Exposure Photoshop plugin. This plugin simulates various color and b&w film emulsions - in this case I used the Ilford Delta 100 filter.
Manray and I recently had the pleasure of joining a group of her friends in Breckenridge, CO for a weekend of snow, sun, food, drinks and fun. Most of the folks were from back East and hadn't been to the Rockies - in one case we had a Floridian who hadn't even skied/sledded before!
While the bulk of the folks took advantage of Colorado's excellent skiing, a small cadre of us spent the weekend snowshoeing and I've included some of my favorite shots below.
Side note: The effects of climate change are definitely apparent as Denver has absolutely no snow and relatively warm temperatures and we didn't run into any substantial snow until we reached the Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70 at about 11,000'. Fun fact:
The tunnel was built under the Continental Divide, and at a maximum elevation of 11,158 ft (3,401 m) above sea level, it is one of the highest vehicular tunnels in the world. It is also the longest mountain tunnel built under the Interstate highway program, the highest point on the Interstate Highway system, and one of the last major pieces of the system to be completed.
Hopefully new storms will completely wallop the Front Range with new snow as the state's snowpack is well under average and a severe drought is forecast.
The National Western Stock Show recently kicked off their 2010 show here in Denver, CO with a parade/longhorn cattle drive through downtown. This was my first time experiencing such a thing and I was fascinated by the juxtaposition of downtown skyscrapers and real-life cowboys.
I was also secretly terrified at the sight of so many longhorns negotiating their way through the streets - I kept envisioning a Pamplona-like spectacle of humans and horns but thankfully it never materialised.
Aside: working with such a wide-angle lens one needs to get pretty dang close to the subject to fill the photo...more than once I caught myself only a whisker or two away from the business end of those wonderful beasts!
Here are some of my favorite photos from the parade:
For the holidays, Renee, Kerby and I drove from Denver to our respective hometowns in Western New York. More than the great food, delicious cookies or thoughtful gifts the best part of this trip was spending time with - and photographing - members of our family.
Here's to a Happy New Year!
More photos from our visit in this Flickr slideshow
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