Category Archives: People

Ridin’ and shootin’

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Another fun shot from the 2012 National Western Stock Show — this one from the Cowboy Mounted Shooting event:

Ridin' and shootin'

Honestly, I’d never even *heard* of Cowboy Mounted Shooting as a competitive event before. But when we showed up at the stock show ticket desk, we could definitely hear it! We wandered into the arena to see what all the noise was from — and found this fun little event going on.

Getting this shot was a bit tricky, though. The arena lights are relatively dim, and the horses move pretty quickly — so I had to let the ISO get up to 2500 in order to get a reasonably fast shutter speed. At times like this, it helps to catch the action when the horse and rider are rounding a corner — so they’re moving as slowly as they’ll ever be. Oh, and put your camera on “continuous” shooting — catching sparks in mid-air is a game of chance…

Lost in the Caribbean

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A few weeks back, Denver held its latest annual “Doors Open Denver” weekend. The point of these is to encourage people to get out and get familiar with some local architectural points of interest. This year’s theme was “modern architecture,” roughly speaking things built in the past 50 years.

Lost in the Caribbean

I took this shot in the lobby of the Cable Center Building — a pretty posh place that’s a local hub of the cable TV industry. I have no idea who this gent was, but he definitely seemed to be feeling a bit… at sea.

Giant in the mist

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I took this image (actually, a panorama of two images) several years ago, and just recently thought to revisit it in my “workflow.”

Giant in the Mist

What I like best about this image is the people in it. For many of us, Paris and the Eiffel Tower are romantic places seen only on occasional trips. But for the locals, they’re a regular part of the scenery — almost taken for granted. So while I was working to get a good composition of this image with the tower, the people that lived nearby were going about their regular lives, paying little attention to the tower.

Ready for my close-up…

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Another fun shot from the 10th annual Colorado Dragon Boat Races here in the Denver metro area:

Ready for my close-up...

We were fortunate this year in that the weather was clear and bright (if a bit hot / muggy too…). Some years it’s been overcast and sporadically rainy, not so good for photography of all the wonderful color.

Dude, I'm dragon…

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So a few weeks back, when we went to the 10th annual Denver Dragon Boat festival, I made a point of lingering along the path the dragon would take during the opening festivities. Very colorful, not something you see every day — I thought it’d present some interesting photographic opportunities.

Dude, I'm dragon...

So after firing away, taking pictures of the dragon’s passage, I was more than a little surprised myself that I’d captured this shot. One of the dragon’s carriers definitely isn’t too enthused about the whole affair…

A little "light" entertainment

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If you ever get to Hawaii (in particular, if you ever get to the island of Oahu), chances are you’ll wind up stopping by the Polynesian Cultural Center. It’s the #1 paid attraction in the state, after all. An adjunct of the BYU-Hawaii campus, the PCC serves a cluster of purposes — entertainment, helping college-age kids from across the Pacific pay for college, and providing some cross-cultural education.

Granted, the displays of polynesian culture at the PCC are “cleaned up” a bit (as you might expect given the circumstances), but for most visitors it’s at least a quick way to get exposure to a slice of Polynesia they wouldn’t see otherwise. The after-dinner show is also a great way to get practice photographing flaming torches:

A little

I was more than a little surprised that this shot didn’t require much noise cleanup — the torches do a great job of lighting the entertainer (just had a bit of noise in the darker background). BTW, this is a shot from the “Ha: Breath of Life” show. Great stuff for the kids…

So many don'ts

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About a year ago, a business trip gave me the opportunity to wander around a bit in Seattle. I was particularly lucky to have a little free time on a beautifully sunny day — and spent a chunk of it in Gasworks Park, a reclaimed industrial area.

So many don'ts

But as you can see from the sign, reclamation can only do so much. So while the scenery behind the camera was green and pretty, this particular spot for contemplation bears a reminder of the site’s less beautiful legacy. The shot looks cluttered in color, but I think black & white is a good fit for it…

Playing for change

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On a recent trip to Seattle, I spotted this busker with an accordion just up the block from the Pike Place Market:

Playing for change

Pity I didn’t see the little sign at her feet at the time. We were, though, hustling up the street to get somewhere — I only had time to take this shot because we were waiting for the light to change so we could cross the street. If I hadn’t had a longish lens on my camera at the time, I wouldn’t even have been able to capture this scene.

FWIW, she didn’t play a note the whole time — just stood there with her accordion. Maybe a tip would have prompted some music?