During my trip to Echo Lake for a hike and some photography, I stumbled through the woods as I wondered around the lake. It was hard to tell where the path was. Snow still covered portions of the ground in late April, and some of it was still a couple feet deep. 

My ability to hike 10,000 plus elevation surprised me. The ground was primarily flat or had just a bit of elevation but I was going over trees and carrying my photo gear with me. I never felt out of breath or felt like I was straining, and I kept at it for a good hour.  

My feet plunged a foot or more deep into the snow at times as I went over snow embankments, and once my feet and gym shoes were thoroughly soaked, I decided to turn back. (I had forgotten to grab my hiking boots.) The light was starting to dwindle and my primary reason for coming to this spot was because I wanted to try some long exposure night photography. 

I followed my own trail back the best I could, and as I rounded a tree, I saw this sign standing about 7 feet off the ground. A memory of a loved one. I had this thought of a family gathering around the tree to say goodbye to their loved one. It may have hung at eye level 10 years ago, but today it was higher. And in 10 years it would be even higher. Slowly it could rise until it would be out of view to those wandering the path below. Not forgotten, but just out of sight. 

My own father passed away a few years ago, and his close friend scattered his ashes during a fishing trip to Lake Erie. My father loved to go fishing, and loved even more to go fishing with friends and family. 

I had said goodbye to him long before. He had donated his body to science, and for a year all the family knew was that his body was being used to teach and to learn from. A year later, we received his ashes back, and a while later one of his best friends took him on his last fishing trip.

I wonder how their family has changed. My own has changed so much in the years since my father passed. Nieces and nephews have grown, gotten married and started having kids. One has passed away. I've moved across country. One brother and his wife has had a child and seen much of the world. Another brother has brought up two beautiful nieces, one who is a bit of a runner which is also something my father enjoyed.  My sister and her family have seen changes too, and so has most of my family. Some changes bigger than others, but changes none the less.

I stood taking photos for a good few minutes- stared and studied the sign for a bit longer, and then I got on my way. I thank the family for allowing me to remember their loved one, as well as my own family and friends.

The stars at night streak across the sky with the motion of the earth spinning on it's axis on a quiet, peaceful and chilly night at Echo Lake in Colorado in late April. If you would like a print of this photo, you can purchase it from the gallery.

The photograph was taken with a half hour exposure on my Canon 7D at 160 iso and an aperature of f 8.0. I hadn't tried an expsoure that long before, and found a couple important things.

First, it gets very dull sitting and waiting for an exposure to take place. My mind also started wondering what animals were around. It was so dark that I could barely see much around me. The moon wasn't a factor since it wasn't out, and I didn't want to turn on a flash light so I could keep my night vision. It takes about a half hour for the eyes to fully see the expanse of stars in the night sky, and there is something about seeing that beauty that makes me want to see it even more.

It also gets darn cold at times, but I found layering clothing and using some hand warmers kept me pretty warm. I hadn't anticipated the cold though and was lucky I keep some spare clothes in the car.

The worst was what to do with the time while the camera was recording the photograph. I learned to entertain myself and experiment with the name of the spot this photo was taken. Echo Lake is very accurate.

I started with a simple, "Hello!" yelled out to anyone around that might hear, and the trees and rocks answered as they echoed back. First it echoed from straight in front of me, and then it swept from the right all the way around to the left at about 180 degrees. It was as if I had found the surround sound of stereo echoing. I played a bit more with longer and longer phrases seeing what could and couldn't be understood as the echoes drifted off in the far dark distance. As the night drew on, I found a bit of sophmoric joy in a few chosen expletives. Even at 41 I evidentally can still be turned into a 9 year old.

I had a blast meeting up some other photographers from the Front Range Focal Plane Meetup.com group late last month to experiment with some light painting. We spent a few hours out at Commons Park photographing the Highland Bridge, the Platte River and other areas near the downtown area of Denver, Coloardo. 

This photo was made with the help of Andy Johns who is the founder of the group. The metal structure sits in Commons Park and has no lights hitting it besides a bit of light from the city to the East. So it was a perfect subject for some light painting. All of the light was added from Andy firing a Nikon flash several times across the structure during a 42 second exposure at f 9.0 at ISO 200. 

You can see some more of the photos I took during the event on my Flickr page. We played with a Andy's hallogen light painting a bridge as well as some of the art in the area. I also took some photos of other scenes I found interesting during the night's escursion. 

In case you haven't ever done light painting. It usually involves adding light either with flashlights, strobes or other sources of illumination to create a photograph that wasn't already there. Usually no two images created in this manner are the same. 

For another photo Andy illuminated the Highland Bridge over the Platte River with his high powered hallogen flash light. This lit up the spires and the bridge structure quite nicely and probably scared a few of the people using the bridge too.

There were about 7 or 8 of us out there playing and experimenting. And in truth that was what it was all about- having some fun and getting more experience. If you are intersted in trying your hand just find the group on MeetUp.com. There are some regularly scheduled activities whether it is light painting or other events. 

I spent my first Denver New Years Eve hanging out with a great bunch of people from the Denver Photo Walk group. We hung out at Diamon Hill Park to photograph the New Years Eve fireworks taking place downtown. It was a short eight minute fireworks display. And though I was hoping the fireworks would be a bit bigger and higher in the sky, it was fun getting out in the cold weather and enjoying the Denver skyline. From those who had seen previous year events it sounded like this firework display was a bit less lively and smaller.

This is probably the best photo I have from the night though there are a few others that I enjoyed too. I debated which color setting to use for post processing and ended up using the automatic setting that the camera created when I took the photograph. I like the yellow ting of the skyline with the purple and blue hues of the fireworks and the tower that is part of Elitch Gardens.

If you want to know more about the Denver Photo Walk group you can drop me a message or go to the Meetup.com website and do a search for Denver Photo Walk. (Or just click on the link in the first sentence of this post.)

Happy Halloween everyone! One of the first places I knew I wanted to stop and photograph in Denver, Colorado was when I drove past Flossy McGrews costume shop on  South Broadway. The outside is decorated like Halloween exploded all over it. There are a mixture of big and small pieces and if you are just driving buy or not paying attention as you walk by then you'll miss a ton of entertaining items. If the inside is anything like the outside it may be just too much for my brain to handle. According to yelp reviews of Flossy McGrews it also has a lot of other items to see beyond costumes.