Weekly Photo Challenge: Texture

As most shutterbugs will tell you, looking through a camera lens causes you to start seeing things around you differently.  Photography makes me see the extraordinary in the ordinary world around me.   One day during my spring break, I decided that I needed an excuse to view the local scenery with a new outlook and enjoy the beautiful weather.  I threw a request for someone to help me practice my portrait photography up among my friends on social media.  It wasn’t long before the daughter of a friend volunteered for the job.

Shawna and I spent the day wandering around the Cripple Creek mining district.  It’s an interesting mix of new and old – modern day casinos and mining boom ghost town.  One of our stops was a deserted, ramshackle house with a broken-down barn a few feet from the house.  Necessity is truly the mother of invention.  To keep the livestock inside the barn from perishing in the cold, mountain winters, the barn owner scrounged any spare sheets of tin he could find and nailed it to the outside wall to stop the blustery wind.

The different types of tin created a patchwork effect of textures.  Time and weathering have taken their toll on the metal surfaces. Turning the photo into black-and-white eliminated the distracting cacophony of colors and allowed the various, extraordinary textures to be seen in the ordinary old tin.

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Zigzag

The Eagle and The Hawk

I am the eagle, I live in high country,
In rocky cathedrals that reach to the sky.
I am the hawk and there’s blood on my feathers,
But time is still turning they soon will be dry.
And all of those who see me, all who believe in me
Share in the freedom I feel when I fly.

Come dance with the west wind and touch on the mountain tops,
Sail o’er the canyons, and up to the stars.
And reach for the heavens, and hope for the future,
And all that we can be and not what we are.

Words and music by John Denver and Mike Taylor

 

I was fortunate enough to spot this hawk while traveling from the Monte Vista Crane Festival through the San Luis Valley near the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado one morning.  He however wasn’t as thrilled to see me as I was to see him.  I did capture a few images as he darted away from the top of a line pole.  I love the zigzag texture of the tensioner (?) on the wire. It adds a little visual interest to the picture and creates perspective.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Relic

 

My husband and I rarely travel the interstate highway system anymore. We prefer to travel the “old” roads to catch glimpses of America rather than see the slicked-up fast-food and hotel attractions at the off ramps. My husband was a military brat and has become somewhat of an American military history buff.  Consequently, when our travels take us near a military historical site, we detour and spend a little time in the past.  One such side-trip landed us right in the middle of the corn fields of Nebraska at the site of McCook Army Air Base.

This military base was only active from  1943 to 1945, but it trained pilots for missions in some of our massive bombing planes such as the B-17 Flying Fortress which helped the Allies win the war. Today, most of the 2,100 acres has reverted back to farmland, but a few buildings still stand desolate surrounded by old pieces of machinery that sit where they were last parked, like ghosts of the past. They remind me that World War II was about the men and women these relics would have transported.  I can almost see the soldiers in uniforms.

The McCook Army Air Base Historical Society maintains a small memorial garden dedicated to the men and women that served the Army Air Corps there. A  sign proclaims the annual reunion event to be held the last weekend of September. I can’t help but wonder if there is anyone left to attend.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Contrast

 

 

 

Cruise Above the Clouds is an annual car show which begins at Woodland Park , Colorado with an altitude of 8,465 feet above sea level, and then cruises to Cripple Creek, Colorado with an altitude of 9,494 feet above sea level.  Last fall (2013) I couldn’t resist snapping a few pictures of the classic cars. There are many different vehicles of various ages and stages of restoration.  When I got to this, I couldn’t help but take the photograph. New vs. Old. This cute little puppy was such a contrast to the 1950s era truck bed in which he was sitting. Could he be any more adorable?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Three Picture Story

Estes Park, Colorado                                                                                               February 2014

Lake Estes

The wind was blustery despite the beautiful sunshine, and we weren’t able to stay out long. The wind buffeted us around so badly that it was hard to stay still to snap a shot.

Lake Estes

My husband quickly snapping his photos

Lake Estes

Okay, let’s go back to the car now.