Category Archives: Still life

“Spirit Guides” at the Denver Botanic Gardens

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I recently had the opportunity to see the “Spirit Guides” exhibition at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Scattered amongst the plants were a series of 8 sculptures — imaginary hybrid animals inspired by the Zapotec calendar — made by Jacobo and María Ángeles of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Armadillo-Insect sculpture

Armadillo-Insect by Jacobo and María Ángeles

This colorful fellow is poised to greet you, right as you enter the gardens. As you can see, he’s a tall one.

These hybrid creatures combine two kinds of spirit animals from Zapotec legend — one represents a protective animal, the other is a spirit animal with personality traits similar to yours. Continue reading →

1965 Corvette Stingray

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Every year, one of our local cemeteries hosts a car show. Folks from a wide area bring their classic vehicles for display, and you can walk through the lineup for free while… I don’t know… pondering your mortality? I can’t explain it, but the juxtaposition works somehow.

Here’s an infrared (530nm) photograph of a 1965 Corvette Stingray taken at the 2023 Fairmount Cemetery Car Show.

1965 Corvette Stingray

EXIF:
Olympus E-PL8 camera converted to full spectrum
M.Zuiko 14-42mm EZ lens, 530nm IR filter
ISO 320, 14mm, f/9, 1/60 sec

Fun with infrared light and modern architecture

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Over the past few years, I’ve dabbled here and there with infrared (IR) photography, but didn’t take it very seriously until I recently took an online course in the subject from Derrick Story (a.k.a. The Nimble Photographer). If you’re at all interested in IR photography, I can highly recommend the seminar — you’ll learn a lot from the instruction, and quite a bit as well from your fellow students.

In particular, one of my fellow students recommended taking IR photos in office parks with mature vegetation. You can, he said, get some nice results with the architecture, windows, and greenery.

So as my first example of this subject matter, here’s the Pacific Western Bank building in the Denver Tech Center (Denver, Colorado):

PWB iPhone

The above is a quick reference photo I took with my iPhone — it’s poorly framed but still a good comparison for the images below.

Continue reading →

The Runabout

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This is a 1904 Ford Model A Runabout — on display at the Seal Cove Auto Museum in Seal Cove, Maine:

1904 Ford Model A Runabout

From the placard:

The first Ford made was the 1903 Model A. This early 1904 model differs primarily by having a larger radiator and flywheel. An alphabetical series of Fords followed the Model A. In 1928, after building the 1927 Model T, the designation “Model A” was used again from 1928-1931.

These vehicles usually had a rear-facing hinged door [to allow passenger access to the back seat]. The open, rear passenger seating compartment was called a “tonneau”. The first U.S. tonneau with a side door was made by Peerless. This led to the development of the modern sedan.

EXIF:
OM System OM-1 camera, M.Zuiko 8-25mm f/4.0 Pro lens
12mm, f/10, 1/30 sec, ISO 10000

Ullr in the storm

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A snow sculpture of Ullr, norse god of skiing, on display at the 2023 Breckenridge International Snow Sculpture Championships.
Ullr in the storm

As luck (good? bad?) would have it, our drive up to Breckenridge for the 1st public day of sculpture viewing coincided with the arrival of another storm front. Appropriate, I suppose, for a bunch of sculptures made from snow.