Author Archives: Con Daily

most popular image

Thank you to everyone who attended last weekend’s Holiday Extravaganza in Bailey. At the show, the red fox kits were the most popular images in my booth. I didn’t ask people to vote, but the images of the fox kits drew the most comments and purchases. Below is my top seller for the show. As the mother fox grooms, her baby’s expression seems to say ‘enough!’

My fox kit images were captured in late May and early June of 2007, thanks to near neighbors who called when the vixen and three kits emerged from under their deck.

What gets people talking in my booth? Here are some of the FAQs:

  • St. Elmo, a mountain ghost town – Where is that?
  • Hummingbirds  – How did you get these photos of hummingbirds?
  • Other Birds  – What kind of bird is that?
  • Lions Head – Is that Lone Rock?
  • Fox kits – How did you get so close?
  • General – What cameras do you use?  Is it digital? Photoshopped?

I drink lots of water at the shows because I have to do a lot of talking.

Now today, as I prepare for this weekend’s show, should I print a large number of the same images that sold last weekend? Not necessarily. My experience has been that the favorite image often changes from one show to the next.

This Saturday the show is in Conifer at the high school.

The Holiday Boutique and Silent Auction is run entirely by community volunteers each year (since 1977!) and with net proceeds from the jury and booth fees going to mountain area schools, volunteer fire and rescue departments, and other local nonprofits. Nearly 90 artisans participating in this event donate 10% of their gross sales and an auction item.

Conifer Newcomers and Neighbors Holiday Boutique 2008
November 8
9AM to 4PM
Conifer High School

(my booth is #95 in the cafetorium)

ghost truck

This is one of the images (captured on a trip in 2007) I’m taking to this weekend’s show. I wonder if anyone will find the old Dodge as interesting as I did.  I was warned that a very large bull would not be happy with me “out there” photographing the truck, but the bull did not appear so I came home alive with the image.

I titled the print ‘back to nature’, but today’s date calls for a spookier name.

I won’t be waiting for the children (who never come) trick or treating at my house tonight. I’ll be setting up my display in the Canyon Room of the middle school in Bailey. If you are in the area this weekend, stop by and say hello.

Holiday Extravaganza  (I pronouce it “extraaavaganza”)
November 1 & 2
9 am to 4 pm
Fitzsimmons Middle School (South of Bailey on U.S. 285. Um, I think it’s actually west of Bailey. Anyway, if you are coming from southpark take 285 north and stop at the school before you get to Bailey. If you are coming from Denver, take 285 south and go through Bailey and find the school about 3 or so miles beyond. It’s easy to find, really!)

Autumn Snow

I’ve been busy printing and framing for two November shows. Yesterday morning I resisted the urge to go out in the snow to photograph and captured this scene through the window before getting back to work. The snow was not too deep for a delivery truck to bring some replacement inks for the printer in the late afternoon. Much of the snow will melt today.

smart seeds

Each autumn I marvel at the seeds of mountain mahogany. The feathery part curls and straightens with changes in humidity. When the seed is on the ground it digs itself in with the curling action.

Autumn Hiking on the Colorado Trail at Kenosha Pass

This may be the most beautiful week of the year.  I hiked a few miles out and back on the Colorado Trail from the west side of Kenosha Pass with a side trip down an old road in a high meadow on the return. 

I love the views of South Park from this trail.

The leaves are fantastic this year.

The side trip on the old overgrown road into the meadow was worth the view (above). I’ve snowshoed this road before, but this was my first time down into the meadow in warm weather.

 Hiking a quiet trail in autumn sunshine may be the best relief to be had from financial news and politics.

I think I’ll go again tomorrow.

Lions Head

Each day it’s a new view. 

Today I took my dog out to get a different morning view of Lions Head. But the aspens I was hoping to capture were still green and it was windy and the dog just wanted to go for a walk. Why do we always have to stop and photograph, he must wonder.

The image below shows this morning’s view from lions foot in the creek valley.

 

 

Project Inspiration

Do you start projects and then get distracted or too busy to finish them? I have so many ideas for photography projects some of them never get started and few have reached a point where I feel like I’m finished.

I’d planned to work on one of my projects this week, but have changed course since my dog was injured Monday. I’m spending the week watching him and telling him not to chew on the bandages. I usually let him out to run on a steep fenced acre. Now, I am taking him out on a lead to walk around and take care of business. It’s hard to keep the bandages clean on the dusty road. And I was planning on camping and photographing near my favorite hot springs this week!

Oh well, I’ve got loads of other projects around the house to finish, so perhaps I’ll work on one of those this week and have a project to write about soon. But it won’t be the dog – he doesn’t like to be photographed. When he sees the camera, he wilts. When he sees his lead, he wags.

Want to read about a great photography project?

Photographer Howard Grill’s announcement of Nature Photography magazine’s publication of his Twin Jewels Project on two parks near his home in western PA has inspired me to go back to work on some of my photography projects. Click here for all of Howard’s posts on his Twin Jewels Photography Project.

Howard is planning to do something more with his many photographs (the mag chose 5 for publication) from the project and he’s soliciting ideas from his readership. You may want to congratulate his success in comments and offer your project ideas for his Twin Jewels photographs.