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Official First Day of Fall

September 24th, 2019

Official First Day of Fall

Fall has always been my favorite season and with today marking the official first day, I thought I would honor it with a very “Fall” picture.

I took this shot a few years ago in Issaquah, Washington. I was doing a photoshoot of the fall colors as the trees were at their peak in and around this area. The fall foliage irony here is that the foothills and mountains in this area are covered in evergreen trees, so they are very green all year regardless of the season. The only fall colors are all of the deciduous trees that have been planted throughout the years in the towns and cities. That’s not to say that there isn’t spectacular fall foliage, it’s just not in the surrounding mountains, only in the established cities. Be that as it may, the amount of trees turning vidid yellows and red are everywhere throughout the metropolitan area of Seattle.

I was done with my photoshoot, when I drove by this scene. Believe it or not, this wasn’t in a large park or along a hiking trail. This setting was literally along a major boulevard in Issaquah that had a nice pedestrian walkway winding along the boulevard with trees, grass and occasional areas to sit. I caught it out of the corner of my eye and thought about it as I continued to drive on down the road. A little voice had me turn around, find parking at a nearby shopping center and walk back to this bench to capture this shot.

Thoughts?

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Lift Someone Up

September 24th, 2019

Lift Someone Up

This kind of says it all, but it’s something I try and keep in the forefront of my daily thoughts. Sharing your love could be acts of kindness to strangers, support for a friend or telling a love one how much you think of them. There’s enough negativity in the world and none of us are perfect, but sharing your love not only creates positive thoughts and feelings to the receiver, but in my mind comes back to you 10 fold in many ways. Thoughts?

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More Hot Air Balloons in an Abstract Watercolor Look

September 24th, 2019

More Hot Air Balloons in an Abstract Watercolor Look

I have featured hot air balloons from my gallery here a number of times using actual photography and various digital painting styles. Today I wanted to feature three I created using a soft abstract watercolor technique and then going back in and drawing lines to create the shapes of the balloons.

Not shy with color, I love the end result! Thoughts?

Side Notes:

Those of you that follow my blog, I had mentioned that I would be off all of August after having total knee replacement surgery August 8th. Recovery and Physical Therapy has been going well. It’s a long and steady process over a number of months, but I am up and around…walking without assistance (no walker or cane). End of last week I was cleared to start driving (bummer…I was liking being chauffeured around by my wife). So, bottom line getting back in the swing of things!!
Please visit my main gallery: TheWallGallery (All domestic orders over $50.00 – free shipping!)

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Downtown Denver - Excerpts from a Photo Shoot

September 24th, 2019

Downtown Denver - Excerpts from a Photo Shoot

(To see all of the pics on the original blog, click on more information.)

As I stated two blogs ago, my wife and I were in Colorado for the first week of July. We were there to support our daughter by taking care of our granddaughter during the day for mom. Our daughter is in charge of shooting a multi episode show with her production company’s filming crew. Most of the filming was in and around an old historic mining town and it entailed long days for them. She and her husband had just gotten back from Europe and she didn’t want another week of missing her daughter. We gladly said we’d be more than happy to help out and it gave us the opportunity to show our granddaughter our old stomping grounds. We moved from the Denver area 30 years ago this fall to San Diego, so we welcomed the opportunity to spend some time in an area we love.

This weeks post is number 3 of 3 from Colorado. The first week was focused on the Lake Dillon area just west of the continental divide and last week the focus was Loveland Pass which goes over the continental divide. Heading west from Denver when we arrived, we followed Interstate 70 winding through the front range going to the Eisenhower Tunnel (under the continental divide) coming out to the valley with Lake Dillon. Last week found us heading back to the Denver area, but going over Loveland Pass which is the pass above the Eisenhower Tunnel. We thought it would be something our granddaughter would enjoy as it is so different than anything she has experienced (our granddaughter is still talking about the mountain she went to the top of when she was in Colorado). This week features downtown Denver as we spent the last few days of the week in a hotel that was incorporated into the old Union Station during a major remodel in 2014.

My wife and I worked in downtown Denver for a number of years prior to our move to San Diego. We were there during the “oil boom” of the 80’s. The downtown quadrant was a mass of cranes building many of the high-rise buildings you see today and it also saw the opening of the 16th Street Mall in 1982. We found it to be a very vibrant downtown and loved working there. The changes we saw in our time there was incredible, but I must say in the 30 years since then, what has been created and added makes it a very appealing urban center mixing large corporate headquarters with urban residential neighborhoods. Add to that, the inclusion of the major sports arenas (Broncos at Mile High Stadium, Coors Field and Pepsi Center), the Colorado Convention Center, the Downtown Aquarium, Children’s Museum, Elitch Gardens Theme & Water Park pulling the downtown experience out to the bike paths/park along the South Platte River and Cherry Creek.

The first group of captures feature some of the many high-rise buildings….

…part of the 17th street financial district

I love this capture as it depicts old (Brown Palace Hotel) and new architecture. As you will see in following shots they have done a nice job of incorporating old buildings with the new. As I moved over to the 16th Mall that becomes more apparent and as I moved from the financial district down to the Union Station area.

When this high-rise was built in the 80’s we called it the cash register building due to the shape at the top. This building sits a couple of blocks from the State Capital on Broadway marking the eastern edge of downtown.

Here’s the 16 Street Mall looking westward towards Union Station. The pedestrian/transit mall runs from Broadway (Civic Center Plaza) to Union Station on the western end (1.25 miles/2k). Free shuttle buses run up and down the mall stopping on every block. On either end they go into an underground transit center for commuters to catch other buses to the Park and Rides located throughout the metropolitan area or in the case of the underground transit station under Union Station, you can connect to one of the many light-rail connections serving the metro area.

Notice the mix of architecture with new buildings and rehabbed old buildings.

This is the Daniels & Fisher Tower located along the mall. It was built as part of the Daniels & Fisher Department store and was the tallest building between the Mississippi River and California in 1911 when it was completed. The department store was bought by the May Company and in Denver their department stores were known as May D&F when we lived there.

On either end of the mall the transit lanes are side by side with plaza’s on the side for pedestrian traffic, but the middle of the mall has trees, benches, etc. for pedestrian traffic running down the middle.

When the mall opened in 1982, it only went to Larimer Street (Historic Larimer Square area) which is 4 blocks shy of Union Station. At that time past Larimer was just old warehouses and a plethora of train tracks clear over to the South Platte River.

This is the newly remodeled Union Station which houses The Crawford Hotel as well as being a large transit station. The train tracks I referred to above were removed and replaced with a mixed use development in 2012.

This is a large plaza that connects Union Station with the 16 Street Mall. Notice the mid-rise apts/condos rising behind the station.

Love the architecture that was preserved in the station.

This is the backside of the station where you catch one of the number of light rail connects as well as Amtrak. There is an escalator that connects the bus transit station from underground to the rail station. This place is really hopping during rush hour. Having said that the station is hopping at all hours as it is filled with the hotel, restaurants and bars.

Love the style of the platforms for the different train lines and again, notice the residential buildings in the neighbor west of the station.

I wrap up with a close up shot of one of the platforms and if you look real close you’ll see one of the light rail trains about three platforms over.

We ended our week with this and had a great time in Denver with our granddaughter and daughter. We took her to the Children’s Museum (awesome) and The Denver Botanic Gardens (huge). She loved the mall and the train station as well.

Side Notes:

My daughter asked me to play an extra in the episode they were filming here this week as a hunter in the woods coming across evidence of a missing person and then a scene where I am again in the woods but this time I’m a hand off for a case of uranium from a local mine (all based on a true story that I truly don’t know anything about). Oh baby….Kirt hits the big time!! Whenever this episode airs…I’m sure I’ll mention it!
I am scheduled for total knee replacement surgery 8/8 (40 years of running) and will not be on WordPress for the rest of August. I will ultimately need the other one done, but can’t wait to get going on the worst one. My wife went through this last year, so I’m aware of the fun times ahead….looking forward to being able to hike again!
Thoughts?

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Loveland Pass, Colorado - Top of the Continental Divide

September 24th, 2019

Loveland Pass, Colorado - Top of the Continental Divide

(To see all of the pictures of the blog, click on more information and it will take you to the original Blog Post on Wordpress)

As I stated last week, my wife and I were in Colorado for the first week of July. We were there to support our daughter by taking care of our granddaughter during the day for mom. Our daughter is in charge of shooting a multi episode show with her production company filming crew. Most of the filming was in and around an old historic mining town and it entailed long days for them. She and her husband had just gotten back from Europe and she didn’t want another week of missing her daughter. We gladly said we’d be more than happy to help out and it gave us the opportunity to show our granddaughter our old stomping grounds. We moved from the Denver area 30 years ago this fall to San Diego, so we welcomed the opportunity to spend some time in an area we love.

This weeks post is number 2 of 3 from Colorado. Last week was focused on the Lake Dillon area just west of the continental divide, with this week being Loveland Pass which goes over the continental divide. Heading west from Denver when we arrived, we followed Interstate 70 winding through the front range going to the Eisenhower Tunnel (under the continental divide) coming out to the valley with Lake Dillon as featured last week. This week finds us heading back to the Denver area, but going over Loveland Pass which is the pass above the Eisenhower Tunnel. We thought it would be something our granddaughter would enjoy as it is so different than anything she has experienced (our granddaughter is still talking about the mountain she went to the top of when she was in Colorado).

The highway winds its way up the western slope of the Continental Divide, climbing in altitude and bringing you above tree-line as you approach the pass. Tree-line in this part of the Rockies is approximately 11,500ft /3,500m.

As we wind our way near the pass, we have just climbed above the tree-line when i stopped to take this picture…please note the blue sky and puffy white clouds as I look west back towards the area we came from. I point this out as you will see dark storm clouds as my shots rotate to the east towards Denver (again typical afternoon thunderstorms for this time of year).

We arrive at Loveland Pass elevation 11,990ft / 3,655m to a crowd of folks enjoying the serenity and beauty of the 360 degree panorama. This capture is looking generally north. Please note the hiking trail as both sides of the highway have them leading to trails accessing the summits of nearby mountain peaks.

Looking slightly northwest as you see one of the trails wind its way across the top of the peaks.

This shot shows the parking lot and the hiking trail from the last picture. I added it because (and I get it’s hard to see) if you look at the ridge-line of the peak to the left of the obvious group of people going up the trail, you will see a few heads of hikers that are traversing this summit heading to the very top point.

This is the part of the Continental Divide that the Eisenhower Tunnel goes through………

This is the trail on the other side of the highway where I was taking pictures from. See the difference in the sky? This is looking southwest towards Colorado Springs along the base of the Rockies south of Denver….looks like they are getting some rain.

This is a capture of the west side of the pass and the highway we will be taking down to rejoin Interstate 70 heading into Denver. This is looking towards Denver and it looks like they are getting some rain also.

As we wind our way back towards tree line, I took this shot of the Loveland Ski area. It starts down by the Eisenhower tunnel and has ski slopes carved into the thick forest at lower elevations and also has runs above tree-line. Since it’s quick and easy to access from Denver, we spent many a day off skiing here.

Next week I’m going to post a blog highlighting downtown Denver. For most of the week we were staying in the mountains just west of Denver proper, but we did spend the last two days in downtown proper. Denver has a very dynamic downtown and has done an incredible job creating a true living/working core to this great city (ok, I’m biased…but it really is cool).

Thoughts?

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Colorado High Country - Just West of the Continental Divide by Lake Dillon

July 28th, 2019

Colorado High Country - Just West of the Continental Divide by Lake Dillon

(To see all of the pics of the original blog, click more info and it will take you to my blog posts on Wordpress)
Last week my wife and I were in Colorado. I thought that over the next few weeks I would share some of the captures I acquired while we were there. This week I wanted to share pictures in the Lake Dillon area (officially called Dillon Reservoir, but I have always referred to it as Lake Dillon).

We were actually there to support our daughter by taking care of our granddaughter during the day for mom. Our daughter is in charge of shooting a pilot show with her filming crew for their production company. Most of the filming was in and around an old historic mining town and it entailed long days for them. She and her husband had just gotten back from Europe and didn’t want another week of missing her daughter. We gladly said we’d be more than happy to help out and it gave us the opportunity to show our granddaughter our old stomping grounds. We moved from the Denver area 30 years ago this fall to San Diego, so we welcomed the opportunity to spend some time in an area we love.

I’m going to share captures in the order of our trip with this being the first area followed by a group of captures from the top of Loveland Pass ending with downtown Denver.

Denver sits on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains with the city spreading north and south along the front range. Interstate 70 runs through the city coming from the east (Kansas and beyond). Taking it west, you immediately start climbing in altitude as you enter the extreme western suburbs. In the front range just west of Denver are a series of 14,000 ft peaks running north and south….this range is part of the continental divide for North America. As Interstate 70 winds its way through the foothills, it approaches the continental divide. Just under the continental divide is the Eisenhower Tunnel (approximately 1.5 miles/3km in length), bringing you out to a stunning valley on the western side where Lake Dillon is located. The area near Lake Dillon is also home to two major ski destinations…Keystone and the town of Breckinridge. So without further ado, I share 8 captures from this beautiful valley in the Colorado high country.

The place we stayed is up on a bluff with a spectacular view across the valley near the towns of Silverthorne and Dillon.

Interstate 70 is the line at the bottom of the cut in the rock heading west after leveling out in the valley coming down from the tunnel.

All of these shots were taken from the hotel property where we were staying. We really had a great panoramic view of the valley and all of the surrounding mountain ranges (a true 360 of mountains).

This is the boat dock area on the lake. On a side note the week we were in Colorado (early July) was a week of the infamous afternoon thunderstorms that are normal in the mountains and along the front range in Denver. You can see some of them building in the prior two captures and in the next one.

The lake captures were taken on our way back towards Denver taking the highway up to Loveland Pass over the continental divide instead of taking the tunnel back under it. I’m sharing a shoot I did on top of the pass next week.

I have to say our granddaughter was in awe with all of the snow capped mountains.

Thoughts?

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Simple Abstract Shapes With Bold Colors

July 13th, 2019

Simple Abstract Shapes With Bold Colors

(To see all prints, click on more info which will take you to the original Blog post on Wordpress)

Anyone following my blog, knows that I like abstract art and bold colors. Today I wanted to share three prints using simple shapes with bright bold colors. I think they speak for themselves…..

Thoughts?

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Heceda Head Lighthouse Sketched

July 13th, 2019

Heceda Head Lighthouse Sketched

(To see both prints, click more info and it will take you to the original Blog Post on Wordpress)

One of my favorite lighthouses along the Oregon Coastline is the Heceda Head Lighthouse. From this perspective, you see the lighthouse out on the edge of a bluff and the caretakers house snuggled above a small beach. The caretakers house is closer to the Pacific Coast Highway, which follows this rugged coastline and presents this perfect view of the complex as you approach from the south.

In creating this print, I used a sketching technique with soft watercolors to present this as a casual look across a small harbor towards the complex.

This second print focuses on the lighthouse itself. Again, I used the same sketching technique creating this casual look.

Thoughts?

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Pacific Ocean Sunset - Three Versions of the Same Capture

July 1st, 2019

Pacific Ocean Sunset - Three Versions of the Same Capture

(To see all prints from the original blog post, click more info. This link will take you to the original Wordpress Blog Post.)

The attached capture of a Pacific Ocean sunset is from Carlsbad, California. The coastal location of this capture was just a few miles west of where we lived for 24 years raising our family. It’s located in north San Diego County. Having been gone from area since 2013, my wife and I spent a week on the coast last October and this was one of the sunsets we were treated with.

I wanted to share the process I go through when one of my photographs or art prints inspires me to add an inspirational thought.

The first capture is the original one which shows the relationship between the coastal bluff and the sunset.

As I thought about using this as a basis for a print with an inspirational thought, I cropped the original shot eliminating the coastal bluff with the exception of the top of plant on that bluff. My next step was working with the message I had chosen, playing with putting it on the photograph using various fonts and font sizes. Upon finalizing (this process sounds simple, but trust me….I tend to turn it into a lengthy process trying a variety of fonts and sizes) this aspect, I then play with positioning. Positioning is another process of centering, not centering…splitting the verbiage up or keep it in one line, etc.

I chose these two sentiments simply because these are the two thoughts that came to mind when I was looking at this capture.

Thoughts?

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Welcome Summer

July 1st, 2019

Welcome Summer

(To see all prints used on the original post, click more information. This link will take you to the original Wordpress Blog post)

With the official start of summer today, what would be more appropriate than flowers from a summer garden? The two attached shots are from a beautiful flower garden located on the grounds of the Sharlot Hall Museum located in Prescott, Arizona. Welcome Summer!!!

Thoughts?

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