Jasonisms

Did you know sometimes I grab the camera and go outside? I did just this recently with a local group of lightpainters, which is something I've always been interested in, but not anything I knew how to do on my own. So, when I read about this group I decided to make contact and go shoot with them. And it was fun. Everyone was extremely nice, offering advice, taking advice and just being down-to-Earth people. I've been on photowalks before and hung out with other photographers, but this is one of the best groups I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing photography with. I have no idea what the name of this model is, but when I find out, I'll edit this post with the appropriate information.

I've owned #Pentax cameras since I bought my first one in 1995(ish). Multiple camera bodies later to include two dSLRs and they finally released something to be excited about again: the K-1 Mark II. Want! https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/22/17041104/ricoh-pentax-k-1-mark-ii-35-mm-dslr

All things being equal, I think I'll take the green one. It also looks cooler. On a side note, the black one is about $1200 more than my #Pentax #K5 when I bought it 6 years ago.

Orange Kitty in #BlackandWhite Taken just a few minutes ago in #BW mode on my #Pentax. Kitty was not happy being my model, less so than the dogs quite possibly. I keep trying to get photos of his teeth because he has two sets of upper fangs (canines. Seriously, are they canine teeth on a cat?), but he almost never smiles. He's ten years old and this is his third home. From what I understand, he belonged to a family and when the parents broke up he went with the father to live with his brother. The cat's owner either (1) moved back in with his ex-wife or (2) found a new girlfriend to move in with. Regardless, the cat was left with his brother. My roommate met the brother a bar who told her he was trying to find the cat a home since he didn't really want it around. So, she took it. She calls it "Butters," short for "Butterscotch." I call it "Orange Cat" because it's orange. It had a completely different name before.

I woke up to the internet telling me today was National Dog Day so I thought I'd share some pictures of dogs, specifically my dog, Rufus:

I know I've been neglecting this blog for a month or more and there's no one to blame but myself. Not only have I been very busy, but I've also had, and recovered from, a cold as well as ending up on some sort of weird sleep cycle where I'm tired all day, sleeping all night and tired again the next day. To be honest, I think it's the cold that upset my sleep cycle. Last night seemed to be the first night in weeks where I slept through the entire night and woke up feeling refreshed. Anywho, about a week ago it snowed in Denver (again). I mean, it's winter and snow isn't uncommon during this time of year. Naturally, I took Rufus to the dog park. He loves the snow and has a blast running around in the icy cold goodness. I think he agrees with the cooler weather and the snow just makes everything smell new and wonderful. Could you imaging being a dog? Science says they're sense of smell is hundreds or thousands of times more sensitive than a human being...

While out at the Sand Dunes in November I was able to capture this image of a man pointing his camera at the setting sun. The image was a last minute one that I hadn't planned on shooting, but the man's silhouette just sold the scene for me. Instead of merely a darkening sky and the reflections of the creek breaking up the blackened foreground, I have a man enjoying one of the country's great wonders at dusk. I didn't catch his name, or if I did, I can't recall his name, but I did give him the address to this blog, so perhaps he'll peruse on by one day and see himself the way my camera saw him. Dusk at the Dunes

Between computer problems and just plain laziness (oh, and some part-time work) I haven't been updating this blog very much. It's sad, really -- I haven't even been updating from mobile with mobile shots. Of course, in my defense, I haven't been been uploading to Streamzoo , Google+ or anywhere else from mobile, either. For some reason I just haven't been able to capture a good picture with my Note II, even with the assistance of Snapseed . However, I have taken pictures. I wish I could say hundreds, nay, thousands of images, but I haven't been that active with the camera recently. A couple of weeks ago I did go to The Great Sand Dunes National Monument and while I captured a few good images, nothing spectacular crossed my lens. What stopped me from getting a great shot? No clouds or color to the sky other than blue; footprints in the sand marring any sense of natural wonder and my dog. Yes, I said 'my dog.' How does Rufus prevent me from taking great s...

Zombie Girl with a Flower There's a not-so secret in Denver, Colorado. Every year, for one day only, a feral outbreak hits the city, spreading a plague of the undead across the Mile High City, specifically along the 16th Street Mall and Skyline Park. For eight years now, the EyeHeartBrains.com zombie crawl has traversed the core of downtown Denver, bringing record breaking numbers of zombies to the city and leaving blood and bloody carcasses in it's wake. Zombies of all shapes and sizes, ages and backgrounds crawled along the walking outdoor mall and where there are zombies there are zombie hunters, survivalists and, yes, looky-loos. I, once again, was one of those looky-loos. Camera in hand -- this is a photography blog after all -- I buttoned up my courage and drove downtown to the heart of the outbreak. As it turns out, there's a zombie for just about everything: zombie Star Wars characters, zombie Jesus', zombie fishermen and a plethora of zombie nurses.  Below a...

As the saying goes, there's gold in  them thar hills and last week I had a chance to grab a  few shots of the changing leaves. Years ago, I used to head into the mountains regularly, at least a few times a month, but when gas prices started becoming ridiculously high and employment started becoming ridiculously scarce, spending $60 just to drive into the mountains became a luxury, not a necessity. Let me be clear, $60 doesn't fill my 28 gallon gas tank, it merely provides enough gas for me to drive up and drive back and doesn't include any food I might purchase, lift tickets or overnight stays, etc. Beer City Mountain A year ago I took the motorcycle with me, thus reducing the overhead costs significantly, but I couldn't bring along my tripod or dogs, so this year I decided to take my truck, improving my capacity to bring long canine companions, extra gear, food and drinks. Normally, I'd ask to borrow a friend's extra car, since it gets roughly 25 miles to the ...

A few months ago I went to Canon City, CO to go camping in the area with a friend. Naturally, I grabbed my dSLR and brought it along, but unfortunately there were more days of bad light than good light. What's "bad light" you might ask? Well, Timmy, "bad light" is flat and boring.  Fortunately, though, I was able to grab a couple of decent images, even more fortunate are the others I was able to save with some creative editing. Click Collage to go to Album My friend had plans our first day in the area and I was left to my own devices. I took the truck and the dogs up into them thar hills and lucked across this old GMC sitting in someone's front yard. I pulled over and snapped a couple of shots quickly before jumping back into the Explorer and moving on.  One our way back to the campsite from the city my friend suggested taking this very short very scenic   route along some sort of ridge . The top might have been three car lanes wide, leaving only one lane...

I went out to catch something completely different from this, but once I saw the rays of light shooting up under the dark clouds, I couldn't help but turn the camera towards the mountains. That darker straight line is the Cherry Creek Dam and those mountains are more than 30 miles away. Where the dam meets the water, off to the left of the image, is the Cherry Creek marina and if you zoom into the image you can see the boats floating there as they spend another night tethered to the piers. I really wish I would have known the sunset was going to be this magnificent as I would have sought out a better view. As it was, this was a happy accident. My only wish was the dam wasn't in the image. However, the walk back to the truck plus drive time, would not have given me enough time to catch this with the rays shooting up and out like they are and that made all the difference between this sunset and hundreds of others.

Took the dSLR out to the lake today and grabbed some sunset shots. These are the Android pictures I took with my Note II and edited with Snapseed. Hopefully sooner or later I'll get the pics off the Pentax and edit them for sharing too.

Click for Album A couple of weeks ago I took Rufus (my dog) down to a park here in Denver. It's a park I've only been to a handful of times in my more than a decade living in Denver. Not that it's a bad park, it's just not that close to me and I have to pass by a dozen other parks to get to this particular one. In my spare time, I'm trying to write a novel. My protagonist lives near this park and I needed to know more about it, so I grabbed my camera and walked around, taking pictures of the park, the area around it and Rufus. Why? Because I'm a photographer in my own mind and we always take our cameras with us. The light on this particular day was great, diffused by the clouds perfectly. A lot of the images I took were just pictures of the area so I didn't have to rush down there every time my character walked through the park, but I did get a handful I don't feel too bad sharing. You can click on the collage above or the slideshow below for all the ima...

On December 24th, 2012, for the second time since moving to Colorado I went to the Denver Botanic Gardens  for their Blossoms of Lights event. The first time, with an ex-girlfriend, happened a few years ago and neither of us brought a camera. To be honest, she wasn't entirely thrilled with my desire to photograph my life and I carried the camera (my trusty Pentax *IST DS) rarely. This time, however, I went for their Blossoms of Lights  showcase alone, with the specific intent to bring my camera and tripod, so I could take my time and work on my schedule, not having to worry about someone else's concerns. I chose Christmas Eve thinking most people would be home with the families, preparing for the December 25th festivities.  I was wrong. Apparently, December 25 is a very busy evening for the Gardens. I was surprised at the number of people there and getting shots without  people turned out to be very difficult.  With the overcast skies and the lights from th...

Just a little something from last week. This is from Indiatlantic, FL looking west over the Indian River in Brevard County, FL.

Finally had a chance to take the K5 out for a few shot this morning. Wow. Compared to my *IstDS it is amazing. Sort of like a Ferrari compared to a 1977 Ford Bronco. Here are some images from today. None of them are special, I was just practicing with the knobs and buttons.

First image with the new K5. Yes, this is my dog, Rufus. He is a very unwilling model so I had to stuff his Kong with elk meat. This image is SOOC ( s traight o ut o f the c amera). In other words, no post processing, no cropping, no nothing at all. I know, it's not a great image, but I wanted to use the camera!