Denver 2017 - Dillon Panorama

As stated a few posts ago, my wife Chenjean, Allison our daughter, and I went to Colorado, specifically Denver and environs, in May of this year.  Chenjean had a meeting there, and we traditionally piggy-back on those to enjoy budget vacations, as the company pays for at least the hotel.  So we were excited to make this trip, and were glad that Allison was able to join.

While there we took a drive out into the mountains, went to the zoo, went on walks downtown, and visited several museums.  These all of course are superb opportunities to grow and practice the art of snapping photos.  So what's the best place to start?  We're from Houston and we're in Colorado, so of course it's the mountains!

The first day, while Chenjean was attending meetings on how to be a better accountant, Allison and I slipped over to the Dillon area.  This ended up being the highlight of the trip, as I've always loved being in the mountains and Allison had never seen any real snow.  Thus the anticipation for this drive grew by the hour, as from downtown Denver you can easily see the mountains to the west.

It was my objective to get as close to the snowy parts as possible and didn't know how successful we'd be, so it was a surprise when, hardly an hour out of town, we had climbed to an altitude of 11,500 on I-70 and experienced the first snow flurries.  It was still early enough in the year to see the snow from a recent storm piled high on the trees and rooftops.  Allison used both her camera and mine (after hers ran out of juice) to snap away through the windshield and her passenger side window.  But the best was yet to come.

We decided on Dillon because it was a reasonable distance and would allow us to do some things before having to head back to Denver in time for Chenjean's meeting to end.  The 6-shot panorama you see above (best seen by clicking to enlarge) is from our first stop, next to the reservoir adjacent to town.  It was the middle of a weekday and kids were still in school, so we pulled into a park and had the place to ourselves.  This was the first time we could be outside to experience intermittent snow showers coming in from the higher elevations.  We had fun thinking that, since we were out there by ourselves, there was a good change we'd see some wildlife...not eliminating the possibility of a lion or bear!  Probably not in much danger, though, as we were just a couple of miles from Dillon and there was some road construction going on just a few hundred yards down the road.

Denver 2017 - Barenaked Ladies at the Convention Center

A few years ago, while attending my stepmother's funeral in Delaware, several in the family took a walk along the Brandywine River close to her condominium.  About a half mile upriver sat the tumbledown remains of Eleutherian Mills, the DuPont factory that supplied gunpowder to both sides of the Civil War, as I was told.  Because it was winter the trees were leafless, lending a mysterious air to the fractured walls and broken panes of the structure.  This was the perfect opportunity to take pictures of something through the bare branches of those trees.

If only I had a camera!  Feeling that it would be obnoxious to tote a big rig around on such an occasion as the funeral of my stepmom, I left it at home.  Thus, when we reached the historical site I was left with only my phone, a Samsung Note 4.  After snapping a few at the iconic site and reviewing them post-capture at home I vowed Never again!  The photos, while acceptable on the smartphone's screen, were lousy indeed.

A few years later and here we are at the Convention Center in Denver.  I'd just bought an iPhone 7, which was supposed to have one of the best phone cameras on earth.  Encouraged by all that was reported about its virtues, I snapped away, after getting a handle on exposure control, from our vantage point close to the back of the auditorium.  It looked great on the screen and I was anxious to check it out on the big monitor in post capture.

Very unfortunately anticipation turned into disappointment, as technically and visually even this photo turned out to be of very low quality...which is the reason it's displayed in such a small size above.  Those who assert that a phone camera will someday supplant a DSLR are sadly out of it.  There is a long, long way to go.

This post concludes the series on Denver.  Before moving on to another cruise that we took back in 2014, I'll post a half-dozen or so from in and around the house.

Denver 2017 - Cityscape and Architecture, Denver Post Building

Adjacent to the Civic Center Park was the Denver Post Building; more conventional shots below:

Denver 2017 - Reflections #1 (Denver Post)

Often is the time that I've seen reflections off of buildings wishing that I weren't in a car, or at work, or in a place where taking pictures was impossible.  Very thankfully while were were in Denver on vacation I had a few hours, while the girls were out shopping, to do nothing but walk around and capture nothing but reflections in this great city.  After a bit I ended up with a couple hundred images, which were winnowed down to the posts that you will see in this series.  Some are fairly straightforward such as this one, and some are more abstract such as the shot in tomorrow's post.

Denver 2017 - Zoo, Zebras

Guess how many?  In this case you'll have to count the legs and divide by four...

Allison and I snuck off to the zoo one day while the wife was in accounting meetings.  Ever since this post from the Denver Zoo some years ago (picture taken with the FujiFilm s7000) I've been looking for a chance to capture a better shot of just the stripes.  Thanks to the Big Cahoona and its workhorse 200mm lens think the shot below is slightly closer to the goal.  Interesting that it was here in Denver again, as since the earlier post we've visited a number of other zoos.

Denver 2017 - Flight Museum Panorama

As mentioned when this Denver series got started, the reason we were up there was for a meeting of the GFOA (Government Financial Officer's Association).  Often these conferences have a reception in an interesting venue, and this time it was located in a flight museum.

The picture above is a 4-shot panorama.  For me it's always been fun to be around airplanes, and though it was crowded this was no exception.

Denver 2017 - Cityscape and Architecture, Denver Post Window Washers

But of course, who likes to stick with the conventional?

These guys must have been hot.  Note that all but one have long sleeves on as protection from the sun...

Denver 2017 - Zoo, Peacock

As in so many zoos, in Denver they allow the peacocks to run around and do pretty much what they want.  This one decided to hide in some brambles a distance away from us, but that was no match for the awesome reach of the workhorse 200mm lens, which equals 300mm because of the 1.5 crop factor.

A couple of other poses below:

Denver 2017 - Reflections #3, Reflected Parking Garage

Denver is a very well-kept city where the garbage is kept off of the streets, they take recycling quite seriously, and the homeless don't bother you even if they're close.  I walked adjacent to an encampment downtown and didn't feel like a target at all.  They had tents and appeared quite at home (which they were, literally I suppose), talking amongst themselves as visiting neighbors do in the suburbs.  Unfortunately there was some open drinking but they left no trash strewn around that I could see.

Denver 2017 - Tenderfoot Trail in Dillon

We looked online with our phones and scoped out some other short hikes.  One on the other side of Dillon looked easy and promising, called the Tenderfoot Trail, so there we went.

As stated in an earlier post, a snow storm blanketed the area a day or so before we got to Denver and the temperatures were now above freezing, so everything was sloppy and wet.  In the parking area we saw a couple with a small child getting back into their car and they warned us about the conditions but we charged ahead anyway - time was running short, and there were some other things we wanted to do.  Interestingly, the couple was from Austin and both had graduated high school in the Cy-Fair district here in Houston before they got married!  Small world...

The 4-shot panorama above was captured a few hundred feet from the beginning of the trail.  The tree in the middle-right foreground didn't align properly so had to fix it...a comparison is below and I think the objective was accomplished:

Denver 2017 - Cityscape and Architecture, Civic Center Park

The fellow in Wednesday's post was directly across the street from this landmark, Civic Center Park, familiar to anyone that's been in downtown Denver.  After crossing the street got the shot below between two of the columns:

Denver 2017 - Cityscapes and Architecture, City County Spire and Capitol Dome

Another view of the spire featured on the building in yesterday's post.  Some would imagine this to be the state capitol, however it is actually Denver's City County Building, a more local government entity.  Situated directly opposite, on the other side of Civic Center Park, is the capitol, the golden dome of which is featured below:

 

Denver 2017 - Convention Center, Blue Trees

Such a curious thing, these blue trees around the Convention Center.  In post-capture study I learned that this was done by an activist artist named Konstantin Dimopoulos to increase awareness and decrease complacency about these vital living things that surround us.  In Denver they were painted beginning April 18th (we were there in the latter half of May) with a biologically safe, water-based and non-permanent paint.  Certainly got my attention.

Below is same from another part of downtown:

Denver 2017 - Zoo, Branch Pattern

Had my eye on this ever since arriving at the zoo, and got the shot I wanted on our way out.

This was our second visit to the Denver Zoo, the first being back in 2006.  Must opine that this is not one of the better zoos out there - I would even rank the Houston Zoo above this one.  And if you're in the area there's no zoo that's better than the one at Colorado Springs.

Denver 2017 - Reflections #9, Brown Abstract

There was only one time that I dared to stand in the middle of a large downtown street to take a picture, and that pic was featured in this post from Austin.  It was taken early, before the traffic got a good start.

Here in Denver, however, it was midday and negotiating traffic was something of a headache.  Didn't lack for opportunity, though, as can be seen in this 9-post series on downtown reflections.  So have I gotten this out of my system?  Think so...

A closer view of this abstract reflection is seen below.

Denver 2017 - Reflections #5 / Jon and Betty Mayer Move to Texas

As mentioned in yesterday's post, my good friends Jon and Betty Mayer were from central Michigan and moved from there to teach in the Memphis Independent School District down here in Texas.  It was how they got here that provides interest.

Memphis is located in the southeastern panhandle of Texas, a community of almost 3,000 at the time (early '80's).  A lot of people went through there, being situated alongside highway 287 between Fort Worth and Amarillo, but not many stopped because there just wasn't much to it unless you had to get gas.  It was just another in a string of nameless towns along the highway.  

And it was no doubt for that reason that they had a time recruiting teachers.  Well, up there in Michigan Jon and Betty saw something about the district and decided to check it out by looking the town up on the map.  They loved water sports, and when they saw the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River running just south of it, represented by a nice blue line, they thought, Hey at least we'll have a place to go canoeing when we need to get away.  They placed a phone call and were hired on the spot, the both of them.

It's fun to imagine their reactions when they got to the Fork and discover that, instead of water, it was nothing but a riverbed covered with a crust of salt!  It only had water a few days out of the year.

I'm sure glad they ended up there, though.  They made the most out of it and Memphis enjoyed one of the best science teachers they'd ever seen in the person of Jon Mayer.  And Betty was a hard worker who cared very much about her job and the kids.  She added a multicultural element too, as she was Indian (from India).  An awesome, very spiritually-minded couple that I hope to see again on the "other side of the veil", as they say...

Denver 2017 - Reflections #4, Street Lamp / Jon and Betty Mayer in Michigan

My wife and I were talking today on the way to work and I was reminded of some very good friends of mine in my single days, Jon and Betty Mayer.  They taught with me in the Memphis Independent School District, and we became very close in the span of the year we were together.

But it wasn't in Memphis that I had my most memorable experience with them.  By the summer of 1984 they had moved back to Michigan, where they were from.  Jon was a fantastic high school teacher - one of the best I've met - and Betty taught sixth grade English at the junior high.  But Memphis just didn't cut it with them, so they took a job at a private school back in the Mount Pleasant area.  And it was there that I stopped that summer on a drive in my Olds Delta 88, hopscotching around the country from one place to the other that had a friend and a pad.

I stayed with Jon and Betty for three or four nights, and they made sure there were interesting things to do during our time together.  We went up to Mackinac Island, then on to Canada after going through Sault Ste. Marie.  It was there that I experienced the urge to just keep on driving until we reached the top of the world, or at least the Arctic Circle.  We didn't make it that far, instead stopping at a beach on Lake Superior, the only one I've liked because there was pea gravel instead of sand, fresh water instead of salt water, not much wind, and no evidence of creatures from the deep.  We couldn't swim because, naturally, the water was much too cold, but we enjoyed the pristine air and beauty that was on all sides.

But I digress.  The most memorable occasion with them was another evening when we visited some good friends of theirs for barbecued hamburgers and visiting time.  I was not prepared for what I was about to see but, knowing Jon and Betty, these were just the kinds of friends they would have.  It turns out that they were a married couple in their forties with an adopted son that was home for the summer from college.  And the reason they had to adopt, I surmised, was because they both were severely physically handicapped.  The dad had polio as a child, which left him very much disfigured, and the mom was noticeably afflicted with cerebral palsy.

The most amazing part about them and the visit, however, was that they possessed an amazing God-given spirit.  The son cooked the hamburgers - I remember that he was studying to be a pastry chef, and hope he realized his dreams - and after eating we sat down in the living room to talk a while.  It was then that I experienced the amazing transformation from trying to avoid noticing their handicaps and disfigurements to communicating with the spirit alone.  Before five minutes of conversation was over it was soul to soul; I was looking into their eyes as I spoke and listened, completely forgetting about any physical deficiencies they may have had and experienced the most wonderful fellowship ever in a small-group setting.  It was amazing...something I will never forget.

Denver 2017 - Zoo, Lizard / Caring for Exotic Breeds

Naturally the reptiles were the most captivating to me, as they are any time we visit a zoo.  This little guy was in just the right position, but beat a retreat once the lens got closer, as can be seen below.  I kept snapping away, zeroing in on the awesome detail of its beautiful scales:

Speaking of lizards, one of our new favorites on TV now is Dr. K's Exotic Animal ER, on NatGeo Wild.  The exotics brought in for treatment are interesting, but we've concluded that even more so are the owners that bring them in.  Takes a unique soul to want to care for these breeds, and in some cases save them from extinction.  A plausible endeavor, but unfortunately tragedy comes in when they are not prepared and the animal suffers.

Denver 2017 - Reflections #6, Bank Building

Being able to move slowly and at my own pace really helped.  When a promising shot like this happened by I would stop and look, sometimes backtracking a few steps, to make the most of the opportunity.  Almost all of these shots were captured in exposure-compensated three-shot brackets.

Denver 2017 - Cityscapes and Architecture, Old and New

Many if not most downtowns have something like this...an old, historic-looking edifice next to modern glass structures.  The Daniels and Fisher Tower is visible to the left.