The Golden Hour

When I started reading up on photography, especially landscape and portrait photography, and I quickly run into a term called the Golden hour.

The Golden hour is the first hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset. The sun during this time is lower in the sky, and thefore it produces a softer and more diffused light. This type of light is more flattering.

A lot of professional photographer swears by this and some even go as far as saying that they only shoot during the Golden hour.

I am not a morning person and there is no way I am getting up at dawn before the sunrise, not even with the promise of a good picture or a cup of good coffee. So shooting around sunrise is out of the option.

A few days ago, I came home earlier from work to a nice golden light around the neighborhood. The sky is blue and clear and the weather was perfect.

I quickly changed, grabbed my camera, and went for a walk.

My Golden hour moment only lasted about 1/2 hour before the sun sets, but it was good for practice and experiment.

Devil's Head Lookout

I am catching up on my post, :).

We took some road trips this summer.

One Saturday we went to Devil's Head Lookout.  It is a US Forest Service fire lookout southwest of Denver. To get to the lookout tower, we hiked this beautiful 1.4 miles, 951 feet elevation trail.

Black Hawk

Last month on one of our road trips, we went to one of the state parks. We were unimpressed so there's nothing to report. But on the way back my husband suggested that we stopped by Black Hawk so I could at least have some nice pictures.

He was right, :).

Black Hawk is a small gambling city here. We don't gamble (I'd rather spend my money at the mall) but it was nice to visit and walk around.

I hope you liked the pictures!

Free tram goes around the city.

This hotel looks menacing in black & white, don't you agree?

Visiting Mount Evans - part two

This is part two of our Mount Evans trip.

The sign to Mount Evans with Echo Lake in the background.

Visiting Mount Evans - part one

We drove up to Mt. Evans last weekend. It took us a couple hours to get there from Denver and it was a really fun and scenic drive.

I learned a couple of things during this trip. First, Mt. Evans is one of the 53 Colorado 14er. At 14,265 feet, it is the highest paved auto road in North America. Second, nearby Mt. Evans lived the oldest single living organism known, up to 5,000 years. And it's a tree! A pine tree called Bristlecone Pines. They looked very different than any other pine trees I've seen. Gnarly and short and reminds me of trees in movies, when they come alive and try to grab you, :). Two movies came to mind: Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.

Mt. Evans is also #1 on Trip Advisor's list of 112 Things to Do in Denver.

Mountains here we come!!!

Taste of Colorado

We went to A Taste of Colorado yesterday on Labor Day, located in the beautiful Civic Center Park/Capitol Hill area. It was really fun. The weather was nice and there were hundreds of people.

Our ride