2016 was a very good year!

We celebrated out 38th wedding anniversary in Aspen. Colorado.  We spent 2 days there and had beautiful weather for late September.  The aspen trees were in full fall colors and the cloudless sky made the scene very idyllic.  a couple asked us to take their photo in front of the Maroon Bells and then reciprocated for us.  Just perfect!

Kathleen captured my total frustration waiting for some nut to get out of Maroon Lake so I could get my post card shot.  Kathleen's capture may have been the best shot of the trip (smile)

Here is Kathleen's post card shot of Maroon Bells and she nailed it perfectly with a good reflection in the lake and great composition.  Well she is an artist you know!

Here is an image of Kathleen enjoying the mood and ambience of the place while standing under an aspen tree.  She was totally in the space.

Kathleen walking on a path through a aspen grove, still enjoying ambience of the place.

View of Black Mountain in the background and an aspen meadow in the foreground.  great scenery in the Maroon Bells area.  It is a kind of can't miss place ;)

A lake in Marble, Colorado.  Canoes are beached in the foreground and fall foliage blossoms all around the lake and in the mountains in the background.

Kathleen took this reflection image at a beaver pond just outside Marble, Colorado.

A drive over Shrine Pass                                  

Late Summer 2016

Kendall and I took a ride over Shrine Pass; just off the east side of Vail Pass,  After which drove over to Clinton Reservoir.  A great late summer day in Colorado.  Here is Kendall at work with the sd Quattro and 30 mm Art lens.

A bridge over the road near Minturn, Colorado

Kendall at work at Clinton Reservoir, a very pristine and scenic area.

Summer Flowers at Hudson Gardens

Hudson Gardens is just south of Denver on old highway 85.  It is a great site for flower photography with great rose gardens and a Dahlia plot with over 150 varieties of dahlias.  Below are a few of the different dahlias in the garden.

This one slipped in:  It is a wild rose also found in the garden.

Garden of the gods

Summer 2016

The Garden of the Gods is a magical place just outside of Colorado and at the base of Pike's Peak.  Kathleen and drove down  and spent a day exploring the park.

The first image is of the eastern gateway to the park.  There is early snow on Pike's Peak and nice fluffy clouds drifting through.

Here are some the rock formations that give the park it's name.

This is the famous balanced rock, which is huge, as you see in the next photo.

This is what crazy people do at the balanced rock.  Several years ago the park cemented in the base of the rock because of fear that it would come loose and crush someone!

Kathleen likes to look for compositions in the detail of places we travel.  This is a flower display at the trading post at the south entrance to the park

This image shows the entrance to the south trading post and some of its character.

Light and shadow on the wall and some antique fixtures on the patio area at the south trading post.

Spring Art Exhibition April 2016

Kathleen and I and her friend Jackie had a art exhibit at the lakewood Art Council gallery during the month of April, 2016.  I had 12 photographs in the exhibit, Kathleen had 6 photographs and 8 oil paintings.  Jackie had had 14 oil paintings.

Well here I am with 2 of my photographs, a Water Lily and a Pink Dahlia.

One wall of the exhibit that displayed 3 of my photographs and 2 painting from Kathleen and Jackie. The 2 lower paintings are Kathleen's and the 2 upper paintings a jackie's.  the opening was a great success as we had about 300 visitors to the gallery and I sold 3 pieces, Kathleen also sold 3 pieces; and Jackie sold 7 or 8 pieces.

Birds at Belmar Lake

Spring and Summer 2016

I spent 1 to 2 days a week between April and June going to Belmar park lake and photographing birds.  I was quite surprised at the verity of of bird species that frequent the lake.  Sone are year round inhabitants and others were just passing through.  Below is a small sample of the bird population I was able to capture:

A Snowy Egret

A Wood Duck

A Mallard Hen with Chicks

Double-crested Cormorant

An Avecet

A Mud Duck, aka American Coot

A Mallard Drake

A Northern Shoveler 

Maybe he thought he could fly.  Turtle

Blue Heron at Belmar Lake

Spring and Summer 2016

There were 4 heron nest in the park in 2 trees,  The chick hatched at different times which gave me a good view of their development from hatching to flying out of the nest.  I have hundreds of images of these birds from 2016 and am only posting a few of my favorites,

Heron pair with 3 Chicks

Heron chick testing partially developed wings

Female Heron shielding chicks from the sun

Heron Flying into nest

Adult heron with chicks waiting for food

Heron Chick flexing it's wings

Heron Chick preparing for first flight

The Year 2015 plus a little 2014

From the last part of 2014 through the year 2015 I did a lot  of shooting and testing of various Sigma cameras and lenses.  The Sigma cameras I shot were:  DP1 Merrill, DP0/1/2/3 Quattro, Sigma SD1 Merrill with the 50 mm F:1.4 ART lens and several other lenses.  This blog entry is meant to showcase a few of the image I made during this time and is sorted by hardware type, starting with the SD1M and the 50 mm ART lens.  This is not the results of my testing of these cameras and lenses, but is a gallery showing example images of what each hardware combination is capable.

The 50 mm F:1.4 ART lens is by far the best lens I have used on the SD1M and will match the results  from the DP3M or Q for detail capture and micro contrast.  It is a large and heavy lens and does an excellent job on auto focus on the SD1M,   

50 mm F:1.4 Art Lens

Sigma SD1 Merrill

Pine Tree at Red Rocks

Bee exiting a Cactus Blossom

The next 2 images were mad with the DP1 Quattro camera.  The colors produced from the Quattro cameras are more vibrant than the colors from the Merrill cameras and have the Quattro images more more pop.  The Quattro's strange body shape fits well in my hands and is easy to hold and shoot.

Sigma DP1 Quattro

Denver's Union Station

Graffiti in Downtown Denver

The next 3 images were shot with the DP2 Quattro.  These also show the rich colors that are obtained with the Quattro sensor.

Sigma DP2 Quattro

Heritage Square Amusement Park

Red Rock Lake Panorama 

My Favorite Priest 

The next 3 images were shot with the DP3 Quattro and again show the great color the sensor is capable of capturing.

Sigma DP3 Quattro

Pink Dahlia

Wild Roses

Pink Dahlia and Grasshopper

The next 3 images were shot with the DP0 Quattro.  The DP0 may be the best of the Quattro series in terms of image quality and ease of use.  I could do a whole blog segment on this one camera which I only had for 3 days.  It produces clean images and great OOC jpegs.  Loved it!

Sigma DP0 Quattro

View of the Maroon Bells

Sunset a Kendrick Park Lake

Fall Image at a Pond

This is an image made with the DP1 Merrill.  

Sigma DP1 Merrill

Tree and Monument at Arches NP

The remaining image of the gallery were shot with my SD1 Merrill and various lenses.

Sigma SD1 Merrill

and Various lenses

Dead Horse Point with the 18-35 mm Art lens

Colorado Lavender Fields 18-35 mm Art lens

Sleeping Bull Elk 50-500 mm OS lens

Two Bull Moose 50-500 mm OS lens

Red Rock Lake Pano 18-35 mm Art lens

Maroon Bells 18-35 mm Art lens

Taylor Reservoir Pano 18-35 mm Art lens

Swallow Tailed Butterfly 105 mm OS lens

Grasshopper and Bees on a Dahlia Bloom

105 mm OS lens

2014 and 2015 were great years for me shooting photos around the western US.  In a later post I will put up a baker's dozen of the best images from Kathleen and me for 2015.  I hope you enjoyed this short exploration of the great cameras and lenses from Sigma!