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Spring got off to a nice start in Denver.  Bayardo swung by on his way from Washington state back to North Carolina.  His first day it was 80° with not a cloud in the sky and he was ecstatic after spending a cold gray winter in Tacoma.

[16th St Mall]

If you haven't read a lot of this blog, Bayardo is a former photo classmate of mine and we have traveled together quite a few times.  It's always nice to photograph with a fellow photographer.  Nice camaraderie. Geek side note: the root of that word is the same as 'camera.'

[Bayardo in downtown Denver]

Having guests always makes a place feel more like 'home.'  I know I talked about that a bit when Nick (another photo classmate) came to visit me in Tübingen.  Plus, it's an excuse to go out to eat and get drinks.  =)

B's stay was pleasant despite the tiny apartment.  I wish I had my other bike put together, so we could ride together, but I wasn't expecting the weather to instantly go from 40-something to 70-something.  Note to self for next year: be ready to grab spring by the horns!

[Garden of the Gods]

I even managed to wake my friend up at 4 in the morning to drive down to Colorado Springs for sunrise at Garden of the Gods.  I refuse to go there at any other time.  It is exponentially more beautiful when the red light of daybreak hits those red rocks.

All in all, what a way for spring to start!  I feel energized not only from getting a visit from a friend, but also getting out with another photographer.  Let's get this party hoppin'!

community and new beginnings

TJ, a co-worker from the hardware store, lost his job there shortly after I did. His solution: instead of fixing bikes for someone else, do it for yourself.

Denver is now graced with the underground bike shop, literally under the ground, in TJ's basement. He'll pick up whatever you've got, give it a solid tune and also restores any vintage wheels he can find. When I heard the news, I offered to photograph his work on the classics.  Objects are so much easier than people!

Check out the webpage, support a local business.  I can't wait 'til we can round up a few friends and shoot these beauties riding around town!

February

First happening this month: my portable hard drive shows signs that it might crash soon. Panic. I unplugged the thing and hid it away until I could afford to buy something to (hopefully) transfer the files.

One thing I definitely appreciate about learning traditional black and white before getting into digital is that you are exposed to utter devastation very early. Spending the hour or so it takes to load reels, mix chemicals and slosh around everything in a tank, not to mention whatever hard work was done in the prep for the photo shoot or the meticulous care in using an analog camera, only to find that your entire roll is blank, thin, bulletproof, shows a light leak... What do you do after? Pick up your camera and shoot some more.

I've started an album with random photos around Denver. There are definitely lots of quirky little things around a city and especially out into the urban sprawl.

So, the wait for a new storage device is unknown.  I had just dropped $400 on a new lens.  Really, though.  I can be patient and salvage the bits leftover on my CF cards, using itty bitty thumb drives.  My new baby is the big boy on the far left.

Yup, 100mm macro!  Now I photograph pointless things and everybody will think it looks cool.

No, really, it will also be acting as my portrait lens.  I was paid for a photo shoot with a roll of white seamless backdrop paper and now I've unpacked and arranged my new little apartment enough to hang that 9' sucker.  Now I just have to convince my friends that I won't make them look fat and get some more portraits up on this blog!

Dim Sum for the new year

For the Chinese New Year, my co-worker Ana suggested that we eat at Denver's Dim Sum hot spot, King's Land Chinese Seafood.  The place is huge and usually busy for Sunday brunch, but this day in particular it was packed to the gills.  So, 10 people sitting at a round table typically for 8 results in lots of bumping elbows and dropping chop sticks on the floor.  The first half hour consisted of repeated asking for more chop sticks until the staff probably thought we were trying to cram even more people at our table!

Next to the cheap and delicious food, the biggest reason we came here for the New Year celebration was the dragons that would be parading through the restaurant.  The latecomer of our group this morning, Charles, had insisted that he went as fast as his Ducati (and the law) would allow him and went on to mention parking directly in front of the building so he could hurry in to us.  Well, we had almost finished dinner when we began wondering about the dragons and if they would be there this year.  Ana ran into the Chinese friend who introduced her to the restaurant two years ago and asked about the festivities.  Apparently some one had blocked the entrance with their motorcycle.  Charles, also Chinese, slipped away from our table to 'investigate' the coming of the dragons and returned to inform us that the staff said they would appear shortly.  We played along for a little bit before giving him a hard time for delaying the fun.  X-D

Enter: the dragons

The tradition is to put money in a little red envelope and feed the dragons for good luck in the new year.  Charles recommending pretending that we didn't know the proper cultural etiquette and saving ourselves a few bucks.  The dragons weaved through the tables and danced around like mongoose, playfully entertaining that they might be 'hungry,' scaring a lot of the smaller shy children.

This parent apparently wants his kid to grow up bad ass and thrust the poor thing into the dragon's face.  It was handled pretty well, I think.  With parents shoving his hand into a mouth the size of his body, the baby may have flinched but he looked the dragon in the eyes and didn't let go of the envelope.  He must have disagreed with the amount taken out of his college fund just to feed a dragon.

So, muchas gracias to Ana for planning an awesome time with some co-workers and friends!  It's always fun celebrating a holiday more than once AND within other cultural contexts.

2012

Resolution #1: Have a post for every month.

What a great start to the new year!  I moved into a little studio apartment in a historical building downtown and got a job five blocks away.  I'm also pleased with my first photos of the year.  Here's a small portrait session with my friend Chris.  He's a drummer from Louisianna, relocated to Denver and making a name for himself out west.  Check out his sound at Reverbnation.