road trip

Estes Park (Mountain Views)

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Time for the second installment of our latest Colorado trip!

Normally our trips to Colorado revolve around the mountains and adventure. This time, however, we were in Denver for the entire week, and only saw the mountains from a distance a few times (they were covered in clouds nearly the entire time as well). That Friday, the day before we had to head back to Kansas, Scott was finally done with all of his obligations (and relieved after having a successful interview), and we had no plans until that evening. Since we hadn't really seen the mountains yet, we spontaneously decided to at least drive to Estes Park to get some mountain air for one afternoon.

It had been rainy all week, and was forecasted to be cloudy and rainy on that day as well. The mountains on the drive to Estes were so incredibly green and magical with the clouds low and dense, swirling around with the breeze; it was like a dream. Despite the incredible beauty with the rain and fog, we were pretty excited when the clouds broke to show off some of the mountains surrounding Estes after we arrived. The sun warmed things up pleasantly as well, making for a perfect afternoon. 

We grabbed lunch at one of our favorite Estes spots, and then wandered around some of the shops, trying to decide what to do with the rest of our day. Scott has a minor obsession with Longs Peak, so we decided to drive up to a lookout area to check it out before heading to Boulder for dinner. 

Unfortunately there was a patch of clouds that was hovering around the peak, never breaking up enough to allow us to catch a glimpse. We stood and watched for a while as they moved past, but the clouds were dense over the mountain and the Diamond and summit area never were visible. I took a few pictures, but then mostly photographed Scott as he looked on. (I think he looks like he belongs in a Barbour add in these images.) 

We then headed back to Boulder, via a bit of a random, backroads way. It brought us down some narrow, windy roads past some tiny little towns, all through dense fog and rain. It was beautiful and dreamy, though admittedly I wasn't the one driving, which was probably fairly stressful. 

This fall I will be moving to the Denver area, and am so very excited to be only a short drive from sites like these. Now to find a job and place to live (does anyone out there need a photographer or live-in nanny??).

Happy Monday all!

Colorado Art (and beer)

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The middle of May was a big, exciting time for me, as well as Scott. Within three days I had my birthday, MFA commencement ceremony, and a trip to Denver, Colorado.

In Denver, Scott attended a conference and had an interview for a postdoctoral fellowship (which he has been hired for!). While he was busy with his stuff I managed to get to a few art museums where I saw work by some of my favorite artists in person for the first time. I didn't bring my real camera on most of our adventures, though I did take lots (as you will see in this post) on my phone. 

One of my first stops while in Denver was the Clyfford Still Museum. I have loved Still's paintings for a while, and finally had a chance to get to the museum on this trip! They had lots of his early works up as well, which were vastly different but so very beautiful.

It is difficult to get a sense of scale in these photographs, but they are extremely massive paintings. It is truly an experience to stand in front of them. It makes you feel as though you are engulfed in the painting, and creates a definite sense of awe as a result. 

After taking plenty of time at the Clyfford Still Museum, I headed over to the Denver Art Museum (The DAM), which is conveniently right next door. The DAM has a really nice variety of work, and I could have probably spent the entire day there. One of my favorite rooms there was the John De Andrea exhibition. They had three sculptures by De Andrea, all within a dark room with black walls. You have to enter the space by walking around a large wall, and then are confronted by the three extremely lifelike sculptures. 

It was quite a surreal experience. They were so very lifelike that the more I stared at them, the more I was certain I could see their bodies moving as they breathed. They were absolutely stunning, and the presentation of them in the dark, quiet room significantly added to their impact.

My absolute favorite part of The DAM was the Sandy Skoglund installation. I have adored her work for years, but never had the pleasure of seeing it in person. My thesis work, though I didn't realize it until after all was said and done, was heavily influenced by her. My monotone still life scenes directly relate to her installation work, as you can see below. 

Besides seeing some incredible art, we were also able to try out lots of amazing local beers in some very cool taprooms. One of my favorites was the Station 26 Taproom, which is an old fire station turned brewery in Denver. I tried the Cherrywood Smoked Red, which was the most unique beer I've ever had. (And now I am most definitely craving it.)

Towards the end of our trip we also visited the Upslope Taproom, located in Boulder, Colorado. It was a really neat place, filled with families, kids playing board games, live music, and a few dogs as well. And of course delicious beer. 

On our last day in Colorado we finally made it out to the mountains, thanks to a spontaneous drive to Estes Park. I actually brought out the real camera there, so Monday's blog post will have some better quality images. 

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Spring Break (Day Two)

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Day two in Colorado was another morning spent relaxing while the guys got some ice climbing in. It was a drizzly morning, which created some dreamy atmospheric haze over the mountains most of the day. The dreary day also produced some of that nice, soft light as well, which is a nice change of pace from the near constant sun in Kansas. I wandered around outside the house a bit more, and while the drizzle fell on me I became obsessed with some of the trees behind the house and fell even more in love with this area. 

I also pulled out the film cameras that morning, and grabbed some shots with three different types of film (if I remember correctly). I still need to send the negatives out to be processed, but below you can see the two Polaroids I took on this particular day. For those of you who don't know me well, I am rather obsessed with circles (my thesis show was entirely circular work). So, when I saw that the Impossible Project just released a film pack with circular frames, I jumped at the chance to buy them. And shooting them in the mountains was not one bit disappointing. 

Stay tuned for day three coming soon, featuring epic clouds and stunning mountain views. 

Colorado Roadtrip

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I had expected things to slow down and ease up after finishing my thesis stuff, but boy was I wrong. The past few weeks have been a bit crazy, and have included lots of grading/teaching related things, rewriting my thesis paper (which is now over 30 pages long), lots of art department obligations, and a trip to Colorado. 

The Colorado trip was an absolute highlight. Scott and I went out to Ouray, Colorado over Valentine's weekend, so that he could take part in a weekend long, mountaineering seminar of sorts. Since he was out climbing all day on our first and last day there, I was able to relax and explore Ouray a little bit. I didn't photograph nearly as much as I normally would, in part because I needed a mental break from photography. In fact, the first day in Ouray I didn't take a single photograph. I used my film camera more than my digital as well, so hopefully some of those will turn out and I will be able to share them after getting the film developed. 

I know I say this about a lot of places, but I completely fell in love with Ouray during our short stay. As soon as we began the trip home I started to plan our next trip in my head. The town is filled with old, Victorian style homes, and lots of cool little shops. There isn't a chain restaurant or store in town in fact. They are completely surrounded by mountains, and so no matter where you are in Ouray there are great views to be had. One of our nights there we stayed at a hotel that had its own hot spring pool, and we spent the evening relaxing in the hot spring as snow gently fell around us, clouds rolled over the surrounding peaks, and the late evening light made everything glow. It was absolute perfection and I won't soon forget it.

Enough of me rambling though, and on to the photographs...

These last images were all taken on our drive back to Kansas. Many were just shot out the window as we drove, though there were also a handful of times that Scott was kind enough to pull over (and in fact, he did so without prompting more than once). We passed through some stunning areas, and had some rather incredible conditions while going through a section of higher mountains. It made going back to Kansas even more difficult. 

Because Scott and I both loved the area so much, we have actually decided to head back out their for our spring break in a week. So, many more images of this incredible area will be showing up here soon!

Christmas in Spearfish (Part 1)

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Happy holidays everyone! This is the first post of a short series documenting this year's Christmas adventure. Last year Scott and I went on a long road trip with his parents to visit his sister and her family in Arizona (you can see images from that here). We spent quite a bit of time climbing, and had hopes of making that one of our Christmas traditions as a couple. This Christmas Scott and I decided to visit my brother and his family in Spearfish, South Dakota, since I hadn't seen them in over a year. As an added bonus, Spearfish has a rather incredible climbing scene, including ice climbing (which I will get into in later posts), which allowed us to continue the tradition. 

Our drive out to Spearfish was a bit of a stressful one. It is a long drive (nearly 12 hours), and on top of that we had to deal with some not so pleasant weather. The winds started to pick up midway through Nebraska, and by the time we hit South Dakota we were driving in wind gusts of 60 mph, and sustained winds around 40 mph. The snow and ice picked up in South Dakota as well, though luckily the roads didn't start to freeze until we were less than an hour away from my brother's house. We were quite glad we left as early as we did, or we would have been in a much worse situation.  

The day after we arrived involved a pleasantly lazy morning watching the snow slowly fall outside. A perfect little snow flake was stuck on the window, and I couldn't resist attempting to photograph it. We have been lucky (in my opinion) and had some snow every single day of our stay here, and I have been loving every minute.

That evening we went for a ride on an 1880s train with my brother, Kyle, his wife, Michelle, and their twin boys. The train was a Polar Express style ride, complete with sugar cookies, hot chocolate, and a visit from Santa after we picked him up from the North Pole. The boys were great and loved it all, and it was a nice little adventure for us as well. Unfortunately, it was quite dark and since the boys are constantly in motion, the opportunities for photographs were minimal, but I did manage to get a few that are worth sharing (though mostly just ones of Kyle and Belle). 

That's all for now, since I have hundreds of images still to sift through and edit. I hope you all had a very merry Christmas, and wonderful New Year's celebrations!