Calm Within

Today I heard a wonderful new age album that's due out next month. The publisher gave me a copy to check out. It's "Calm Within" by Laura Sullivan. It really is quite relaxing and I'll be able to utilize it during my yoga, and meditation, sessions when I start them up again. 
   As I listened to it while I was at work I can easily see why she's gotten at least one grammy. It'll be available on Amazon and on iTunes. If you like New Age music this is definitely worth a listen to.

10/29

This morning I had two more teeth pulled. It's just a matter of time until all of my teeth are out. Anyway, they told me at the dentist that I needed to wait about 15 minutes before taking out the gauze. I decided to shoot a few frames at a park nearby, and here are the results. I used to live about half a mile from this park, and it isn't too far from where I'm working. 

I've walked across this bridge many times.

 This is taken a short ways upstream from the foot bridge. The stream is Fountain Creek.

This creek feeds into Fountain Creek. The bridge is Mark Dabling Road.

 This bridge has always fascinated me. To the right is a trail that leads from the park to Centennial Blvd. and Garden of the Gods Road.

I'm now going to lie down. My head is a bit woozy from the Novacain they used when they were deadening my lower jaw.

Pueblo Reservoir 10-8

   On the 8th we went down to the Pueblo Reservoir. We did some fishing and I, of course, captured a few images with the Fuji. 
   This is a breakwater made out of old tires. The curves, the bit of island, and water was rather interesting to me.

I decided to try to get one of the various birds and this lovely female Mallard obliged me nicely.

   The ripples was very interesting and caught my eye. This part of the lake is a no wake part. Basically, if you have a boat, you have to go very slow so you aren't causing waves. Any that do occur therefore are most likely from the breezes actions on the water.

This was later in the day as the sun got lower and all of these wonderful reflections began showing up. The bit of breeze slowed too.

This shot just appeared idyllic to me. I had to capture it.

Soon, we will be heading down to Pueblo again. I'm wanting to photograph the river walk downtown. I think we'll visit the Pueblo Zoo also.

Moving

This has been a big change in my life, and it's the reason why I don't have any photography to post on the blog. Recently I listed my house and it sold rather quickly. One of the main reasons for that is the house is furnished. The washer, dryer, kitchen table, bed, etc. all went with the house. I figured the ad would generate more interest, and it did.
   Today I should be getting the payment for the house and sign over the title. Then I get to pay down a bunch of debt, some of it accrued while preparing the house for sale. It's like I've reached the end of an era.
   Next week, I believe we're headed down to the Pueblo reservoir. On the way I'm going to try to go to the riverwalk in downtown Pueblo where I'm planning on shooting a few frames. I've been wanting to go there a long time and it should make for some good shots. 
   This last summer has been amazing for me. I've rediscovered love. Susan has been wonderful and I'm glad I've met her. I also got my driving privileges back, and a car which happens to be a minivan. During all of that I managed to pick up a camera again. So, while part of my life has come to an end I've also started on new beginnings. I guess that's one of the points of life. Every time you reach an ending you also reach a new beginning.
   There are times I do miss writing a bit. Other times I don't. It's now almost eleven months since I spent most of my time away from work stuck in the room I'd set up as an office. I can tell you I won't make that particular mistake again. For too long I let life pass me by.

9-24 Cripple Creek

On the 24th we went up to Cripple Creek to look at the fall colors. In the high country the aspens are in full change. We did a little gambling too BTW. I actually made enough off the casino to pay for our lunch.

I thought the way the sap hung looked cool on these spruce cones. 

This was just outside of a Cripple Creek museum. 

This decrepit house was across the street from the casino. It looks so forlorn there.

We drove around Cripple Creek a little more and I found a couple of other decrepit pieces of history. 

Hopefully we'll be able to get out a bit on next Thursday, or Friday. I sold my house and therefore have to move everything. That might take precedence therefore.

Eleven Mile 9/17

Susan likes to fish so I took her to Eleven Mile Reservoir again. It was bright and sunny and breezy. For once I even got a little bit of a sunburn on my legs since I was wearing shorts as I went wandering to capture some images. It's now very dry there which is more normal for the area. Parts of the surroundings was rather desolate in appearance which you'll see a little of in some of these images. You'll also see the effects of wind and rain erosion. The hillside gets sculpted out and becomes new beach. 

A little later we moved to another part of the lake where I went wandering again. This is one of the first images I captured.

There's a trail called "Ponderosa" that I discovered. It's not very long, about 3/4 mile, but there's a lot of scenery available. Since the area elevation is about 8700 feet the aspens had started to change color.

After hiking I came back down to the shoreline where Susan was at. Finally I'd started doing a little fishing of my own, Since I wasn't catching anything I began looking for something else to photograph. Well, this little guy came along. He was so cute.

Manitou Lake Shoot 9/10

There's the Manitou Lake Recreation we went to on the 10th. As usual I helped Susan get set up for fishing and I went off on a jaunt with my SLR. These rocks caught my eye and I had to try to capture them.

This is the dam works. Thought it was interesting.

Then I got closer. This image would be great in black and white.

I managed a little ways down from the dam so I could get the spillway.

I laughed when I was walking along the shoreline and noticed the bobbers caught in the tree.

These are those rocks from earlier though at a different angle.

I liked the symmetry and the fact that the pathway is leading you somewhere.

These ducks were sitting there resting and they just about disappear into their surroundings.

A dragonfly had flown to low and had gotten caught in the water. It made for an interesting composition with the little waves.

This is the dragonfly that had been caught. Susan rescued it and I guess it wore itself out trying to get free from the water.