I moved to Colorado at 21, and after finishing college, I settled in Denver with my young family. Denver has seen tremendous change and growth in the interceding 30 years, but many of its landmarks still endure. The city benefits from that momentum of growth, with a diversity in culture and architecture that accompanies it. Built at the confluence of two rivers, and a point where the Prairie meets the Rocky Mountains, Denver holds the title, “Queen City of the Plains” with high honor.

A slightly different view of Long's Peak, with the Flatirons, and the old Denver General Hospital smokestack adding character to the scene.

Denver has some truly incredible sunrises and sunsets, there's just never enough time to capture them all.  This one was shot March, 2017.

Longexposure images are always intriguing.  The light lines naturally draw us in, and the other-world effect allows our child's eye to create it's infinite possibilities.

Denver's Light Rail train crossing through the Platte Valley on the W Line is one such subject.

Much has been said about Denver's traffic.  I will only say that it creates an incredible effect for the camera.  

Baseball season has started and a full and well lit Coors Field provided a nice addition to this image of red, white, and black.

Denver was name the "Queen City of the Plains" in the 19th Century. I've not done the research into the origin of that name, but I've always liked it.  

I haven't shot a moon-scape, or a cityscape in a while, and the recent Super Moon seemed a good excuse to get out.  Also, I've been experimenting with time-lapse photography and this seemed like a good night to do a little of both.  This image was shoot was with a 70-200mm lens, was about 135mm with the Denver skyline composed as the subject.  My other camera was handling time-lapse duty, and the video is beautiful, albeit short.  I'm hoping to figure out how to share it eventually to this page.

Colorado sunrises can be an enigma, much like anyplace else.  This images was curated from a time-lapse sequence shot on the morning of the 15th.  The light was a bit more blue, but I was able to warm the image up in Lightroom and add that enhanced the magenta that was in the sky.

Like most cities, Denver is beginning to understand the significance of mass-transit and fortunately Denver still had a functioning rail hub in her grand, old Union Station.  With the Regional Transportation District looking light-rail and bus terminals in the expanded complex, Union Station has a seen resurgence in importance in the Lower Downtown scene.

Long-exposure image of the Suncor Refinery, inspired by Denver photographer, Scott Wilson.  Scott creates this incredibly moody images and when he posted this about a year ago I was totally hooked.  Last month I created a time lapse from this spot mid-morning, but didn't really think of the night composition until Scott reposted his original image.  Now knowing exactly where he shot from I headed out to see if I could find some different compositions, but his original is still the best.

I will definitely scout some more compositions out, to me this is just a compelling scene. 

The glow of the rising sun would not be extinguished.  Shot from White Ranch Park, North Table Mountain covers much of the Denver Skyline. But, the dancing clouds could not be missed in the beautiful time lapse they produced.

Returning from my first Milky Way outing, the sun decided to leap up off of the prairie.

Fountain should be on soon enough, hopefully the compositions follow suit. This was shot as a long exposure, 30 seconds, at 35mm. The light had been subdued, until the very end.

Sunset - City Park Denver

The fountain should be on soon enough and the lonely boathouse will have some happier company. This was shot as another long exposure, 20 seconds, at 24mm. The storms were coming in, and subtle grays and blues suddenly exploded, in this magenta and violet blur; maybe summer isn’t so far off.

Sunset - City Park Denver

Denver sits at the edge of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains. Often described as the “great American desert,” the swath of land roughly 150 miles is dry, less than 15” of precipitation falling on it every year. Technology and deep wells make agriculture a reality, but sustainability is always the question.

Capturing the full, and rising moon can be a tricky venture. I enjoy the time outside, especially as day turns to night, trying to frame this moon over the city skyline had me moving at the last minute as there was a tree I’d not reckoned on have to shoot around.

Another location that is Denver, but isn’t, the Lookout Mountain Park, and scenic drive provide the only true, elevated view of the Denver area. Ironically I hadn’t thought about it for a photographic setting, until this morning, and I was richly rewarded.

One of the most distinctive of the CCC Projects, the Red Rocks Amphitheater is a world renowned music venue, and a beautiful site no matter the season. Finding it covered in fresh snow, quiet and alone on an early winter morning is a site in itself.

Some moments in photography are less idyllic than the image that is created. This shot is an example of that chaos. I was driving home from shooting the Milky Way on a Sunday morning and found the cloud bank covering the entire metro area. The overlook at Buffalo Bills was closed, and there aren’t any really easy places to access up high in the more residential areas. This first switch back offered a striking view and perfect tones.

I have been making the drive up to Squaw Pass more frequently for sites such as this. I’m hoping the magic continues into the spring.

Tucked on a ledge in the Mt. Evans Wilderness, some trees, some rocks, some places have seen so much more in their time than others have. This ruffled, hardy young spruce tree seems to be one of those trees. The decades it’s witnessed in its short life must tell an epic tale.

One of Denver’s most iconic views, drivers are treated to an unobstructed vista of the Continental Divide as they drive west along I-70. Engineers created this bridge, without any center supports, so that drivers and passengers would only be distracted by this beautiful composition.

This is a long exposure shot, taken on a beautiful, late February evening.

Just a sea of fog engulfing the Front Range… from March, 2019

Those clouds would turn into a beautiful storm just a few hours later…

Big, tempestuous stormed passed over the Foothills this night. I decided to follow a road I’d never been on to see what views it produced. Needless to say, it was the view I was hoping for.

The sunflowers are back for their yearly visit east of Denver. The fields this year are bigger and more diverse than last years, it’s always a matter of finding the perfect sunset to compliment them.

Looking straight into the face of what you love…

The antenna that rest on top of Lookout Mountain in Golden have provided much controversy over the years. At a point dozens of smaller towers were replaced by one, and later two much larger, modern towers. When the inversions roll along the Front Range, often this is all you can see. This particular morning was one of those inversions, with the metro area swimming in the low hanging clouds, and only the highest points visible above it all.

Vertical panorama, 6 landscape images stitched together to make one larger portrait image.

Lookout Mountain - March, 2020

Trees, framing tress, with silhouettes of trees in the distance. The morning light evolved slowly, and the above normal humidity amplified the hues and warmth revealing such pleasant tones to accent the darker trees.

From Juniper Pass, May, 2020

ISO 100 | F/5.6 | 1/400 sec. - 200mm

I scouted around the old abandoned dwelling hoping a wide-angle lens would provide the interest and depth that I can usually frame and capture; but light and a head heavy in thought and memory conspired to lead me back to the 4Runner and resign myself to just watching the morning unfold.

About the time I got back to the car a small sliver of the moon appeared, and a quick lens swap but a 100-400mm lens back onto the camera. In those few moments of transitioning the sun decided to make its presence known too, and the next 30 minutes were filled with several sets of compositions shot between 100 and 600mm.

This final image is made of 7 horizontal frames shot at 100mm and stitched together vertically to create the final 45MB image here. It is a unique 16:9 aspect ratio - not quite 3:1, but more dramatic than 3:2.

From Lookout Mountain, May, 2020

ISO 100 | F/9 | 1/160 sec. - 7 image vertical panorama - 100mm each frame

Shooting landscapes at 600mm… I really didn’t expect this kind of light and these elements in the composition. But the clouds on the horizon obscured first light, so moisture clung to the ground longer than normal and as the sun’s rays shown through breaks in the higher clouds, the Eastern Plains just started to glow.

From Lookout Mountain, May, 2020

ISO 200 | F/5.6 | 1/800 sec. - 600mm APS-C mode

Denver has far more fog this spring than I can ever remember, and I haven’t always been able to take advantage of it - fog rarely ruins an image, especially when the light works its way under the fog and around the different shapes, in this case the Denver skyline, on a beautiful May morning.

From Lookout Mountain, May, 2020

ISO 200 | F/5.6 | 1/640 sec. - 6 image vertical panoramam - 400mm each frame

It is sunflower season again in Colorado and as the fields have continued to orbit different locations around DIA, the throngs of people hoping to capture some images move around in great disarray.

This years crop seems to have bloomed a little earlier than the past few and the unusually hot weather may make this a very short season as farmers work to maintain their yields.

But, my favorite compositions still involve the slightly distorted effects that result from an ultra-wide lens. This composition holds a beautiful set of stalks, with the diagonal lines creating the framing, it’s easy to get lost in the last light of the day.

ISO 100 | F/5 | 1/100 sec. - 16mm

August, 2020 - Roadside Attractions - DIA Sunflowers XVII

It is sunflower season again in Colorado and as the fields have continued to orbit different locations around DIA, the throngs of people hoping to capture some images move around in great disarray.

This years crop seems to have bloomed a little earlier than the past few and the unusually hot weather may make this a very short season as farmers work to maintain their yields.

But, my favorite compositions still involve the slightly distorted effects that result from an ultra-wide lens. This composition holds a beautiful set of stalks, with the diagonal lines creating the framing, it’s easy to get lost in the last light of the day.

ISO 100 | F/5 | 1/100 sec. - 24mm

August, 2020 - Roadside Attractions - DIA Sunflowers XVIII

It is sunflower season again in Colorado and as the fields have continued to orbit different locations around DIA, the throngs of people hoping to capture some images move around in great disarray.

This years crop seems to have bloomed a little earlier than the past few and the unusually hot weather may make this a very short season as farmers work to maintain their yields.

But, my favorite compositions still involve the slightly distorted effects that result from an ultra-wide lens. This composition holds a beautiful set of stalks, with the diagonal lines creating the framing, it’s easy to get lost in the last light of the day.

ISO 100 | F/5 | 1/100 sec. - 24mm

August, 2020 - Roadside Attractions - DIA Sunflowers XVIII

Early morning fog over the Front Range usually means an inversion.  North Table Mountain acting the part of an island in the sky on a February morning.

ISO 200 | F/1.8 | 1/125 sec. - 31 images shoot with the Sony a7riv & FE 135GM Edited in Lightroom, rendered in Photoshop.

February, 2021

Low level clouds rolling into downtown Golden between North and South Table Mountains.

ISO 100 | F/9 | 1/250 sec. - Sony a7riii & FE 100-400GM

Edited in Lightroom, rendered in Photoshop.

February, 2021

Low level clouds circling North Table Mountain.

ISO 200 | F/11 | 1 sec. - Sony a7riii & FE 1635GM

Edited in Lightroom, rendered in Photoshop.

February, 2021

A long exposure capturing the low clouds and morning traffic passing through the Clear Creek drainage.

ISO 100 | F/6.3 | 30 sec. - Sony a7riii & FE 1635GM

Edited in Lightroom, rendered in Photoshop.

February, 2021

Low clouds rolling into downtown Golden from South Table Mountain.

ISO 100 | F/5.6 | 1/125 sec. - Sony a7riv & FE 135GM

Edited in Lightroom, rendered in Photoshop.

February, 2021

An image I really didn’t think would be possible, yet so captivating - downtown Denver waking up in early February. Photographed from 15 miles to the west.

ISO 100 | F/7.1 | 15 sec. - Sony a7riii & FE 100-400GM

Edited in Lightroom, rendered in Photoshop.

February, 2021

The clouds decided to back up to the Foothills later than most mornings and their lazy pace left a less volatile trace. But the thick blanket covered the metro area for just long enough to create a sea of white. The tower over Lookout Mountain adds an element of scale that’s often missing from inversion compositions.

This final image is made of 13 vertical frames shot at 100mm and stitched together vertically to create the final 45MB image here. It is a standard 3:1 aspect ratio - creating a dramatic view over the clouds.

From Lookout Mountain, April, 2021

ISO 100 | F/13 | 1/800 sec. - 13 image vertical panorama - 100mm each frame