Tag: recent views

Recent Views (in my kitchen)

We’re finally redoing the original kitchen in our 1956 house. Once the old metal Youngstown cabinets were removed, I noticed this collision of patterns on the unfinished wall:

I also discovered some old-school miscellanea:

Recent Views

More photography here and on my Instagram.

As much of a selfie I’m willing to muster:

From back in coat-wearing weather, the cover art for our future family band’s debut album:

Backyard greenery:

Exploring the tiny patch of wildness in our suburban backyard:

A fence post in the local park that’s seen better days:

Our backyard spruce tree showing signs of life:

The boy behind the curtain:

In the countryside, silos are the skyscrapers (that tiny white dot in the lower right corner is the moon):

Recent Views

More photography here and on my Instagram.

From our go-to park last fall:

Little man enjoying the ball pit at his cousin’s birthday party:

The inside view of Madison’s capitol dome:

Turns out kids love swings:

A few shots from probably the last snowfall of an extremely mild winter:

Recent Views

More photography here and on my Instagram.

The view of downtown Madison from a pontoon on Lake Mendota:

Some good reflection action at the park by our house:

You know I love a good “sunrise through the blinds” shot:

You know I love cider donuts and fall stuff:

Morning view from my hotel room in St. Louis:

Obligatory Arch shot (it was way bigger and closer in person):

The central branch of the St. Louis Public Library’s got it going on:

The field lights at my local park:

Recent Views

More photography here and on my Instagram.

Trying to take evening walks with the almost 6 month old strapped to me while the sun still allows it, so I get to enjoy views like this:

Also get to enjoy views like this from the Nap Cam:

Yet another baby view, this one from the family cottage in Michigan. I left my keys in the room he was supposed to be napping in but wasn’t, so I literally crawled to my bag so he wouldn’t see me and looked up to see this:

Some flowers ‘n’ stuff:

Recent Views

More photography here and on my Instagram.

My primary view lately:

More chubby baby:

My library shares a parking lot with a church (pictured with its wacky window placements), and the lot regularly floods due to crappy drainage. It’s annoying for parking but good for cool shots:

I liked the colors on the sign here matched with the sky:

Emo rain shot out my window:

Recent Views, not-recent edition

More photography here.

With a photogenic infant at home, I need to make sure my photo backup situation is solid. I decided to start using iCloud since my Dropbox is maxed out and because it so seamlessly integrates with my iPhone. Digging through my photo archive has brought back some nice memories, including photos from a photography class I took junior year of college, 10 years ago now. They might be the last photos I took on an SLR film camera:

Recent Views

More photography here. And on my Instagram.

Pretty cool frost patterns on my car window (I call this one “Frozen Fractals All Around”):

A few shots of my building’s backyard in the snow:

Scraping off the car one morning, the snow shavings fell in a pattern that encircled the car. They contrasted well with the dark asphalt, and sorta looked like the Milky Way:

And a bonus GIF from when I was looking through microfilm at work for a patron. The zooming effect made it look like those whirling newspaper montages in old movies:

Recent Views, Colorado wedding edition

I had the honor of being in a college friend’s wedding in Denver last week. My wife and I made a vacation of it and hit up several spots in Colorado.

For extended trips we usually put together an itinerary with important travel info; Jenny thought of the title and I contributed the images:

We flew in, got our rental car, then headed to the mountains, accompanied by Mr. “Rocky Mountain High” himself. Our first stop was the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park:

Famous for inspiring The Shining, the hotel was more importantly used for filming Dumb and Dumber, namely the entrance (above), the “Race you to the top!” staircase, and the “We landed on the moon!” bar.

We didn’t stick around, however, as we soon embarked on a hike toward the Ouzel Falls in Rocky Mountain National Park. We didn’t make it to the falls, but still soaked in the views and the clean air:

We then headed to Boulder and stayed the night at the Hotel Boulderado, which maintains its original Edwardian-era style and even a working Otis elevator. Supposedly the hotel is haunted. All I know is their creepy chair game was solid:

We stopped at the post office in Boulder, which has some sweet PO boxes:

The Boulder Public Library was another highlight. My wife took pictures of everything, but I only managed the windows:

On Tuesday we drove to Manitou Springs and stayed in a gorgeous Airbnb cabin in the mountains near a friend of mine. The next day was the Fourth of July, so to celebrate we headed to Paint Mines Interpretive Park, outside of Colorado Springs. It was a scorching hot and sunny day, but above all I’ll remember the absolute quiet as we walked through the maze of hoodoos and colorful clay formations. You can find plenty of amazing photos of them online, but here are two I took from it:

It was then back to Denver for the wedding weekend. We enjoyed the nightlife around RiNo, including Odell Brewing Company:

and knockout at Gerard’s Pool Hall:

Finally the wedding arrived. I wasn’t focused on getting good pictures, as I knew the professionals would take care of that. But here’s one in the venue (which hosted the ceremony and reception) of the bridesmaids awaiting the couple after their First Look:

I’ve been to Colorado a few times before, but this trip was especially fun given the variety of activities, the good weather, and quality time with great friends.

Recent Views

More photography here.

A log in our building’s backyard bonfire was pushing out smoke from both ends:

This wasn’t taken for Memorial Day but it might as well have been:

I liked the color combination here, and not because I’m a Packers fan:

This bookshelf and plant are no longer in this spot, so you’re looking at history (then again, all photography is history):

Finally, I found the rainbow connection at a crosswalk:

Recent Views

More photography here.

One of the many things I love about fall and winter is sunrise happens later in the morning, thus allowing me to go for a run in the darkness of the morning without having to get up at WHAT o’clock. On a recent run I broke my rule about not taking pictures of the sunrise or sunset. I was running to the lake as usual and saw this guy standing atop the large boulders buttressing the shore:

Several people along my route were gazing at and taking pictures of the sunrise. It occurred to me then that if there’s ever an apocalyptic event and I’m somehow stranded with strangers, I’d like to be stranded with the kind of people who wake up early to photograph the sunrise.

Here is the same sunrise one minute later, made more dramatic by my iPhone camera viewing it through a playground and trees:

Plus a bonus pic atop a viewing station at Blue Mounds State Park in Wisconsin:

Recent Views

More photography here.

Just for fun I’ve started turning videos I take into GIFs using Giphy’s super easy GIF maker.

This one was on a flight descending into Raleigh, North Carolina. The rain was streaking on the window like that for only about 10 seconds, so I’m glad I had my phone ready:

rain

The breeze and sunlight was dancing nicely with the makeshift curtain in our bedroom window:

breeze

On a recent morning run to the lakeshore the water was really choppy, more so than I think I’ve ever seen it. The waves were crashing against the boulders that buttress the shore and splashing onto the sidewalk. Since I couldn’t predict when and where and how high the waves would crash, I planted myself at a pleasingly symmetrical position and hit record. This is about 10 seconds out of a 40-second clip. As usual the camera fails to capture the stunning color and spectacle of what my eyes saw:

splash

And one photo, from a family reunion/memorial in West Virginia:

Elkins-reunion.jpg

Norway, July 2016

This is part 3 of pictures from my summer trip to Scandinavia (previously: Finland and Sweden). I posted pics on Instagram throughout, but these are my favorites from Norway.

Norway-boat
Norway-bridge
Norway-Vardo-house
Norway-fjords
Norway-Hurtigruten2
Norway-mountains
Norway-trollfjord
Norway-Trondheim-trains

Sweden, July 2016

This is part 2 of pictures from my summer trip to Scandinavia (pics from Finland here). I posted pics on Instagram throughout, but these are my favorites from Stockholm and greater Sweden:

Stockholm-airplane
Stockholm-flags

Stockholm-library
Stockholm-norsk-museum
Stockholm-norske-museum2
Stockholm-sign
Sweden-clock
Sweden-Karlskrona-church
Sweden-Karlskrona-flag

Helsinki, July 2016

Just got back from a two-week trip to Scandinavia, through Finland, Sweden, and Norway. I posted pics on Instagram throughout, but first up here are my favorites from Finland:

Helsinki-airplane
Helsinki-birds
Helsinki-boat2
Helsinki-clock
Helsinki-Uspenski-cathedral2
Helsinki-Suomenlinna2
Helsinki-Suomenlinna
Helsinki-windows

Recent Views

More photography here.

Flying above Idaho, returning from Portland. I usually don’t take pictures from airplanes, but I’m a sucker for mountains, especially ones as pretty as these. They sparkled:

2016-04-16 11.38.48

Chicago at sunset, as lonesome and resolute as the celestial orb overlooking it:

Chicago-sunset

William Fitzsimmons concert. I liked the natural quadrants that formed outward from the violinist, and the colors exaggerating those divisions:

2016-04-28 20.39.05