Best Camera [is the one you have with you] | iphoneography in Denver

My mind is expanding in SO many ways right now, taking an incredible creativeLIVE three day course on women's portraiture (I have so many new photographer crushes! Sue Bryce, how funny, sexy AND inspiring can one woman be?!)

But I had to take a moment on our lunch break to share this composite of iphone shots from my commute this morning in Denver. Incredible light, lovely spring snow. Textures were incredible everywhere. Just beautiful!

Snow Falling on Spring Buds

There's a saying in Colorado, "If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes."

Yesterday I wore flip flops and walked (in short sleeves) to the Denver Botanic Gardens in 80 degrees of warm sunshine... even took off my shoes to enjoy the feel of warm soil between my toes for the first time this season.

Today... I photographed snow from my living room window.

Now, I did LOVE the sunshine and warmth of yesterday, but I'm not going to complain.  The smell of moisture in the air is a treasured gift in the wake of early season forest fires.  And on a more, perhaps, frivolous note, I can't deny loving a whirling snowfall such as this, and the backdrop of spring buds made for some fun, almost painterly compositions.

Bokeh Fun

I decided to go freeze my fingers for one more visit to the Denver Botanic Gardens on New Year's Eve. I wandered around shooting lights and people for over an hour, and had just put my camera back in the safety and warmth of the big 'ol bag when one last tightly wrapped tree caught my eye. It is amazing how often I put away the equipment, only to pull it out "one last time" for what ends up being the best shot of the day.

Honestly, when I saw this last tree, my fingers were sufficiently frozen to the point that I could no longer get them to set the tripod back up, so decided to shoot handheld, with my aperture wide open and play with depth of field. Deliberately focusing on different planes of the branches would force others out of focus, and I was immediately having a great time framing and refocusing.

I always enjoy a good "painting with light" shot, too, so some long exposure motion experimentation was in order as well.

Enjoy!

Just for Fun: Different kind of Light + Color

Gotta love Denver... We received 18+ inches of snow in 2 days, and a few days later we are soaking up sunshine and 60 degrees!  Amazingly, we STILL have leaves on the trees, post blizzard event!

This was the landscape just a few days ago...