Looking back at the images I took in April of this year, I found there was only a couple of days when I went out to photography.  The image I selected for this month, was at the nearby Chessman Park and a bare tree just after a light spring snowfall.  This was one of the wet snowfalls which is common in the spring time as there is a larger amount of moisture then the typical mid-winter snowfalls in Denver.  As you can see the grass peaking through around the tree it was not a huge snowfall but something to just disrupt the normal events of the day.

Having trouble finding the perfect gift for someone this holiday season?  Would you like to give the gift of photography this year?  Images from Neil Corman Photography offers gift certificates which may be used towards any product.  These gift certificates are delivered electronically so there is still enough time left to get one under the tree or even for one of the remaining nights of Hanukkah.

Visit the Images from Neil Corman Photography Gift Certificate page to find out more details.

March is on average the month with the most snowfall in Denver, thus when it snowed early in the month it wasn’t a surprise.  During this early snowfall early I headed towards Washington Park to try to capture the scene.  One of the first items I noticed was the following tree showing the true form of the tree as the snow filled the field it in the middle of the park.  A conversion to a colder tone gives us the following look for this tree in Washington Park.

This image of a Lone Tree in Washington Park may be found in the Denver Colorado gallery.

Earlier this month when flying home from San Diego, I was flipping through Hemispheres Magazine on United Airlines.  As this was the December issue, the winners of the Annual Travel Photography contest were being shown which is this weeks Linking the Week site.  In the printed publication were the overall winners which were a good collection of images in itself, however on the website were there is more space available they show images which won each category as well as some which almost made the cut in addition to the overall winners.  It is always good to look at the work from others, and even though it is a contest which is subjective based on the judges opinion I feel this is a good collection of images to check out and help get some creative juices flowing.

In February of 2008, I traveled north to Kalispell and Glacier National Park.  Having spent time in the park in the summer of 2007, I found it quite different this time of year where only ten miles of road is open and the park is quite empty.  With fresh winter snow I explored some areas on snowshoe and spent much time around Lake McDonald.  While some areas were heavily tracked, finding fresh snow on the side of the lake made for some great pictures to be taken during this trip.

This image of a Clear Winter Day may be found in the Glacier National Park gallery, and was also an option on the holiday greeting cards available for sale this year.

2008 has been a fun year to photograph.  Over the course of the year, I was in Hawaii, Montana, California as well as around Colorado.  With twelve days left in 2008, today starts the first of the 2008 year in picture by myself.  Each day a new photograph will be posted from a given month.

The first image was taken while in Hawaii this past January.  Using a cloudy morning and thirty second exposure I found the light of street lights behind me to nicely light up the beach as the clouds slowly moved in the early morning light.

This image of Sunset Beach may be found in the Oahu gallery.

It’s Election Day for the next president of the United States.  You may be thinking I am six weeks late or this post might be out of place but it is indeed the date where the President-Elect is officially determined. On the Monday after the second Wednesday in December, the electors come together in their state capitol to cast their vote as determined in November by the state.

It is just a formality in the electoral college system used in the United Stated, but there have been issues in the past of faithless electors.  These days almost half of the states have laws to punish those individuals who are faithless.

It will not be until January 8, 2009 when we will know the actual results of the voting of today but then again it is all a formaility in the process as the transfer of power is underway at this time moving closer to January 20, 2009.

While it may be election day, at least we won’t be seeing any more political advertisments for a while… or maybe just six months.  But expect some news on the events of the day as people once again question why we use the Electoral College.

Last week Google released their 2008 Zeitgeist summary making it the Linking the Week site for this week.  This yearly summary of the top search terms shows us the buzz and big events during the year in various categories.  The one breakdown which I find interesting are the top search terms from other countries.  Viewing the search results in this category gives an insight to what is important, whether it is US Politics which took over this year in the United States, the 2008 Olympics or even some musical acts which also are popular in countries around the world as well.

You may also see the past version of Zeitgeist at their archive page and remember some of the larger search terms from prior years as well.

This past week Adobe announced a series of free eSeminars for those individuals interested in Creative Suite 4 which was recently upgraded.  These seminars cover the design suite and the multitude of items which are included within each product.  With different offerings for professionals who are involved in Design, Video, Web, Photographers as well as Print it is bound to give you a good overview.

For photographers you may want to check out the following sessions

• Adobe® Photoshop® CS4 + Adobe® Photoshop®Lightroom® 2 – The pro photo solution (Dec 18, 2008)
• Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2 for Advanced Amateur Photographers (Jan 15, 2009)
• Adobe® Photoshop® CS4 for photography (Feb 12, 2009)
• Adobe® Photoshop® CS4 + Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2 – The pro photo solution (Feb 19, 2009)

See the Adobe website for more details.

On Day 28 of Thirty Days 2008, I took a photograph of the San Diego Marriott and Marina.  When taking this image I was trying to recall the spot in which I photographed these same two buildings in 1990.  Now being home in Colorado, earlier this week I went through a box of images during high school and found the image in question.  Looking at the image once again I recall the spot in which the image was taken.  In some of the comments from Day 28 it was mentioned I should show the original image which you will now find below.  To recreate this I just took an image with my DSLR in some soft light of the mounted black and white images.

San Diego Marriott and Marina taken in 1990

Also when going through the box of images, I found one I took of the State of Illinois Center in Chicago around that same time frame.  This image was taken in black and white and while printing it in the darkroom I used a polycontrast filter to bring the high contrast to the image.

State of Illinois Center in Chicago (taken in 1990)

It was after this image was taken the building was renamed to the James R. Thompson Center.  This building was originally opened in 1985 and has been of constant discussion in Illinois politics due to issues with the initial design as well as lately with the current Governor.