when finals are canceled.

on the tuesday of finals week in december, there was snow and there was no school. some people went sledding. it was a good choice.

there may have been a lake. somewhere.

i went snowshoeing in the indian peaks with Melanie, Summer, Amy, and Laura shortly before the end of the fall semester. there may have been a lake. somewhere. people were mostly happy. i seem to recall being not on my feet for much of the day.

intermezzo: boulder

between thanksgiving and christmas, there were a few events at which i took photos, with no particular through-running narrative. one such event was the gcf christmas party, at which Jim played the piano while other people sang.





i took some family photos for the Hermansens. Peter was working the cutenesses to the max.





Melanie and i hiked up to the flagstaff star, a huge star of light on the side of flagstaff mountain that is visible from throughout boulder during december. the intense light source gave me some interesting options for photos, although i only spent a few minutes trying to shoot.

i actually took some photos outside.

i have been trying to take more landscape photos lately--it seems like living in a place like boulder, which is generally pleasant-looking, presents a pretty unique opportunity for that. but i haven't had a whole ton of success except for a stretch in november. i went out with Melanie to look for a spot to take some night photos. i wanted something nice with running water from boulder canyon. i ended up liking all of the photos without running water more than i liked photos with running water. one of my favorites was just a test shot, shot at iso 3200, which is above. but i did also like a shot at a lower iso. obviously, i forgot to grab a remote control for my camera, so for the longer exposure shot i had to hold down the shutter button with my finger for the duration of the exposure. lolz.



i went for a walk in my neighborhood and there was a nice sunset.



while in oklahoma for thanksgiving, i took my mom and Melanie to the wichita mountains, and was reminded why i love them so much.



it was an autumny time of year, and some of the scrub oaks had some nice colors in their leaves. as the sun got low, there were some nicely highlit trees with shadowed mountainsides behind. there was enough light reflecting around that the shadowed mountainsides were well-lit enough to expose reasonably well.



Melanie had a good time and looked good doing it.



after we shiveringly ate burgers in an underheated meers store, we headed home. there was a nice range of twilight blues with a touch of warm right on the horizon, so i pulled over to shoot a few quick landscapes off of a tripod.



in the process, i realized that the reds from my taillights made a nice balanced foreground, so i used that for a few shots as well.





Melanie, Rachel, and i went foraging with Colin. we found nice mushrooms and this nice opossum that a lady was trying to release. she had caught it in her garage.



then, since the weather had been awesome all week and oklahoma, we got an awesome ice storm that messed everything up. the best thing to do in a huge ice storm is to go for a walk in a forest, so my family did that. Nick and Erika were so so happy.

elsewhere

in the second half of october and first half of november, i did some things that weren't in colorado. one of those things was driving to oklahoma for Colin and Lindsay's wedding. while i was there, i hung out with Melanie and Rachel and Rachel's friend Nick in norman. Nick climbed a tree at the george m. sutton wilderness park.



Colin and Lindsay somehow found time to hang out with me and Melanie for three or four hours the night before their wedding. that was crazy and unexpected and awesome. we went to a fancy bar and drank fancy drinks and apparently thought fancy thoughts, if this shot of Colin has anything to say on the matter.



a few weeks later, Melanie and i went to moab with several friends to run the moab trail marathon. my training had been drastically curtailed by migraines, so i didn't have high hopes, but i ended up feeling really great, which was really great. the next day, we did a little bit of creaky hiking in arches national park.







midday light is always a little bit tough for taking landscape photos, but there were enough strange surfaces and directions happening that i felt like i still had some opportunities to take pleasantly lit photos.

we spent some time in some cabins

at the end of october, i went on a retreat hosted by my university's chapter of graduate christian fellowship. things that were photographed included some hiking, some worship, and some party setup. party setup may have gotten intense at times.