Patriotic Christmas

We took a break this afternoon and drove up to the historic mining town of Georgetown. Every since I first lived in Georgetown, it has been "touristy". Now I think it has fallen on hard times worse than in the past. Many of the "new" residents are selling their condos and homes and moving elsewhere. Even many of the regulars are selling out and leaving. They had hoped for a good Christmas season, but the construction of the new tunnels and interstate freeway has hurt their business badly. Few people want to come up from Denver, then endure a 2 hour construction delay on their way back to Denver (yes, we did endure the 2 hour delay today).

While it was sad to see, it was still a beautiful day with the temperature in the low 50s.

I did get a chance to meet and talk at length with Gary Haines, a landscape photographer who is fairly well known in the western U.S. HERE is a link to his website, if you are interested. He lives in Georgetown and has his office and studio there. He is best known for his very large photos that are seen in office buildings, etc. He showed me one photo that is 14 x 24 - that is feet, not inches. I was very impressed that the resolution was still very sharp and without a lot of noise. He gave us a tour of his studio and shop. He does his own processing, printing and mounting on-site. He takes most of his landscapes using a large format film camera. All the panos are stitched pixel by pixel (i.e. not using a software program to do it). But on some of his photos, particularly wildlife, he uses a Nikon D800E. He obviously can't enlarge those as much as the film shots. I was very thankful that he was willing and took the time to show me his art.

Have a great day tomorrow, and enjoy the Christmas season!