Category Archives: Architecture

A garden and a ghostly mine

Posted by JEANNE RAMSAY on

I love driving around in Colorado!  This weekend was no exception.  After lunch on Saturday in Castle Rock, it was on to Garden of the Gods, an amazing geological park just outside Colorado Springs.  I would love to explain to you all the different rock formations and how they came to be, but I’m no geologist.  In fact, some who know me might even say I don’t know schists from Shinola!   But what I do know is how to point a camera at pretty rocks!

Garden of the Gods

 

Cathedral Spires

 

Garden of the Gods in black and white

 

Sunset buck

 

Today I happened upon an abandoned mine above Central City…the Coeur d’Alene mine.  When I left Denver, the weather was sunny and mild.  As I drove higher up into the mountains, the clouds started to flex their muscles and show off by spitting snowballs…little tiny ones. It got cold and windy, the sky turned a grayish white – not optimal photography conditions.  But the mine was striking in its imposing, rusty splendor.  I was drawn to quiet deserted corners.  I apprehensively peered into doorways and tried to jump up to see in windows.  I imagined the power of the now forgotten machinery as it may have once been: roaring and belching the smoke of productivity.  I watched, waited, listened…for the stories.  I heard them.

Tractor and shed

 

Wheat and bolts

 

Danger window

Rusty shingles

Rusty National

Rusty buckets

Rusty bolts

Nails in the wall

Big Bolt

Coeur d'Alene Mine

 

 

 

Cadet Chapel

Posted by JEANNE RAMSAY on

Setting out on a drive yesterday with no particular destination in mind, I found myself at the United States Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel in Colorado Springs.  I have lived in Colorado for 30 years, and yesterday – a very gray day – was the day I chose to get off the interstate and pay a visit.  I can’t believe I waited this long.

Here are a few facts for those of you who may not be familiar with this incredible building:

The building was designed by Walter A. Netsch, Jr. of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (think John Hancock Center, the Sears Tower and Republic Plaza for those of you in Denver).  The contractor, Robert E. McKee, Inc. of Santa Fe, New Mexico, began construction in 1959 and finished in the summer of 1963.  The 17-spire building is made of aluminum, glass and steel.  Tetrahedrons form the geometry of the ceiling of the 99-feet high Protestant Chapel (the Catholic, Jewish and Buddhist chapels are one story below).

The main Protestant Chapel seats 1,200. The altar is made of sleek marble with travertine marble legs.  The most striking element of the chancel is the aluminum cross – 46 feet high, 12 feet wide and weighing 1,200 pounds.

The organ in the chapel, pictured taking up most of the window below, is one of the most magnificent pieces in the country.  The pipes range in size from 32 feet high to the size of a pencil.

The focal point of the Catholic Chapel is the beautiful mosaic on the wall behind the altar.  Superimposed on the mural are the Blessed Virgin Mary (pictured below) and Archangel Gabriel.  The side walls of the chapel are amber glass with multi-colored cast glass strip windows.  The 14 Stations of the Cross are made of 4-inch thick marble slabs.

If you haven’t already visited the Cadet Chapel, you should.  Bring your camera.

Perspective allure

Posted by JEANNE RAMSAY on

Glamorous moments are found in the most unexpected places:  wandering past an often ignored bush along a sidewalk, peering into a dried up field of weeds, or catching the long, low rays of sunlight at day’s end.

Enhance your view of the world by looking at it from a fresh perspective.  Underneath, sideways, crooked or askew.  Above, below, or cross-eyed.  Darkened, lightened, softened, or hardened.

The allure is often left in the dark and unexplained.

Images of a walk in the park and a stroll under a bridge (Red Cliff, Colorado).

Focus on nature

Posted by JEANNE RAMSAY on

The Denver Botanic Gardens is a local destination.  It’s almost in my front yard.  I’ve visited before.  But not like today.

Today I tried to focus on something different.  Focus itself.

Focused attention?  No.  I was totally paying attention.  I was in the moment, to be sure.

I was trying to focus my camera on nature…all at once:  photographic composition, proper exposure and technical execution, exquisite light quality, artistic expression, contrast of color, texture, and emotion, etc.

Well, that’s nuts.

Nature doesn’t work that way.  Nature happens in moments.  Sometimes the moments happen in color, or not.  Sometimes nature’s moments are a contrast in light or texture.   Sometimes nature is not at all artstic.  At other times, nature’s moments are elusive or ambiguous.  And sometimes, the best of nature’s moments are unfocused.

Stop squinting.  

The fantasy of Las Vegas is fascinating

Posted by JEANNE RAMSAY on

Bedazzled in sequins and dripping in diamonds, the glitz and glamour of trendy clubs and flickering neon signs is dizzying. Costumed or perfumed, strutting or staggering, throngs of people on the streets are submerged in a sea of enticements. The Strip’s flirtatious, beguiling, eye-popping extravaganza of escapism is where the wildest of dreams can come true…more accurately, be purchased.

As alluring as that may be for some, what I found in Las Vegas was something different, a bit calmer, something perhaps less obvious. For me, the fantasy of Las Vegas revealed itself in the architectural details of caricature buildings. A ghostly shadow, a shimmering reflection, a tortured angle, or a unique perspective; all a sublime illusion.