Disguises

Disguises is a great costume shop on Colfax at Kipling and is worth the drive out to Lakewood. I interviewed the owner of the store and followed her to go to Mt. St Vincent's Home for Children in Denver when she donated $5000 worth of costumes to the kids. We only got to meet three of little boys who were excited to model their new Spiderman costumes for us. I couldn't take any pictures of the kids before they got their costumes on, but after they donned their new prizes, the game was on. They were so happy with such a simple gift.

Disguises is kind of a gimme shoot because of all the visual overload. Body parts, wigs, costumes, jewelry, hats, make-up and everything someone could possible need for that costume genre. The employees are super-nice and will help you make choices while the canned spooky music will serenade you into the mood for spook.

Seamstresses will custom make costumes and their creative license is pretty wild. The resident black cats remain cloistered in the sewing room until after the Halloween hullabaloo is over. Make-up artists will help patrons learn how to apply make-up, scars and scabs, prosthesis, eyelashes with butterflies on them and all sorts of special effects.

The wig-wall is one of the coolest things ever.

If you want to take a walk on the wild side of your dark side, go to Disguises. Now.

Step

This was a gimme at Ranchos de Taos. I like the mood it has. It definitely looks better at 6x9 and 300 dpi.

St Francisco of Assisi at Ranchos de Taos

Thank goodness Dana and Gabe are game for pre-dawn trips to photograph stuff in the morning light. This is the church at Ranchos de Taos that has been made famous by such people as Paul Strand and Georgia O'Keefe. We didn't make it any more famous, but we'll remember it as the place that Dana fell over a tombstone.

Outside Shower Door

That's where a shower door belongs; outside. This was part of a large installation of random art that Dana and I came across during our time in Taos. We were on the High Road to Taos, and we came across this eclectic range of installation work. We pounded on the door trying to get the artist's attention and we almost gave up, but he finally came down to meet with us. It was a tough interview, and I was glad when it was over. We couldn't get him to move past the end of the house, so no great shots of him with the artwork. I did this, and if I was smart I would have put Dana on the other side of the shower door for a cool effect.

Como-After Sunrise

Years ago, Como was a destination for my parents and their friends who owned one of the few cabins on "main street." The ride up there was terrifying when my parent's friend Wes would drive, because he had a habit of sitting all the way forward in the driver's seat, holding the steering wheel to his chest, his face inches from the windshield. I remember crying once because my parents threw me under the bus and made me ride in the front seat with Wes, and I saw only a blur of passed cars and fuzzy scenery through my tears.

My parents and their friends are all long gone, and the cabin we stayed at has fallen into disrepair even for Como standards. Still, there is a pull for this little hamlet, even though some of the people are a little unfriendly and others are downright weird.

At one point, Jason, Drew, Gabe and I were referred to as "dirty hippies" when we stopped to photograph cows being loaded for their one-way trip to the slaughterhouse. Terror echoes in their wild eyes, and despite the fact that I eat meat and was raised around farms, it was a little haunting to have lunch looking at me. Later, at the restaurant, I ordered chicken.

Speaking of food, the little restaurant in town serves up good food, and I was surprised to see a big crowd waiting to get in.
We had arrived early with our party of 7 and had taken up a lot of the space in the tiny one room dining area that's heated by an ancient stove in the middle of the room. Tall windows let in the light and the view of the nearby mountains, and the pictures on the wall show Como when wooden signs hung straight.

Como Sunrise

Como is an old railroad town settled in the valley at South Park. The past two Fridays Jason Small, Drew Jaynes and I have been making the trek up there to make images of the sunrises and the surrounding area. Getting up to Como for sunrise means leaving Denver at o' dark thirty which in my world is around 4 am. Man, has it been cold up there. Last Friday we sat up on the ridge to the north of Como and it wasn't too too cold out, but yesterday it was freezing with a knife-like breeze. True to form, we retreated down to the road just past the cemetery and waited.

A lot of factors go into shooting sunrises. What a great classroom, standing in the cold wind with poor light, good friends and good equipment. My images weren't spectacular, but I opened up to using different apertures and seeing results right then and there. The biggest lesson was what you can do at f22. The second biggest was that my eyes don't work well that early in the morning. The third was don't give breakfast burritos with green chili to Jason and Drew.