Teller County Leaf Peepers

 

Aspen Gold Rush: Colorado Quakies showing great color recently

Rob Carrigan,  robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Local leaf peepers experienced some of the best shows — so far to date— this past week in Teller County, but it is still possible, the best is yet to come.
Color changes in Colorado’s Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) start first in the higher altitudes of subalpine zones, between 9,000 and 11,000 feet, usually in early September, and drop progressively to 8,000 to 9,500 feet in three to four weeks.
Variations in temperature, moisture and light cause the chemical changes to begin. Diminished light and fall temperatures trigger the breakdown of chlorophyll.
As green colors fade, yellow, orange and red pigments — carotenoids and xanthophylls — are left and become more obvious.
Cool, dry weather promotes the longest and best color show and wet weather, especially snow, usually shortens the viewing period.

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Pikes Peak area 'colour' on the Palmer Divide

 

Showing 'colour' in Fox Run Regional Park

"The phrase and the day and the scene harmonized in a chord. Words. Was it their colours? He allowed them to glow and fade, hue after hue: sunrise gold, the russet and green of apple orchards, azure of waves, the greyfringed fleece of clouds. No it was not their colours: it was the poise and balance of the period itself. Did he then love the rhythmic rise and fall of words better than their associations of legend and colour? Or was it that, being as weak of sight as he was shy of mind, he drew less pleasure from the reflection of the glowing sensible world through the prism of a language many coloured and richly storied than from the contemplation of an inner world of individual emotions mirrored perfectly in a lucid supple periodic prose?”
― James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

2018 Rocky Mountain National Park and nearby

 

Color fall: A summary

Fast-moving color in the Estes Park area in the fall of 2018

Nothing lasts forever, including fall colors. Still moving down valley with the freeze, there is still time. But very little. Winter's coming. At some point, the candle will go out, so make use of the light.

Photos by Rob Carrigan

2016 show of force

lo·cal col·or

noun

noun: local colour; noun: local color; plural noun: local colours

1. 1.

   the customs, manner of speech, dress, or other typical features of a place or period that contribute to its particular character.

   "reporters in search of local color and gossip"
2. 2.

   Art

   the natural color of a thing in ordinary daylight, uninfluenced by the proximity of other colors.

     

    

   dath áitiúil in Irish

    

   okalna boja in Croatian

    

   cor local in Portuguese 

    

    

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

    

Two Million Pageviews ... And beyond

Last Night We HIT 

Our Current 

Local Motive Milestone

  

Colorado Restless Native

Two Million Pageviews 

Thousands per day!

Hundreds right now!  

Now, on to Three Million and more

Memories that make me a wealthy soul

 

Up with the sun, gone with the wind
She always said I was lazy
Leavin' my home, leavin' my friends
Runnin' when things get too crazy 

             __ Bob Seagar , "Traveling Man"

It started out interesting,

and progressed from there

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail,com

Truth is, I have spent most of my entire life trying to call attention to things  found, that are personally interesting to me. Though I have fought the notion at times, it is a conclusion in this late state of the game, that this cat was lucky to have grown up in Dolores, Colorado. It was bushels of "interesting," and still is.

Time moved slower there. 

Slower pace, but also, with the benefits of positive energy.

The thing is, I can look at photos taken in 1945,  and still recognize the same advantage elements of my experience there. Posted a photo today, of a nice-looking caboose,  a few hundred feet from my boyhood home on 7th Street. A person can see Bud's Auto, (later other businesses) and the "hill-side "of town, in the background.  

Partial to good-looking cabooses, as I am, it is still recognizable as the distinctive, one-of-kind,  never to be duplicated elements of history for Dolores folk, shared only with those from the 'river city' of my youth. 

 And most of us weren't even born in 1945.

James Biard, Charles Berry, Keith Moore, Shiela Roseberry, Brent Hamilton, Wanda Maras, Kendall Hall Allen, Ellis Miller, Nick Randall, Lenetta Shull, Lenore Goode, Dorothy Delatorre, Gail Bash Butler, Bill Butler, and thousands more ... know precisely what we are talking about.

 Sometimes at night I see their faces
I feel the traces they've left on my soul
Those are the memories that make me a wealthy soul

 Photo Information:

Rio Grande Southern narrow gauge caboose number 0401

Creator: Richardson, Robert W.

Date:1945: Three-quarter view, with flatcar and two boxcars. 

Photographed: Dolores, Colorado, October 10, 1945.

 

Pound out photos on the new frontier

Creator: Collier, Joseph Date1860-1875: Photographer Joseph Collier poses for a self-portrait, possibly in Scotland or Colorado. He stands next to a podium and wears a formal Scottish kilt, jacket, hat, kilt socks, beret, sporran, full beard, and moustache.

 Not all that far from smith to photographer

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

 Perhaps it it was not that long of a way from blacksmith — to pioneer master photographer — 100 years ago, in the style of the great Scott, and later Denver, and Central City resident Joseph Collier.

Becoming a blacksmith mostly takes a lot of practice of the basics of smithing. Today most users on Reddit, agree that starting out requires minimal equipment, and you can even improvise an anvil from a piece of railroad track or a forklift tine if needed. 

What else you do need to know?

 Core Forging Techniques

Drawing out: Hammering metal to make it longer and thinner.
Upsetting: Hammering the end of heated metal to make it thicker and shorter.
Bending and twisting: Shaping hot stock over the anvil horn or using tongs to create curves and twists.
Punching and slitting: Piercing holes or splitting hot metal without drilling.
Forge welding:
Heating separate pieces of metal until they bond together under hammer blows.
 

Knowledge and Soft Skills: 

 

Metallurgy: Understanding how different types of metal (like iron and steel) behave at various temperatures and how to heat-treat or quench them.

Fire management: Controlling and maintaining the precise temperature of the forge.

Physical stamina: Enduring intense heat and heavy, repetitive physical labor.

Precision and timing: Working quickly while the metal is at the correct temperature—knowing when to "strike while the iron is hot" 

 Truth is, Pioneer Photography was not that different than Blacksmithing. 

Nathan Fernando-Frescas, in a March 13, 2017 article, for Colorado Public Radio noted that Joseph Collier started out as a blacksmith, but found in mid-life and  relocation to the United States of America, agreed with him.

"Joseph Collier took up photography in Scotland, though it wasn’t until his move to Colorado that his fame took off. He lived in Central City and was well known at the time. In 1873, he presented stereographic images of Colorado to the wife of President Ulysses S. Grant and First Lady of the United States, Julia Grant. 

Newspapers of the day called his work "some of the finest specimens of stereoscopic views" ever seen. 

"Joseph Collier was one of the early Great American Photographers and he started off his career running a photography business in North Street, Fraserburgh (Scotland) in 1860.

 

"Joseph Collier was born in New Deer (Scotland) in 1826 and as a young man he was working as a blacksmith when he injured his back and had to take time off. During his recuperation he read some books on photography, became hooked and totally absorbed by the subject and made a life changing decision, he wasn’t going back to the smithy - because he was going to be a photographer!"

 

He started off in premises in North Street in Fraserburgh in 1860, when the Broch already had two very good photographic businesses ran by Alexander Gray and James Shivas.

 

"Joseph’s talent showed through and he did a roaring trade for a few years before moving to larger premises in Peterhead. He still made arrangements to come to the Broch on special occasions and worked along with John Trail, who gave him space to use as a studio, and would display his photographs in the shop window."

"After a few years in Peterhead he moved to larger premises in Inverness and then in 1871 he made the life changing decision to move his family and career to America. His friends in Inverness gave him a rifle as a going away present," writes Billy Watson  in 2026.

 

"Joseph arrived in Central City, Colorado, and at the invitation of his cousin, D. C. Collier, the owner of the Daily Central City Register he initially established his first photography studio in the back room of his cousin's newspaper office. "

 

"He had only been there a few weeks when he made his first photographic trip to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado with his huge cumbersome wet plate camera and camp wagon and began documenting the Great American Landscape, one of the first photographic pioneers to do so, and certainly the first in Colorado," writes Watson.

 

"Joseph’s work soon became highly regarded for capturing the rugged landscapes and pioneer life of Colorado during a period of rapid westward expansion." 

 

His lens took a candid look at 19th-century life, capturing images of mining operations, ranches, hunting parties, and social gatherings.

In 1873, he presented stereographic images of Colorado to the wife of President Ulysses S. Grant and First Lady of the United States, Julia Grant. Newspapers of the day called his work "some of the finest specimens of stereoscopic views" ever seen.

 

He settled in Denver where he became known for his technical skill, managing his own studio and training others, like his long-time assistant Amelia Norder who became a famous photographer in her own right.

 

Collier’s photographs are an important historical record of Colorado's development. Many of his works, including albumen silver prints, are held in prestigious collections such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Getty Museum, and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. 

 

"Joseph Collier died at the age of 75 on the 23rd of December 1911, in Denver Colorado - a Great American Photographer, the ex-Broch blacksmith had came a long way since first changing his career and opening a studio in North Street in Fraserburgh in 1860," says Watson.

 

Thing of the past ... Joseph Collier, Creator:Collier, Joseph: Date1890-1910:

Photographer Joseph Collier poses for a self-portrait, probably in his studio on Larimer Street in downtown Denver, Colorado. He sits on a low stool and has a camera tripod leaning against his right leg. An equipment case is behind his left leg in the right background. Collier has a thick, gray beard and wears a tweed cap and suit. He holds a pair of spectacles in his left hand and a satchel hangs from his right shoulder. The panel behind him is painted with flowers.