Thank you for all your visits and comments over the past 9 years. All things change, and so too for this site. Going forward, my images and the ability to obtain them, will be available through TonyLazzariPhotography.com and my Etsy site. As migration to the new site continues, some links here may no longer work. The images they contained may be found on the new site.
Best to all,
Tony Lazzari
Different events often force different approaches. This years Exploring The Light Show, by The Lone Tree Arts Center adapted well to the challenges brought by social distancing into a show environment. Online gallery access and digital booklet are available via the link above.
The show did go on, and from 400 some entries, 43 were selected for display and judging. Judge Erik Holladay-McCann walks you through the show and his judging process in this video.
The show categories were Architecture, Astrophotography, Landscape, Portrait, and Still Life. I entered the image Abbott Trails in Astrophotography and was please to have been selected for third place. It is available through my Etsy store. click for a larger view.
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A small group of volunteers had a first time opportunity this past week to shoot the night skies over the Fountain Valley formation @ Roxborough State Park. Here are the processed images from the nights event.
All images were shot with a SonyA7M2 and a Sigma 20mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art lens.
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Located near the town of Calhan, Co, St Mary’s Church and Cemetery provide a great foreground for the night skies.
See the latest additions to the Milky Way Gallery in the Night Images Album. I have been experimenting with stacked panoramas for noise reduction and clearer, sharper images.
The technique requires a “stack” of images – 9, 16, 25 – with the same settings right after one another. These are then software processed to align and eliminate random hot pixels and noise.
Multiple stacks are then done for each panel of the image. The resultant images from the stacks are then stitched for the panorama. Normal processing in LR or PS then follows.
Check them out. As always, prints of images are available for purchase. If you don’t see the one you want in my Etsy Store, contact me for details.
Images of Denver Colorado’s famous sunflower fields, located near DIA, are now posted in a gallery in the Floral album. Check them out! All images are available through my Etsy Store.
Other formats and media are also available, just ask and let’s see what we create to hang on your walls. Quantity purchases and licensing opportunities are also available.
A number of folks have expressed interest in shooting Zapata with lights! MLK Day is the best for several. I am flexible. The eclipse blood moon is Sunday night/Monday morning so…
Here’s what I am looking at for Zapata Falls and the Super Blood Moon Eclipse.:
ZAPATA FALLS Trip Advisor Webpage
GREAT SAND DUNES GSA Webpage
Alamosa Hotels Closest to Zapata
Eclipse Map and Times for 1/20-21/19 from Mosca, Colorado
https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2019-january-21
If you are interested in joining us for some or all of this time, drop me a note below and I will make sure to keep you all posted. Please include your cell #. I will not be adding you to any mailing list.
I took a drive down to Gulf Shores, Al and Santa Rosa Beach, FL to visit family and friends earlier this month. While the weather was not conducive to beach time, the opportunity to explore and capture a few images was.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me. Many of these images will be available on my Etsy Store. If you see something you like and it is not there, just drop me a note and I can get quick quote for you.
We had an opportunity this past week to have some private shooting time at the Dillon Ice Castles, Dillon Co. So glad we did as once the doors opened, there was no way to get a clean shot!
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me. Most images are available in my Etsy Store. If you don’t see one you want contact me and I’ll give you options.
A small collection of night images from various escapades in and around the Front Range of Colorado.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
Enjoying the Christmas light displays in and around Denver this season.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
Saturday night was another meetup with the Denver Nightcrawlers to experience and shoot the Crush experience in RiNo. The mission of Crush, as stated on their FB page is:
“CRUSH celebrates art, urban beautification, creativity, and culture by enriching the community through an arts festival like no other. Centered on empowering artists’ creativity, CRUSH is committed to reflecting and diversifying the urban landscape and the unique voice of the community.”
What amazes me is the scale and free form used by these artists for their murals. Take a look at some of what I saw that night.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
August has been a busy month at Tony Lazzari Photography with a few new opportunities to gain more exposure for my work. I wish to thank all those who’s encouragement and support have helped me gain a small presence in this field.
August 20, 2017 I have been accepted as a portfolio artist by the Roxborough Arts Council and have images and bin work available at the Roxborough Arts Gallery, 8357 N Rampart Range Rd #208b, Littleton, CO 80125
August 28, 2017 The ETSY Store is now open featuring a number of my favorite images available for purchase. All images are printed on high quality archival photo paper and are shipped direct to you from my printer for you to mat, frame, or display however you choose. This is a great way to great images at a great price. Check it out and tell your friends. If you see an image you want but in an alternate size or on a different medium, contact me and we will see what we can work out for you. Check back frequently as I will be increasing my inventory of images for you to choose from.
Check back soon as there is more to come regarding shows and exhibits in the greater Denver area!
August 21, 2017 A photography friend and I met at the Grayrocks Reservoir area, east of Wheatland, Wyoming to capture the solar eclipse. According to published info, this area would achieve totality – 100% coverage – for just under 1 minute. We actually found a relatively uncrowded area to set up our gear.
I had 2 cameras – my Sony A7M2 with the f4 24-70mm lens for the partial phases using stacked 10 & 16 ND filters . My Sony A77 had the unfiltered 70-300mm with a 2x teleconverter to capture totality. (And some weird halo effects post totality.) The results are shown below.
As the moon covered more of the sun (starting about image 8 below), the temperature began to drop and light started to dim. The coyotes and crickets started making themselves known about this time, too. As totality peaked it was like a deep greyish blue dusk. The bluffs were lit by a smaller version of the colorful cloud band seen the night before. And people cheered! It was an incredible experience and difficult to find the right words to describe the experience.
Have you heard of the crescent effect? The last image shows the shadow crescents that appear through the tree leaves during the event. I have seen images of colanders being used for the same effect. Makes for some interesting patterns!
We did not capture post totality in an effort to avoid the waves of traffic from Casper and Glendo State Park that we expected. Talking to folks who were in Glendo we heard stories of 4.5 hours just to get out of the park and then another 7-8 hours to return to Denver! We left around 12:30pm and were home by 4:30pm. Good timing.
Having arrived the night before to claim out viewing area, I took the opportunity to shoo the Milk Way a bit, with a timed exposure as well as a few standard shots.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me using the form below.
When an interest turns into a hobby, and a hobby turns into a passion, and a passion turns into a profession, one could get kind of introspective and reflective. That probably best describes my thoughts over the past week. Why? I was recently juried in as a gallery artist by, Roxborough Art Gallery, a non-profit coop in northwestern Douglas County, Co. While Ihave had pieces in shows in differtn galleries over the past several years, being a gallery/portfolio artist is new. And exciting.
Today I delivered and hung my first pieces. I also delivered additional pieces for out of building shows and displays. Bin work and cards will follow.
The gallery is located at 8361 N. Rampart Range Rd. Unit 208B, Roxborough, CO 80125 and is open Weds – Sunday, noon to 5:00pm. It’s above Waterton Tavern for those familiar with the retail center at the corner of Rampart Range and Waterton. Stop by and see the work of local painters, sculptors, jewelry makers, and photographers. You are sure to be able to find something you like!
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
A beautiful cover of John Lennon’s classic Imagine.
It’s mid-August and here in Colorado, that means sunflowers! The fields are full and in various stages of bloom. If you have the time, take a drive down some country roads out past Denver Airport and catch their endless beauty. Please do it responsible. The fields are privately owned and you are most likely trespassing if you enter them without permission of the owners. You can get great shots from the roadside.
August 4th was an expanded 1st Friday in Denver’s Sante Fe Art District. The street was closed and
lined with food trucks and entertainers. After checking in at The Gallery at Studio J and re-viewing our Cuba Exhibit (it is there thru the end of August), I wandered, camera in hand, looking for people and things of interest. What caught me tonight were the musicians and their instruments.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
Approximately 1/3 of the way up Mt Evans Road here in Colorado, there are several groves of Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine. I find them fascinating to study and just like we used to see animals and shapes in cloud patterns, one can visualize dynamics among these trees. Today, I saw dancing. Take a look at the gallery below and tell us what you see.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
I spent the better part of a day walking the Chicago Loop with a high school friend and fellow photographer seeing sites in the City from vantage points he had found over the years. For someone who lived in that area for 50 plus years, much of where we shot from was new to me. So, Thanks, Fred!
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
In addition to Chicago on this trip, stops were made in Minneapolis for a wedding and Lake Geneva to visit long time friends. Here are a few of my favorites from those stops.
There is so much to see here in Colorado, lots of which folks who have been here for years didn’t know existed. A great example is the Paint Mines Interpretive Park in Calhan, about 35 miles east of Colorado Springs. An open air wonder that you can explore at your leisure. Caution, there are no facilities at the site that we were able to find.
Then for a different twist, take the Old Stage Coach Rd into Gold Camp Road, west of Colorado Springs for a dirt road drive thru spectacular rock formations on to Cripple Creek, Co.
And in between the two, you can find Helen Hunt Falls. Take it in from the base or hike the stairs past the lower to find the upper sections.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
For the second year in a row, I took a ride down to Castle Rock, Co to photograph their fireworks display. Here are a few of the over 200 images I shot that night. As a general rule, camera settings are as follows: ISO 100, f5.6, 4 secs exposure, and I shoot continuous mode. Taking advantage of the Sony Play Memories app, I can dial in the settings, set the focus, and set the shutter slider to on. I can then sit back and enjoy the show.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
Since 2010, the Civic Center Conservancy and the City and County of Denver has hosted an Independence Eve celebration in Civic Center Park. It seems to get larger every year and crowds are estimated at over 100,000. The concert this year featured performances by Soul X (#soulxband) and the 101st Army Band of the Colorado National Guard. Governor Hickenlooper helped kick off the evening welcoming everyone.
The images below are phone shots from my Nexus5x with a bit of post in Lightroom CC. I put the big camera aside and enjoy the evening with family. My granddaughter throughly enjoyed the music and fireworks and stayed through the entire event. It’s such a pleasure to see the joy in a child’s eyes.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
A Saturday night walk about in Denver started on the campus of the University of Denver and then headed to the area around Civic Center Park. Stops at the Denver Art Museum and a couple of cathedrals made for some interesting images in the early evening light.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me using the form below.
Another fun night with the Denver Night Photo Walk Community, aka the Denver Nightcrawlers. We started out at Sloan’s Lake Park hoping for a nice sunset with the skyline in the distance and maybe a reflection or two. Then a little playing with glow-sticks and steel wool for interesting light effects. While the majority headed off to photograph the nearby neighborhood and a few libations, a couple of us headed north to try for some light trails into Denver. Oh, and throw in one from a rain out at Coors Field, Cubs in town!
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me via the form below.
For queries about copies or rights for specific images, please fill out this form:
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During Doors Open Denver 2017 vintage, I visited the new Alexander Calder exhibit at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Calder is known as one of the most influential American sculptors of the 20th century and a number of his works are on loan to the Gardens for this exhibit.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
Located in western Cuba, about 3 hours by taxi from Central Havana is the Viñales Valley. Lonely Planet probably described it best: “The Valle de Viñales is a stunning national park blessed by fertile rust-red soil, layered in chartreuse green expanses of tobacco plantations and studded by precipitous limestone buttresses of rock. It offers Cuba’s very best hiking, climbing, caving and vistas, based around the tranquil farming town of Viñales on the edge of the park. This is Cuba at its most alluring: no wonder it’s the country’s second most visited tourist destination after Havana.”
We arrived during carnival weekend (?) and our taxi couldn’t/wouldn’t try to make it to our accommodations. Fortunately it was less than a half mile after wending our way thru the rides and festival goers. Tip: A carnival is a carnival no matter where you are.
Our particular casa backed to a farm with gorgeous views of the mogotes (limestone cliffs) and thatched buildings.
La Habana Vieja is the city-center (downtown) and one of the 15 municipalities (or boroughs) forming Havana, Cuba. It has the second highest population density in the city and contains the core of the original city of Havana. The positions of the original Havana city walls are the modern boundaries of Old Havana. (Source: Wikipedia).
I spent about 5 days in this area with Soul Road Trips this past March. What a trip! We also spent some time in the Viñales Valley, but that will be a separate post. Nine photographers led by 2 experienced Cuban travelers with knowledge of the city and its people helped make for an interesting trip. Thanks Jeff and Gary!
This will be a evolving post as more processed images are added and story lines are fleshed out. Enjoy!
Images are best viewed by clicking through to a larger version that will also contain a short description & EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
Old Havana is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Test images getting familiar with the new lens and custom button settings on the Sony A7M2. Several of the images were shot with the A mount 50mm f1.4 Sony lens and others with the E mount FE 24-70 Z OSS.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
The deeper one gets into photography, the more one understands what goes into an image. The more you understand that, the more critical one may become about the gear they are using to capture that image. I have been that way for a while now. I last upgraded my camera body to a Sony A77 about 3 years ago and have learned to take what some thought were higher quality images. Several have hung in gallery shows in Denver, Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree and Manitou Springs . As I learned the camera and lens combos, I became more confident in my shooting ability. And that led me to this point where what I was using no longer let me capture the quality that I wanted, especially in night photography.
So I have taken the leap into New Gear Land where I hope to be able to improve the images I capture and process. Thanks for following this journey.
I made the move this week to a full frame, mirrorless camera! After much back and forth and reviewing the reviews, I opted for the Sony A7Mii. While it maxes at 24.3 mega pixels – same as the A77, it is full frame and mirrorless and offers higher ISO capabilities. I have rented the A7 in the past and have been pleased with how it handles night sky at higher ISO levels. The body also features a 5 axis stability system so less shake ruined images.
And if you need to update the firmware of the camera, as I did, here is a Bulletproof Guide to Sony Camera Firmware Updates from Brian Smith. If you are contemplating a purchase, consider using his affiliate links as a way to thank him for his analysis and guidance.
Of course it is a different lens mount – E vs A – and of course I will have to upgrade my glass also. (Who doesn’t love a new lens or two?) Bought the camera and LAEA3 mount adapter from B&H in NY – big sales tax savings. Of course the unexpected happens. Most of my A mount lenses operate only as manual focus on the new rig! That then bumped up the need/want/gotta have now for a lens to take advantage of the new body. Here is an analysis of why the LAEA3 rather that the newer AEA4 from photographer Brian Smith. Much of it ha to do with the Focus Points: 399 Phase Detection / 25 Contrast AF Points available in the 3.30 firmware update of the A7 line.
Down the road, I may also need a Sigma MC-11 Canon EF Lens to Sony E Camera Adapter to adapt Canon mount Sigma Art Lenses. If Sigma follows thru on their promise of native E-Mount lenses in the Art series, well WhooHoo! Yeah!
The Sony 24-70mm f/4 Vario-Tessar T* FE ZA OSS, Full Frame, E-Mount lens was ordered from Adorama. Should be here mid week which will give me time to play with it before heading to Havana, Cuba. Selection of this lens was based on recommendations and reviews from Lens Rentals and others. I like the mid-range reach, silent drive, and Zeiss optics. While it bottoms out at f4, the increased ISO capabilities of the A7Mii should give it plenty of capability in lower light environments.
For the interim, I will still be able to use, in manual mode, my Sony DT 16-105, Sony 70-300, and Rokinon 14mm f2.8. It looks like the image size is reduced to around 21-22 mb with these crop sensor lenses. My Sony 50mm f1.4 works in auto focus mode as well since it has its own drive motor.
The camera, as shipped, comes with a usb cable and wall plug for in camera recharging of the NWP-50 lithium ion battery. If you are going to need more that one battery per shoot, get additional batteries and a separate wall charger such as the BC-TRW-W. It’s available either on line or at your local big box store.
It was a cold February night/morning for our trek down to Eleven Mile Canyon State Park and Reservoir, but the location was ideal to capture the first Milky Way images of the season with a new moon night. We had enough time to capture images from both sides of the lake despite the galaxy not rising until 3:30 am.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
The Denver Photo Night Walk Community took to the streets this past Saturday in a loop around DAM to the Capitol, down Broadway and up the alley before Lincoln. Lots of new faces and more Sony shooters!
If you haven’t noticed, within a given post you may see multiple versions and or treatments of the same scene. In some cases, I am experimenting with different processing techniques. Others, the same image but at different times. As an example, the Carr building below was done with traffic passing during a long exposure and without the traffic.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
Went looking for a different sunrise view with a couple of other photogs this am, and zip. The ramp we were going to shoot from that overlooked Coors Field is apparently reversed for morning traffic. So we got a little Union Station, Coors Field entrance, a train or two.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
At the suggestion of a fellow photographer an friend, we spent a few twilight hours at Belmar Park in Lakewood, Colorado. The vintage buildings, signs, and birds gave ample opportunity to capture some interesting images. The night was to also feature the full Snow Moon with a partial eclipse. Unfortunately the eclipse was cloud covered but we did get some interesting moon shots thru the cloud cover.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
First night with a diverse bunch of photographers shooting a wide variety of equipment. One had an old Minolta 101T shooting 35mm film. How cool is that! We met outside the Mayan Theater on Broadway in Denver and wandered south, shooting whatever struck our fancy. Ended up shooting with a new friend, Patricia and all in all, it was a great night. Being new to street photography, I’m still figuring out how I like the feel of the processed image, so you will see multiples of the same image, treated differently.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
First Light on the red rocks here at Arrowhead Golf Course in Roxborough Park, Co can be an enchanting view. This misty morning with the frosted vegetation was almost ethereal.
This image is available for purchase thru Fine Art America. I have a 20×10 metal print on order!
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
It was a beautiful day for hike through this gem of a State Park. I opted for one of the more moderate trails just for a change of scenery. With a Colorado blue sky and wispy white clouds, the day was perfect.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
This site is intended to be a repository for images I shoot as I wander through Colorado and the world. The work shown here will be mine. Any images from others that I want to share with you will be done with full permission of the original photographer or copyright holder.
Overtime, galleries will be added for better organization and cataloging. Other tweaking will occur as it strikes my fancy. Comments on images or techniques are appreciated and encouraged. Unauthorized copying or stealing of images is not. If you feel inclined to share an image, please do so by copying and pasting the link to the post or gallery.
