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Let us journey into Rocky Mountain National Park in the Spring. I will refer to Rocky Mountain National Park as RMNP for the remainder of this article. RMNP in the Spring isn’t like Panama City Beach in the Spring. In fact; RMNP and the Rockies in general get most of their snow in the Spring. This is awesome for Colorado because tourism is higher during ski seasons. But for the common adventurous photographer; much like myself it is rather cumbersome.

Personally, the weather that the Rockies produce is spectacular and scary. In the matter of minutes the climate can change into a whirlwind of blizzards, rain, and fog. Which is exactly what had happened during our hike to Dream Lake. We never made it to Dream Lake. I believe we were close, but my wife had a breakdown due to her fear of heights so we quit and headed back to the car. It really wasn’t that big of deal. Her fear or heights coupled with feet upon feet of snow and oncoming snow that came out of nowhere wouldn’t make anyone feel comfortable. Unless you are one of the three; European as fuck, Crazy, or a child. Everyone was walking in snow shoes, except for us. Ness was wearing snowboard boots and I had on a pair of Nikes. But, I’m crazy.

Here’s a view of what we had seen when we decided to stop and head back.

After a really tight walk and about 5 minutes of walking we made it to an area that had stopped snowing. Ness was able to catch her breathe and I was able to shoot away. This was a nice little cliff that over-looked one of the frozen lakes. As you can see the snow storm was approaching from the West. This hike definitely requires strength and snow shoes. People from the Midwest should be cautious hiking in higher altitudes. That’s what I’m saying.

Overall; this park requires a lot of hiking. I’m a fan of wandering, but Ness is a bit skeptical about it. I can’t blame her. I suggest bringing lots of water and crackers. I think eating every once in awhile would help re-energize your body. The park is mostly closed in the Spring. It’s only open up until a certain point. At that point the snow can be up to 16 feet. The ranger said you can venture past the gate, but to be careful. Also, there is plenty of wildlife to be seen in the park. Keep your distance. This is their home. If you have a camera phone or a point and shoot camera that doesn’t zoom very far than too bad. I saw one lady get out of her car and walk as close as she could to get a few pictures. I wanted to scream at her and tell her she was an idiot, but you can’t do that in America anymore.

Ugh. Here we go.

The big news in photography is from yesterday. Flickr done up and changed it’s layout to something more modern and sophisticated like it should have done years ago. Flickr, for those of you who aren’t aware, is a site dedicated to photographers that want to freely upload images for no reason. We all have our opinions. I use it as a means for corporations and businesses to find images of mine quickly. Flickr is one of the nicer sites in terms of searching; however irrelevant the search comes up usually.

Flickr was scrutinized by everyone years ago when they dropped the ball and didn’t update their site to something more slick and creative. They were hammered by the photography press and users alike. I heard things like Google Plus and Facebook are taking over! True. But to me, Flickr will always be home. It’s where I started. Although I am currently tripping over my own two fingers trying to navigate through the new design I’m sure it will eventually come around. I see a lot of old timers getting angry about it and voicing their opinions. That’s cool. Most people don’t like change. They say they do, but that’s just the cliche way of saying I’m fashion forward while still wearing a fedora.

No one of any importance uses Google Plus. That is my sole belief. Other photographers browse through it, but outside of that I don’t have one friend that doesn’t shoot on it that uses it regularly. That’s a shame. However; I do know a ton of people who use flickr to search for images and research upcoming trips and vacations. It’s a user friendly site to even those who don’t use it like photographers and other artists do.

All I’m saying is give it some time. People complained about the new facebook layouts. People complained about the Industrial Revolution because they didn’t understand it. I think Confucius once said, “Don’t shit without toilet paper because you don’t want to use your hands.” It was either him or Gandhi.

For those of you who don’t regular flickr on the daily or even monthly check out my page and see the new flickr layout. It’s actually pretty dope if you ask me. Check here: BK|Photograffi Flickr.

Took a ride down to Cincinnati this weekend for a night out with my wife. It’s a four and half hour trip from the suburbs of Chicago. The drive is really easy, and also really boring. I had a spot in mind once I arrived in Cincinnati that I really wanted to shoot. In Covington, Kentucky; just over the Ohio River lies a great vantage point of the skyline of Cincinnati. One of the bridges that connect Covington, KY and Cincinnati, OH is called the Roebling Bridge.

The actual name of the bridge is the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge. It was completed in 1865, I believe. That’s what the date on the bridge had read, but I believe it was first used in 1866. It formally opened in 1867, the driver of a horse and buggy were charged a toll of 15 cents to cross. Pedestrians were charged a penny. Over 166,000 people walked across the bridge in the first two days! And 2 people died during construction! That’s crazy. In December of 1866 it was the longest suspension bridge in the world at 1,057 feet main span. It remained the longest from 1867 to 1883 when the Brooklyn Bridge took over for the next 20 years. Roebling is currently the 119th longest suspension bridge in the world.

What I really enjoyed about this bridge is the how well kept it seemed to be after all these years. The entire city of Cincinnati and Covington were designed fairly well in terms of location and ease of parking from what I could tell. Both the ball parks are across from each other within walking distance. Not too shabby of a design job.

I have a decent amount of images from this bridge that you will be seeing over the next year or so. I got really lucky with great lighting the entire night. I can’t wait for my next trip East.

Ah. The weather has risen like the Dark Knight. This is from Butterfly Beach in Santa Barbara, California. I used all the wrong lenses at this spot. I had to crop this to a 1×1. It felt instagramish, but it works better than the original. My wife told me that a lot of celebrities go to this beach, but I’m not sure that’s entirely true because it was really small. The water looks smooth due to a long exposure and a 10 stop Neutral Density filter.

Must get to the Fountain soon. Without Fog. This was last June-ish?

16×9 crop for that ooh wee, son. Get it.

Hashtag Chicago.