Ft. Collins weekend for Valentine's

Over the Valentine's Day weekend, Amanda and I took a trip up to Ft. Collins, CO. We walked around town, checked out shops and food and coffee, took the New Belgium brewery tour, hung out at Funkwerks Brewing, and generally had a great weekend. We stayed at The Armstrong Hotel, which is right downtown and has beautiful rooms, great service, and an all-around polished feel.

I've been feeling a bit uninspired lately when it comes to taking "street" photographs. It's a slow season for weddings and events and somehow shooting around town hasn't been doing it for me lately. Sometimes when I'm in a shooting rut, I'll walk around looking for images without taking my camera. It's a good way to work on opening my eyes more without the self-imposed pressure of actually capturing anything, and it gets me out and about which is always nice. This time around I thought I'd take my camera along somewhere new and kind of force myself to look for images while we were out and about.

I guess it's a different approach to solving the same problem, but on this trip I tried to take pictures if I even kind of thought I saw something I liked. I think a few of them really came out well! Mostly landscape or still life type of stuff, with a few of Amanda thrown in there for good measure.

To start, I captured this little still life in a vacant shop window. It made me think of some images I have seen from Stephen Shore or Fred Herzog, and I'm really happy with how it came out. Such an odd and nicely laid out setting in an otherwise vacant building, and the lighting cooperated perfectly.

The hotel we stayed at had a resident cat named Oreo who was pretty darn chill. She is turning 13 years old and was kind enough to pose for a couple of photos on the couch in the lobby. She probably posed there for several hours...

We walked from downtown to New Belgium for the brewery tour. It's only about a mile from town, and despite the snow it wasn't very cold. I'm a fan of the aesthetic of urban industrialization in landscape photographs, both by itself and as a juxtaposition to nature. The walk afforded a few good places to view the things we make when enough of us worry about making money.

The last few photographs are from the New Belgium brewery tour and our lateish dinner afterwards. I failed to take any pictures at Funkwerks, which is a shame, but if you're in Ft. Collins you should definitely check them out.

Their operation is slightly larger than the little bit of brewing I've done at home...

Who doesn't like an end-of-tour slide?

If you like what you see here, please leave a comment and check me out at the links at the bottom of the page. Check out my street gallery for more images broadly in this category, and let me know if you would like to purchase a print of something you don't see there. If you would like to talk to me about shooting your wedding or event, please contact me. Cheers!

Tags: #fortcollins #colorado #coloradophotographer #coloradospringsphotographer #justgoshoot #alifewelltraveled #exploretocreate #explore #street #urban #landscape #thearmstronghotel #newbelgium #funkwerks #keepfortcollinsfunky