And the Western Hardware Building, built in 1881, and in the distance, the snow — in August — on the mountains:
I love the charming modesty of the Chamber of Commerce:
Next to the Chamber of Commerce, is "The Old Church" — which is what people in Leadville call their Presbyterian Church:
We're mesmerized by the marijuana dispensary, Nature's Spirit (and that's the Grand Hotel in the background):
"We ♥ Leadville"...
... we really do!
Posts
108 comments:
So that's why the sparse postings. You guys get around.
PS Bat Masterson had a shootout there, I think. A spat between his brother, Jim, and a couple of rival saloon owners.
How times have changed.
A much younger and rougher Leadville was featured in one of the best novels of all time, Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose. No marijuana dispensary referenced in that telling that I remember.
Added triviality: Stegner was also UW Professor for part of his career.
The elevation at Leadville is 10,000 feet.
Nobody loves living there. They just have an oxygen brain deficiency that makes them hallucinate that they love it.
So when building their houses they ran short of breath and stopped small.
The first thing I noticed when I moved to Colorado last year was the number of marijuana dispensaries. They're everywhere! After someone points out what the little green crosses mean, you notice them. Everywhere! I read a story that there are more marijuana dispensaries than Starbucks in Denver. And it's amusing to read the names: Rocky Mountain High Healthcare, Greener Pastures Healthcare, etc. The proprietors know MMJ was an absurd pretense to legalizing pot and they're happy to get in on the joke. Which, of course, was the argument conservatives made about dispensaries, which were in turn shrugged off as slippery-slope alarmism.
I heart Leadville, too. You guys should have hit up one of the mining-turned-gambling towns. They're quaint and a lot of fun.
A little Flying Burrito Brothers for you:
Colorado
Personally, I love the version of the song on the 1972 Stephen Stills Manassas album. If you've never heard that album, it's GREAT and I highly recommend it.
Is the bell tower in the church leaning like leaning tower in Pisa? May be lack of oxygen..
@Meadhouse:
Just south of Leadville off Route 24 are the remains of the Alpine Railroad Tunnel. It's a gentle grade hike to get there (along the old railbed), though I haven't been there in over a decade. The tunnel is collapsed on both sides now but there's a cool old ghost town up there.
Just a friendly recommendation. I just figure you two could a few birds with one stone: RR tunnels, hiking, Colorado, photography.
leadville is an interesting place all right, but i have no interest in living at over 10,000 ft.
it is cold during the winter, as in -40 degrees cold. not every morning of course, but far too often for me at (almost) 59. i'll pass, thanks.
The modesty of the chamber of commerce is (unfortunately) matched by the modesty of the commerce. It's not an easy life.
The govt. is regulating cannabis out of business in Colorado and to a lesser extent in California. The liquor, police, prison, probation industry are powerful lobbies, but the people will prevail.
We drove through here, last summer, on our way from Durango to RMNP. I'd love to make an extended visit, but not live there - I preferred Gunnison. It's my understanding that Leadville's a great biking town - I believe there was a race in the area the day we were there...
@edutcher "So that's why the sparse postings. You guys get around."
Whoops. I got the date totally off! We were there August 4th. It says August 19th because of the photo processing date. I can't believe I got that wrong, considering how few days ago that would have been.
Sparse posting... if you really think that's what you're seeing... is attributable to another writing project and long bike rides.
Doc Holliday lived there and Oscar WIlde toured the mines.
You should swing by Glenwood Springs, where Doc is buried!
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one...
Leadville? Is that the cousin to Mudville? Cheery.
Leadville? Ann couldn't have picked the destination. Must have been Meade. He strikes me as the more introverted type.
Pogo picked the theme song from Weeds, was that serendipitous?
Discover color balance!
We're mesmerized by the marijuana dispensary,...
Well, that explains some of your posts recently.
Beyond and behind
The colored boxes
Wisdom resides
Collected
Over time
Years of learning
Listening
Looking
Touching
Remaining Present
Sharing of self
To hear, heal
And be real
Thank you Pogo
Ain't that America...
Little pink houses for you and me.
My aunt Patsy lived there for a couple of decades. We visited, and it really is quite charming! Have a happy vaca.
Trey
Hopefully you continued on to Twin Lakes and then took Independence Pass into Aspen. One of the great drives in America.
Peano said...
Discover color balance!
--------------------
I saw this kind of 'photoshop' in a photography magazine last evening. But when you alter it, are you losing a bit of reality? Which picture is closer to what you see in real life?
Locals just call it Pb'ville.
(he says with aplomb)
Great town. Some fantastic little cafes and hole-in-the wall restaurants. Used to stop there quite often on the way to and back from fishing or camping trips.
And people are overstating the oxygen thing. You get used to it quite quickly.
>>I saw this kind of 'photoshop' in a photography magazine last evening. But when you alter it, are you losing a bit of reality? Which picture is closer to what you see in real life?<<
Do you really think all those building are leaning in real life? No, its severe lens distortion. If Ann were to correct the distortion she isn't altering reality just like Peano didn't alter reality by color balancing and improving the under-exposure in the original photo.
Leadville.
Dutch Angle Capitol of America.
"We deal in Leadville."
You MUST go to High Mountain Pies while you are there.
Small houses/buildings, in their day they were large. It was not until the 80's that homes began to stretch beyond 2000 sq ft. The home you live in toady would be considered a mansion back then. Also supplies were brought in by wagon trains with mules. The railroad did not show up until the 1880's. So getting supplies up the mountain was a task the average tourist misses. Look at the old parts of towns, the average home size was between 600-800 sq ft.
It is hard for some today to grasp that people live in those "little houses."
Got a chuckle out of this, thanks.
Do you really think all those building are leaning in real life? No, its severe lens distortion
Actually, yes. The buildings are on a slight angle relative to the street but the street is actually on an angle of about five degrees. AA lined up her shot with the street as the horizon. The better composition would be to align the camera with the buildings which are straight in alignment with the center of the earth.
FedkaTheConvict said...
----------------
I was not talking about the 'leaning' in my second comment. Asking Peano sincerely about the color composition/brightness and all that and what is close to reality. The first 'leaning' comment was tongue in cheek because Ann didn't frame it right. I feel silly to have to explain like this to you. But some people need clarification, I guess.
mishu said...
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I agree. She should have lined it up with the buildings.
My Mother's father was a mining engineer in Leadville, and she and her brother did a part of their growing up there - it was a wild place even in the civilized years of the big mining outfits - and Grandpa built a house there with his own hands - I have pictures of the place. Happy to see the town is still kicking even a little. Not deep familial roots, just long ones.
Ann Althouse said...
@edutcher "So that's why the sparse postings. You guys get around."
Whoops. I got the date totally off! We were there August 4th. It says August 19th because of the photo processing date. I can't believe I got that wrong, considering how few days ago that would have been.
Sparse posting... if you really think that's what you're seeing... is attributable to another writing project and long bike rides.
There were just a couple of long gaps over the weekend. I figured you zipped on out to CO again.
Not busting your chops on the gaps BTW. You guys deserve your fun.
Jeff with one 'f' said...
Doc Holliday lived there and Oscar WIlde toured the mines.
You should swing by Glenwood Springs, where Doc is buried!
In a sanitarium. His last words, regarding the fact he didn't die of lead poisoning, "This is funny".
Oscar Wilde toured the West as a lecturer. When he played Dodge City, the cowboys thought he was a comedian and were going to hooraw him off the stage until Doc, Wyatt Earp, and Bat Masterson got up on stage and told the crowd that any trouble would start and end with them.
pm317 said... I saw this kind of 'photoshop' in a photography magazine last evening. But when you alter it, are you losing a bit of reality? Which picture is closer to what you see in real life?
---
If the camera's white balance was off, then it didn't capture the reality, whatever that is.
I know for certain, though, that this image has a heavy cyan/blue cast. That typically happens when the camera "thinks" it is seeing a sunlit scene when there's no direct sunlight. Cameras typically make that mistake when the photographer doesn't expose properly for the scene.
Cameras, like computers, are just machines. They do what you tell them to do. Tell them wrong, they do wrong.
I like Leadville too.
I was down in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the exact same time you guys were in Colorado. That weather was all over New Mexico and produced some beautiful thunderstorms, although the rain that fell mostly evaporated before hitting the ground.
The Leadville airport at 9,934 feet is the highest in North America. It is surrounded by high peaks. Pilots are warned to climb to minimum safe altitude
(14,800)before transitioning out of the area. Or you can fly the passes out, but you better be trained in mountain flying for this!
I think it's her lens. The building with the round tower is leaning toward the church.
AM I NOT THE BEST POLITICO IN AMERICA?
What did I say? That Romeny is the best case for the GOP, but he will not be selected. Thus, Obama will be spared a defeat.
Now, my prediction is on the Internet, see http://nymag.com/news/politics/powergrid/rick-perry-2011-8/index1.html.
You guys no nothing. I know what will happen on election day.
Obama will was the USA_Floor with Perry/Bachman/Palin, etc.
Enjoy Obama till Jan. 2017.
>>I was not talking about the 'leaning' in my second comment. Asking Peano sincerely about the color composition/brightness and all that and what is close to reality. The first 'leaning' comment was tongue in cheek because Ann didn't frame it right. I feel silly to have to explain like this to you. But some people need clarification, I guess.<<
I know what you weren't talking about. Also, I don't recall Peano asking a question; he offered a suggestion on color balancing.
You needn't explain anything to me especially since you really don't know what you're talking about. The leaning building are caused by wide-angle distortion and has little to do with how the photo was framed in the first place.
@pm317 -- I checked the exif data, and she was shooting on auto white balance. Not a good choice with that cloudy sky. The camera has a white balance setting for cloudy skies, and also manual white balance that allows you to set custom WB for the scene.
I don't think our learned hostess understands how to use those features. Her photos almost always have white balance problems.
Did you visit the molybdenum mine in Climax?
(That's Climax, Colorado, not "visit the mine in a state of climax")
The first thing I noticed when I moved to Colorado last year was the number of marijuana dispensaries. They're everywhere!
That's because Colorado has an extraordinarily high level of cancer, chronic pain and glaucoma.
(/sarc off)
What, no Opera House?
Been a while but Chris and I were in Leadville. Really a nice town.
You need to go back in the wintertime when they have the ski joring!
It is wild.
Of course 2010 had to be the year of No Snow in Leadville.
Look around youtube -- there are tons more. With non-imported snow.
>>@pm317 -- I checked the exif data, and she was shooting on auto white balance. Not a good choice with that cloudy sky. The camera has a white balance setting for cloudy skies, and also manual white balance that allows you to set custom WB for the scene.
I don't think our learned hostess understands how to use those features. Her photos almost always have white balance problems.<<
Exactly; she should be using the WB preset that matches the lighting conditions.
Blogger Peano said...
@pm317 -- I checked the exif data, and she was shooting on auto white balance.
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Thanks, Peano. Reminds me why I have not gone for a better camera.. it is too much of a chore.
But most of Ann's pics are gorgeous in that her compositions are always very interesting.
pm317 said... But most of Ann's pics are gorgeous in that her compositions are always very interesting.
Some of her compositions are interesting (not very), but there's a great deal more than composition to making a good picture. I've yet to see one that was gorgeous.
Even though she's using a small camera, it's a good one with capabilities far beyond what she seems willing to learn. She's a typical vacation/snapshot photographer. Don't credit her with more than she earns.
No knock against casual, careless shooters per se. But when they post their shots on the Worldwide Web and say "Oh lookee lookee!" they can expect to take a few knocks for their slipshod, don't-bother-my-blonde-head-with-details work.
Small world. I was in Leadville the same weekend and I flew in from Wisconsin! Landing at 10K feet was strange to a flatlander.(I got a certificate at the airport for piloting into America's highest airport) And that "little bike race" was only the LEADVILLE 100 Mountain bike race! Premier event. I rode the course, wicked hypoxic.
Disclaimer: but not on race day.
Most visitors are unaware that Leadville is the flamingo capital of the United States, but it is.
Oh. And by the way. Leadville will not be "small houseville" for long. With currancy devaluation and the ongoing commodity boom,the once silent Leadville mines are re-awakening.What's old is new again.
P.S. I think her pictures are pretty. White balance issues or no.
Ah, fer cute.
Peano's jealous!
@Phil
Why so much cancer and pain in CO??
Pogo said... Ah, fer cute. Peano's jealous!
Jealous of what? I'm not a photographer and have never claimed to be one.
Commercial photographers pay me to fix their mistakes, so I know mistakes when I see them. I'm no more jealous of Althorse than of the clients who send me their mistakes to correct.
Nice try, though.
Maybe you should airbrush the douchebag out of your tone, peano.
Peano is being modest; check out his portfolio.
Peano said...
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LOL, I will grant you that I use 'very' thoughtlessly sometimes. But I think it is ok for her to showcase her pictures on her blog and it is ok for you to comment the way you did. We can all learn a thing or two. She did inspire me to use my little camera and some day soon to pick up my paint brush to paint one of her many pictures I like. {BTW all the big camera people in my life have sneered at my pics too -- I try to show them and they are like, heh. But my husband is a fan, :)}
We went out to Colorado on vacation at about the same time as Meadhouse. One place we visited was Cripple Creek. It had a very cool mining museum which, among other things, stated that mining has resumed big time in the Cripple Creek area. The Cripple Creek and Victor mining company recently celebrated mining its 4 millionth ounce of gold (3 million since 2000).
I'm not a photographer and have never claimed to be one.
---------
See, if you're not also the photographer, what is your reference point (for it should ideally be)?
I thought leadville would be detroit after dark.
"Discover color balance!"
I'm well aware of it, but I make my own choices. All my photos are tweaked. If you think mire yellowness is the right mood here... Well, I think you are wrong .
Technicians and artists frequently make different choices.
I did an overnight in Leadville once and spent hours out with my camera. It's very photogenic. A treasure trove, in fact. Other picturesque little towns I enjoyed on that trip were Georgetown and Basalt.
You should swing by Glenwood Springs, where Doc is buried!
There are a couple of unique experiences to be had in Glenwood Springs. The enormous mineral pools and vapor caves are not to be missed. And although hardly unique, there are fine high altitude caverns accessible by tram.
The elevations are a killer though. I could never live there.
I mean more yellow. Not mere yellow.
Seriously, the color is always a matter of choice here. Disagree with my taste if you like.
As for the distortions, when you see them, it is always because I like them. Disagree only with my taste. The technical tips are not relevant.
At the risk of introducing an unfathomable idea, I'd like to suggest the possibility that someone who posts their vacation pictures might be saying "have a look at Leadville" rather than "have a look at my photography".
I mean mire yellow
Sorry, Im on the iPad.
Anyway, my point is, pea no's effort at color correction made it look boring and cheesy
@ Paul Zremsik No. You're wrong.
Anyone who gets his jollies griping about color balance would have a better time checking out some of the old Bloggingheads with Yellow Bob vs. Pink Ann. Ann's not as pink these days, but Bob's as yellow as ever.
Spent a bit of time in Leadville last summer, and a few nearby places as well.
Crossed the Continental Divide sixteen times in seven days; the motorcycle needed new brake pads when I got home. Worth every second.
Althouse is living life and shares it with you. It needs more white balance??? Get a load of this fuckin guy.
My Husker daughter spent a good bit of time in Leadville when she lived in Lincoln. She loved it.
LOl...she's quite touchy about her snapshots.
Note the illuminated "OPEN" sign in the window of the Chamber of Commerce. You see these signs all over the place, yet to me there's something vaguely disreputable about them. They're the sort of things you expect to see in the front windows of pawnshops or massage parlors.
Peter
So, America's Politico is jheilemann@gmail.com?
I'm well aware of it, but I make my own choices. All my photos are tweaked.
Is your monitor calibrated? I'm guessing no.
Disagree with my taste if you like.
Consider it done.
Photography is Althouse's artistic/creative outlet/obsession. Of course she is going to care about it. She isn't always aiming to make an accurate "snapshot". Sometimes she even gets surrealistic such as the shot of Meade sitting outside which featured a deck (outside) support seeming to support the table (inside) that Althouse was "tied" to. Very cool composition.
Steve Koch said...
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Good eye.. I had to go back and look for that detail in that pic.
Peano's jealous of Althouse's popularity; what else?
Next hes going to critique the amount of treble in Alex Lifeson's guitar sound on moving pictures.
Mike and Sue said...
Small world. I was in Leadville the same weekend and I flew in from Wisconsin! Landing at 10K feet was strange to a flatlander.(I got a certificate at the airport for piloting into America's highest airport) And that "little bike race" was only the LEADVILLE 100 Mountain bike race! Premier event. I rode the course, wicked hypoxic.
8/22/11 7:15 PM
Is that the same race also run on foot and featured in Born To Run?
Peano:
"I could retouch that and make it better. The commoners are sooooooo common."
As I said, fer cute!
I disagree with the white balance criticisms. I use the sunlight white balance preset all the time because it is most wysiwyg - realistic. It is an artistic decision. The camera cloudy/shady preset is always worse in my experience. Frequently I set the color temperature in an image editor to get rid of a blue, gray, or "harsh white" (don't know how to explain it better) color cast. However sunlight causes a lot of contrast, hilights and shadows, and trying to correct the cloudy day colors without having the corresponding hilights and shadows can look horrible in my opinion.
I would however stronly suggest brigntening the pictures. That's also an artistic decision. I use the picasa downloadable image editor.
http://picasa.google.com/
On the tuning tab, use the sliders for fill light and hilights. It gives the pictures that georgous glow that separate amateur snapshots from art photos (in my opinion).
Most amateur photos are too dark. This is because the light metering standards come from the old days of film where you would make a print from a negative. The negatives were supposed to be too dark to prevent overexposure. Overexposure looks much worse than underexposure. You were supposed to fix the exposure when printing. With digital cameras, the camera file is like the negative and you should consider working with an image editor as the analog of making a print.
Anyone who wants an image editor that does layers but can't afford photoshop or has an old computer without the resources to run photoshop should look at gimp. It's free on the internet and there are tutorials for photo editing.
Is your monitor calibrated? I'm guessing no.
Now there's a retort guaranteed to end pretty much any conversation.
I use iPhoto. I have Photoshop but I prefer to use iPhoto. I do the adjusting on the computer, not in the camera. The key thing to do with the camera is choose a subject and frame the shot. That's what matters.
@ edutcher-
Really? Where did you read that? I photo-edited a biography of Wyatt Earp and never heard that story
@ Peano- Color correction is notoriously subjective There's a theory that people with different eye colors experience light (and color) in different ways I believe La Althouse is blue-eyed and may be more sensitive to certain colors than others. Also, she's a former art student and presumably has some training in color theory- I'm pretty sure she knows exactly what she's doing with color.
PS- I say this as someone who spends half of his day color correcting photographs
I really liked Stegner's description of John Wesley Powell's ride down the Colorado river in Beyond the Hundredth Meridian. The second half of the book is a bit of a letdown by comparison.
Such leaden skies that day.
Love Summit County, but never spent much time in Leadville. Keystone, Copper, Breckenridge, and Arapahoe Basin are more my style. My default vacation spot for spur of the minute getaways. In winter.
What, no Clarendon Hotel?
(For those who aren't familiar with the opera "The Ballad of Baby Doe", much of the action takes place around and in the Clarendon Hotel in Leadville.)
My monitor is calibrated.
In he first picture the clouds are gray the road is brown.
In the other pictures the clouds are bluish or greenish the road is closer to gray.
Sometimes you can't get all the colors exactly right without editing different parts of the pictures differently.
I don't mean this as criticism - I wasn't there and didn't know what it really looked like. I'm just pointing it out to readers who might be interested.
Acutally in the first picture the clouds are mostly gray. In the upper right I see a bit of green and in the upper left I see a bit of magenta. I think this is a problem with compact cameras. I have a compact camera that does this too. I haven't had that problem with my (cheap) dslr.
I am a 4th generation Leadvillite. It has a fascinating history, some bits of which were cited here. It had a rough and wooly side and also a very dignified and cultured side. There was an opera house--the Tabor Opera House--a a beautiful Clarendon Hotel. They were torn down during the bad times in the mid 2oth century. The burro race is more characteristic than the bike race. Lots of beautiful country around and mostly empty. Miss it all the time.
I do the adjusting on the computer, not in the camera. The key thing to do with the camera is choose a subject and frame the shot. That's what matters.
You might think your camera isn't adjusting color, but when you shoot jpeg, as you do, the camera does adjust color, depending on your camera settings. It then bakes those adjustments into the image data. That’s why your camera has all those different ways of setting white balance. Camera settings make a big difference in color outcomes.
If you shot raw (which your camera can't do), you'd have all the color data and could adjust it as you pleased in an editor. Not so with jpeg. The camera throws out one-third to one-half of the image data and edits and compresses what remains.
If you edit color on an uncalibrated monitor, you're likely to be compensating for skewed colors without knowing it. I would wager that your monitor is too warm (heavy on reds and yellows). That would account for the cyan/blue cast in most of the shots you post.
You can't very well express your "tastes" without understanding how cameras adjust color and how monitors render color.
Harsh pen...what were you flying? Did you fly one of the passes in? At that altitude take off can be stressful depending on the temperature and type of aircraft one is flying! The Rockies scare the hell out of me, but maybe that's because I fly a 172.
Hi Foxlets14,
It was i who flew in. I was flying a normally aspirated cirrus SR-22. Left from Door County with refuel in Nebraska. Terrain was not too terrible, popped over the front range at Colorado Springs. Arrived on hot afternoon with high density altitudes(14K) which I do not recommend. But Iwas alone with only my mountain bike and half tanks which helped. I think a 172 could do it no problem. I would just plan on a cold morning arrival and departure.
Mike and Sue: I agree with your assessment, but popping over the front range in a cirrus is a piece of cake. In my little bird it would be more of a chugging over like the little engine that could! BTW, I love the SR-22. Wish I could afford one!
To all you people commenting on the lack of oxygen: HA. WUSSES.
Kidding. Sort of. :P
It's really easy to tell who's a native and who's not by how fast they tire out during any kind of physical activity.
You should see how fast bands wear out during concerts. I've yet to see one that doesn't complain about how tired they are from lack of oxygen (after only doing a couple of songs, too). I've concluded that this is the reason my favorite bands rarely come here...
Just found this post... I *love* Leadville. Set my historical mystery series there (the Silver Rush series). It's a jewel of a town with an amazing history.
Its lovely to see the marijuana dispensary at that place. Awesome pics are there.
Its nice to see the marijuana dispensary at this place. Nice pics thanks to display!
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