Thanks :)

Christmas Cactus blooming with red and purple flowers. There are tiny little yellow buds inside the flower. The cactus is in a green ceramic flower pot set on top of a large cork coaster (out of focus).

#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekPforPurple

I believe that this is a Christmas Cactus. It has been in our house for a long time and this is the first time seeing it bloom. It is quite nice to see the colors.

#PhotographersUnited
#ALTtxt

Attention Alphabetters!
This is your reminder that Mon 20 Apr is the start of Week P and the theme for the #AlphabetChallenge is Purple. Post anything you like as long as your pic is predominantly purple or has a purple focal point. Use the # below and have fun 😊

Cute :)

My website will likely be down for a bit. I am needing to change web hosts due to the unexpectedly high cost of renewal. Hoping to find something more manageable and better suited for my needs.

Thanks for the heads up. Reported and blocked.

A colorful blue awning and signs with red text on yellow background advertising cigars and other gifts. The window frames are painted blue. Carved wood statues sit in front of the store on the red brick sidewalk. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photos from March 2026.

Various stores line the opposite side of the street with awnings. Black text on a yellow background with blue trim advertises "The Original Trading Post" on the building in the middle. A vertical wood support pole makes up the far right of image. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photos from March 2026.

A chili pepper ristra hanging against an adobe wall. The door is painted white and has the number 209 in metal letters. White and blue-green painted wood make up the overhang. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photos from March 2026.

Two chili pepper ristras hang from a green street light in the Santa Fe Plaza. The shadows of the ristras and street light fall behind it. Old Adobe buildings line the outside of the plaza. Various street vendors with art are on the sidewalk. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photos from March 2026.

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekOforOld

Walking around the streets near and on the Santa Fe Plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photos from March 2026.

#PhotographersUnited

Image descriptions in #ALTtxt

Glitchy indeed. I have not been able to do much on Bluesky today.

Nicely done, I like it :)

I just saw your photo. Looks like it would be a great place to visit.

We have family in Albuquerque, so Santa Fe, Taos, and Las Vegas are regular stops for us.

Our trips down to NM are far less frequent than they used to be so it was nice to go there again.

We only had a few hours to walk around Santa Fe this time as we were going to visit family. It looks like that could be a good place to see next time we are there.

Most of what we focused on were the Railyard District and the Old Santa Fe Plaza and what we saw walking in between those locations.

Old stucco buildings along a paved street. Power lines run horizontally along the top of the image frame.

Old stucco buildings along a paved street. Power lines run horizontally along the top of the image frame. A wooden power pole with a transformer is between the two buildings.

An old stucco building with two large windows at the top and two small ones below and to the right. A metal iron fence goes along the ground at the bottom of the image. A bright blue sky makes up the top of the frame.

Old stucco houses along a paved road. A wood power pole on the left side of the image has several road signs posted. The back of a stop sign is visible as is a sign saying "no trucks over 5 tons". Part of a concrete sidewalk is visible in the lower left hand corner of the frame.

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekOforOld

Walking around near the Railyard District in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

#PhotographersUnited

Image descriptions in #ALTtxt

Having fun learning new things is a good thing.

I have done video editing in most anything but DaVinci Resolve. It is still on my list to try.

FCP is what I use the most, and enjoy using. I have a full license from when I was doing a lot of university video work. The $300 for a perpetual license compared to an Adobe subscription was great.

Inside the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Various shops line the hallway. The floor is made up in yellow and red brown tiles. Wood beams line the ceiling. Light comes in through windows.

Inside the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The floor is made up in yellow and red brown tiles. Wood beams line the ceiling. Light comes in through windows in the hotel restaurant that are decorated with art.

Inside the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The floor is made up of yellow and red brown tiles. Leather couches and chairs sit accros from a large fireplace. Chandeliers with lights that look like candles hang from the ceiling. Stairs go up from the ground floor in the background. Wood beams line the ceiling. Light comes in through windows in the hotel restaurant.

Inside one of the entrances to the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A lage light made from black metal hangs from the ceiling. Ambient light comes from the outside. Wood beams hang from the ceiling, some painted white, others a more natural brown black color.

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekOforOld

Inside the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

#PhotographersUnited
Image descriptions in #ALTtxt

I used Affinity Photo 2 for ages when it was owned by Serif. Pixelmator has been great too (now owned by Apple).

Canva bought Affinity and their software making Affinity 3 free except for a few AI things that I do not pay for.

Getting off the Adobe product subscriptions was huge for me.

Thanks Luis, glad you like it :)

Photo by @rjrock.bsky.social -DNG edited in Affinity 3 (Canva), basic RAW edits. Exposure, shadows, highlights, white balance, clarity -HSL color edits to take out the red light on the marquee and focus on the blue and yellow on the sign and the ambient light around the theater. -Image cropped and straightened to show the streetlight on the sidewalk and stop light. I used the horizontal line of lights as the guide.

#ECK #EastCoastKin
#PostProcess Challenge: #EraShift

Photo by @rjrock.bsky.social

-HSL color edits to take out the red light on the marquee and focus on the blue and yellow on the sign and the ambient light around the theater.
-Image cropped and straightened.
-More details in #ALTtxt

This seems like a great photo challenge. I am planning on giving it a go this week and have downloaded the photo files.

I usually edit the raw CR3 files from my Canon camera but am glad to finally try editing from a DNG file.

A square-format photograph of the Bluebird Theater on Colfax Avenue in Denver, shot at night. The historic brick facade is centered in the frame, slightly tilted, with the iconic neon marquee blazing in blue and gold above the entrance. A vertical tower of incandescent bulbs rises from the center of the marquee. The illuminated sign reads "Christian Loffler / Orbit." A handful of people mill on the sidewalk beneath the canopy — some walking, some waiting. Two ornate street lamps flank the entrance, their poles wrapped in small lights. A red traffic signal glows in the upper right corner. The image has a warm, faded quality with soft grain and heavy corner vignetting. The treatment is deliberate: a 1:1 crop with a slight tilt to suggest a handheld snapshot. Processed in Lightroom with a warm shift, green tint push, and luminance-masked highlight reduction on the neon. Finished in Nik Analog Efex — Camera 7 preset at 38% strength, fade pulled to 74%, pincushion lens distortion, slight defocus, bokeh centered on the marquee, hard grain, and a deep vignette. The goal was the photograph my younger self might have taken standing on this corner in 1978 — imperfect, present, alive.

"Bluebird, circa 1978"

Saturday night on Colfax, shot the way my 11 year-old self would have — Kodak Brownie, late seventies, no idea what I was doing. Process in alt.

#EastCoastKin #Photography #StreetPhotography #PostProcess #EraShift #ECK #PhotographersofBlueSky #StreetPhotography

This is an image of the East Coast kin PostProcess challenge poster. It say We provide the photo, you make it yours any tool. New challenge every week. April 14 - April 21 #EraShift. Move the image to a different decade or century. Daguerreotype, 1970s faded print, Polaroid, cyanotype, wet plate. The era should feel inhabited, not filtered.n. Here are some prompts for your alt. Which era and why did this image pull you there? What processing decisions created the feeling of time? Does the subject still make sense in the era you moved it to?

Thanks to participants in last week's post-process challenge & especially for sharing your vision and process
#ECK #EastCoastKin #PostProcess

New Challenge: #EraShift

File: tinyurl.com/436puae7

Your mission is to move the image to another decade or era: Pinhole, Polaroid, wet plate, your call.

Parish Office at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The building is made of stucco painted tan. Wood windows and door are painted white. A concrete sidewalk leads up to the office door. Office hours are posted in Spanish first, then English. A large sign on the door has instructions for mail and deliveries.

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekOforOld

Parish Office at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Office hours are posted in Spanish first, then English.

Photo from trip to New Mexico a few weeks ago.

#PhotographersUnited
#ALTtxt

Old blue, white and yellow tiles on a white stucco wall near the Santa Fe Plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Large blue tiles make up a rounded tile corner. Taken a few weeks ago on a trip to New Mexico to visit family.

#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekOforOld

Blue, white and yellow tiles on a white stucco wall near the Santa Fe Plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Photo from a family trip to New Mexico a few weeks ago.

#PhotographersUnited
#ALTtxt

Attention Alphabetters!
Mon 13 Apr is the start of Week O and the theme for the #AlphabetChallenge is Old. Old people, old buildings, old cars, old clothes - you get the gist! Basically anything old if you haven’t already grasped that yet 😂
Use the # below and have fun😊

Wide shot of the Jean Cocteau Cinema in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The marque has block text lettering of what films are showing above the entrance. A glass block wall lines the entrance along with a distinctive blue tile support column.

A movie poster is in a "now showing" display case embedded into the glass block wall making up the entrance. The movie poster is for the 1985 cult classic horror-comedy "Re-Animator". Blue tiles line the support column near the door.

Square Blue tiles line the round support column near the door of the movie theater.

Close up of a glass block wall. that lines the entrance. The wall is made up of square blocks with a round circular piece of glass embedded in the block. Tan grouting secures the glass blocks.

#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekMForMovies

The Jean Cocteau Cinema in Sante Fe, New Mexico with names of movies being shown on the theater marquee and a "now playing" poster display case.

Persepolis, Thelma & Louise, and The Rip are listed on the marque.

#PhotographersUnited
Image descriptions in #ALTtxt

Thanks for the heads up. Blocked and reported.

Attention Alphabetters!
Mon 30 Mar is the start of Week M and the theme for the #AlphabetChallenge is Movies. Caption your pic with a movie title. It can either relate to the plot or to the title. This was a popular theme when we did film week so hopefully will be again!Use the # below and have fun😊

Thanks Luis :)

Green buds starting to grow on bushes in our backyard. The background of different branches and blue sky is out of focus, while the green buds are in focus.

Green leaves starting to grow on bushes in our backyard. The background of different branches and a stone house is out of focus while the leaves and branches are in focus.

#BlueskyArtShow
#Background

A few lens tests with the Yongnuo 35mm f/2 lens. I bought the lens as an inexpensive way to try out using a 35mm focal length.

For the NM trip I forced myself to try taking photos with a 35mm lens instead of my usual 50mm. It was a good challenge.

#PhotographersUnited