Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield: February 2014, Part I

Fresh snow requires taking pictures. It just does. And it typically doesn't require driving far to find some nice scenery, like this morning when I drove less than five minutes to the Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield.

Like last month at South Platte Park, there was virtually no color to be seen.  So taking it out of the equation and focusing on texture, pattern and contrast in most shots and displaying them black and white seemed like the proper course of action, as with this view of Deer Creek.

The sky was still pretty overcast and occasionally spitting more light snow, so there was no real sunrise to shoot.  But I love how after a really cold night the snow clings thickly and uniformly to tree branches.

I was expecting the creek to be more iced over than it turned out to be.  But I was more than happy to take advantage of the reflections off the water.

This bench seemed to be waiting patiently for a visitor that probably isn't coming for several months.

The branches above looked like a network of nerve cells or blood vessels.

I was so captivated by the branches overhead that I shot the same basic spot twice, then couldn't decide which view I preferred.  No harm to putting them both in the blog post, right?

Spoiled.  That's what I am, living where I do and being blessed with the time to get out and record the natural beauty around me.

There actually were some scenes on an otherwise monochromatic morning where a splash of color got involved.  Check them out in Part II!