I have taken a lot of photos over the past few months of construction sites and cranes and am always hopeful that I have a blue bird day when I am taking photos on my urban hikes in Denver. However, I decided to do something totally different and went on an urban hike of the Mile High City at night. I also wanted to try my hand at black and white photography of Denver.

The crane for the 17W project has been installed.

Pictured below is the Union Station train platform. A commuter rail line to Denver international Airport will begin service in 2016. Trains to the airport will reach a top speed of 79 mph. I found that Denver’s iconic Union Station with its white canopy is a great location for black and white photography in Denver.

The Colorado Rockies were playing the San Diego Padres at Coors Field when I snapped this picture. I was confused as to why Rockies fans were leaving Coors Field so early. It was odd to see so many fans streaming out of Coors Field only an hour into the game, and then I noticed that the Padres were winning nine to nothing after the 2nd inning.

One of the free 16th Street Mall shuttle busses drives past with Denver’s iconic Daniels & Fisher Tower in the distance. The Daniels & Fisher Tower was constructed in 1910 and at the time was the tallest building west of the Mississippi. In the Tower’s early days a doorman who stood nearly seven tall was stationed at the tower. The thought was to have the tallest man in Denver working at the tallest building in Denver. There were plans at one point to demolish the tower. Thankfully this never came to fruition. Currently the tower’s basement serves as the home of a quirky cabaret show.

The Colorado State Capitol looms over Civic Center park. One of the neat little peccadillos of the capitol can be found on the steps leading up to the building on its west side. There are two different markers that indicate a mile high elevation above sea level. The original marker was off by a few feet, so a more accurate marker was placed a couple steps from the original. It is a unique and harmless whimsicality, but a little confusing as to which marker is representative of a mile high above sea level.

Denver’s unique steam heating system makes for some potentially ghostly and supernatural photo opportunities. The below picture was captured at 15th and Glenarm Place. Perhaps if you stare into the eerie steam long enough you just might find Jack Kerouac’s ghost, but then again it was April 20th, so maybe a few folks did see Denver’s greatest unofficial poet laureate. Who knew that steam would be such a cool element in black and white photography.

Larimer Square is adorned with Colorado flags and has become one of the top locations in the Mile High City to take Instagram photos. Thankfully preservationist Dana Crawford stepped up in the 1960s to spearhead a movement that saved Larimer Square from the wrecking ball during an era when the Denver Urban Renewal Authority was demolishing entire blocks of late 1800s era structures in downtown Denver.

Pictured below are buildings that have all been constructed in Denver this century near 16th Street and Wewatta. These buildings were constructed in an area that was once a large rail yard.

A passenger hops off an RTD light rail train at the Union Station light rail stop. I will have to venture back out in a couple weeks for another black and white photography session in Denver.