I’m still alive and well, although one may doubt that after my nearly month-long absence from making a blog entry.

Since the beginning of the year, I have been spending a lot of time organizing my photography catalogs and contemplating new projects for this year. Organizing the catalogs can be inspirational, and it has given me ideas for some fresh photographic projects. Case in point: abandoned places.

I have discovered that I have taken quite a few photos of abandoned places over the years. I’ve never treated the subject with much intent, as I mostly treat these types of places as targets of opportunity. The end result is that I’ve had a lot of opportunities over time. I’ve compiled a list and general description for dozens of Colorado ghost towns and abandoned mines. There are locations from the Eastern border to the Western Slope. That will make for plenty of future road trips.

So, I’ve broken out the DeLorme Atlas of Colorado and started marking the locations of abandoned mines and towns here in Colorado. I’ve become engrossed with the subject lately and have done a lot of research. This year, I’ll put that research to use. I have my first scheduled road trip in a few days. I don’t know how interesting it will be, but it will be nice to hit the road with some fair weather.

Beyond that, one of my computer monitors has recently given up the ghost, so I’m also looking at replacement options for that piece of hardware. I had a three-monitor setup for my office computer, but I’m down to two now. I can get by for the moment, but I’m spoiled, and I really don’t want to use the laptop screen as a monitor if I can avoid it. I have a pretty good laptop and I have it docked on my office desk, but the monitor in the laptop, though big for a laptop (17 inches), is still smaller than what I normally like in my office setup. It works great on the road, though.

For the technical minded, here’s the basic specs I want to shoot for.

4k @ 60hz minimum.

Full sRGB color space.

HDMI or USB-C connectivity.

1000:1 contrast ratio.

Everything else is gravy. I’ll be looking for the best bang for the buck as usual.

I haven’t selected a specific brand or model for the replacement monitor, but since I have a Dell Laptop, I am leaning towards buying a Dell Monitor. My budget is to keep it around $400 (or less), but we’ll see. There is no emergency.