I am the Chameleon

Fire, Friday Night Lights, Fall Color

2011-09-27T20:56:00.000-06:00

A few favorites from the past week.

It was homecoming week for Middle Park High School and last Tuesday they had a bonfire, that started burning so hot that no one was able to stay very close to it. A few students had brought marshmallows to roast for s'mores, but couldn't get close enough, so they convinced this firefighter to toast them.

The sun has been setting earlier each day, so for the homecoming football game on Friday evening, the sun was going to set shortly after kickoff. The were scattered clouds which were only going to help with the color in the sky, I just wish there would have been better action to put against the background.

On Sunday morning I was covering the Fraser Valley Fall Duathlon and was fortunate the changing of the aspen was in high gear and gave me a multitude of shooting possibilities to play with while I waited for the competitors to come by.

I was able to find a location where the mountain biking course would enter an amazing stand of changing aspen and made the most of it.

goo, goo g'joob

Rediscovering the Maroon Bells

2011-09-27T20:45:00.000-06:00

I had a photographer friend visiting from out of town and he had never been to Aspen or seen the Maroon Bells, so we made plans to make the trek last weekend. I hadn't been there in something like 15 years, so I was anxious to make a return trip to what has to be the most photographed location in Colorado.

I could go on and on about all of the other photographers who were there capturing the beauty of this amazing place and the variety of approaches they all took, but suffice to say, no matter what the technique, it is virtually impossible to get a bad photo of the Maroon Bells...some are just better than others.

Here are my favorites:

goo, goo g'joob

Favorites from the past couple weeks

2011-08-24T12:18:00.000-06:00

I had the best intentions of writing an eloquent post on the photos below, but it's been a little hectic with a flurry of events and assignments to cover, the start of the boys' soccer practice and trying to fit it some of my own fun. So I hope you enjoy some of my favorite images from the past couple of weeks.

goo, goo g'joob

Favorites from another busy summer weekend: 230 miles and 1,500 images

2011-08-09T21:07:00.000-06:00

I have written before about the challenges I face when I cover annual events here in Grand County, or anywhere for that matter. Coming up with something different from events that I have been to and photographed year after year after year...(you get the idea), presents the ultimate challenge as a photographer. It is so easy to shoot similar shots to what I have done in the past, but that is lazy.

This is especially true at our county fair. There are a limited number of events that will truly yield a good photograph, but I was committed to keep looking until I came up with images I hadn't shot before.

One key trait of a photojournalist is to be observant. I make it a point when I am looking at the work of other photographers to pick up on tips and tricks they utilize to make interesting images. I heard legendary Boston Globe photographer Stan Grossfeld speak when I was in college and he said to "never pass up a gift." I learned in recent years from Mark Rebilas to never pass up a reflection. His work got it ingrained in me that if there a puddle, there is a potential reflection photo. So when a rain shower passed through Kremmling prior to the Junior Rodeo at the Middle Park Fair, I knew if I was patient and looked long enough, an image would present itself.

I saw these three men standing by this building watching the beef judging. In a perfect world they would be standing a little more to the left, but after looking at the photo again today while I was editing everything from the weekend, I was still happy with the image.

Ed Pickering, left, Leigh Murphy, center, and Eric Pickering look on during the beef
judging on Friday afternoon at the Middle Park Fair in Kremmling.

I had somehow missed shooting the Demolition Derby over the years, but wanted to make sure I made it this year. So glad I was able to cover it, because the theme/costume contest was hilarious, the crowd overwhelming and the action...well, there is nothing quite like the smell of burning rubber and engine coolant on a summer's eve.

I will admit that going into the Bret Michaels show at the Winter Park Music Festival, I was a little skeptical. Sure I knew his music, but come on, what kind of a show would this guy put on having just flown into Denver from a gig the night before and he would be flying out right after this performance to get to Omaha for another show with Poison and Motley Crew that night? In a nutshell, he nailed it. He was full of energy, kept the crowd involved and sang the hits. But man, it was tough to get a shot of him where he wasn't pointing at the crowd or had his hands in front of his face.

If you go back exactly one year, you might remember the photo I captured of Night Ranger guitarist Joel Hoekstra at last year's Winter Park Music Festival. While not quite as good, this photo of "Dirty Ray" Scheuring got me thinking, what is it about me and musicians' hair on this weekend?

"Dirty Ray" Scheuring, bass player for the Bret Michaels Band

I was surprised to see this girl, who couldn't have been more than 8 years old, singing along to "Talk Dirty to Me"...

A young fan looks on during Bret Michaels' performance
on Sunday afternoon at Hideaway Park in Winter Park.

and giving the devil horns...Ronnie James Dio would be proud.

goo, goo g'joob

Favorites from the Fourth of July weekend

2011-07-05T16:11:00.001-06:00

The Granby fireworks display is reflected in the SilverCreek
pond on Saturday evening. Byron Hetzler/Sky-Hi News

There is always so much to shoot around here over the Fourth of July weekend, I always seem to be scrambling from one end of the county to the other. This year I told myself I was going to really work at shooting these annual events in new ways, or at least from places that I hadn't before.

Granby often holds its fireworks display on an evening other than July 4. This year it happened to be on Saturday evening. Once the sun had gone down, I decided to leave the rodeo early and start finalizing my shooting location for the fireworks.

There is a pond not too far away from the rodeo grounds and the hill where the fireworks are launched. Lately it seems I can't pass up a good opportunity for a reflection, so I decided this would be the spot.

Normally, by this time of night, the pond would have been still, but a small thunderstorm was passing to the south, which kicked the wind up and eliminated the perfect reflection in the pond. At first I was bummed, but after looking at the final result I don't mind that it's not a glassy reflection.

Spencer Brown competes during the bareback bronc riding event at the Flying Heels
Rodeo on Saturday in Granby. Byron Hetzler/Sky-Hi News

Saturday's Flying Heels Rodeo in Granby was the first rodeo I had shot this year. Organizers had cancelled their Memorial Day weekend rodeo due to the equine herpes virus.

While this rodeo image isn't much different from what I would normally shoot as far as the action goes, I did remind myself to try shooting from a new angle, which actually cleaned up the background nicely by avoiding distracting banners and workers (aside from the white car). Some great early evening light added to the moment to give me a nice frame.

Participants make their way along the Fraser River Trail during the Run for
Independence on Saturday morning in Winter Park. Byron Hetzler/Sky-Hi News

I headed to the Run for Independence in Winter Park on Saturday thinking my "do it differently" plan was in jeopardy, because I thought I had already photographed this five-mile run from all of the best spots. Fortunately, as I walked along the Fraser River Trail looking for a new shooting location, I came across this group of trees and winding stretch of trail. All I had to do was wait for the participants to pass by. The runner with the American flag was a nice bonus.

A dog pops bubbles during Fourth of July festivities in Polhamus
Park on Monday in Granby. Byron Hetzler/Sky-Hi News

This dog was pointed out to me during Fourth of July activities in Granby's Polhamus Park on Monday. It was having a ball chasing bubbles coming from one of the exhibitors set up in the park. It was tougher than I thought to get a good shot, but this one works and I like that their are still remnants of a just burst bubble lingering over its head.

goo, goo g'joob

My favorite image from the past weekend

2011-06-21T15:48:00.000-06:00

Starting around the middle of June each year, most of my weekends during the summer are spent covering the town festivals and music festivals around Grand County. This past weekend was the annual Kremmling Days, an event that yielded an award winner in last year's Colorado Press Association contest for me.

This year, due to several other commitments, I wasn't able to get to Kremmling until late in the afternoon--well after the activities I normally shoot had concluded. As is my normal operating plan for annual events such as this, I was looking for something different, but nothing was catching my eye until I started observing kids at a spin art booth.

I have seen Charlie Holthausen's spin art booth at Kremmling Days before, but never paid much attention to it. Charlie and his wife, Gail, have come from Steamboat Springs for several years to offer budding artists the opportunity to create their own masterpiece for $2.

I shot several kids creating their works of art. You will see a shot of Charlie helping a young boy in Wednesday's paper, which is also an image I really liked. Then I moved in closer as Charlie prepared another board to be painted and was intrigued with the color and pattern of splattered paint on the wheel.

In hindsight and looking at the image above, I should have seen Charlie's paint-splattered fingers and included more of them in the frame, but I had become so focused on the color and pattern of the paint on the wheel that I never really saw his fingers as I shot. I have already made a mental note for next year...

goo, goo g'joob

Spring is here, that means I'm wearing multiple hats again

2011-04-10T20:06:00.000-06:00

David Chodounsky skis through the course during the first run of the men's slalom
at the U.S. Alpine Championships on Sunday, April 3, at Winter Park Resort.
Byron Hetzler/Sky-Hi News

It's been a while since my last post...again. That just seems to be inherent for the time of year...again. As a reminder not only do I work as the staff photographer for the Sky-Hi News, I am also coach soccer at Middle Park HS here in Granby. And our spring soccer season is well under way for the high school girls--we actually started practice at the end of February. We are off to a good start and will be getting back to work tomorrow as the girls return from spring break.

It always seems that as I transition from winter into spring, adding coaching on top of my regular photo work, it takes some time to figure out how to fit everything in again.

A little information about the image that accompanies this post. Winter Park Resort hosted the U.S. Alpine Championships last week for the first time since 1994. It was a treat to have America's best skiers in Winter Park for four days of racing again.

Normally I concentrate on getting tight action shots, but lately I have been looking at new ways of photographing events thanks to inspiration from looking at the work of photographer brethren from around the country. I challenged myself to not only shoot the traditional ski racing images, but also look beyond those and see something new.

While shooting the first run of the men's slalom, I noticed the scene above. I liked the way the skier was just starting to come into view behind the rise and all of the gates in the background. This was my favorite frame, because of all the attempts I made to capture this, it was the only one where there was just one course worker in the background. The other images had multiple people working in the background and were really distracting.

Championship weekend

2011-02-21T16:27:00.000-07:00

It was a couple of busy, long days on Friday and Saturday as I traveled to Denver to cover the state high school wrestling tournament. The two high schools that I cover were sending a total of five wrestlers to compete. Four of them had won their first round matches on Thursday, but when I arrived on Friday morning to cover the quarterfinal round, two of them lost and would go into the consolation bracket, but two did advance to the semifinals. So I had four wrestlers I would be keeping track of.

This was home for my two days at the Pepsi Center:

So after shooting the quarterfinals in the morning, I had to shoot the beginning of the consolation round in the afternoon and the semifinals in the evening. While I was waiting for one of the matches I needed to shoot, instead of going back to back to my spot on press row, I decided to practice a little on another match and was able to get this image:

Shane Whitmore of Burlington, left, tries to push away Adam Ortivez of LaVeta during
their 130-pound quarterfinal match at the 2A Colorado State High School Wrestling
Tournament on Friday at the Pepsi Center in Denver.

On Friday evening the two Middle Park wrestlers in the consolation round won, West Grand's Chase Hill lost his championship semifinal putting him into the consolation bracket, and Middle Park's Brian Macchione won his semifinal to advance to Saturday night's championship.

On Saturday morning the two Middle Park wrestlers in the consolation round lost, so their tournament was over. Chase Hill, the lone West Grand wrestler still alive, lost his consolation semifinal match, but would wrestle for fifth place--assuring himself a spot on the podium.

I then snuck over to the Colorado Press Association awards (see the results of that below) and while I was gone, Hill lost the fifth place match to take sixth.

With only one wrestler in the finals to worry about, I shot a few of the other championship matches to stay sharp while sitting on the hard floor of the Pepsi Center and this was probably my favorite image:

Kurtis Romero of LaJunta and Darin Sisnerso of Alamosa get tangled up
in the 3A 112-pound championship match at the Colorado State High
School Wrestling Tournament on Saturday at the Pepsi Center in Denver.

Middle Park junior Brian Macchione made it to the 189-pound final in 3A, which he would go on to win. Here are three of my favorites:

Middle Park's Brian Macchione, top, controls Mario Garcia of Dolores Huerta during the
3A 189-pound championship match at the Colorado High School State Wrestling
Tournament on Saturday night at the Pepsi Center in Denver.

Middle Park coaches Cal Cherrington, left, and Cody Arnold celebrate as
Brian Macchione wins the class 3A 189-pound championship at
the Colorado High School State Wrestling Tournament on Saturday
night at the Pepsi Center in Denver.

Middle Park's Brian Macchione celebrates after winning the class 3A 189-pound
title at the Colorado High School State Wrestling Tournament on Saturday
night at the Pepsi Center in Denver.

I guess I should add that I won my own state championship, of sorts, while in Denver. The Colorado Press Association held its annual convention and announced the winners in its annual contest on Saturday. I was fortunate enough to win two firsts (news and sports) and a second (feature) in the photography portion of the contest. The reporters I work with also brought home several awards and our paper won the Editorial Excellence Award, which was a nice way to follow up on the Photo and Design Excellence Award we won last year.

Here are my winning photos:

First place news

Members of Grand County Emergency Medical Services, the East Grand Fire
Department and Grand Park Community Recreation Center staff treat simulated
patients during training exercises in the foam pit at the recreation center in Fraser.

First place sports

West Grand's Brook Cecil hits past the Paonia block during a game in Kremmling. The
Lady Mustangs went on to win the match in four sets, 25-19, (22-25), 26-24, 25-22.

Second place feature

Rudy Garcia, right, assists with the bean bag toss during kid's games put on by the
KremmlingVolunteer Fire Department as part of Kremmling Days festivities.

goo, goo g'joob

A couple of recent favorites

2011-02-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

Here are two of my favorite images from the weekend. I had a friend leave me a message a few weeks ago about the "tubing hill war" that is going on in Fraser. The Fraser Tubing Hill has been around for years and two years ago the Colorado Adventure Park opened right next door with its own tubing operation.

You have to go up the hill and to the left to get to the Fraser Tubing Hill, or turn to the right to get to the Colorado Adventure Park. There had been some signage installed to help direct traffic, but not all was kosher with the county. Apparently both operations have recently started utilizing people holding signs to attract customers, much like you see in Denver. So on Saturday I went by to see what exactly was going on. Here is what I found:

Later that day I headed to Kremmling to cover two high school basketball games. The West Grand boys have been on somewhat of a roll lately. A couple of weeks ago they defeated the eighth-ranked team in the state. Saturday they were facing Hayden, ninth-ranked and a team they hadn't beaten in recent memory, even when the players were in middle school. It was also the last regular season game for the West Grand seniors. They had a look about them that said today was going to be different from all of the other meetings between the two schools.

And it was. It was close throughout, but West Grand found themselves down by 8 points at the start of the fourth quarter and with 25 seconds to go, they were still down by 2. They ran time off the clock and then junior Travis Gore drove to the basket, made the shot and was fouled. The image that follows is Travis being hugged by his teammates, prior to him making the free throw to give them a one-point lead with 3 seconds left. Hayden was unable to score. Another exciting win for West Grand.

goo, goo g'joob

Pre-Winter X Games

2011-01-25T20:21:00.001-07:00

It has been four years since I last covered the Winter X Games and I not ashamed to say that I never care if I cover another one. There are way too many people jammed into a small venue. The event is made for television, so still photographers are the last people on organizers minds. It's not easy to get from one event to another. The list goes on, but I don't want to sound like a whiner.

This year Wes Selby, a local snowmobiler is participating in the snocross event at Winter X 15. He was supposed to compete a few years ago, but was injured during training prior to the event and had to withdraw. Wes has been training outside of Grand Lake along with the leading contender for the gold medal in snocross, Tucker Hibbert from Minnesota.

It was amazing pulling up to their training course and seeing at what level these guys are competing at. Tucker has a hauler much like a NASCAR driver, room for at least four sleds, extra parts, living quarters, etc.

This is Tucker during training:

Good luck to both of them and all of the athletes in Aspen this weekend. You won't see me there, but I'm sure I'll be checking out the action on television.

goo, goo g'joob

What a year it was!

2011-01-25T20:05:00.000-07:00

I was hoping to have this completed before the end of 2010, but it took me longer to pull together than I expected.

Looking back on 2010 and reflecting on what transpired during the preceding 12 months, I realize what an amazing year it has been for me both professionally and personally. My year began with getting myself ready to go the Winter Olympics in February and preparing to see my son, Erik, enter the Army in April.

The rest of the year was filled an assortment of assignments ranging from the mundane and average, to interesting, spectacular, entertaining, thrilling and gut-wrenching.

Here are ten of my favorite shots from 2010, not necessarily my best, but my favorites for one reason or another:

Jan 13, 2010; Whistler, BC, CANADA; Albert Demtschenko (RUS) competes
during the first run of the mens luge at the Whistler Sliding Centre during the
2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Feb 23, 2010; Whistler, BC, CANADA; Todd Lodwick (USA) celebrates after receiving the silver
medal during the medal ceremony for the team nordic combined event at Whistler Medals Plaza
during the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Members of Grand County Emergency Medical Services, the East Grand Fire Department
and Grand Park Community Recreation Center staff treat simulated patients during training
exercises in the foam pit at the recreation center on April 13 in Fraser.

Gymnasts warm-up prior to the gymnastics meet hosted by Alpine Aerials
Gymnastics on May 1 at the Grand Park Community Recreation Center in Fraser.

Rudy Garcia, right, assists with the bean bag toss during kid's games put on by the
Kremmling Volunteer Fire Department on June 19 as part of Kremmling Days festivities.

A merganser takes off from Lake Granby on Oct. 14.

Dave Stiefvater performs during the MBS Mountainboard
demonstration on July 31 at Hideaway Park in Winter Park.

Guitarists Joel Hoekstra, left, and Brad Gillis of Night Ranger perform
during the Winter Park Music Festival on Aug. 7 at Hideaway Park in Winter Park.

Peggy Smith, the mother of Spencer Nelson, speaks at the
candlelight gathering of family and friends on Thursday evening
at the Rendezvous Fire Pit in Fraser to share stories about the
20-year-old killed in a fall while hiking on Aug. 14.

Firefighters working the Onahu fire in Rocky Mountain National Park
look for hot spots while walking down Trail Ridge Road where the fire
crossed the highway late on Sept. 18.

And one last bonus shot. I couldn't have been more proud when my son, Erik, graduated from basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, in July and was then assigned to the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, New York.

Who knows what 2011 will hold? It's going to be hard to top 2010, but whatever it has in store, I wish you health and happiness in the coming year.

goo, goo g'joob

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T07:51:00.000-07:00

goo, goo g'joob

Happy for the return of prep sports and ski season

2010-12-21T14:35:00.000-07:00

December means the return of high school sports...thank goodness! What else would I do with my evenings?

December also means that ski season is in full swing. I told myself after missing a lot of opportunities in the past couple of years because of my knee surgery two seasons ago and the Winter Olympics last season, that I would make it a point to get out on the hill more often this season.

Winter Park Resort opened up Parsenn Bowl for the first time this season last week, which resulted in some nice images of the first tracks.

A skier makes first tracks in Parsenn Bowl at Winter Park Resort.

Probably my favorite image of the day:

Powder turns on Forever Eva in Parsenn Bowl at Winter Park Resort.

goo, goo g'joob

Almost missed this

2010-11-07T20:24:00.002-07:00

The return to Standard Time from Daylight Saving Time always comes at a welcome time for me, usually around the end of soccer season and the end of the election season when I am ready for a break. This year I was also battling a nasty cold coming into the weekend, so I was really looking forward to the extra hour of sleep.

Unfortunately, my cat, Nutmeg, didn't get the memo and was doing everything she could to get some attention from me early this morning. As I attempted to keep my eyes open, I noticed my bedroom curtain had a strange orange hue to it--it's white. It then occurred to me that maybe we were having a colorful sunrise.

So I slowly rolled out of bed and looked outside. What I saw instantly energized me and I grabbed my camera and headed outside to capture what had to be one of the most amazing sunrises I have seen in quite a while...

I should add that I shot this with my point and shoot. I left the card reader for my "real" camera at work, so I will have to post the photo I did with it later.

goo, goo g'joob

***update***

And here is the image from my "real" camera:

A nice surprise

2010-10-20T10:25:00.002-06:00

I was out shooting the fog and frost this morning when I saw the light sparkling off of this frosty grass. After downloading and looking at the image on the computer screen, I noticed the light refracting through the frost created an almost Christmas light look...a nice surprise.

goo, goo g'joob

Another feature photo hunt

2010-10-15T07:55:00.000-06:00

I was in need of multiple "wild art" (as we sometimes call it in the biz) photos for Friday's paper. I was hoping for another foggy, frosty morning as we had had the day before, but, of course, when I looked outside I saw sunny, blue sky.

As I headed out to begin my hunt for feature photos I was a little concerned that this was going to be a difficult task. I stopped to shoot some cattle grazing south of town just so I had something. Then as I looked to the north, I saw that there was indeed fog hanging over Lake Granby.

I quickly made my way to the reservoir and drove along the south shore where the fog seemed to be the thickest. I was starting to see several possibilities when I spotted a fisherman trolling along the shore in his boat. Things were looking up. I shot several frames of him that I thought were going to be exactly what I needed when I saw two mergansers perched on a rock.

I shot several frames of them and then one of the birds slipped into the water. I kept my lens trained on him and I must have somehow spooked him, because all of a sudden, he decided to take off.

This is one of those moments where you hope you can maintain focus on the subject and the other camera settings are correct. It is also an image that I had been hoping to capture for quite a while. Page 1 photo done.

goo, goo g'joob

Rainy morning

2010-10-12T10:44:00.000-06:00

I woke this morning to the sound of rain, which immediately made me want to find a good weather feature for the paper. Unfortunately, Granby isn't much of a pedestrian town when it's raining, so I had to go with the a graphic shot of a puddle. I guess I'm into my "lights reflected in water" phase. Actually glad we were getting rain here in Granby and not the snow they were seeing in the Fraser Valley...keep that snow at the ski area!

My favorite photo from today

2010-10-07T14:49:00.001-06:00

It's that time of the year where I get behind with what I was hoping to do. Between work and coaching soccer I haven't had much extra time, so I have fallen behind on my posting. The three wildfires we have had in the area in the past three weeks haven't helped either and I need to do a post just on the experience of covering my first wildfires.

In any event, here is a photo from an assignment this morning where I shot work on a small bridge and dam in Grand Lake. This photo doesn't work for the story we were doing, but I found it to be visually interesting. These are hoses from pumps that are keeping water out of the work area--about 70 feet of a canal that has been drained so workers can access the small dam. I was drawn to the scene by the colors reflected in the water. This would fall into the "color for color's sake" category--a term I was first introduced to by famed photographer Jay Maisel. Basically the color makes the photo, there is no real subject.

goo, goo g'joob

I have had a good week

2010-08-12T13:31:00.000-06:00

I'm really pleased with what I have shot this past week.

goo, goo g'joob

Night Ranger in Winter Park

2010-08-10T15:08:00.001-06:00

All I'm going to say about shooting Night Ranger in Winter Park the other day is that it is way more fun to shoot a band with personality and one that knows how to have a good time on stage. Here's the proof:

And they can still play, by the way.

goo, goo g'joob

Crankworx Colorado, my favorite weekend

2010-08-03T21:48:00.000-06:00

Greg Watts launches from the "Fruit Bowl"

It was another busy, event filled weekend last weekend highlighted by Crankworx Colorado at Winter Park Resort. This event has been a visual blessing for me the past two years (resulting in award-winning images each year) and this year was no different.

The event is comprised of cross country, dual slalom, downhill, super downhill races and the marquee event, slopestyle.

Slopestyle is what has produced the most interesting images for me the past two years, because of the jumps and tricks performed by the riders.

The slopestyle course designers come up with some variations to the course each year, so I'm always curious to see what they have in store for the riders. This year's special feature was the "Fruit Bowl"--two elevated ramps that would require the riders to jump onto the first one, jump from the first to the second, and then a large jump off of the second one to clear the gap to the landing.

Each year, without fail, the riders complain about the course during the first practice session until someone tackles the toughest of the features and they realize it can be done. Then things get interesting as the riders start to figure out what tricks they are going to do on the various jumps.

Here are a few of my other favorites:

Cameron Zink loses control on the final jump

A new event for this year was the Intergalactic Pond Crossing Championship. Riding a bike 140 feet across a pond on 2x8s supported by inner tubes proved to be very difficult for the competitors, but very entertaining for the spectators.

Tim Allen makes the winning run.

After a long day of work I still had one more stop to make...a mountainboard demo at Hideaway Park in Winter Park. When I first pulled up I was worried that I had missed it, but was fortunate that the boarders were doing one more show. I did as I usually do, I shot some safe shots of the event, then noticed that there were some interesting clouds made even more interesting as the sun was setting. I realized this would make for an ideal silhouette.

Probably my favorite images from the weekend, but not from Crankworx this time.

Another successful and productive Crankworx weekend.

Goo, goo g'joob

A busy weekend

2010-07-28T22:19:00.000-06:00

Summer in Grand County means there is something going on every weekend and it means that there are plenty of events for me to photograph for the newspaper. And in the heart of the summer, there are usually so many events going on that I can't get to everything.

My mantra has become: "I can only be in one place at a time."

Generally I tend to pick the biggest or most significant events, and/or ones that are likely to provide the most visual possibilities.

Things started this past weekend with a swim meet on Friday at the rec center in Fraser. This was the first meet hosted by the new local swim club at the new rec center.

I shot, what I would call, "the usual stuff," then I started to experiment with a couple shafts of light streaming in through the windows and the abstract forms of the swimmers beneath the water surface as they started their races. While not exactly what I was looking for, this was my favorite of the experiments, I liked the texture of the water with the colors beneath the surface:

Saturday started off with a stop at the Alpine ArtAffair in Winter Park. This annual event is one that challenges me each year to come up with something different. It is very easy to shoot the same thing each year--the standard "easy" shot seems to be the crowd of people wandering past the various vendor's tents. I was determined to go way beyond that.

I spent a great deal of time attempting to juxtapose shoppers with several interesting pieces of art. At one tent was a painting of a woman gazing out and I envisioned someone looking at the painting as she was looking at them. Another artist had some interesting metalwork incorporating some colorful stained glass that would work if I could get people looking at it. This would be a test of my patience.

As I was standing and watching visitors pass by the painting, I saw this scene unfolding to my left and knew I had what I was looking for:

John Scott, right, discusses his photographs with a potential customer.

I would spend the rest of the afternoon at the Winter Park Jazz Festival at Hideaway Park. As I walked in the entrance gate, I heard an announcement from the stage that this first day of the festival had sold out and people needed to be sure to make room for everyone. I was a little surprised by this, because while the festival has always been popular, it had never filled the venue. But as I got to where I could get a better overall view of the area I saw that indeed there were A LOT of people there.

I made my way through the crowd to the backstage area where things were much calmer and I could relax a little while waiting for the next act to take the stage. This is another event that I have photographed almost every year since 1989, so again the challenge is to look for some new angle or hope that the performers do something visually interesting.

The first group I photographed was Craig Chaquico, currently a jazz guitarist and the former lead guitarist for Jefferson Starship. I shot him at his two previous appearances at the Winter Park Jazz Festival when it was held at the ski area. Both of those times he started his performance in the crowd. I happened to bump into him backstage and asked him if he would be doing that again and he said he would. ***Note to self: I love working in a small town!***

Next up was Brian Culbertson a phenomenal musician, who I hadn't heard of before, but quickly became impressed. He and his band had a great sound and incredible energy.

When I saw this photo, it reminded me of the type of photos that I had seen Florida-based newspaper photographer Chip Litherland make--in fact his blog used to be titled "Red Lights and Red Eyes." He looks for bold color and makes it the subject of the image.

Gerey Johnson, guitarist for the Brian Culbertson band

Often at this festival the crowd comes and goes depending on who they are interested in hearing, but this year it seemed as though they all stayed afternoon for each act. The final performer of the afternoon would be Chaka Khan. She kicked her set off with her 80s hit "I Feel For You" and that was all I needed:

Chaka Khan

goo, goo g'joob

Georgia on my mind

2010-07-21T15:43:00.001-06:00

I headed to Georgia last week to attend my son's graduation from Army basic training at Fort Benning and to see him for the first time in more than three months. It's been tough not seeing him during his time there, but the letters and phone calls helped. Now I was looking forward to seeing him again and celebrating this huge accomplishment. I was also curious to see how he had changed physically and mentally.

Somewhere over Arkansas or Mississippi

My excitement for the trip was temporarily interrupted as my flight out of Denver was delayed almost an hour. Fortunately there were only two items on the agenda for the day: fly to Atlanta and drive from there down to Columbus, so one hour wasn't going to make much of a difference in the overall scheme of things. I would be meeting up with my ex and her father, along with my daughter, in Atlanta and then we would drive to Columbus together.

Walking off the plane I could already tell that is was still quite warm on this Georgia afternoon--it was hot, but not stifling. One of the things I must have forgotten from my last trip to this area was how the interstate is lined with trees and vegetation, so it's hard to see much of the landscape between Atlanta and Columbus.

My sister and her husband drove up from Florida and met us at the hotel later in the evening.

Thursday morning we drove to Fort Benning for the first of two ceremonies held to mark the end of basic training. The first ceremony would be the "Turning Blue." This is where the soldiers are given the blue cords for their uniform that signify that they are now infantrymen. The second ceremony would be the actual graduation, which would be held Friday morning at the National Infantry Museum.

As we drove onto the base for the first time and made our way to Sand Hill, the area where the basic training companies are located, I was trying to soak it all in--this is where my son had spent the past 14 weeks. We saw several units out on marches, while others were preparing to head out for other training exercises. I couldn't help, but imagine all of the experiences he had been through going from raw recruit at the beginning of April to an infantryman.

The 1-19th barracks

Arriving at the barracks area for the 1-19th, I was surprised how much it looked more like a college campus than army barracks. These were not the barracks of Gomer Pyle or "Stripes." Or at least, not that we could see. We could only see the outside, we weren't allowed inside.

The battalion commander held a meeting with all of the families prior to the ceremony. He highlighted the training these young men had received during the past 14 weeks and welcomed us into the Army family.

Kanell Field

As we headed out to the "field" where the Turning Blue ceremony would be held, I kept imagining Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and John Candy and the rest of their platoon would be "boom, shacka-lacka-ing" their way onto the field at any moment. Thank goodness for the covered bleachers and the jugs of cold water, because it was starting to get really hot.

The ceremony began with the four platoons of Bravo Company marching onto the field. Then the game began for all of the families of finding your son out of the 200 soldiers, when they are all dressed alike. Fortunately they came in order of platoons, so Erik was in the last platoon and he had said he should be in the second row. As they marched in front of our stand I was able to pick him out and was immediately impressed with how he looked in that uniform.

I really felt for these young men. They were wearing their class A uniforms, which are made from wool, and as they stood at attention in this incredible heat, you could see the sweat rolling down their faces. But this training had obviously instilled a lot of discipline in them, because, even with sweat dripping from their noses, they never flinched.

Erik receives his blue cords from his grandfather

The highlight of the ceremony would be having the blue infantry cords put on their uniform. At this point all of the families were invited down to the formation. Erik asked his grandfather to do the honors. It was so good to see him and be able to talk to him face to face again.

To finish up the ceremony, they all recited the Soldier's Creed and sang the Army Song. Afterwards we were able to take Erik, and the majority of his gear, with us for the rest of the day. First things first, he wanted to change out of the uniform and go to lunch. He was glad to be out of the uniform and have the chance to eat something than the same old Army chow. Later he took a break in the air conditioning of our hotel room before spending some time in the pool. We had an early dinner, so we could get him back to his barracks before 8:00.

We were up early on Friday for the graduation ceremony and were greeted with overcast skies, which helped keep the temperatures down...a little. Even with a little more humidity, the lack of sun made it quite comfortable. The parade field at the NIM is only a year old and provides the perfect setting for the ceremony. The bleachers are covered and have a great sound system. It was mentioned that the field has dirt from various fields of battle from around the world to honor the infantrymen who came before these new soldiers. An Army band played several songs prior to the start of the ceremony to keep the crowd entertained while waiting for things to get going.

At the beginning of the ceremony there was a demonstration showing the weapons and equipment of the modern infantry soldier. They also showed how fire teams worked--one of the fundamental ways today's infantry operates.

Then the platoons marched onto the field--they looked much more comfortable today in their ACUs. The bleachers provided a wonderful overall view of the entire company and the ceremony.

Bravo Co., 1-19th Infantry graduation ceremony

4th Platoon, B Co., 1-19th

There were several awards handed out, the battalion commander addressed the families and the soldiers, and he thanked the drill sergeants.

It was then time for the platoons to pass in review for the battalion commander, after that they again recited the Soldier's Creed and sang the Army Song, after which they were dismissed. It was an impressive and very moving ceremony. The families definitely wanted to hang around more than the soldiers--after 14 weeks they were ready to get out of there.

We were able to take the time to tour the NIM and it was well worth it. The displays gave you a history of the Infantry and what all is involved in basic training. I feel so fortunate to have been able to attend such an important step in my son's life.

Congratulations to all of the men of Bravo Company, 1-19th! You are American soldiers!

Rock steady! Hooah!

goo, goo g'joob

New look

2010-07-12T10:14:00.000-06:00

Whoa, more than three months since my last post! That's not good. No excuses, other than after returning from the Winter Olympics I went straight back to work at the newspaper and coaching soccer at the high school, which kept me busy into May.

I have also been playing around with new looks for my blog and as of today you see what I have settled on...for now. I'm going to give a few weeks and see what I think of it then.

Here we are in the middle of summer already. Where has the time gone?

I haven't really done anything that I had hoped to do, so I guess I had better get cracking before I go back to coaching in a little more than a month.

I was able to go back to my high school reunion over the Fourth of July weekend. It was a very quick trip, but well worth it to see and catch up with so many friends from the class of 1980.

Later this week I will be traveling to Georgia to pick up my son, Erik, as he graduates from basic training at Fort Benning. I can't wait to see him! Here he is about a month ago:

In between all of this I am still working for the newspaper. I'm hoping this new look for my blog will motivate me to start posting on a more frequent and regular basis about what I am up to.

goo, goo g'joob

Colorado Press Association awards

2010-03-17T09:22:00.000-06:00

In all of the excitement of my Winter Olympics experience, I almost forgot that the Colorado Press Association held its annual convention while I was gone. The Sky-Hi Daily News picked up 13 awards in the various categories and I was fortunate enough to win four awards, including three first place.

First Place, Best News Photo

First Place, Best Sports Photo

First Place, Best Photo Essay

Second Place, Best Feature Photo

The Sky-Hi Daily News also picked up the Sweepstakes Award for Photo and Design in our class--very cool!

Favorite images from the Winter Olympics

2010-03-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

I put together a slideshow for the Sky-Hi Daily News of my favorite images from the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. It can be viewed by clicking here.

At the Winter Olympics

2010-02-20T16:58:00.000-07:00

For the moment you can read my posts from the Winter Olympics on my Sky-Hi Daily News blog.

One step closer

2010-02-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

This is going to come in handy in four days--my OIAC (Olympic Identity and Accreditation Card) arrived today! This is getting exciting!

I did it all without coffee or breakfast

2010-01-10T17:11:00.000-07:00

Did I just hear a siren? Wait, what time is it? Did I just dream hearing a siren? If I did hear a siren, what kind was it? Ambulance? Police? Fire department?

My alarm clock goes off, so I turn it off. It's my day off, so I'm in no hurry to get up. But what's that smell? Is something burning? I stumble around the house trying to determine if what I'm smelling is coming from my house. There is no smoke, but the smell is fairly strong. I'm fairly confident that it's nothing in my house, so I decide to investigate outside.

Wow, it's cold again this morning! The smoke smell is definitely coming from somewhere in town. Now that I am starting to think logically, I go back inside and turn on my scanner. Within a couple of minutes I can determine from the radio traffic that there is a fire at the Frontier Motel.

I grab my cameras, start the car and head to the other end of town. As I arrive, I see a lot of smoke and some flames. I spend the next hour shooting the firefighters efforts to finish putting out the blaze.

I head back home and download the images I shot. I post one to the newspaper web site and e-mail several to our layout person for the day. Not a bad morning for not having any coffee or breakfast.

goo, goo g'joob

My favorite photos of 2009 and what's in store for 2010

2009-12-30T07:45:00.000-07:00

A year ago I had no idea what 2009 would hold. Our paper had just layed off eight employees, shut down our in-house press. I was due for knee surgery at the end of January. A few months into the new year and we would reduce our publication schedule from five days a week to three, and reduce our staff size ever further. Despite all of these changes, the remaining staff persevered to produce a quality product.

During the course of the year I always seem to question how good of a job I am doing--assignments I could have done better with, if I just would have looked for a different angle, used a different lens, etc. With the end of the year closing in, I decided to pull together my favorite images from the past year. As I looked through hundreds of photos, I realized I had a really good year. I found photos that made me smile, either because of the moment they captured or the experience I had in capturing them. To view the slideshow of my favorite Sky-Hi Daily News images from 2009, click here.

Now I ask the same question I asked myself a year ago, "What does the next year hold in store?" I already know of several things I have to look forward to. My son, Erik, has decided to enlist in the Army and leaves for basic training in two weeks. The journalist in me wants to go along and document his journey, but I know I can't. A few weeks after that I leave for three weeks in Canada at the Winter Olympics. When I return, not only will I be returning to work at the newspaper, it will be time to start coaching girls soccer again. Later in the spring I hope to travel to Georgia to witness Erik's graduation from basic training. In the summer I am looking forward to my 30th high school reunion. That's just half of the year and mixed in with all of these experiences I will be attempting to capture meaningful moments around Grand County for the newspaper. Join me for the ride.

goo, goo g'joob

Same event, same time every year...different image

2009-12-27T19:55:00.000-07:00

On Christmas Eve, Winter Park Resort holds its annual Torchlight Parade and Fireworks--a tradition that has been going on for years. I believe that in the last 22 years that I have lived here, I have photographed at least 20 of them. This year's had to be one of the coldest though--somewhere around 5°F plus a steady wind, which created bitter wind chill. Fortunately I was able to park my car right next to where I was shooting and could hop in to warm up as needed.

Someone commented on my Facebook page that this is basically the same event every year, why not just use a file photo? No way. I am always trying to create a better and different image than I have before. Things around the base of the resort change. Just look at the ad the ski area used to promote its holiday events. The background photo is one I shot more than 12 years ago. None of the base village buildings have been built--it just doesn't look like that anymore.

I had always wanted to shoot this event from across US 40 above the Lakota subdivision, but there were too many trees in the way. As a result of all of the beetle kill in the area, there are many views that have opened up thanks to the removal of the dead trees. I couldn't have shot this angle five years ago.

This event happens in several stages. First the torch-bearing skiers make their way down the Lower Hughes trail. They are followed by the ski area's fleet of snow groomers. And it finishes up with the fireworks display.

Back when I shot film, I would do multiple exposures on the same frame of film to capture these different pieces into one image. That also meant one camera, one image. So I would often shoot with three cameras to have more than one image and to increase my chances of success. With digital I can shoot multiple individual frames of the various stages of the event and combine the ones I want to use later in Photoshop to create the final image, but I still use multiple cameras to have different framing of the scene.

This year I utilized two cameras, one shooting horizontal and one framed for a vertical. I used Pocket Wizards on both cameras to trigger them and help eliminate any camera shake. It also proved useful while I was sitting in my car trying to stay warm.

I take my first exposures shortly after the sun goes down, so I have a frame with detail in the sky and detail on the ski trails. Once the skiers start down with the torches I took several frames that, when combined later, will create one long continuous streak of light down the trail. I do basically the same thing with the fireworks, I shoot several frames during the display and later pick the best bursts to add to the final image.

One of the challenges of being a photographer is creating new and different images of what happens around us everyday or in this case, every year. I heard it once described as "creating extraordinary images of the ordinary." It is the challenge I am happy to take on every day.

Ships passing in the night

2009-11-25T20:26:00.000-07:00

The International Space Station and Space Shuttle Atlantis create streaks of light in the sky as they pass over Byers Canyon on Wednesday evening while traveling at more than 17,000-miles per hour and more than 200 miles above the Earth in this 30-second exposure. The shuttle had undocked from the space station earlier in the day, which created the two separate streaks.

I was incredibly fortunate this evening as I was able to capture the International Space Station and Space Shuttle Atlantis as they passed over Byers Canyon. Adding to the image was the fact that the shuttle had undocked from the ISS earlier in the day, but was still in the same orbit, thus creating the two individual light trails.

I had been planning to shoot something like this for some time, but the ISS never seemed to cooperate--whenever I thought about shooting it, it would only be visible along the horizon if at all. So I happened to check its upcoming orbits last week and, sure enough, there were going to be several days with evening orbits over Grand County. I used Heavens Above to figure out where and when the ISS would be --it is a great site to determine when the ISS or other satellites are going to be passing over your location.

Now that I knew it would be very visible, I just needed to decided where to shoot from. My first thought was to set up and shoot from a hill just outside of Granby, but the more I thought about it, that wasn't going to be as interesting a photo as it could be.

My next thought was to go somewhere around Lake Granby, but I still thought there was something better. Then I remembered I had been trying to come up with something different to photograph in Byers Canyon, west of Hot Sulphur Springs. This was the perfect opportunity.

Armed with my photo gear and my printout with all of the pertinent details from Heavens Above, I headed out to find a location in the canyon where I could show the amazing rock features with the light trails from the spacecraft. My first pass through the canyon yielded three or four possibilities. I soon realized there was a problem however--with the way the canyon winds, I had no reference as to where exactly the ISS would be coming from.

Fortunately, as it grew darker, I could start to make out some of the stars that I could use as reference points from the sky chart I had. But I was still worried about where exactly the light trails would be in relation to the canyon. I stopped and started to set up in the location that I thought would work, but the more I looked at it, the more uneasy I became that it wouldn't yield a good photo.

So I moved on to another location, pondered, then moved on to one last location. At this point I had less than 15 minutes before the ISS would be passing over, so I decided to make the best of this spot. My plan was to try and shoot with two cameras to double my chances of getting a useable image. I set both up, tinkered with how I had each framed, then waited.

Suddenly I noticed a faint light crossing the sky about 30 to 45 degrees to the east of where I thought I should be seeing a light. I basically freaked out and tried to get the cameras moved to catch it before it went out of view. My tripod fell over, I reset the cameras and tried to click off a frame. I was frazzled and was letting loose with quite a string of curses.

What had gone wrong? Was I really that far off on my set up? Frustrated and cold, I decided to start packing up. Glancing once more to the sky, I noticed a very bright point of light appearing above the canyon wall, then shortly after that, a second bright light. I hadn't missed them, it was some other satellite I had seen! I scrambled to get my gear out of the car and get it reset before the space station and shuttle were out of site. I was able to get one 30-second shot off, which is shown above, before they were gone.

It was well worth the effort and difficulties.

goo, goo g'joob

Two of my favorite images from over the weekend

2009-11-10T16:04:00.000-07:00

The incredible colors of Saturday's sunset:

These mugs were hanging up at the Grand Lake Brewing Company and picking up the colors from the television:

All alone in Rocky Mountain NP

2009-10-15T14:48:00.000-06:00

I went up to Rocky Mountain National Park this morning in hopes of finding an image for the front page. I did see a bull elk in the trees, but couldn't a good photo of him. I was able to get a shot of this coyote before he scampered back into the woods.

Aside from a couple of workers doing some work in a campground, I think I was the only person in this part of the park. Despite the tire tracks in the snow on the roadway, I never saw another person.

A frosty cold Coors. . .Field

2009-10-12T21:15:00.000-06:00

On Sunday I shot my first Rockies game since the deciding game against the Phillies in the 2007 NLDS. It was nice to be recognized by several of the security folks and ushers after a two-year absence from Coors Field. I spent nearly two and a half years covering the Rockies from May 2005 to October 2007 and knew many of these people by name. It was always a pleasure to show up at the ballpark and chat with them even if it was for just a short time. I can't say the same for the stick-in-the-mud types over at Invesco Field. Take a hint folks, if I've made it through the five security checkpoints between the media entrance and the field, I'm probably supposed to be there. But I digress.

The story of the night was the weather, so the storytelling image would be something showing the players dealing with the bitter cold. I wasn't seeing what I was hoping to see, that is until the Philadelphia Phillies began to come out for batting practice. As pitcher Pedro Martinez walked through the dugout I knew I had an image I liked.

I should also mention that it's always good to see my photographer friends from Denver. I don't miss all of the driving I used to do when I was covering the Rockies, Broncos, Avalanche, etc., on a regular basis, but I do miss the camaraderie with my fellow photographers.

I love this time of year

2009-09-29T21:15:00.001-06:00

Autumn in Colorado has to be just about the best time of year--warm days, cool nights...at least most of the time. And then there are the phenomenal fall colors as the aspen begin to change.

goo, goo g'joob
t- 136

My new favorite camera

2009-09-27T17:24:00.000-06:00

I've been in the market for an additional camera body for the past few months, but was doing my homework before I decided on which one to get. For the past few years I have been using Canon digital bodies, but have been intrigued by Nikon's D700. I still have all of my Nikon lenses, so going with the D700 wouldn't cause any problems. In talking to several other photographers and looking at samples of photos from the camera, I was impressed by the D700's performance in low light. And because I shoot a lot of high school sports in bad gyms and at dark football fields made me think this might be the right choice.

I ordered the camera last Monday, it arrived on Wednesday. I spent the next couple of days getting used to the controls and doing some test shots. But what I was really waiting for was Friday and a chance to shoot it at a high school football game.

The lighting at the football field at West Grand High School in Kremmling isn't great--with my Canon 1D Mark IIN I could get an exposure of 1/250 @ 2.8, 1600 ISO, but there was also a lot of noise. As you can see in the image above, I was able get an exposure that could stop the action and even shooting at an ISO of 5000, the noise was more of what I was seeing with my other cameras at 800 ISO--if even that much. Getting images like this, under the lighting conditions I was up against, was beyond what I could imagine before last week. What a great tool to have in my arsenal.

goo, goo g'joob
t- 138

Last day of summer, first snow in Granby

2009-09-21T20:55:00.000-06:00

I awoke this morning to the first snowfall in Granby on the last day of summer. There was at least an inch of accumulation before the temperature warmed up enough to melt the early snow and any further snowfall. As the clouds lifted, you could see that the mountains had a nice frosting of snow. I had to turn my furnace on--the temperature in the house had dropped below 60 degrees.

There is a chill in the air

2009-09-14T09:10:00.000-06:00

Another sign that fall is in the air, frost on the car in the morning.

goo goo g'joob
t-151

Contest time

2009-09-14T08:55:00.001-06:00

Fall is probably my favorite time of year. Cool nights, warm days, the changing of the aspen. It also means the entry deadline for the Colorado Press Association awards is here. I usually spend a few hours each day for several days going through the papers from the past year looking for my best work in the four designated photo categories: news, feature, sports and essay. I try to find from five to a dozen possibilities in each category, which will then be whittled down to the three entries allowed for each category.

Then the fun begins.

I am usually able to find two solid entries for each category, but then it gets tough to select the third entry. I have co-workers take a look. I go away for a while, then come back and look at them again. This tends to go on for a couple of days until the deadline approaches and I just pick one and say, "this will have to do."

The process does give me a chance to review my work from the prior year and see how I did. I see images I could have done better, images I shouldn't have taken at all and ones that are very satisfying. Images that generated good feedback from either my editors, friends or the community. It's a process that makes me realize I am very fortunate to be doing what I do, where I do.

goo, goo g'joob

If all sporting events were played in light like this, the world would be a better place...

2009-09-11T13:02:00.000-06:00

I was supposed to shoot a volleyball match in Kremmling last night, so I left soccer practice early in order to get to there in time for the 6:00 start. When I walked into the gym, all I found was volleyball practice. I then learned the match had been postponed due to a large number of players on the other team were sick.

I wandered back outside and saw that there was a pee wee football game being played on the high school field. So I thought to myself, as long as I'm here I might as well shoot it. And I am glad I did. I was able to shoot the final quarter in some of the most wonderful light I have seen in a long time. All of the high school football games I shoot don't start until after 7:00, so if I see anything like this, it only lasts a few minutes and then I am at the mercy of the stadium lights, which aren't very good at the two schools I shoot at. This light lasted the entire time.

Karma?

2009-08-25T19:20:00.000-06:00

It has always been a dream of mine to cover the Olympics--winter or summer, it doesn't matter. The parent company of the newspaper I work for had two credentials available for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and had anyone interested submit an application and short essay earlier this year. I actually thought I had a pretty good chance of being selected, but the powers that be selected someone else.

After being excited about the possibility of going to cover one of the biggest events in the world, I found myself relieved that I wasn't chosen, because I started to realize that the logistics of packing and transporting all of the gear (photography, clothing, ski, etc.) I was going to need for two weeks was a little daunting. I was also going to be on my own for those two weeks and that was going to mean some long days, as well as likely being burnt out by the end of the event.

Fast forward to today.

Earlier today I was talking with my editor and publisher about a variety of things and we briefly talked about how I missed out on the opportunity to go to the Olympics through our company. Our publisher mentioned that she was very surprised that I hadn't been selected. It brought back memories of my dream of covering the Olympics...maybe someday.

Then this afternoon I received a call from the assignment editor at my photo agency, which took me by surprise, because, since I have been working for the newspaper, I haven't shot very much for them. He said he had two questions for me, one that was pretty simple and the other that was a little more complicated. The first was if I would want to shoot any of the Denver Broncos' games this season. When I was freelancing full time, I shot just about every Broncos home game for almost three years. The work I produced was some of my best-selling images I had with the agency, but I really don't have any desire anymore. I don't miss it, other than seeing my photographer friends from Denver. I enjoy my days off now and really don't want to use up one of them driving to and from Denver, and shooting a game. It turns into a 10-12 hour day. No thanks.

Then for the second question, he asked me if I could get two and a half weeks off in February--he wanted me to be a part of the agency's photo team for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. He anticipated me being one of three photographers based in Whistler, shooting primarily the skiing, snowboarding and nordic events. I was stunned and then thrilled, but then I realized I would still need to get the time off from the paper. After getting off the phone, I explained the situation to my bosses and asked if I could take the time off. They were pretty excited for me and at this point, don't see any problems.

I need to confirm everything tomorrow and then start thinking about all of the planning I will need to start doing over the next few months--packing lists for clothing, photo gear, computer equipment, ski equipment, plus get more aggressive about getting in shape. The two weeks of the Olympics can be very physically demading, so my body will have to be ready as well.

So, assuming I didn't imagine all of this today, I will be on my way to Vancouver in a little over five months. I'm sure my preparations for this event of a lifetime will be the subject of additional posts as it draws closer. Stay tuned...

goo, goo, g'joob

Just about 24 hours in LA

2009-07-28T21:26:00.000-06:00

I had told my son Erik that as part of his high school graduation present I would take him to see one of the World Football Challenge matches this summer. The one that would work out best for us was the Inter Milan v. Chelsea match that would be held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. It would be a quick trip--fly in on the afternoon of the game and back out the next day.

As we waited for our flight, I became bored and started shooting reflections in the floor of the DIA terminal:

After arriving in Los Angeles, we went to pick up our rental car. I got a great deal on a full size from Enterprise, but Erik thought the Mercedes looked like the way to go...we went with the Altima...Erik, the Altima, it's behind you:

Heading to our hotel in Arcadia, we jumped on the 605 freeway. Five minutes later, this is what the rest of the drive looked like:

After checking into the hotel, I had also promised him that I would take him to In and Out Burger. Here he is experiencing his first Double Double in 100-degree heat:

From there it was on to Pasadena and the Rose Bowl. It was my first trip the stadium since the 1986 Rose Bowl when Iowa faced UCLA:

We were part of a crowd of 81,000 at the game and what a great setting on a wonderful evening. It was a very entertaining game, but maybe next year Liverpool will take part:

The next morning I discovered my point and shoot was no longer functioning, so I wasn't able to get any additional photos. We found out our hotel was actually on Route 66, but I couldn't get any pix of the sign and I don't have any photos of Erik's first trip to Baja Fresh--yummy Mexican food. That was pretty much it--almost 24 hours on the ground in LA, most of it spent either driving on the freeways or sleeping.

goo goo g'joob

Fire on the mountain, lightning in the air

2009-07-11T22:35:00.000-06:00

As I was getting ready to close my blinds last night, I noticed that clouds had built up over the Continental Divide. I didn't think much about it until, out of the corner of my eye, I saw several flashes in the clouds. A few weeks ago there had been a similar storm, but I was on my way back from Denver and I didn't have my camera with me, so I missed out on quite a show. I told myself I wasn't going to miss out this time, so I jumped in my car and headed to the Granby airport, which gave me a clear view of the storm.

I wasn't the only one who wanted a good view of the show. Not long after I got set up, one of the local police officers came by, not wondering what I was doing, but he said he was just wanting a better view. One of the advantages of working in a small community is getting to know the local law enforcement officers and having them not be surprised when I show up in strange places, at strange times.

The photo above was probably the best image I captured that showed a significant number of lightning bolts. I tried a variety of exposures trying to capture what I was seeing. As the sky got darker, the lights from Front Range cities began to light up some of the clouds along with the lightning. It took on an appearance of a massive fire or a scene from Lord of the Rings. The scene also brought to mind the Marshall Tucker Band song "Fire on the Mountain."

Stalking bicyclists

2009-07-03T19:30:00.000-06:00

Had an assignment this week to illustrate a story we were working on about a new Colorado law that will go into effect on August 5. Motorists will now be required to give at least three feet of clearance when passing a bicycle. I had seen several other photos illustrating this, but they were all shot straight on showing a car passing a bicycle. I definitely wanted to do something different, so I thought the best route to go would be to shoot with a wide angle from a car as it passed a bicycle.

Sounds easy enough, doesn't it? But I would need to mount a camera to my car and position it in a way that it would show both my car and the bicycle. And I would need to find someone riding along the highway, not on a bicycle path. Actually the first thing I did was call a couple of friends to see if they would be doing any road biking--they weren't. So I would have to rely on coming across a cyclist by chance. Here is how my set up looked:

I clamped the Magic Arm to the handle on the door and ran a safety cable through the camera strap, Magic Arm and PocketWizard just in case anything would come loose. I would rather it dangle alongside the car than hit the pavement at 45-60 mph.

I was in the western part of the county, but didn't find any bikers, so I headed back towards Winter Park where I thought there might be a better chance of coming across some riders. My only worry was that the weather looked like it might take a turn for the worse. But it didn't take long for me to find someone and I was fortunate enough to pass him once, then pull over and let him go back by, then have one more pass.

Looking at the results, I wish I would have been a little closer, but that's where I wish I was photographing someone I knew, so I wouldn't cause the rider to panic. But considering on how quickly I had to get the shot done, I'm pleased with the results.

Click here for the story.

Gearing up for the Fourth

2009-06-30T14:27:00.000-06:00

Danny Tucker assembles sideboards for mortars that will be used for the Grand Lake Fourth of July fireworks display. Tucker was helping Chuck Barry, whose family has been putting on the Grand Lake show for the past 28 years.

When an event happens every year, it's easy to get in the habit of shooting the same thing each time. So my challenge is to come up with something different. I was fortunate enough today to come across workers rigging up the mortars for the fireworks show in Grand Lake. As Chuck explained, "Putting on a fireworks show is a lot like preparing Thanksgiving dinner. There are weeks of preparation, the dinner itself that doesn't last very long, and then the clean-up, which seems to take a couple of weeks."

It sounded like a good idea...at the time

2009-06-23T21:56:00.001-06:00

While shooting the Mud Race during Kremmling Days last weekend, I kept trying to think of something different I could do in order to come up with a really awesome shot. It was easy to shoot straight-forward action, so as I watched the first run I noticed there were a few of the trucks that had open roll cages that I might be able to attach a remote camera too.

Between runs I approached the driver of the truck that I had noticed didn't seem to get too much mud on the driver or in the middle of the truck where I would likely be mounting the remote. I explained to Mitch Perron of Soda Springs, Idaho, what I had in mind and he said go ahead.

After clamping the camera to the roll cage and adding a couple of safety cables to keep the camera or rigging, if it should happen to come loose, from dropping into the mud, Mitch checked out the set-up:

As Mitch's second run approached I got more nervous as I thought about all of the things that could go wrong. I had double-checked to make sure everything was tight, exposure was set and Pocket Wizards were working:

Aside from my concerns about my equipment, I was also worried about if the lens was going to give a wide enough view and if I was using too slow of a shutter speed. The answers would turn out to be no and yes.

The 16mm didn't quite give me the view I was hoping for and 1/30 of second was too slow for the speed and vibration from the truck. Oh well, live and learn. As the truck crossed the finish line I noticed that the Magic Arm and camera were starting to fall over (I think the vibration the truck experienced during its run loosened the Magic Arm). Fortunately the safety cables did their job, however the rig fell over far enough to put it in line where the mud was flying.

I finally broke down and cleaned the camera and lens this morning. The only consequence appears to be that I got some moisture in the lens while I was cleaning it and the autofocus seems to not be working. However, it does show signs of starting to work this evening.

This tree is just right

2009-06-12T19:47:00.000-06:00

Heard a call on my scanner late yesterday afternoon saying there was a report of a bear in a park in town. I was going to ignore it, but seeing as we don't get many bears here in Granby I thought I might as well check it out. He was hidden by the leaves and branches from most angles, but after moving around to the east I was able to get this shot of him. In talking to the police officers who were keeping tabs on the situation, they said the plan was to leave him alone and let him come down on his own. The wildlife officer wasn't too concerned as this bear hadn't been a nuisance before, so they would let him be and sure enough, a few hours later he came down and went on his way.

"Please keep this pass visible at all times"

2009-06-01T17:01:00.000-06:00

As I was trying to be productive today and clean up some things around the house, I came across the bag that I have tossed all of the various media credentials and passes I have accumulated over the past 28 years into. As I looked through them I reflected back on the variety of experiences they represented--predominantly sporting events, some significant, others just another game.

Among the credentials you can find:

•my forged photo pass for the Iowa-Michigan State game in 1981 which sent Iowa to the Rose Bowl. The first college football game I shot from the field, but spent most of the time worrying I was going to get caught rather than shooting.
•my pass for Mother Theresa's 1986 visit to the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colo.
•my photo pass from the Colorado Rockies first home game in 1993.
•my Secret Service pass for G8 wives visit to Winter Park in 1996, actually it's so small compared to the others you probably can't see it.
•my media credential for the Kobe Bryant hearings in Eagle, Colo., in 2004.
•numerous Denver Broncos and Colorado Rockies credentials.

Contrails

2009-05-21T15:29:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure what it is about contrails, but they fascinate me.

Catching up, again

2009-05-11T18:13:00.000-06:00

Surprise, surprise...way behind on posting, again.

Between work and coaching, it's amazing how fast the past two months have gone by. The Middle Park HS girls soccer team really put together a season to remember. They ended up undefeated in our new league (10-0) and lost just one non-conference game to finish 14-1 overall. We anxiously awaited the state tournament bracket to come out and see where we were seeded. Much to our surprise, we got the 9th seed and would face Aspen HS in our first-ever playoff game, which we would also host.

We came out looking very strong, dominating possession, getting shots, but we couldn't find the back of the net. An unfortunate handball in the penalty area gave Aspen a penalty kick midway through the first half and a 1-0 lead. A second Aspen goal in the second half didn't keep the girls from continuing to shoot. In fact we out-shot Aspen 15-3. We finally scored late in the half to close the gap, but just couldn't find an equalizer. Another frustration for us was hitting the crossbar five times. Just a case of outplaying our opponent, but not being able to score when we needed it.

As a coach, you really feel for your athletes when they have been working so hard all season long, but then their hard work isn't rewarded with a playoff win. This was a special season with a special group of girls. They have set the bar very high for future teams.

A very special thank you to the seniors we will be saying goodbye to at our banquet on Tuesday evening: Emily, Lindsey, Anna, Brittany, Khyla, Shelley, Kristin, and Ryndi.

Curling and soccer

2009-03-15T20:24:00.000-06:00

With the start of the girls high school soccer season and more changes at the newspaper, I haven't had as much time to update as I would like. I continue to make progress post-surgery--the knee feels better every day. I've been able to do low-impact exercise for the last month, but I can't wait for clearance from my doctor to start skiing and running again.

In the last month I have shot an interesting variety of assignments. My favorite was easily the U.S. Olympic Curling Trials. I became fascinated with curling when it became an Olympic sport in 1998 and by the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, I easily watched more curling than any other sport. While it seems as though the sport is the butt of jokes (primarily because people don't understand it), I am fascinated by the strategy and after seeing it in person, the true athleticism of the curlers--those sweepers work up a sweat! I'm hoping to give curling a try by the end of the year and, who knows, maybe I'll be making a run at the 2014 Olympics. In any event, here are a few of my favorites from the women's final:

Another great thing was the start of the Middle Park HS girls soccer season. We have a great group of girls this season and they have been working very hard. Their hard work was rewarded a week ago at the Mesa Ridge Tournament, a tournament we have been going to for five years. Each year we have done a little better and we felt we had the players to win it this year. And sure enough, the girls rose to the occasion and defeated three 4A schools to take first place and win the first-ever trophy for the soccer program at Middle Park. The 3-0 start to the season is the best start we have ever had and the winning continued this weekend with a 7-0 defeat of the Denver School of Science and Technology, our first league game of the season.

Under the arthoscope

2009-02-04T13:54:00.000-07:00

Two months after tearing the meniscus in my left knee, I finally had surgery. It's sore, but I can already tell that once I have a chance to rehab it, it is going to be like new.

A "new" toy

2009-01-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

For the past few years I have wanted to put a remote camera behind the backboard for a high school basketball game. It's not a new idea by any means--if look at the major sports magazines (e.g. Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine), they routinely use backboard camera for their coverage of college and pro basketball. I had gathered all of the equipment I needed make this work and verified with our publisher that, if I went to the trouble of rigging all of this up, I would be covered by our company's liability insurance if something went wrong and any of the rigging fell. The trouble for me was that neither of the high school gyms I shoot in had anything behind the backboards that I could easily clamp the camera onto.

Fortunately Middle Park High School here in Granby had been working on a new gym during the last year. A few weeks ago when I took a peak at it as it neared completion I was thrilled to see they had installed a completely different type of support system for the backboards which would allow me to attach my camera without too much trouble and the light in the gym was significantly brighter than the old gym (this would allow me to shoot available light and not have to figure out how to rig the camera to work with the strobes I normally use--it's a long story and I won't get into it now, maybe another time when I solve that problem). I immediately checked with the school's athletic director to see if he had any issues with what I was hoping to do. He gave me the go ahead.

The school was scheduled to play its first games in the new gym last week, so I wanted to give this a try right away. The day before the game I went in to check the exposure, options on exactly where to place the camera and, most importantly, see if there was a ladder I could use. Luckily one of the contractors still finishing up some work on the gym had a 12-foot ladder he was happy to let me use. One of the issues with doing a remote of this type is that it needs to be in place before the players start warming up and, because this was my first attempt, I wanted to have enough time to make sure everything was working and be able to deal with any problems, which meant getting to the gym early enough before the first game, which was a JV game scheduled to tip-off at 4:00, so I was there at 2:45, even though I wouldn't really be using the camera until the varsity girls game at 5:30 and varsity boys at 7:00.

I think it took me about 45 minutes to get everything set up and secure, and to where I felt comfortable that I might be able to make a decent image. I checked and re-checked the focus, exposure and framing until I finally said, "If it doesn't work this time, there is always the next game," and climbed down from the ladder and got ready to shoot the games. I would occasionally fire the remote during the JV game to make sure it was working and felt like I was keeping one eye on it to make sure it wasn't coming loose or about to fall.

I used the remote some during the girls game, but the action didn't really fit with where it was set up. The action in the boys game was much more dynamic and there were several times where I felt I might have captured what I was after, but I wouldn't know until the game was over when I climbed back up the ladder to retrieve the camera.

A shot from this angle is really a crap shoot. There are a lot of factors which have to come together to make the image work and fortunately I believe I was able to capture at least one good frame from my first attempt:
This photo was made with a Canon 20D, 16-35/2.8 set at 16mm, exposure was 1/500 at 2.8, ISO 1600.

Middle Park faces their county rivals, West Grand, on Tuesday and I hope to try the set-up again. For the next 24 hours I will debate in my head what I may do differently this time, do I set the camera for vertical again, or do I try horizontal? should I raise it up a little higher?

Goo, goo, g'joob.

Where were you?

2009-01-22T13:03:00.001-07:00

I think Tuesday's presidential inauguration will be one of those events where people will remember where they were when Barack Obama was sworn in. I was in the eighth grade classroom of East Grand Middle School social studies teacher Abby Loberg. These three students seem genuinely interested in the inauguration. The rest of the class had our reporter surrounded giving their opinions why John McCain would have been a better president.

Then I hurried down to a local cafe to capture adults listening to Obama's inauguration address.

"If you're good at something, never do it for free." --The Joker

2009-01-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

I'm always on lookout for good arguments to use when someone asks me to let them use a photo for free. I think I will just send them the link to this video from now on:

Recent work

2009-01-11T21:04:00.000-07:00

Here a couple of my favorite images from the past week. This first one is from a snowcross race held just south of Granby last weekend. I covered this series last year and had a great time--there was great action and great light. This year the light just didn't cooperate, so I challenged myself to find something, or more accurately SEE something different away from the usual straight-forward action. This was the result:

The other photo is from the miserable day of weather we experienced on Wednesday. I had heard that U.S. 40 over Berthoud Pass had been closed due to adverse weather, so I headed that way to get a photo of the road block. Having got that shot I headed back to Granby. As I got to the west side of Red Dirt Hill I noticed the blowing snow was causing whiteout conditions. I found a safe spot along the edge of the highway and photographed traffic as it passed into the white cloud. This was my favorite:

Our small staff gets smaller

2009-01-01T10:48:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post this for several days, but just haven't had time. Two weeks ago the paper I work for announced several layoffs and that our paper would no longer be printed on site. A few days later as I walked through our press room, it really sunk in that I would no longer hear the press running or be working with some great people.

The final Sky-Hi Daily News printed in Granby.

The clipboard showing the final press runs hangs on the silent press.

I'm going to miss Will, John, Jennifer, Carol, Mike and John.

Worth the wait

2008-11-11T17:24:00.000-07:00

So after eleven months of procrastinating I finally made time to get my car fixed after my accident last December. I have to thank my friend Bobby who did the work for a lot less than the body shop wanted--he also made some great suggestions to liven up the paint scheme.

Old and busted....

New hotness....

This hasn't happened in a while

2008-11-01T09:54:00.000-06:00

Ah, the joys of being a high school coach. I guess this is a sign that I am loved...

You gotta love Halloween.

State playoffs bound

2008-10-19T21:33:00.000-06:00

I now have a pretty good idea what it's like for those basketball teams waiting for their bids to the NCAA tournament. The Middle Park HS boys soccer team (which I am an assistant coach for) finished its regular season last week and finished second in their region, thus securing a spot in the state playoffs for the first time in several years. The seeding committee met this morning and finally around 12:30 the bracket was posted. We were seeded 25th in the 32 team field--a little lower than we had hoped, but are looking forward to the opportunity to extend our season. We will be traveling to Hotchkiss on Tuesday to take on a team that went undefeated with record of 11 wins and 4 draws. With just one practice to prepare, we will have to be on our game. Although we like our chances going up against a team that we have no history with, so we have no preconceived idea of what we need to do. We just have to play our best soccer and see how things play out.

goo goo g'joob

One year +

2008-09-25T15:17:00.000-06:00

I'm a month late in celebrating my one year anniversary of working for the Sky-Hi Daily News. But I guess that's okay, because my boss just did my annual review today, so I'm not the only one late in marking the occasion.

I'm very grateful for the opportunity that I've had to work for the newspaper. In these times when many newspapers are laying off staff or even folding, I'm thankful for this job and the support I receive from my editor and the rest of the editorial staff. Working for a small community paper does have its advantages and there are also a few disadvantages. We just finished putting together our entries for the state press association contest and I was hard-pressed to find any strong news images from the last year. I had plenty of feature and sports photos to choose from. I guess that will be a challenge for myself in the next year--to produce more news photos.

One other thing I want to do in the next is make this blog more interesting. I think I said that a while back, but I'm now to the point where I like the title and I feel I have a better vision of what I want it to be, so that anyone who actually reads it will have a reason to keep coming back.

So I'll be anxious to see what the next year holds in store for my community, the nation and the world, and what we will be talking about a year from now.

goo goo g'joob

A Weekend in Missouri

2008-09-22T20:42:00.000-06:00

I visited my daughter at the University of Missouri over the weekend. It was great to be able to spend some time with her--coming from a high school of 400, then being a part of the largest freshman class in Mizzou history (approx. 5,900 students) has been quite an adjustment. We were able to watch the Missouri women's soccer team defeat my alma mater Iowa Friday night and then go out for a nice dinner.

I shot the Missouri-Buffalo football game on Saturday, then we headed out for dinner in downtown Columbia. You just gotta love the atmosphere of a college town after a football game.

Emily mentioned to me that she had seen a building in downtown Columbia that had our last name on it. We drove by it a couple of times during the weekend, but I didn't get a photo of it until I was on my way out of town Sunday morning:

Apparently in the late 1800s/early 1900s there were two brothers named Hetzler who had some sort of meat packing operation in downtown Columbia. Hetzler isn't a very common name, so it's always interesting to come across things like this.

It was an all too quick couple of days, but well worth it.

NOTE: Shameless plug to follow!

One of the things that made traveling easier for me this time was the purchase of a ThinkTank Airport Security rolling case. I had been reading about them for a long time and talked to other photographers who own this particular case and each of them had nothing but praise for it. I had been using a LowePro Computrekker for many years, it's a good bag, but it was taking a toll on my shoulders and back. The ThinkTank case is carry-on size and I was able to fit everything in it I needed to shoot a football game.

A new title

2008-09-22T12:18:00.000-06:00

For the first post on my revised blog, let's start with the obvious question of "what's the deal with the new title of this blog?"

Over the years, I have had to photograph a variety of subject matter and events. I have photographed editorial jobs, commercial jobs, NFL football, college football, high school football, NBA basketball, college basketball, high school basketball, NHL hockey, World Cup skiing, the Winter X Games, Major League baseball, high school baseball, MLS soccer, high school soccer, PGA golf, high school volleyball, high school softball, high school track, rodeos, trail rides, traffic accidents, wildlife, weddings, black tie fundraisers, ground breakings, ribbon cuttings, concerts, craft fairs...you get the idea. Each of these situations often requires blending into the scene, thus the title "I am the Chameleon" and the obvious spoof on the Beatles "I am the Walrus."

Goo goo g'joob, or was it coo coo kachoo?

Rodeo

2008-07-24T15:28:00.000-06:00

Unlike many of my photographer friends, colleagues and acquaintances, I am not in Beijing.

I've had a few people ask or comment about some rodeo photos I've been shooting for the paper lately, so I thought I would offer some insight into what I do to get those shots. I have to say that this may not be how every other rodeo shooter does it, but these are the techniques that work for me in the arenas I shoot at.

I have been shooting the rodeos in Grand County off and on over the past 18 years, but in the last five or six years I have shot most of the rodeos in Granby and Fraser each summer. The Granby rodeo series runs from Memorial Day weekend through the Fourth of July. Granby's Flying Heels Arena is big--so big that I shoot most events from inside the arena. Over the years I have had a few close calls with the livestock, but, knock on wood, nothing worse than having to scramble over the fence.

In July the rodeo action in Grand County moves from Granby to Fraser. The rodeo arena in Fraser isn't as big as the one in Granby, so I don't have to be inside the arena (except for mutton busting), which makes it easier not having to think about the traffic in the arena and avoiding getting run over by horses or bulls, so I can focus on shooting.

What the Fraser arena has in common with Granby is that both have terrible lighting. Of course the bull riding happens at the end of the rodeo, so in order to get usable shots I put up several small strobe units to supplement, or more accurately, take control of the lighting. It helps, but it's not perfect, because of the limited options I have for placement of the strobes as shown below:

For comparison, here is what the action looks like without any additional lighting. Keep in mind I did a fair amount of work on the image in Photoshop to get it look like this:

The best action tends to be right in front of the chutes, so that is where I have them aimed. Here are a couple examples of the results of shooting with the strobes:

(Please note: I've been trying to finish this post for a couple of weeks now, but for some reason I was having a terrible time getting the photos added to the post.)

How I spent two hot days in Denver...

2008-07-11T15:05:00.001-06:00

I spent the last two days in Denver shooting a benefit golf tournament for the National Sports Center for the Disabled. I have shot this event every year for the past 15 years or so--the last eight years the tournament has been held at The Sanctuary, an incredible private golf course south of Denver. They only host a handful of tournaments each year, so it's quite a privilege to get to see this amazing golf course.

PGA Tour player Jonathan Kaye was on hand the second day to schmooze with the players and did a clinic with some disabled children.

The event raised more than $500,000 for the NSCD.

It must be summer

2008-06-27T12:04:00.001-06:00

Living where I do, it seems as though summer often has a difficult time finding us. Until a couple of weeks ago, even though the calendar said June, it still didn't seem like the temperatures were warming up very much. But all of a sudden it was as though someone finally flipped the switch and summer has arrived.

Another sign of summer in the mountains is all of the events on the weekends...rodeos, mountain bike races, music festivals, running races, town festivals, and on and on. Having lived in Grand County for more than 20 years, I have had the chance to attend many of these events, but I had never been to Hot Sulphur Days or Kremmling Days...until this year. I had a great time covering these small-town celebrations.

The Grand County Blues Society hosted its sixth Blues from the Top festival at the end of June in Winter Park at the revamped Hideaway Park. I've always felt like I have eclectic taste in music, but my experience with the blues has been limited--mostly the few blues shows the GCBS has put on during the past year. Having the opportunity to hear a variety of artists over the course of the two days of this year's BFTT was a memorable experience. I will say that if you ever have the chance to see Zac Harmon in person, make sure you do, otherwise you will miss an incredible performer. Zac had, what has to be, the unenviable task of opening Sunday's show at 11:00 a.m. All he did was blow everyone away with a performance full of energy and a pure love for what he was doing--it was better than a tall, double latte!

Here is blues harmonica player Jason Ricci silhouetted against a tent near the stage:

And because it's taking me so long to post this, I might as well include the Fourth of July. I traveled from one end of the county to the other covering the various events celebrating the holiday. I had three choices of fireworks displays to attend and I finally chose to go to Kremmling to see their "Fire Up the Cliffs" display, which I had never seen before. I spent quite of bit of time choosing a location to shoot from. I settled on shooting from a spot along U.S. Highway 40 just west of town where I could get a reflection of the cliffs and fireworks in a pond. I almost regretted my decision when I was immediately attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes, but luckily had a stash of repellent in the car. In the end it was all worth it. Here is the result:

I was able to shoot a second display the following night when Granby did their display following the final Flying Heels Rodeo of the season. Because the fireworks were set off immediately after the conclusion of the rodeo (around 9:30), I didn't have time to get set up and follow my normal timetable for shooting fireworks where I normally would make my first image about an hour prior to the start of the show, so that I have a frame with detail in the sky. But I was still happy with the result:

(Both fireworks photos were created from four different files and combined into one final image.)

Does this mean I'm getting old?

2008-06-02T20:43:00.000-06:00

It was a special time last weekend as my daughter Emily graduated from high school. She was also one of the valedictorians, which made it all the more special. I am very proud of her!

On a closing note, I was shooting some end of school year festivities at a local elementary school yesterday and came across these flags that were being passed out to the parents. I thought it was quite funny/ironic/sad. If it doesn't show up well and you can't read it, it says "Made in China."

The End is in Sight

2008-04-23T21:32:00.000-06:00

The last two weeks of the girls' soccer season always fly by. We come back from spring break, there is usually a game or two to make up from postponements earlier in the season, so those are crammed in with our regularly scheduled games, plus practice on any open days. Throw in the fact I also have to work my regular job and we are at the end of April before you know it.

The end of this season is especially bittersweet, because not only will we be saying good bye to a great bunch of seniors, but also to one of whom is my daughter, Emily. When it comes down to it, Emily is the reason I got into coaching soccer in the first place 10 1/2 years ago. When she was seven, she came home from soccer practice and said they were going to need another coach for her age group, because there were so many kids. I went to the next practice and thought to myself, "this could be fun." Then, as they say, the rest is history. The other thing that will be hard about saying good bye to these seniors is that they were freshmen when I started coaching at the high school, so we have been together all four years that I have been with the program. Their commitment and desire was a key factor to our success this season.

The girls actually finished out the season with some strong performances against the top teams in our league. These teams will likely be contending for the state title this year and the way the girls performed shows how much our program has improved this year. We finished with our best record ever, scored more goals than we ever have before, allowed fewer goals than ever, and had a great time doing it! We will have our end of season banquet next week, where there will be plenty of laughter and tears. Thanks girls!

Countdown to spring break

2008-04-02T10:58:00.000-06:00

(I should have posted this a couple of weeks ago, but got caught up with work, coaching soccer and thinking about my pending trip to Florida for spring break.)

I have to get my taxes done!

Sometimes this job can be an emotional roller coaster. Take yesterday (Tuesday, April 1) for example...

I got to the office and was promptly notified that there had been a serious car accident with a fatality and the rumor was that the victim was the principal of one of the local elementary schools. I got to the scene around an hour after the accident, but the cars involved were still there and the amount of damage was incredible. By this time it was confirmed that the victim was indeed the principal of Fraser Valley Elementary School, so I headed to the school to see what I could find.

This is the second staff member the local school district has lost this school year in an auto accident. In the fall, a teacher at the high school was killed on her way to work, so this was all too familiar and very depressing.

On the flip side, I spent the evening with one of the candidates for mayor here in Granby. When I walked into the bar she and her supporters were gathered at, her supporters immediately thought she had won because I was there. I had to assure them that I was only there, because their candidate had a good chance to win, not that I had any information on the results. It turned into a long night and eventually the candidate, her family and a small group of supporters went to her home to wait on word from town hall. When she finally received official word at 11:35 p.m., despite it being a long day for me, I was glad I had stuck it out and was happy with the image I got.

Turning to the world of soccer, our girls had an amazing game on Monday, March 31, defeating Bishop Machebeuf 7-6. Our girls were down 5-2 at one point and staged an amazing rally in the second half to comeback for the win. In past years, it would be easy for the team to lose hope, but not this year. They never gave up and ended up beating a team they had never beat before. The win also put us at the top of our league, temporarily, which was an added bonus.

The following Thursday, we had another home game scheduled, but our home field is still covered with snow, so the game was moved to Denver. All of the snow we received over the winter and spring, along with the fact that we just haven't had much warm, sunny weather to melt that snow, is making it look more and more like we aren't going to be having any home games this season. We played St. Mary's Academy, a team that has given us fits the past few years. We had trouble getting our offense on track, but our defense held its own giving up just one goal in a 1-0 loss to a team that had beaten us 8-0 and 7-0 in the past two years. It is encouraging to see how much more competitive we are this season.

This brings us to spring break. I'm heading to Florida with my son to visit my parents. Some warm weather and the beach will be a welcome break from the winter weather here in Colorado.

Catching up

2008-03-17T22:08:00.000-06:00

I have been way too lax in keeping this blog fresh, so it is my intent to be much more diligent. I commend my peers who are able to update theirs on a consistent basis. You can check out some of them by clicking on the links to the right.

I can't believe it is already mid-March--where does the time go? Because it has been a while since my last post, we have some catching up to do.

Work at the Sky-Hi Daily News has been going well. You can get an idea of what I have been doing by going to the paper's web site or checking out my SportsShooter.com page. I feel fortunate to be working at a small community daily when many large dailies are suffering layoffs.

For anyone that doesn't know, in addition to my photography work, I also coach soccer at Middle Park High School here in Granby and we are currently almost a month into the girls season. Now you may ask how does a soccer team practice in the heart of the mountains when there is still several feet of snow on the ground. In the past we practiced in the high school gym, which didn't do much to prepare us for playing outside. During the past year we were very fortunate to have a parent who was able to raise the money to build an indoor field. It's only a third of the size of a normal field, but it's a tremendous improvement over the gym. Four games into the season and we can already see the difference it's making in the girl's play.

The girls are playing better than they ever have this early in the season. We have three more non-conference games before we start league play, which is what will really tell us where we are at, but until then we are enjoying the ride.

One of the original reasons I moved to Grand County was because of the skiing at Winter Park. As the years have gone on, I don't ski as much as I used to and I am getting pretty choosy about when I ski, but with a regular work schedule at the newspaper I actually have day(s) off, so as the ski season enters its final month I have tried to get out for at least a few runs each week. Earlier this week I was able get with my good friend Dan and we made some great turns. This being the height of the spring break season, there was only one way to get away from the tourist crowds--that was to hike to terrain no one else would go to...it was well worth it:

That's the quick update. I'm looking forward to posting on a more frequent basis and I hope you will enjoy my future offerings. Cheers!

Out with the old, in with the new

2007-10-18T22:45:00.000-06:00

The newspaper I work for launched its redesigned version this week. So for the last edition of the old version of the paper I was asked to come up with an appropriate photo for the front page. Lucky for me, a rancher friend was moving his herd of cattle from their summer pasture to the fall pasture. The cattle drive covers several miles and takes the herd along U.S. 40, and offers a variety of images as several hundred head of cattle make their way down the highway and bring traffic to a crawl. After an hour I still felt like I hadn't captured "the" image--I knew I had photos that would work for the paper, but nothing fitting the final edition of the paper. Then, as the last of the herd was moved off the highway into the pasture, the four cowboys (and girl) who were helping rode between some cottonwood trees, which were still in full autumn color and I then knew I had what I needed.

I then needed to find an image suitable for the front page of the new redesigned paper. Because we were starting a new era in the history of our newspaper, I thought a shot of a sunrise would work. Our editor agreed and I set off each morning on three days to try and capture a suitable sunrise. After trying several locations, I decided on the one which gave me a good view of the mountains and an interesting look at the valley in the foreground. It was the third morning which gave me the best color in the sky as the began to rise from the behind the Continental Divide.

And here are the two front pages...

Do I miss shooting pro sports?. . .not really

2007-10-01T12:33:00.000-06:00

Now that I'm working for the newspaper I haven't had any time to shoot for US Presswire (the sports photo agency I have covered a variety of pro and college sports for during the past two-plus years), so I've had several people ask me if I miss covering things like the Broncos and Rockies--especially with this evening's play-in game on tap. I think a month ago there were times that I might have missed it, but I definitely don't miss the drives to Denver. And after covering high school sports for the paper during the last month, it's a pleasure dealing with the local schools who actually appreciate me being there and getting such great feedback from parents and other community members. The pure joy high school athletes play with is often a sharp contrast to the egos and attitudes of professional athletes. If there is anything I miss, it's having the opportunity to see photographer friends from Denver, but I'm hoping our paths will cross again soon.

Sure it would have been great to be at the Rockies game on Sunday and to go to the game against the Padres later today, but I will be having a great time applying what I have learned from shooting pro and college sports to the local high school volleyball game I will covering.

So far, so good

2007-09-18T21:02:00.000-06:00

It's been a few weeks since I started working for the local newspaper, and it's been a great couple of weeks. I've been getting some great feedback from the community, which is one of the perks of working for a small paper. I'm still working on getting back in the swing of working a regular job again, as well as getting used to the workflow of the paper.

I'm still coaching soccer at Middle Park High School and our season is well underway. I'm coaching the junior varsity and they are progressing nicely, we're seeing improvement every day. The varsity boys are undefeated, but we have some tough games coming up this week starting tomorrow. Before I forget, I have to congratulate my son Erik (#12 below) on scoring his first varsity goals last Friday. A junior, he is settling in well to his role as the left midfielder. Good luck to the Panthers on their six games coming up in the next 10 days!

The First Day...

2007-08-28T18:51:00.000-06:00

Today was my first day of work at my new job as the photographer for the Grand County Newspapers here in Granby, Colo.

It has been more than 21 years since I worked as a full-time newspaper photographer, hence the name of my blog. In the years between newspaper gigs I have worked as a meetings/group coordinator for a resort, done sales and p.r. for a small ski resort/hotel, managed Front Range sales efforts for a major Colorado ski resort, been the assistant media relations director for a major Colorado ski resort, been the staff photographer for that same ski resort, then having that job eliminated, I became a full-time freelance photographer, while driving a shuttle bus part-time for a ski resort and coaching boys and girls soccer at the local high school.

But now I return to my newspaper roots. This is actually a great opportunity as the paper is getting ready to get a major re-design and move towards being a daily county-wide paper. I'm really looking forward to the chance to be a part of the new and improved newspaper. We've got a great staff that is really easy to work with, which makes going to work a pleasure.

We'll see what the future holds...