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

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

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

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

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!

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!

goo, goo g'joob

Happy for the return of prep sports and ski season

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