Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Just about 24 hours in LA




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

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Fire on the mountain, lightning in the air



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."

Friday, July 3, 2009

Stalking bicyclists



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.