A nice surprise

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

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

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

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

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

goo, goo g'joob

Night Ranger in Winter Park

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

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