the other blog

I change my mind a lot.  Well, not about all things.  I’ve always liked bikes and I’ve always disliked ingrown hairs.  Those things probably won’t change.  But I do change my mind on how my websites are arranged.  And today marks yet another change, hopefully the last major one.  At least for the rest of the year.  :>)

So the first thing you may notice is that this blog has a new look.  On the surface it has a shiny new template, but deeper inside the belly of the blog is a change of intent.  I used to have two blogs, a wedding-only blog and this blog, which was a mish mash of everything else, mixing together personal bike riding stuff with corporate events.  What a dumb idea that was.  Who came up with that?  Oh, right.

Well that was then and this is now.  The Steve Z Wedding Blog has now morphed into the Steve Z Photography blog, and it has a new home at www.stevezphotography.com/blog, and will feature work from all facets of my professional realm, and is mostly a Google-friendly portfolio.  This blog will now become a more casual photo site and will hopefully include more frequent posts, humorous images, and wacky adventures.  Now that the burden of trying to have corporate headshot clients will be transferred elsewhere, I can be free to post more about random stuff that I find interesting, which isn’t entirely random since I most pay attentions to biking, snow sports, and photography.

But wait, THERE’S MORE!  I’ve launched a new wedding portfolio site at www.stevezweddings.com.  It’s not totally done but it’s getting there.  You get the idea.

And then coming soon, hopefully really soon, will be a facelift for the rest of the www.stevezphotography.com website.

So let us all rejoice.  Today is the day that Steve-Z.com goes back to being more frivilous and irrelevant!

Back in October when we had a string of 65 degree days I kept saying, “well this is going to be the last one . . . ” Well it is nearly Thanksgiving and the warm days keep coming and the snow does not. Tomorrow’s forecast is for 67 degrees, sunny, and light winds. Ryan and I are going to do Heil-Hall, who’s coming?

I’ve been trying to decide if I need to buy a Nikon macro lens or if I can make due without it. I took the first photo with the macro feature on my Canon G9.  The photo below is with the 100mm macro on the 5D. Definitely sharper, and a more telephoto perspective.  I like the blurred areas much better in the photo below.  But then again, surprisingly similar.  Hmmmmm.

I went and checked out the Boulder Cup pro cyclo-cross races at Boulder Reservoir and South Boulder Rec the weekend before last.  I’ve shot a few pics the first day and none the second; I’ve been way too busy to add extra workflow to my life for fun.  So busy in fact, that I forgot to download the card until over a week later.   Weeee!  I had some fun cropping the photos and messing with the exposures in Lightroom tonight.

Jeremy Powers.

Ryan Trebon.

Tim Johnson.

Todd Wells.

Barry Wicks.

Word.

On Election Day 2008 there were dozens of election coverage watching parties across downtown Boulder.  It was a decidedly Obama-centric affair.  After the polls closed the jubilant supporters spilled out onto the streets to celebrate.

It started out with a boom-box fueled dance party on the mall. It morphed into African-led drumming and chanting. Eventually the crowds gathered at the intersection of the Pearl Street Pedestrian Mall and Broadway.

When the lights turned red the crowd would swarm into the street, dancing and screaming, enveloping cars in the intersection. The peaceful mob would then reluctantly retreat to the curbs a while after the light had turned green again.

This ebb and flow continued for 15 minutes until eventually the police started to congregate. Much to my surprise, they did not use force to end the celebration. They put a squad car a Walnut and another at Spruce and diverted traffic, closing the street to allow the celebration to continue!

So that was really, really, cool to see. I must say I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. I’ve grown up in a generation that has been generally apathetic about politics, a generation that has skipped out on voting because it didn’t matter, nothing’s going to change anyway, right?

Obama has inspired millions. He is a symbol of hope. He is a symbol of someone who stands against the corruption and lies of the politicians of the past, and of the last eight years. No one knows whether he will be able to back up his words, and there are plenty who have, are, and will try to manipulate his words and spew negative rhetoric that fearful will take to heart.

But on THIS DAY, November 4th, 2008, I danced in the streets with a crowd of people so excited and optimistic about future of our country, in the midst of a trying time of war and economic recession. And for the first time in a REALLY LONG TIME, many of us felt a very unusual feeling. We felt proud to be Americans.