Steve-Z.com

Well here we are, at the end of another year.   The ol’ Steve Dash Z blog has gone through numerous transformations.  First it was my only blog, for both my professional and personal photographs.  Then I split off the weddings into their own blog.  Then I changed my mind yet again, and now all my professional photography resides in one place, at the Steve Z Photography Blog.

Good grief is that confusing or what?.  I’m trying to make it simpler.  Steve Z Photography Blog is for my professional work.  This blog is for my personal stuff, mountain biking, skiing, travels, etc.  I hope to have a little more fun here, without having to maintain ‘professionalism’.  Now there is just one thing left.  I have to figure out what to call this place…

Uh oh. You are in trouble. Sammy Cat has you in his sites.  Few men have seen this view and lived to tell the tale.

Don’t even try to hide in the closet or the basement. Sammy can see in the dark. You clearly have angered Sammy Cat with your disrespect.

It isn’t Sammy’s fault that he is such an efficient killing machine and has an insatiable taste for blood.  He is a direct decedent of the black panther.

I did it.  I broke the seal.  I finally got my ass out of the office and up into the mountains for some snow sliding!  I almost didn’t think I was going to make it before the new year.  But I did.  It was a Christmas Eve solo mission.  With complete confidence in my abilities, I brought a D700, 14-24, and the 45 tilt shift.  But with a complete underestimation of my eroding fitness, that backpack put a hurtin’ on the ol’ quads.  Note to myself: “you really need to get out of the office chair more, Dude.”

The mountain was pleasantly uncrowded.  I was finding stashes of powder in the trees on every run from the previous day’s snowfall.  Despite this I took a $5 snowcat ride out to the top of Wapiti Peak and South Bowl.  It really isn’t that long of a hike, but I did mention my lack of fitness, right?  Right. Here you go, five dollars, Mr. Snowcat Man.   I followed the skiers about out to the Tele Trees.  Those are the runs of Breckenridge in the distance.

I made the most of my high altitude location and took some scenery shots.  I didn’t have a model so the Burton Fish would have to do.   In the top photo you can see a run off of North Peak.  The crown of the bowl in the lower photo is the top of the Outback lift, where the snowcat departs.

I spent around 20 minutes climbing around the rocks, getting wind blasted, and generally freezing my hands.  OK, enough work, time to play!  I rode the top portion of the bowl down to the trees shooting the 14 mm in my left hand for some action self portraits.  Oh yeah, lift served backcountry runs . . . my FAVORITE!

This was the last shot I got before I completely snowed the front of the lens with snow!

It was a really sweet run.  Light and fluffy powder goodness.  I stopped in the trees to clean the snow out of the lens, and was really taken by the still beauty of the forest.

I’ve really been loving the 14mm lens.  The tilt shift didn’t get too much use since is such a PIA to use, manual focusing and all.  So I snapped a picture on the lift ride back up.  I like the two different colors of the trees, in the sun and in the shade.   Overall, it was a great day, a good reminder that I need to get in shape and start hittin’ it more!

I flew from Denver to Ft. Lauderdale last Thursay for a destination wedding in Palm Beach.  It was nice and snowy when I left so that I could feel really good about leaving town.  We took the bus so that we didn’t have to drive in the snow.  So did everyone else, and it was tough to get a bus.   Once on the bus, I was working away on the computer, when I looked up, and realize I had no idea where we were.  We were somewhere between Thornton and Kansas, apparently.  They look the same so it was tough to tell.  Word was there was an accident on I-70.  So it was a good thing we were on the bus because if we had driven ourselves we wouldn’t have know to take an alternate route.

We were a bit late from the de-icing ritual, but other than that the flight was OK.   I really like my little G9.  Unfortunately now I want a G10!

The ice crystals transformed during the flight.  We saw quite a nice sunset out over Tampa from the plane window.  I’d have taken a nice warm picture of us in shorts on the other side, but it was dark.  That’s why I want the G10, for the better night pictures!  Oh, and the wider angle too.  Well, take my word for it, we walked on the beach the same evening as the snowy bus ride.  Pretty sweet.

I shot a big corporate event in Denver last month.  Near the end of the they hired a group of ex-Cirque du Soleil performers to put on their show at the Wells Fargo Theater.  It was cool.  Check out the full show and slideshow on my other blog CLICK HERE.