This was the third trail building day out of the year out at Betasso. There are many more days required before the trail will be open for riding. So do your part and gather your friends and come out for the next work days. As a bonus, there will be food and beverages and beers to be had at the end of the day. Check out BMA’s website for the latest schedule and calendar of events.

Special guest Mouse Miskey gettin’ cutes on the ukelale.

Chris gettin’ rhythmic on the drums.

Eric gettin’ crazy on the mic.

Disco gettin’ soulful on the guitar.

Eric getting . . . I don’t know what this was.

I was invited by my friends from Something Underground to hang out backstage and shoot some photos for Peace and Love on the Rocks. There were a bajilliion musicians there rotating in and out, covering favorite songs from the famous music festival of old. It like rocked and stuff.  You can see more photos from the event at the Facebook Gallery HERE.

This is Paul. Paul Rocks! He is the owner of the Bombay Bistro in downtown Boulder. I met Paul last year on one random night on the Cruiser Ride. After that I’ve been a big fan of the modern Indian cuisine. They offer many vegan and gluten-free options which are a big hit in Boulder as well.

Every so often Paul offers a 3 hour cooking class, where you watch him work his magic in the kitchen. I took some photos, because, well, that’s what I do.

OK this photo is pretty random, but I like it!

This is Paul’s gorgeous baby daughter, cute cute cute!

Bombay Bistro (Boulder)

So I was walking down the street a block from my studio, and I stumbled upon a mobile art happening.  There was a crowd of people gathered around a car, and they were all painting it.  This of course, required immediate picture taking.  Upon a little inspection, here is what I found out.

The GIVING GALLERY Presents:

Running On heART: 13 Cities in 7 Days!

A cross country journey raising awareness and funds for struggling open art studios in our communities

In order to raise awareness for Open Art Studios and spread the word about their power to bring community members together we have decided to turn a car into a national community art project.

Cool!

For more information on the project, the journey, and the fun:

Website: http://www.srgivinggallery.com/

Dotate: http://www.giveforward.org/RunningonART

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DofRVAwOs8k

Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/givinggallery

Blog: http://srgivinggallery.blogspot.com/

.: Nikon D700, Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 @ 200mm, 1/1000, f/3.5, 400 ISO :.

The Bolder Boulder has been a Memorial Day tradition in Boulder for 30 years.  This year 50,000 people came to run a 10K race through town.  The start is close enough to my house that I can hear the starter from inside, but I’ve never managed to get out of bed in time to see it. It IS held on a holiday after all! Well this year was the first time, and yes, I was paid to be there! I was hired by local marketing company to shoot photos for their client who was a major sponsor of the event.  OK, now I have to go take a nap, 6am doesn’t suit me well.

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.

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.

I’ve recently purchased a new Nikon d700.  I’ve also been too busy working to take the time to read the manual and do any practicing with the camera.  Last week Peggy Dyer invited me to shoot some pictures at the Fox Theater for the Barack Rocks II presented by Boulder Grassroots for Obama.  She was going to be shooting some video with Lensbabies attached on the front of her friends Something Underground.  It sounded like a great chance to test out the high-ISO performance and low light focusing capability of the new gear.

Then Peggy started to tell me about this cool band called Meniskus, and how I would like them . . .

Um . . . yeah.   I think I’ve heard of them before!

And as far as the camera goes, I was completely impressed with the focusing performance. I was even able to use all-area autofocus at times!  It was quite amazing.  The camera really feels a lot more certain of its focusing selection.  No more of the hunting back and forth trying to find something to lock on to.

I have posted a complete gallery of the pictures from the show HERE.

To view the 2008 Great American Beer Festival Slideshow on its own page, CLICK HERE.

My friends at Green Guru Gear/Ecologic Designs hosted a smokin’ fashion show and a rippin’ party to celebrate the expansion of their facilities in eco-friendly Boulder, CO. You may recall that last summer I headed out the Outdoor Retailer Trade Show with these guys in their vegetable oil powered Sport Utility Ambulance.

Green Guru makes groovy cool products out of all kinds of stuff that we normally throw away. Bike tubes, fabric from Coke bottles, climbing rope, and lots and lots of vinyl billboards. The bag you see above, the runway, the backdrop, and even the outfit you see below once clogged up the landscape with marketing slogans trying to make us buy stuff. Personally I’d rather have ladies acting as billboards trying to make me buy stuff.

The finale featured a contortionist wearing an outfit made from recycled inner tubes. Can you figure out how she has gotten her leg up there? Yeah, me neither!

Covidien is a leading global healthcare products company. They were looking for a Corporate Event Photographer in the Denver area and gave me a call to provide photography coverage at a trade show event at the Denver Convention Center. They were introducing some sort of new tracheometry product. Despite my former aerospace engineering background, I didn’t pay too much attention to the technical details. There was a bounty of sushi and chicken wings to be photographed and fortunately there were leftovers when the event was over. I don’t normally concern myself with food when I’m shooting an event, but a man has his limits. Mmmmmm, sushi. :>)

Last week I was hired to photograph a corporate event outside of Denver in Golden; the opening of a new high-tech mineralogy research lab at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. The project was largely made possible through a partnership with the Australian based Intellection Corp. There were all kinds of mineralogy rock stars in attendance. Rock Stars? Um, anyway, Intellection donated one of their innovative QEMSCAN automated mineral analysis systems, which is probably a big deal if I knew much of anything about rocks. The lab looked pretty impressive, but the coolest part was the CSM geology museum. The collection is completely amazing, colorful, and unique. I want to go back sometime when I have my macro lens and take some more cool pics! If you are reading this and are interested in more information about the AMRC Opening, then you can read the Intellection Press Release here.

This month’s Integrated Alliances’ First Wednesday Event was held at Brix in Lodo, Denver. The networking was fast and furious, and I nearly ran out of business cards. I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, and a caught a photo of a monumental deal closing in place. The details are top secret, but I can tell you this: you are never going to use a fork in the same way again.