Steve Z Adventure Photography » Travel Photography, Boulder Colorado Sports & Randomness

Bicycle Abstract

stevez — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:32:57 +0000

I’m setting a goal to be less of a crazy photographer workahaulic this year and get out more on the bike. I rode both Saturday and Sunday this weekend to try and clear my head. I brought my pocket camera along to challenge myself to come up with a creative photo while riding around the same old trails that I’ve ridden a hundred times. The mountain biking / trail running crowd of Boulder should be able to figure out where this is . . .

It’s hard to believe this was 5 days ago

stevez — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:11:16 +0000

We are experiencing the classically fickle Colorado weather right now. It’s 66 degrees out and it feels blazing hot in jeans in the sun. It made me realize that I took a picture out front of my office last week that I was going to post. We had this much snow and it’s gone gone gone!

Ring My Bell

stevez — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:54:49 +0000

Action self portrait cruising down the street on my 1952 Monark Cycle King on a gorgeous summer day.

I forgot my MTB shoes

stevez — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:16:40 +0000

I haven’t posted in a bit. I cracked under the weight of too much work and not enough fun. So Bobby and I attempted to rectify the situation with a little Nederland riding. Just to show how mentally cooked I was, I left my riding shoes at home for the first time in . . . well, maybe ever. Luckily we weren’t too far from Happy Trails Bike Shop where I borrowed some rental pedals with toe clips. And extra lucky that I was wearing sneakers and not flip flops. So I was able to ride, old school style. How incredibly horrible toe clips are! It’s been a LONG time since I’ve mountain biked with them, I came oh-s0-close to going down when my wheels drifted out from under me on a loose corner and I couldn’t get my foot out . . . but I was really happy to hang on.

After the ride we Ned-itated in the woods and drank some post-ride refreshments and played with my new 85mm PC Tilt Shift lens. Don’t even think about stealing Bobby’s beer. He’ll give you the stink eye.

Breckenridge Section of the Colorado Trail

stevez — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:20:20 +0000

I’ve waited a while to post these pictures to make it seem as if I’m out riding my mountain bike. Those folks who just glance at the pictures will think, “Wow Steve Z has such an amazing rock star life, shooting photos and all kinds of great rides in the mountains!” But all you 3 people who actually read the posts will know that this is just the 2nd day that I rode 2 weekends ago in Keystone! Ah well, someday I’ll get back in the regular schedule, I hope. In the meantime, this was the final section of the Colorado Trail from Keystone to Breckenridge that I haven’t ridden yet.

This last little piece was a random little spur of barely there trail on the way back to Keystone Ranch. Tilt-shift epic-ness!

Steamboat Springs – Emerald Mountain/Howelsen Hill Trails

stevez — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:18:32 +0000

On my first day in Steamboat I did a local ride straight out of town. The thunderstorms were threatening, and I needed to get a quick little ride in before the skies opened up. So I headed to the base of Howelsen Hill, and started climbing the rod up to Emerald Mountain. There is a pretty large network of trails up there. I pretty much just wandered around, poking in and out of various tasty bits of singletrack. I did find a map HERE, that gives one possibility of linking the trails together. This is the view from The Quarry.

The singletrack in this area is super tasty, mostly buff and fast. The twisty parts in the aspen groves reminded me a lot of Park City riding. The timing was right for wildflowers too!

The trails were fast and flowy. These pictures don’t do any justice to the experience. It was here that I decided that I need to get a helmet cam to really capture the experience, I didn’t feel like I could show what the trail looks like with still photos . . . so look for videos to be showing up sooner or later.

I was riding solo this trip, which makes it a little tough to get the action shots. :>) So here are a couple landscapes that I took along the way.

Me. Launching.

stevez — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:03:21 +0000

OK, I’m long overdue updating this site. I’ve got some new employees that have been keeping me busy doing ‘real’ work. But I’m here in Steamboat taking more mountain biking photos, so I really have to get these old pics off the camera. 2 Sunday’s ago, Ryan and I rode the Ceran St. Vrain trail up to Miller’s rock. On the singletrack on the way out, there is an angled rock that is perfect for launching. Getting the timing right for action shots with the Canon G10 is tough, but sometimes you wind up with an interesting composition. In this case, it’s me with my head cut off.

Riding Durango’s Hermosa Creek Trail

stevez — Sat, 16 May 2009 12:25:37 +0000

Another popular riding spot in Durango is the Hermosa Creek area. We headed up there for our 3rd ride in Durango. The trail is 21 miles, and is usually ridden via a shuttle. Well, we didn’t have a shuttle, so we decided to try and ride the whole thing out and back. As it turns out, the creeks and rivers were flowing above maximum capacity, so parts of the trail were flooded out. So we made it roughly 16 miles in. It was a loooooong ride, as the terrain is not flat either way, even though it mostly follows the creek drainage. The trail is pretty wide singletrack, and pretty fun, but not necessarily the most fun ever. But it was great to have a big mountain challenge early in the season.

.: Nikon D700, Nikon 35mm f/2.0D @ 1/500, f/4.0, 500ISO :.

So after this point in the trip, I didn’t take any more pictures of the trails. Yeah, whatever, photographers need vacations too! For our last ride we rode the Horse Gulch area of trails that is right at the edge of town near the Ft. Lewis College side to the east. What an awesome trail network to have right in town! The trails are buff, twisty, desert type trails that were clearly made for bicycles. The kind of trails that make you realize how much riding we don’t have here in Boulder. Oh well, we have way more cute girls here, take that Durango!

Awesome Chopper Bicycle Shop in Soho

stevez — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:02:12 +0000

So while I was cruising Soho, I happened across this shop that builds sick cruiser choppers. I have no idea what it’s called. This guy was hard at work welding and grinding and didn’t really look like he wanted to be bothered. There was even a gate to keep out onlookers!