There is a new biking game in the town of Boulder, and it’s called Valmont Bike Park. This is a public park where riders of all ages and abilities can come out and play and work on their skills. I’m an old school BMX kid from the 80′s, and I’ve loved jumping bicycles ever since I got my first BMX bike way too many decades ago. At first sight, the big kid jumps at the park are pretty intimidating. But the allure of flying though the air and acting and feeling like a 14 year old again are too much for me to resist. So I bought a dirt jump bike and have been hitting the park. I have a few friends with similar BMX backgrounds from the Dark Ages, and together it makes a pretty nice afternoon to head out to the jumps for some air time.

Bobbie Turner of 5280 Fotos is my main accomplice and a photographer as well. This past Sunday we headed out to the park for our first photo session. I brought my usual high powered strobe setup and parked it on the first wood jump on the XL dirt jump line. I really like the strobed look, so we setup shots at one jump and one jump only for this session. Thanks Bobbie for tripping the shutter on the photos in the second half of this set. I was using a PocketWizard Mini/Flex triggers, which allowed me to sync at 1/1000 of a second to freeze the action.

First up, a random rider with a nice flat tabletop. This is I move I really want to work on.

I love the edgy lighting in this shot. Generally I like cross/rim light, but it’s tricky at this spot to not have the strobes in the background.

Eli is up, looking cool sailing over the iconic Flatirons of Boulder.

Lots of sun flare when using the 14-24 lens. Without any clouds in the sky I like using the sun as a compositional element.

This is a cool shot showing the strobe setup and an overall view of the jump.

Making ridiculous faces is a great way to get featured on the blog.

Here’s a shot of me captured by Bobbie. I call this look Blue Aluminum. (Zoolander reference)

I’m loving the composition of this one.

Fun shot of a young BMX kid launching into the stratosphere.

We used to call this a “helicopter” back in the day.

Eli in yo face!

Lastly we have my current Facebook profile pic.

You can check out a full gallery of Valmont Bike Park photos on my Facebook Page. This is surely the first session in what is going to certainly be an ongoing evolution. At some point we’ll set up a shoot with some real pros pulling off amazing acrobatic moves. But in the meantime, there’s a group of old farts having a ton of fun acting like kids.

You know life is good when your daily job assignment is to hit the Boulder trails with a cute dog and an even cuter girl for a photo shoot. Even after pinching myself, I still found that I’d been contracted to shoot the cover for Colorado outdoor sports and lifestyle magazine Elevation Outdoors. EO is an inspiring Boulder-based production that tunes readers like myself into local adventure, trends, gear, and general mountain shenanigans, so it was my pleasure to create an image for their June backpacking issue.

The assignment seemed simple enough, capture a cover photo that evoked the image of a blond woman backpacking with her dog mid-summer in the Colorado outdoors. The assignment became less than simple when I was handed a couple weeks of rain and snowfall in mid-May. These images were captured below the snow line in the foothills of South Boulder during a four-hour sunny interlude from thundershowers, yet still managed to include gale force winds. Fortunately, both the human (Jayme) and canine (Jax) models didn’t seem to mind, so I anchored my light stand with a 25-pound rock and kept shooting. Using a strobe is the key to illuminating your subject while maintaining those quintessential deep blue Colorado skies and wind-swept clouds.

Other than the selected cover shot, I thought I’d post some other fun images from the session. Enjoy!

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.

If you have your wedding at the Pastures of Plenty in North Boulder County, you just might have a bonfire. And if you do, John Howlett from Big Bang Catering will be there to get it started for you. His preferred tool is a propane weed burner. By the look on his face, I think he may have burned ants with a magnifying glass when he was a kid as well.

I actually went on a hike the other day. Probably the first one this year! It was a quick little one, leaving from Settler’s Park, up the Red Rocks Trail, and then out and back on the Anemone Trail. It’s a pretty steep hike and you quickly gain elevation over the canyon floor.

Last week I did a fun shoot that is a little out of the ordinary for me. I took my friend Jeff up on an offer to shoot an unusual plane from the air. Jeff’s friend Michael Malocsay hand built himself a Rutan VariEze experimental aircraft and comes into Boulder every so often to fly it. It’s a pretty cool and unusual plane! I wish I had a zoom lens with VR image stabilization so that I could have slowed the shutter down enough to have a full spinning propeller, but I was getting quite a bit of vibration from our own small plane! It was a fun morning buzzing around 1500 feet above Boulder. Enjoy the photos!

Last Friday I went for another plane ride with Barnow. This was an intentional joyride this time. We had special plans to take aerial photos of a special plane. More on that in an upcoming post! On our ascent we passed by a hot air balloon floating over the Boulder Reservoir. I hadn’t really given it too much previous thought, but a sunrise hot air balloon ride sure looks like a good time! I’m definitely going to put that on the to-do list. Can you imagine how many photos I’d take on that little adventure?

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)