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!

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 was just sitting in my office today trying to get some work done like a good boy when I got the call. Barnow and I have been talking about going flying for a year now. I considered declining . . . but I figured that I shouldn’t let another year go by. There is always time for more work!

Jeff had an errand of sorts to run in Longmont so we flew out East. It was kindof overcast over the mountains so it wasn’t the most scenic day ever. That was OK because it gave me the chance to put the camera down and actually FLY THE PLANE!

Yeah, that’s right. Not only did I fly it while in the air, I actually took the thing off the ground! I flew most of the way to Longmont and kinda sorta felt the controls while we landed. I felt the controls to know that with the crosswind we surely would have splattered if the landing really depended on me. I had thoughts of an ‘Airplane’ type situation, what it would be like if I actually had to land the plane myself. Stryker!

Yeah so there is the latest story of a day in the life of Steve Z and why I can’t get around to getting my taxes done.  Ah yes it was a great day to not be stuck in the office! Hopefully Jeff will take me up again when the light is good and we can fly over the mountains . . . right?!?

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