Aw. A sunset. Isn’t that special? Well, it was pretty schweet.  I took these photos from the deck of a shirtless tattooed dude. He offered us snow peas that were growing on the deck along with a lot of tomatoes. He showed us the shelves where he started them in March. He says that he has a computer full of sunset photos from that deck. It didn’t make me feel all that special. Apparently the supermarket has a compressor that changes speeds and makes it really hard to sleep there. But the sunsets are mega fabulous.

No, not shooting to kill, shooting to blog! I can’t believe it has already been two weeks since I shot these pictures. Time is just flyin’ on by.  I usually don’t like taking touristy pictures, but these beasts are just so big and cool I couldn’t help myself.

This first shot is in Moraine Park. There was a herd quite a distance away with a big buck elk watching over his ladies.

Down by sheep lakes there was a giant crowd. There was this big boy only meters from the road. It was a full on nature photography scrum! Here he is bugling!

The evening light streaming into the valley was spectacular.

The morning view from the Meadow House at Lost Antler Ranch.

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!

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!

Sometimes I get asked if I ever shoot pet portrait photography. Officially, the answer is no, I’ve never been hired for a paid dog or cat portrait gig. But that doesn’t mean that I couldn’t! I’m just not really sure that a viable, paying market exists for high quality scenic shots. One would think that if the interest was there, that Boulder of all places would be a good market for it. But upon searching the internet, all I seem to find are those cheesy studio shots with little dogs with selective color bows on their heads! So if there is anyone out there who wants shots of their pets in the style that I do the rest of my portraits, don’t be afraid to ask!

On my final day in Steamboat, I headed southeast out of town past Stagecoach Reservoir to Kristi and Danny’s house. We shot an epic Sport The Dress™ session in the mountains near their home. After the shoot I headed back to Boulder the back way, over Gore Pass. On the way, I was hoping to find a trail suitable for mountain biking, without any real knowledge of the area or a map.

After a while of rallying down the desolate but well graded gravel road in the WRX, I came across a trailhead for an ATV trail. It was well packed down and looked like it would make for a solid mountain bike surface. So I headed up the trail and embarked on a solid 2 hour granny gear climb. It was pretty challenging with muddy areas, stream crossings, and roots, but I was able to ride almost the whole thing.

Once at the top, there was a great view at the top of this erosion slide gully thing. I have no idea what it’s called, but it was really deep! You can see the area where I started, at the far left, behind the pine tree, in the base of the valley.  It probably took me only 15 minutes to get down, but it was a ripping descent!

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.

.: Nikon D700, Nikon 35mm f/2.0D @ 1/8000, f/5.0, 400ISO :.

Last weekend Ryan and I headed out on a mountain biking road trip. It had been WAY too long since my last one, I think it was the 2006 Colorado Springs trip. We decided to check out Durango, since neither of us really knows anyone who has ridden in the area. Durango was at one time the epicenter of the new sport of mountain biking, and we were sure to find some great riding there. The other attraction is that the lower climate should allow us some riding in the early season when there is still snow in the hills of the high country.

I could have taken tons of pictures. But I didn’t. I needed some decompression time ahead of the busy summer season ahead. So I took some picutres, but not too many. For the most part we ate, slept, and rode. We did 5 rides in 4 days with 2 full days of driving.

Our first ride was actually in the Denver area on the way out of town. We rode Lair of the Bear which is between Morrison and Evergreen. It was a really buff singletrack, somewhat similar to Betasso. Its only about a 10 mile out and back ride if you ride it by itself like we did. Apparently it’s easy to link up with Mt. Falcon, which we rode on the way back from the CO Springs Trip. Funny how that works. The best part of the Bear was the top section which was FAST FAST FAST with some good waterbar jumps.

.: Nikon D700, Nikon 35mm f/2.0D @ 1/320, f/14, 500ISO :.

So after a quick ride we were off to Durango via the scenic route down 285. We almost made it to Durango before dark, when we came across a nice empty campground about 40 miles east of Durango in the hills. So we set up camp and parked it for the night. Check back tomorrow for Ride 1 in Durango!

.: Nikon D700, Nikon 45mm f/2.8 PC-E @ 1/4000, f/5.0, 500ISO :.