Fireworks in Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Posted on 15 July, 2014 by Eric

This past weekend, our family was able to spend a few days (including July 4th) in Steamboat Springs — always a treat and source of plenty of photographic opportunities to boot. This is the first time, though, that I had the opportunity to photograph the town’s fireworks. So since there’s not a whole lot of information about the show online, I thought I should do a quick write-up to help future visiting photographers.

At least when we visited, the fireworks were shot off from three locations on the sides of Howelsen Hill — centered roughly on the ski jump, south and west of downtown. This means that many spots downtown will give you a partial view of the fireworks, but they seem to be fired to a low altitude — so unless you’ve got rooftop access, you’re likely to have an obstructed view. Continue reading →

Down from on high

Posted on 25 April, 2014 by Eric

An abstract shot from the Ice Castle in Breckenridge, Colorado:

One of the fun things about living in Colorado is the plethora of great photographic subjects at hand. Among these, a new one (to me) is the “Ice Castle” built in Breckenridge during the winter. Made out of thousands of icicles, with imbedded LED lighting, it’s fun to walk through and a great photo subject. The lighting changes colors every few seconds, so you’ll need to be on your toes if you want to capture a formation lit with a particular color — and a tripod (or one of these) along with some sort of remote (corded or cordless) are pretty much essential.

Oh, and one more piece of advice — look up! If you limit yourself to photos taken on the level, you’ll miss some really interesting abstracts like this.

Waiting for a break in the weather

Posted on 10 July, 2013 by Eric

Life’s been a bit busy for us lately, but we managed to run off into the mountains for a little R&R over the July 4th extended weekend. Â One of our stops was the neat little ghost town of Ashcroft, near Aspen. Â On our way through the sights, my daughter alerted me to this little hummingbird perched on an old bit of wood.

Fortunately for me, this little guy was very patient on his perch — alert and watchful, but never startling or making any apparent move to fly off.

Continue reading →

A different sort of last supper

Posted on 3 June, 2013 by Eric

The Denver Chalk Art Festival is always a colorful (if crowded) experience for photographers. Â This year, it happened to coincide with the Denver Comic Con — so it was fitting that the Rocky Mountain College of Art & DesignÂ (RMCAD) contributed this work based on cartoon / sci-fi characters:

One of the hallmarks of RMCAD art works is their use of reflectors to turn a curved artwork into something that is visually straight when seen from just the right angle. Â If you look carefully, you can see the bottom edge of their reflector in the top third of the above image.

Continue reading →

Red Stars descending

Posted on 21 February, 2013 by Eric

Members of the RedStar Pilots Association help put on a show at the 2011 Rocky Mountain Airshow in Broomfield, Colorado:

These fine folks make a hobby of flying aircraft from countries in the former Soviet bloc. I think my favorite part of this shot is the shadows cast by the planes’ smoke plumes on the haze to the lower right…

Licensious

Posted on 12 October, 2012 by Eric

I photographed this little bit of mountain culture up in the “ghost town” of St. Elmo, Colorado a few years back:

I put “ghost town” in quotes because, although it’s officially a ghost town, St. Elmo is the summer home of quite a few people (and year-round home of a few). Â Sure, it’s not the hopping spot it was back in its heyday — but it’s still fun to visit!

If you were curious, here’s the collection of license plates in its native habitat:

Sievers Mountain South

Posted on 4 October, 2012 by Eric

Captured from the trail to / around Maroon Lake — near Aspen, Colorado:

On our “fall colors” road trip through the mountains, we only made it to Aspen in the late afternoon — so the lighting was much better for shots on this side of the lake (vs. the more traditional / popular shot of the Maroon Bells themselves). I just love all the color in this frame!

Great Expectations

Posted on 20 February, 2012 by Eric

One of the best parts of living in Colorado is that we can get up to some… interesting… mountain events over the course of the year. This was a Canadian entry at the 2012 Breckenridge snow sculpture contest: