Ranch Style Best Trick Competition

So I took Bonnie up to the Ranch today for the Best Trick Competition.  I also brought every piece of camera equipment I have.  During practice I had complete access to the jump.  It was like shooting fish in a barrel.  I almost got smoked by errant bikes and riders twice.  At some point Josh Bender (yes, the Josh Bender), who was MC, put a price on my head.  "Twenty bucks to the first rider to smoke the Photographer by the jump".  This brought some unwanted attention my way, and soon enough the professional photographers and videographers noticed I didn't have any credentials and "bam" back behind the tape I was sent.  But I had already ripped off 1000 photos by then.  So here is some teasers of my wicked ways.

That is Bender on the ladder up in the tree in the back ground.

Back up tomorrow for the Slope Style Comp.  Maybe I'll get lucky again.
Bonnie says I have to wait to make a seperate blog entry of all the carnage shots I have.  It will be epic!

Until next time.

Redwall Cavern, Grand Canyon

 Back to some sights from the Grand Canyon trip of 2010.

Redwall Cavern is about 33 miles south of Lee's Ferry.  It is a enormous cavern cut out of the red sandstone on the East side of the river.  The floor is covered with a thick layer of fine grain sand.  Perfect for a pickup game of football.

To get a sense of the scale of this formation, look in the lower right hand corner and you can see the other boat about a hundred yards from making landfall.

Looking down river.

Looking up river across a small sand bar.

Sean B. pipes a haunting ancient melody.

After spending a significant time exploring and throwing a football around the cavern, we ate lunch and then headed down river for more adventures.

Until next time

Stagecoach

Last December Mike, Greg, Sprocket and I caught one of the last nice days before hard winter set in and spent the afternoon on the Stagecoach trails on top of the Bookcliffs above Palisade.  We rode until well after dusk, camera shutters clacking away at every curiosity.  It was time well spent.

Trying to follow Mike's movement through my telephoto produced this aberration.  No alterations.

Until next time.

It's a Small Small World

This time of year my macro lens just screams at me to dust her off and get up close with the world.  After a long day of yard work, the evening light was getting warm and the bees were just loving the blossoms on our nectarine tree.  I decided to attempt some free hand macros of bees at their busy work.  Those suckers are both fast and camera shy.

The bee is a bit out of focus in this shot, but it's tongue already being extended amid flight was unique. 

I considered myself lucky to have gotten a few photos considering the proximity and shooting free hand.
This is a great time to just get out in your own back yard, get up close and view the world from a different perspective.
Until next time.