Ben and Genny's Photo Blog

1990-2010 Happy Birthday Myra!

2010-05-11T23:45:00.007-06:00

On Myra's birthday we went to the grocery store. We found gummy letters to write a message to this little girl, who used to be My-My and is twenty now!!! Ben looked carefully through the clear part of the packages. Nudging the letters around themselves at the store, without opening a package, he couldn't be sure that any of them had an "R" so we had to just buy all the packages there were and hope for the best. We did find an "R" and plenty of other letters... And here's the message:

We love you!

Happy Birthday AJ!

2010-05-06T15:39:00.014-06:00

On Saturday, we were just about home when the someone gave us an invitation to be creative. We were on bikes and we saw this one first...

[Chalk it up]

Then we saw a narrative about a dog chasing cars and what appears to be a person with a talking bubble...

Finally we came across the invitation! We jumped off our bikes to participate. Presented with such an opportunity, what would you do?

Well, we took the moment to make a picture in honor of A's birthday, May 6, today! We love you AJ!

Baby Banner &hearts

2010-03-29T23:18:00.008-06:00

by Ben

So, on March 9th, our good friends Jared and Kristen had their their first baby; a beautiful girl named Banner. They didn't get to come snowshoeing last weekend with us and mutual friends Travis and Laura, so we decided to make a little note for Banner in the fresh powder on a frozen pond.

Yesterday, Travis, Laura, Genny and I spent some time in Denver trying to mutually expand our photo skills. Afterwards, we all headed over to Jared and Kristen's house to have dinner together. But before dinner was to be served, Banner needed to go on her nightly walk. Here are some photos of us and the walk.

Funny Photos

2010-03-27T23:20:00.019-06:00

by Genny
Now that Ben's back from his trip, we've got lots of photo talk going on in this house again, and fun photo experiments. The first set is from Wednesday, long shutter speed with multiple flashes... Wow, look how many of me we can make!

Then on Thursday we had friends over and continued with the slow shutter speeds. Bryan's very patient to listen to so much talk about cameras and photo business all the time. So above, Bryan, with a long shutter, taken by Jeff? Next Travis moved the camera at the same speed as Ben's hands to create these photos.

Travis wrote Laura a love note, and then Laura drew Travis a dog to walk. In case you're wondering, it's a lab. Then I drew Laura a giraffe and she hugged it, and I painted a cowboy costume on Jeff. Then it was Travis's turn and he made Jeff speed along on a motorcycle. To end the night, Laura made me into a diver with a fish. Ben was behind the camera for most of these light painting scenes. He sure is a talented photographer.

Le Weekend Avec Diane

2010-02-08T21:51:00.011-07:00

by Genny

My friend Diane is here from France and we're showing her all the Colorado adventure living we can while she's here. Diane had never been rock climbing, so we decided to bring her to the indoor rock gym on Thursday night, just in time for her to get a feel for things before we took her outdoors onto some ice on Friday afternoon.

Diane is so brave. She's basically up for trying anything, and constantly wears a smile to do it. She gave ice climbing a great try, and then got up early the next morning to go out for a cross country ski in Rocky Mountain National Park with our friend Elisabeth. We had some beautiful scenery, interesting clouds, a few flurries, a couple of really fun skiing sections, and lots of falls and laughter.

By the time we headed over to Bear Lake the clouds had come in and there was barely a view, but we did see a small wedding ceremony taking place out on the ice. Then we walked on the railing back toward the car, and headed back to Boulder, with everyone but the driver napping a bit on the way home. Sunday we took a rest, and of course watched the Superbowl. Just a note to our out of town friends: You don't have to be from France to go on this special adventure tour.
COME VISIT!

A New Year

2010-01-31T20:21:00.012-07:00

by Genny

In case you haven't heard, Ben's got a new blog on his new website. That's why there hasn't been anything new here in a while. Now I'm taking over, at least for today, to catch up on things. So far in 2010, I've been working on the Gear Guide at Backpacker and Ben has been working hard on the photography business... getting published in catalogs, going to trade shows, and making friends with professional athletes and marketing managers along the way.
In the midst of all this work, we've both still been finding time for K-Life, the youth group we love helping with. I'm a leader for middle school most of the time, so there's been a lot of hanging out with 6th-8th graders on weekends when Ben's away. Since Ben's a high school leader they let me join them on the high school snowmobiling trip which was great! We got to enjoy an awesome cabin over Martin Luther King Day weekend... snowmobiling, snowshoeing, playing

lots of games, putting together a glow-in-the-dark puzzle, singing and we even went to the hot springs. There's a climbing wall there, but none of us were too successful in climbing it. Luckily it was very fun to climb up a tiny bit and then drop down into the warm water.

Ben and I finally had some time at home together this weekend, so Friday we went ice climbing in the afternoon. This is the first time we've gone together using our new ice tools. (Those photos aren't downloaded yet, but stay tuned.) And then yesterday we did a little bit of walking up a mountainside with some friends. No summits, but it was great to be out there!

<<--Left: Kim tells Ben to watch out. He may be taller, but she's faster.

A Cold Day In Boulder...

2009-12-03T17:10:00.009-07:00

...and in the outdoor media industry.

It was 11 degrees this morning, and the Flatirons were covered in snow and looking good. It my typical sloth like fashion, I gathered some camera gear, then went to Starbucks and sat there for a while sipping on my pumpkin spice latte and warming up, then headed to a spot with a good view to try and take a panoramic of it all. I've heard that other more successful photographers go take the picture first, then go warm up at Starbucks afterwards. I don't really know much about that, but it sounds like it's worth a try since by the time I got to my spot, the mountains were buried in clouds and the light was completely flat. I took the shots anyways. It looked much better about an hour earlier, but this isn't so bad either. I think there's a lesson here. Probably something about drinking your coffee faster.

When I got home, I uploaded the 12 images I took, and stitched them together in Photoshop to make the panorama. While I was at it, I dug through my hard drive to try and find some other images that felt like a cold day, and figured I would make a blog post out of it all. While I was working, I got an email from Genny entitled 'This is the industry in the toilet'. Within the email were two links to Rob Haggart's blog A Photo Editor, and Steve Casimiro's blog The Adventure Life, both talking about how the magazine National Geographic Adventure has officially closed down it's operation today. The economy and the changing media world got the better of this great magazine, and it goes to show that moving forward with the current industry situation, no one is untouchable.

Adventure was a great magazine. I loved reading it, and as an adventure photographer who is getting started, I was really excited with the prospect of working with them in the future. The staff there did a great job, and I've heard nothing but good about them from others I know that have done work with them. It is not only a huge bummer to see more evidence of the troubled state that the outdoor industry and media is in, but it's also a bummer to know I'll never have the pleasure of working with Adventure. I hope to someday cross paths with the NGA staff in whatever the future becomes for them and wish them the best as they move forwards. I also hope that even though the magazine is gone the word 'adventure' will continue to define their lives.

Joshua Tree Volume Deuce

2009-12-02T13:45:00.011-07:00

So as promised, here is a second installment of images from my recent trip to J-tree. During the Redefining Balance Retreat, I was lucky enough to be surrounded by lots of talented and beautiful yogis. These are some of my favorite images from the actual retreat. The final installment of images, which will be from the dedicated photoshoot with Team Yogaslackers is being kept in a ziploc bag to stay fresh for the launch of my soon coming new website.

From one extreme to the other.

2009-11-27T21:37:00.006-07:00

So, if you read the previous post, you know that I've been in Joshua Tree National Park for the last week spending time hanging out and shooting with Team YogaSlackers, and attending a yoga retreat that they were co-leading with another yoga instructor from San Diego, Melissa Karolides. It was a great six days of hanging out in the hot desert, lots of sun, yoga, climbing, shooting, moving constantly and eating some really good vegetarian camp cuisine. So as you can imagine, it was quite the swing of the pendulum to leave Joshua Tree late Thanksgiving morning after being up with the sun and doing 4 hours of shooting the team, only to sit in a car for a while, then sit on a plane for a while, then sit in another car for a while, then recklessly stuff my face with turkey. I've got about 1500 images to work through, but I thought I'd share a few quickies now and a little time-lapse video I made of a morning yoga session. It was awesome to see Jason and Chelsey again, and it was great getting to know Sam and Paul for the first time. Shooting and hanging out with them was a blast, and I can't wait to start digging in to the images.

Morning Practice from Ben Fullerton on Vimeo.

Back to the desert!

2009-11-17T23:40:00.009-07:00

by Ben
So, I'm very pleased to be heading back to the California desert again for a week in Joshua Tree National Park. This all came about pretty quickly in the last week and it's been crazy pulling the plans and logistics together to make it happen. The reason for my trip will be to work with the very cool and talented and beautiful YogaSlacker team again. You may or may not remember them from a previous blog post of them doing their thing in the beautiful mountains near Salt Lake City. Since then, we've been trying to find time to work together again, but we all travel so much that we seemed to be playing a game of zip code tag. After a few close calls of almost being in the same place at the same time, I decided it was time to get a little more intentional about making it happen. I found out they would be in Joshua Tree for a week, and I booked a flight. Case closed.

We will have a few days to work together without an agenda, and I will also be shooting and attending a yoga and climbing retreat that they are helping lead. I'm very excited about all of this and will be posting some fun new images and stories when I get back. Stay tuned, people!

By the way, at the top is a shot from the last trip to J-tree, and below is the pile of stuff that I'm figuring out how to bring with me on a plane. I've got everything I need for hiking, climbing, yoga, camping, and everything I need for photography of the aforementioned activities. Can you say 'overweight baggage fee'? I can.

Gunktoberfest

2009-10-13T20:39:00.025-06:00

by Ben

As I sit here editing images from a great weekend of shooting in the Gunks, I can't help but to unpack my mind a little bit-mainly because it's easier than unpacking my truck, which will have to wait. The way this weekend came to be sent my thoughts into a whirlwind of trying to understand where I am and how I got here. A year and a half ago I didn't own a camera, didn't know what an f/stop was, and was wrestling with the growing reality that I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.

You see, I spent this last weekend working with Nicky Dyal, who is a very strong and talented climber who is also very accustomed to being in front of a camera. Along with her was her longtime friend Joel, who is also a great climber and has been recently getting into photography, and her father who is a small, unassuming, fantastically old-school climber. Nicky has been in many of the major climbing magazines many times, and the opportunity to work with her was absolutely great. So how did it happen? That's what I'm trying to figure out.

I guess it all started about 6 months ago on Twitter. I became acquainted with a gal named Sara Lingefelter, better known as @theclimbergirl. Sara is very connected to the climbing community on twitter, a prolific blogger, and just seems to know everyone. A month later, when she made a trip to CO and set up a climbers' gathering, I went along to meet new people. She was super cool and we stayed in touch via Twitter, and also ran into each other again at the Outdoor Retailer show in SLC. A few weeks ago when I mentioned to her that I was looking for people to shoot in the Gunks while I was home in the East, and she told me that she would be happy to send out a message to all her climbing contacts. A girl named Katie, or @AdventureGrrl on twitter, replied to her, and let her know that I should get in contact with Jannette Pazer, aka @cliffmama, since she is very active in the Gunks community. When I did, she did the same as Sara and hit up all her local contacts, letting them know that I wanted to shoot two routes: The Dangler and Shockley's Ceiling. Needless to say, I was pretty excited when she emailed me to let me know that a friend of hers, Nicky Dyal, was interested in working with me. It just so happens that she was home visiting family and was going to be in the Gunks that weekend anyways, before returning to her home in CA. The whole sequence of events left my mind pretty blown. It was amazing timing, and not much of it had to do with anything I did.

For the last year, I've been on the crazy adventure that I suppose should be expected when you get up off the couch, decide you're going to be a professional photographer, and then chase after it with everything you've got... which at the beginning wasn't much. Only in the last few months has it started to feel like I'm getting somewhere. But the absurd way in which this weekend's shoot came together has caused me to reflect on all the other good fortune that has graced my life in the last 18 months. Sure, I've worked hard, but so many things that exist outside of myself have played huge parts in moving me along my path. So much love and support from friends and family, so many amazing chances and opportunities that could only be gifts from God, and most importantly, Genny. She has been the single biggest contributor to my growth as a photographer, and the biggest gift from God. Not only does she win all the bread, so that I can devote all my time to building a career as a photographer; but she also comes home from looking at photos all day, and is still willing to go over things with me and give her very excellent, and sometimes brutally honest, critique. If I have any advice for someone wishing to improve at photography, or anything else for that matter, it is to find the most qualified source of critique that you can, and subject yourself to it regularly.

So I don't know where I am, and I'm still unsure of how I got here, but I know is that I'm headed someplace good. During the two days I spent with Nicky and Joel, we had an amazing amount of deep and meaningful conversations. Nicky had talked about feeling like she has a grip on life at the moment, and I remarked that I felt like I was headed that way. Both of them were tremendously warm and open people who by prompting quality conversations made me realize how easy it is to go through our daily interactions on auto-pilot or safe mode, and never let things get real. It's so natural to exist solely on small talk and the requisite word-vomit of 'getting to know each other.' Meaningful conversations have to be pursued. They require a little digging. Sometimes they're messy, and they're far from safe. But I got to know two people, who they actually are, not just about them.

Working with Nicky was just plain awesome. She is fun to work with and professional, and has a strong commitment to doing everything she can to help the images look their best. Joel was an awesome support player, helping out with things on my end, belaying, taking photos of me working with Nicky, helping create an awesome working environment and even jumping in front of the camera for a quick lead of Ken's Crack. Because of those two short days, I have two new friends, some great new photos, and a new intention to spend more time getting real and less time on auto-pilot. Enjoy the photos!

Photo of Nicky and I by Joel Dashnaw

Two from Rumney

2009-10-09T21:58:00.005-06:00

by Ben

Monday and Tuesday I went up to climb in Rumney, NH with my friends Matt and Eli. You may remember these two as the people I lived in a tent with for 29 days in Joshua Tree. Six months later, I think we were all ready to be anywhere near each other again. It was great to be all climbing together again and it was a fun two days. I did a fair bit of climbing and shooting, some gear testing, and a whole bunch of getting rained on. Contrary to anything I said in the post below, nothing about climbing photography is enhanced be the presence of rain, but the weather gave us enough of a break to get in a full day on Tuesday. WE also ran in to this guy named Erik who was without a partner. We welcomed him to climb with us and I was pleased to find out that he is from Colorado as well. I'll be making sure to look him up when I get back.
Speaking of Joshua Tree, in the last few days I've finally had some time to be in the 'office' and get some things done. Among those things that got done, is my trip that I did for Backpacker in J-Tree. Make sure to checkout the trip info, maps, GPS track and photos from my time on the California Riding and Hiking Trail here.

Tomorrow morning I'm headed to NY from 3 days of scouting, climbing and shooting in the Gunks. I'm going to be getting together with a few great climbers and shooting them on some stellar routes. I'm pretty excited to see what kind of images I come away with. Be sure to check back in and find out.

Why I love Fall, and Pentax.

2009-10-07T20:38:00.033-06:00

by Ben

After 14 months of living in Colorado, all the while proclaiming it's superiority from the top of every big mountain I climb, I'm beginning to remember the beauty of the Northeast. Most people would agree that no time is more beautiful than the fall. Last week, Genny and I were having a nice, relaxing rainy day, hanging out at her parents' house, when the urge struck to go take pictures. Genny's latest entry for her photo blog at Backpacker.com is about how to get good images on cloudy days, so we decided to take it one step further and see what we could get on a downright rainy day.

Rainy days definitely seem to be the most avoided by photographers. I would wager that more photographers go out to shoot at night, than go out in the rain. There's something to be said about not taking expensive electronics out into the rain, but as an outdoor/adventure photographer, I decided that that being afraid of the elements is not acceptable.

Enter Pentax.

When Genny and I were researching what camera system to buy into, one of the factors that made us choose Pentax was their extreme level of weatherproofing. We've always known it was there, and appreciated it's existence, but it had never really been put to the test, beside a few

minutes in the occasional afternoon shower. This rainy afternoon was the perfect time to see if these cameras can take as much as they say; and the answer would either be 'yes' or 'I need a new camera.'

The photo above shows how wet my camera was after 2 minutes, and both cameras continued getting poured on for another 2 hours. It was fun spending time out when most people would pack it up, and two things were learned from this rainy day out:

1. I don't need a new camera. Still want one though... (I promise I wasn't trying to ruin my camera so that I had to get a newer one.)

2. Shooting in the rain provides a great opportunity to capture the world around you in a unique way that can make ordinary scenes pop to life.

The long road home.

2009-09-28T15:08:00.012-06:00

by Ben

Genny and I are now finally in Connecticut to enjoy the presence of family and friends, but it was a long time getting here. While the trip really only took 1 week and 2 days to get home, it sure felt like 9 weeks and 5 days (see the first quote on this page). The reason is that this summer has been exceptionally busy for both of us. Genny had quite a bit extra to do at the office. And for me, the photography business has been picking up nicely in the last few months. While being a good thing, this has left me quite occupied with things like figuring out how the heck to run a photography business. We've been planning this trip home for months, and it began to seem as if the longest leg of the road home was just making it through the summer. After that, we were only 9 days away.

As if the glittering prize of going home wasn't enough to make the wait seem long, we decided to take a side trip to Grand Teton National Park and planned to climb the Grand Teton itself. Now, the accomplished students of Geography out there will know that Northwest Wyoming is not remotely close to on the way to Connecticut from Colorado. In fact, it's 12 hours out of the way. When I was younger, the threat of driving even 3 hours was enough to make me tell who took the cookies from the cookie jar. But ever since picking up a camera, moving west, marrying a sporty gal like Genny and becoming an adventure photographer, I've logged over 250 hours of road trip time. So what difference does it make to tack 12 extra hours onto a 32 hour trip?

Our original plan was to climb the Grand via the Owen-Spalding Route. We didn't have much time, so we left Thursday night and drove through the night. Arriving in Jackson, WY around 5am, and knowing we had to be at the Ranger station at 8am, we ended up napping in sleeping bags on the side of a road. We were delighted when we woke up to the sunrise illuminating a beautiful view of the Teton range. We were also a bit surprised to see that we were in the close proximity of quite a few photographers. They weren't taking our pictures, at least, not while we were awake. But you see, there's this barn, and everyone loves to take pictures of it, and we were apparently only a few hundred feet away from it. The edge of the road was now like the sideline of a Superbowl. Nothing turns me off more than a gaggle of photographers, all with their cameras and tripods, lined up right next to each other, all taking the same shot. It reminds me of the the beginning of Say Anything, when every dad has out his camcorder at the graduation. Count me out.

So we headed off to the Ranger Station to get our permit. Come again? The Owen-Spalding route is covered in ice and is out for the season? Well, that changes things. This is one of those times where you begin the understand the merits of coming up with a Plan B before you need it. We looked into some other routes and weighed our options, but all the other options on the Grand are longer and/or harder, and by the time we we narrowed down the options, we came to the conclusion that there wasn't actually enough time to do any of them. Nuts. On to Plan C.

So we spent the day planning, walked around town, ate some good food and got a few items, like a map. We decided to have a go at the Middle Teton, which has a nice 3rd class route up the backside of the mountain. Unfortunately, with the loss of the primary objective comes the requisite loss of motivation. So maybe we got a bit of a late start. But I did manage to make the nice shot of Mt. Teewinot and Jenny Lake you see at the top of this post, so I guess it was the right time to get up.

The hike was lots of fun, even though the weather came in and kept us from summitting (or was it the late start?). Lots of elevation gain, lots of rocky terrain, and tons of mind-blowing scenery. I've had a great deal of failure this season in the mountains and with climbing, so Ive adapted a new philosophy that everything is just training for something else. That way when you fail, you can still say, "Hey, it was great training." Well, the way my legs were burning for the few days following, it must have been some excellent training. Or maybe that was because after hiking, we jumped in our truck for 4 consecutive 10 hour days of driving. Yeah, that's what it was.

Amanda and Matt

2009-09-08T16:45:00.019-06:00

Genny and I had the great pleasure last weekend of not only traveling home, but both being involved in the wedding of a long time friend Amanda and her now husband, Matt. Genny has been close friends for many years, in fact longer than she has been with me, and I've known Amanda for quite a bit as well. Genny and I got to know Matt when we were shooting their engagement photos over Christmas of last year and it was immediately evident what a great match they were.

Genny was a bridesmaid and I was originally going to be the photographer for them. But then unexpectedly, an awesome thing happened, they won a contest to have their entire wedding provided and paid for by a group of local wedding industry businesses. Everything was delicious/beautiful and even though I was slightly sad to be sidelined, I couldn't think of two people who deserve this great honor more. Among these generous professionals was local wedding photographer Jamie Collins, and after speaking with her, she graciously said that it would great to have a second shooter along; so I was back in business. Jaime is a very talented and well established photographer and I had a great time working along side her.

It was a great day and I was glad to be a part of the beginning of Amanda and Matt's life together. Many thanks to Jessica for making the whole day come together like it did. Here are a few more of my favorites.

Congratulations Liz and Abel!

2009-08-20T11:36:00.008-06:00

by Genny

I met Liz when we were both in Australia for a semester. Now Ben and I live just a few miles from where she grew up, but she lives in Japan and teaches English. She and Abel fell in love this year and came back to the US for their wedding. They were married Saturday morning at the Sunrise Amphitheater on Flagstaff Mountain. Their whole wedding day was a demonstration of all sorts of love... brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents, nieces and nephews, cousins and friends... all coming together to celebrate the new couple. It was beautiful to witness.

Liz and Abel, we had a great time photographing your wedding. Here's a few favorites. We'll be be in touch with more soon. Love you both!

Don't try this at home.

2009-07-28T16:40:00.020-06:00

Who am I kidding, Genny and I tried it ourselves as soon as we got home. It was 100% unsuccessful. Let's face it, I have enough trouble balancing myself on my own two feet, so I can pretty much forget about balancing someone else on them.

This past week, I spent my time in Salt Lake City trying to promote myself as a photographer at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market. I was officially there on a Backpacker Magazine press pass, and there for I took some pictures, checked out some gear, and did a little blogging for them, here and here.

While there, I ran into a few members of the YogaSlacker team, who I had met at the Teva Mountain Games. They are a talented group of people who have combined yoga, slacklining, acrobatics and a general spirit of adventure to create something very cool, and very difficult.

After running into them a few times throughout the show, I decided to ask two of the team members, Jason Magness and Chelsey Gribbon, if they would be interested in trying to find time for a photo shoot before we all left town. They had originally planed on leaving town Friday after the show, which meant it would be a no go, but then plans changed, they stay the weekend and agreed to head out saturday for a day of shooting. Score!

Since I was already in Salt Lake, Genny took the opportunity to drive in with a friend. That way we could hang out together for the weekend. Last year on our honeymoon, Genny and I had swung through SLC on our way home. While we were there, we had hiked and climbed at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon at a spot called Cecret Lake, which phenomenally gorgeous. We figured why not go somewhere we already know is beautiful and do the shoot there.

I ran the plan by Jason and Chelsey and we decided a morning of shooting in Little Cottonwood, followed by an afternoon of climbing together sounded perfect. It was great to have Genny on the shoot with me. This was one of our first major shoots working together as a team and I think it went amazingly well. Here are some of the shots from the day, and the rest are here. Enjoy!

Movie Premiere

2009-07-12T13:03:00.008-06:00

by Genny
We've been busy with summer, and neglecting the blog. Don't think we haven't been thinking of you though. We spent yesterday with K-Life and Flatirons Church helping the City of Boulder with a tree project. Thought it would be a great opportunity to try out time lapse photography and share it with all of you. Here's a little preview which will become part of a larger movie about the project. Thanks to Travis and Laura who gave us the inspiration with their amazing time lapse wedding movie.

And stay tuned for more about K-Life. Ben spent a week with the high school students serving in Kansas City and has lots of photos to share.

Move aside world, it's Team Backpacker!

2009-06-15T16:56:00.011-06:00

One of the most enjoyable aspect of my four days in Vail shooting the Teva Mountain Games, was hanging out with the Backpacker magazine crew. They were there to give the Ultimate Mountain Challenge a try. The team was, Shannon Davis on foot, Kris Wagner on mountain bike, Mark Harrison on road bike, and Ted Alvarez on... purple inflatable kayak. Shannon, Kris and Mark are all experienced in their event. Ted is the hero who bravely stepped forwards when no experienced kayakers were to be had.

I was unfortunately only able to shoot Shannon, Mark and Ted. I had to miss Kris's event because it happened right before the Bouldering World Cup finals, was in a very different place, and I already had my light gaffer taped to a fence post in a very sweet location. With such a scenario, I had three choices:

1) Leave my lights where they were while I run to try and catch the start of his race. This runs the chance of losing my lights.

2) Take my light down, pack them up, and then run over to try and catch the start of the race. This runs the chance of losing my aforementioned sweet position.

Or

3) Camp out until the beginning of the World Cup Finals. This secures my lights and position but means I lose out on shooting Kris's race.

I guess no matter what, I lose something. So I employed a rather modified theory Occam's Razor: All things being equal, the laziest solution is best. I stayed put. Sorry Kris, I do wish I had shot your event!

Great job Team Backpacker.

More photos here.

Check out this video made by the BP team.

Genny's Turn in California

2009-06-13T00:32:00.002-06:00

Two quick peeks...

Saturday at the Games

2009-06-12T23:18:00.001-06:00

Yeah I know, that was a week ago. My bad. I got caught up in editing all the pictures, and I forgot to post more of them. To make up for it, I'll post an extra large dose of sensory overload. By the way, the above photo is what I would call 'Not a bad place to work.'

No time to talk!

2009-06-06T10:02:00.005-06:00

But here are a few of my faves from yesterday. This morning I all ready shot Ted from the Backpacker Magazine Ultimate Mountain Challenge team. It was pretty classic. Today is the Bouldering World Cup semi-finals and finals. All the top folks will be here. I'm pretty excited. Stay tuned for more Teva Mountain Games action.

Teva Mountain Games - Quiet Night

2009-06-05T08:26:00.005-06:00

So I pulled into Vail last night, and thought I would check out the event grounds in Vail Valley. It's was surprisingly serene. Just the quiet, determined hustle and bustle of the people preparing for the event. I just wanted to post up a few pictures from last night, before the action begins today. I'll be trying to post up the best shots from each day, so stay put!

To the person who broke into my truck.

2009-06-03T17:01:00.002-06:00

Thanks for cleaning out my glove compartment and center console. I've been meaning to get to that. Also, thanks alot for finding my Jimmy Eat World CD. I've been looking all over for that. Sorry that you couldn't find anything you wanted, but that's why it wasn't locked. Better luck next time. Thanks again!

Let the Games Begin!

2009-06-03T16:31:00.007-06:00

This summer, I'm going to be volunteering with the youth group that Genny is a regular volunteer for. Last night was the first night of the summer schedule, and and what better activity to kick off the season than ice blocking? Ice blocking was new to me when I moved to Colorado, but apparently it's pretty popular to buy or make your own large blocks of ice, and ride them down grassy hills. Like sledding, but no sled, or snow. On the plus side, you don't have to worry about snow up your shirt and down your pants, on the down side you generally come home covered and mud and/or grass stain. This was compounded by the fact that on this particular June 2nd which was to epitomize summer, it was 50 degrees and raining.

Us leaders had discussed before the night began about wether or not we would cancel due to weather. Apparently we forgot about being a teenager and the fact that rain and mud work together to make all things better. Everyone had a blast and no two kids were not un-dry.

Speaking of games... I'll be leaving tomorrow for Vail, CO to cover the Teva Mountain Games. I managed to score myself a media pass to the event. So I'll be where all the action is, hopefully getting some awesome shots. Stay tuned! In the meantime, here are more ice blocking shots.

Harvest Farm

2009-05-21T16:38:00.014-06:00

A few weekend ago, I had the pleasure of joining Genny and the youth group with which she volunteers for a weekend service project at the Harvest Farm. The Harvest Farm is part of the Denver Rescue Mission and is a men's program for recovery from addiction and poverty. Men who want to break cycles of destruction in their lives can be admitted to this program and they will live on the farm for 13 months. They learn valuable working and social skills; get exercise, counseling, and spiritual guidance; help grow and harvest various food and plants, raise livestock, and milk cows. Some of their produce is eaten on site and some goes to the Denver Rescue Mission to help feed the poor. They get a car when they graduate, and can even get new teeth if they were destroyed with drug use.

It really was an incredible experience to interact with people who have been so close to, or even completely over the edge. The surprising part wasn't hearing stories about how many drugs they've done, or how badly they've hurt loved ones and burned bridges, or how close the have come to dying. The unbelievable part was talking to them, and seeing what they are like now. I asked three people if they were employed by the program, only to be told all three times they were in the program, before I caught on. They seemed so normal. And that's just it. Part of this normal and functional vibe you experience when you meet some of the participants is testament to the effectiveness of the Harvest Farm program, which boasts much higher success rates than the average addiction recovery program. But I became increasingly aware of the fact that a larger part of it came from the fact that these people are exactly that.

We like to view people who are in bad circumstances we can't imagine, or that have completely ruined large portions of lives, and think that they must be so different than us. Because we could never end up like that. We could never make that mistake, especially not as many times as they did. But when you come face to face with someone who has been there, and is now making a real recovery, and not just feigning it, you come face to face with something else too. They're just like you now. And they used to be. But somewhere in between they took a wrong turn, then another. They burned bridges and hurt a lot of people, including themselves. But when you listen to their stories, you can almost always trace it back to one decision, one hit, one time. And that changed everything.

A little more humble thought, and you can arrive to one or many points in your life where you were one wrong turn away from tanking everything. But you made the right move. Or maybe you went that way for a little while but came back out just fine. It's easy to think it's because you're different than they are. This trip served as a reminder for me that I'm not. None of us are.

It's a lot like driving in a city. As long as you stay on course, you find your destination, and you'll never know how lost you could have been if you went another way. But if you make a wrong turn, everything gets harder. If you're lucky, you find your way back quickly, and get back on track. But maybe you make another wrong turn, and that leads to another. With each turn, you are more lost and more likely to make another. And soon you get to this place where where you've made too many wrong turns, and no matter how badly you want to be back where you were, you just don't know where that is anymore.

That's when you need help. And that's where Harvest Farm meets people and helps them find their way back to the place they once were. The place they were meant to be.

May - Ma + Jo = Joy

2009-05-17T17:43:00.005-06:00

by Genny

When I was younger I probably didn't think of May as a wonderful month. It's my 2 sisters' birthdays, mother's day, my grandma's birthday and my grandparents' anniversary. It kind of felt like Dad and I were the only ones not getting presents around this time of year. Luckily in the springtime every day is kind of like a present. There are a few days every May that are so perfect you don't believe they were real. I remember one day with chocolate cake and football spent with 3 very awesome friends in Allentown. I remember quite a few spring days with the MacBride's, enjoying walks and flowers, playing catch on the front lawn. May in college meant school was over and we had very few days to enjoy together before heading home for the summer. Spiderman movies, final retreats of the year, and hoping the cute boys wouldn't forget us over the summer. May in Connecticut was reunion time with a-whole-nother group of friends, and the start of all the family summer picnics, the Memorial Day parade, maybe a motorcycle ride if I'm lucky. Now that we live in Boulder, it's weather perfect for climbing, and biking, and hiking and drum circles and slacklining...

Whatever the activity, I hope your second half of May is even better than the first. AND if you need a soundtrack to truly enjoy spring go download your free Coldplay CD. (Thanks Christy!)

Secret Disclosure

2009-05-09T00:32:00.003-06:00

by Genny

I've secretly been purposely not showing anyone photos of the interior of our apartment. Today's the one week anniversary of obtaining a beautiful clock though, so I wanted to share a photo with you all. Welcome to our home. How much do you think we paid for this wonderful time telling piece? (It came with a battery and everything!)

Trapped in a box

2009-05-07T16:14:00.004-06:00

Lately I've been feeling a bit trapped in a box creatively. It's funny that on my way home from yoga, this is what I should see that makes me feel inspired.

More Flagstaff, please.

2009-05-06T10:42:00.003-06:00

I was up at Flagstaff Mountain a few weeks ago with some friends. As time went on, muscles and minds grew more fatigued, and as a result, the boulder problems grew more contrived and ridiculous. This is a what we came up with; a three move problem, skipping all the good holds, and ending with a horrible mantle. Enjoy!

Funniest Picture I've Ever Taken

2009-04-13T23:17:00.007-06:00

by Ben

I was trying to take pictures of Genny on the slackline. But I like this much better.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-13T00:07:00.004-06:00

by Genny

We sure have lots of eggs to eat now.

I hope your day was happy, like ours.

Happy Good Friday!

2009-04-10T12:28:00.010-06:00

Two weeks ago, I decided to bring out camera to our Bible study and so I could be a GWC. It was my turn to make people uncomfortable by pointing a camera at them all night. If you don't like having your picture taken, you should stay away from this small group, since we have a 1:1 photographer to non-photographer ratio.

So in honor of Good Friday, and to remember the Guy With Cross who died 2000~ years ago with me on his mind, I'm posting up some pics from the other night. I'll let you wonder what in the world goes on in our bible study as you scroll down. Then I'll explain.

Genny is getting very sick of me pointing cameras at her.

So, she tries to stuff her face with brownies, hoping it will stop me.

It doesn't.

Maybe Jared just saw God. Maybe he just saw my flash bounce off the wall and go straight into his face. I don't really know.

Travis says, "Man, my hair is jacked up."

Laura says, "That's ok. You can borrow mine."

Much Better.

Jared couldn't resist also trying on his wife's hair. And enjoyed it thoroughly.

Good times.

Beautiful scene

2009-03-24T00:54:00.005-06:00

by Genny

Of course it's beautiful! It's the view from the Dream Lake Overlook in Rocky Mountain National Park. What fascinated me is the lake you can see tucked in there. Is it Loch Vale, or something smaller, or something bigger? We flipped the map over about a hundred times trying to figure out which mountains we were looking at in order to figure out which lake it was. Our viewpoint was on one side of the map and the scenery options were all on the other side. Isn't that always the case- a map thats 32x22 inches and the 20 inches I need has to be split half on the front and half on the back.
This was our Saturday adventure. We decided to get a late start up Flattop Mountain. It was a lot of fun, but our high point was still 1,100 feet lower than the summit. Here's Ben deciding to turn around and head back down.

Visitors!

2009-03-16T18:51:00.005-06:00

While we were in Joshua Tree, Matt's wife Cara, and her friend Clay came to visit us. It was sure nice for matt to get to see his wife at the half way point, and I wished Genny could have come visit as well. But she one of those things where you go to it, and they give you money for being there and doing things while you're there, so unfortunately, she couldn't. Among other things, we went for a few nice hikes. Here are some pics.

Matt looking at an old miner's camp, along the California Riding and Hiking Trail.

Cara and Clay hiking along the same trail.

Matt always has to climb on rocks.

Clay reading a trail sign along the Barker Dam Trail.

I made it!

2009-03-13T15:17:00.002-06:00

What's up, ya'll? I'm back from Joshua Tree as of 2 hours ago. I'm kinda loopy right now because we drove 22 hours straight to get home, and I took 14 of them. It was good times. J-tree was fabulous, what an amazing place. I'll be throwing up lots more pics in the coming few days, but I just wanted to get something up. I like this little picture I took of a thorny thing growing in no more than a handful of dirt in the shallow crack of a rock. I think that thing and I have a lot in common. It must be hard to grow in an environment like that, so naturally it's very tough and has developed a strong, thorny exterior. Although I guess I'm not really that tough, I tend to cry about things like only sleeping on one Thermarest because I left the other one on top of the truck and it blew away while driving. Also, I'm not very strong or thorny either. In fact, I mostly got torn up by gritty Josh cracks and donated blood frequently to a few offwidths. In fact, I may not have anything in common with this little guy, but I like the picture.

Meanwhile, back in Colorado...

2009-03-05T12:29:00.003-07:00

by Genny
I've been learning to ski and learning to photograph. Maybe you thought I already knew how to do those things. Well yeah, I grew up skiing, but not like this. Cross country skiing to a yurt is way different than downhill at Mohawk. And you're right, I've been taking photos since I got that pink and purple camera for the trip to Germany in first grade. But now I'm learning to use my new Pentax, and that's a whole new thing!

Read all the details on Backpacker's Blog.

JTree Vol. 2

2009-02-24T12:59:00.008-07:00

Back to the internet, and here we are with the next installment of pics from the beautiful Joshua Tree National Park. The first week was pretty rough. Between, bad weather, cold nights, being pretty homesick, and the usual harshness of adjusting to the joys of living out of a truck with two other guys, I wasn't having a good time at first. But now the weather has been great, nights are warmer, we're finding our climbing rhythm, and getting our send on.

The scenery here is amazing and so is the camping; that is, when we're actually camping in the Park, and not the Pit.
Since being here, I've run into three people I know; and it's not like I'm that cool and know tons of people. It's been really cool though. I ran into a friend Nate, who I met at the Solid Rock Climbers for Christ conference that I went to this past August in the RMNP. He's a really cool dude and climbs pretty hard, and so do his friends. Here's Nate's friend Todd getting the redpoint on Spider Line - 5.11c.

We've been trying to hit a lot of classics. Overhang Bypass (5.7) is definitely of of the best so far. I was hanging off a rope taking pictures, so I haven't climbed it, but I can tell. I can't wait to lead it myself. Here Matt runs it out, on easy ground, to the top of the first pitch.

The sole benefit of all the crap weather we had at first was this really cool rainbow we saw. Other than that, it was rather miserable.

All in all, it's been some pretty good times, with a lot more to come. Stay tuned, folks!

JTree Vol. 1

2009-02-16T14:18:00.005-07:00

Hey you guys! I'm at Super 8 stealing their interweb. We're sitting in the truck watching SNL skits and Homestar Runner vids. I just thought I would upload a some pics from our first few nights. Here you see our beautiful first night of camping. It was 26 degrees, windy and moist. We were in 40 degree bags. Excellent. Below is the San Rafael Swell in Utah. Below that is a random boulder in Joshua Tree. Enjoy.

Warmer than last time...

2009-01-20T17:37:00.011-07:00

by Ben

You know those nice warm January days? You know, like the 65 degree, sunny, windless days when you can wear a t-shirt and shorts, and you actually try and stay in the shade because the sun is too warm? No. I didn't know about those either, until this past Sunday. I got another chance to head out for some nice winter bouldering with my friend Aaron and some other folks he knew. It was absolutely gorgeous out, good sending weather. Good thing, because Aaron wanted to send Mongolian Cosmonaut, a V8 problem that he has been working on. Edit: Turns out this boulder problem is now consensus graded at V9, according to Mountain Project.

We bounced around for a little, getting warmed up and playing on some other stuff. Then we moved on to Mongolian Cosmonaut while Aaron was still fresh. The problems starts very steep and hanging from a pretty slopey hold. Then you fire the right hand up to a small pebble, bump it up to another slightly better pebble, bump up one more time before you can bring your left hand over to one of the pebbles and start moving up the boulder. It's very awkward and involves a lot of tough moves before you can get solid enough to start upwards. Aaron was having trouble getting his feet to stick under the boulder, while he lunged for the pebbles.

After some body position adjustments, he was sticking the next move and looking pretty good, but it's wasn't happening and there was one more problem to be dealt with. Diagnosis: His shirt was too heavy.

With that solved, it was sending time.

Here are the rest of the photos.

Keep the Christmas coming!

2009-01-16T10:54:00.005-07:00

by Ben

Here comes more Christmas pictures! Our plan for Christmas morning involved getting into the airport at 1 am, going to my parents house to sleep, having Christmas morning with my family whenever my nephews wake up (6 am), then heading over to see Genny's family once it start winding down at my house (9 am). It was a great plan until the numbers inside the parenthesis became reality. So, we got over the Genny's house and spent the rest of the morning with her family. In the afternoon is when her whole bigger family gets together at the house across the street and has a good time and some dinner. It was really great to see everyone again, the shrimp sauce was amazing, and dinner was delightful. It was also a great opportunity to practice some indoor lighting techniques that I wanted to mess around with in a safe environment. Here are the highlights!

Here's the rest of the pictures!

I'm thankful for...

2009-01-15T21:24:00.000-07:00

by genny

blue gels and flashy flashes

my husband who made dinner tonight and did the dishes too

an apartment to call home while i'm 1,861 miles west of the real home

the many many people east of here who i love and miss. there's space for you here with us. look! see that space for you in the picture?

and...

i'm thankful for our new blue primaloft jackets

that fit perfectly!

Remembering Lygon Stevens.

2009-01-12T17:33:00.000-07:00

Last August I had the opportunity to climb Longs Peak with a large group of people I had never met before. Not my usual style, I prefer to know my climbing partners. But this was a special case. For starters, I had only been in Colorado for 1 week and didn't know anyone besides my wife and a few others. The real reason was that I had gotten plugged into an organization called Climbers For Christ while I was in CT, and though it wasn't very active in CT, it is much more active here. So I caught wind that they were doing a climb of Longs Peak the weekend after I got back from my honeymoon, and this climb was to be in memory of a girl named Lygon Stevens. Count me in.

Time for the back story. Once I knew I was moving to Colorado a year or two ago, I started spending lots of time on 14ers.com trying to soak up and learn everything I could about the glorious mountains I would soon call home. One day I came across a thread about a young girl who had been caught in an avalanche on Little Bear mountain, which is one of the 56 mountains in Colorado over 14,000 ft. Within the post about Lygon was a link to another forum on the Climbing for Christ webpage, which I had never visited or even heard of. I followed the link to find out more, and not only found what I knew I was looking for, but also found what I didn't know I was looking for. A community of Christian climbers. When I barely even knew who she was, Lygon had already made a difference in my life. I had made a post on the Climbing For Christ webpage and then eventually fell out of touch with the situation. That is until I got back from my Honeymoon on a wednesday night, went online, and found out that there was a memorial climb on that saturday. I contacted Nick Stevens, who was the event coordinator and is the father of Lygon, and told him that I would love to come along to hike and also document the day with my camera. He said it would be great to have me along, and that was that.

Longs Peak is a looong day (hence the name?), and you need to start the mountain around 2-3am in order to beat the afternoon thunderstorms. So what do I do, I show up 45 minutes late and miss the group start. Now I'm hiking in the dark, as fast as I can can, trying to catch up to a group of people I've never met before. This was terribly unsuccessful, since I hiked right by almost the entire group. I got to a wide open area called the boulderfield, which is a good resting stop. By now it was slightly daytime, and you could actually see people. There were quite a few groups taking breaks, so I made my circuit, trying to figure which one I belonged to. Finally I saw a hat that said "C4C"... Bingo! Introductions were made, we rested and chatted while the group grew with new arrivals. As we set off on the upper half of the mountain, the altitude started kicking in. Soon all the people whom I had passed on the way up were passing me. Suddenly the pictures went from peoples faces to their backs. Getting to the top sure was a struggle, but it was certainly worth it. On the top the whole group slowly congregated for the first time since the start I had missed.

During the whole course of the day, I slowly got to know a family who had suffered a terrible loss, but was somehow still filled with an abounding joy for life and a love for God. It was a great day that I won't forget, and I came home with some pictures I really liked. This post was spurred by an email I received from Nick, which contained a hyperlink. The Denver Channel 7 had just run a story on Lygon and the book her family had compiled of her excellent journal writings.

Here is the news story on Lygon. It is certainly worth checking out.

Here is the gallery containing the rest of the pictures from the Climb.

Holy Christmas, Batman!

2009-01-11T17:36:00.000-07:00

Get ready for 1 million pictures in the next few blogs. Being home in Connecticut from Christmas time was really great. Genny and I have tons to post about, but for now I'l just throw up few pics.

My nephew Carson.

My Nephew Ryley.

My Mom.

My Dad and Brother.

Time to play catch up.

2009-01-02T19:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since the last post, so ignore the post date. I'm gonna go back in time a bit. After the very pleasant day of bouldering, the next day was absolutely frigid. So Genny and I decided it was an excellent day to stay inside and make cookies. We had a Christmas party to go to that night, so we thought we would show up in style... with cookies!

Genny ws excited to finally get to use her Pampered Chef cookie gun. I was dubious when she pulls this thing out, but let me tell you how totally sweet it is. Press it to the pan, pull the trigger, pick it up, repeat. Perfect cookie after perfect cookie. Unfortunately, now that I'm blogging about that, everyone will know that we're not master pastry chefs. Below, Genny writes my name in cookie dough, which was badly burned in the oven due to it's small size. Apparently we are no good without the cookie gun.

It was a great day and the cookies were delicious. The highlight of the day was my brilliant decision to put peanut butter cups on the PB blossoms instead of regular old hersey kisses. They were a hit at the Christmas party, although, Genny says she still prefers the regular old kisses. Best of all, we used this picture of us and our cookies for our Christmas card! Merry Late Christmas everyone!

Warm enough to go bouldering.

2008-12-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

Aaron on some V5.

This weekend we had a reasonable day to get out with some friends for some bouldering. Of course by warm enough, I mean 35 degrees or so, which really isn't bad at all for bouldering. There's a really nice feel to cold weather bouldering. You sit around in a warm puffy jacket, with long johns under your thick pants. Every once in a while you take off your jacket and go try and climb for 30 seconds or so. Then you fall off, put on your jacket, and go lay in the sun for a few minutes; occasionally getting up to spot someone. It was good that we got out that day sincethe next day it was -8, and stayed wavering around zero for a few days.

Topping out.

Beta Discussion.

We're not young anymore...

2008-12-08T17:42:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, as the days go by, you have one of those experiences that reminds you that you're not 17 anymore. Friday night, the youth group that Genny volunteers with had a lock-in. For those of you in the dark on that, it's basically an all night even of unfortold insanity. The night opened up with a trip to Jump Street. Basically, it's a warehouse full of trampolines. Yup, a warehouse full of trampolines. Enter the Reminder...

After 5 minutes of jumping, my back hurts and Genny has a headache. That was enough to slow Genny down, but not me! While my body may have aged, my decision making skills certainly have not. After jumping for a while, out comes the camera; my only chance of respite. It is surpisingly hard to take trampoline pictures in a giant room, with high drop-down ceilings, and black trampolines for the walls and floor. But it was still fun to try.

When we got back to the Church, of course there is no resting or sleeping. But you what there is? That's right! 7 hours of dodgeball! Woo hoo! When I sat down to write this blog post, I realized that I hadn't taken a single picture of the seven hours of dodgeball. Why? I was playing dodgeball, duh. Who wants to take pictures when you can be playing dodgeball?

Three days later, Genny and I still have the cold that we came down with the morning after the all-nighter, and I still feel like I was hit by a bus. But it was really fun at teh time, and the kids had a blast!

Lindsey and Clayton

2008-11-12T16:34:00.000-07:00

The other weekend, we had a fun time doing a photo session with our friends Lindsey and Clayton from Church. It was a beautiful saturday afternoon and we decided to head down to Pearl St for some Illegal Pete's burritos. They were terrific, and a great way to get ready for a photo shoot. Maybe all our sessions should start with burritos. We found a nice location in the shade with an interesting tree for an background. After taking a few there, we took a stroll further down Pearl St. Coming up on a pretty large crowd, we stopped in to see what was going on. Then I saw the fire being juggled that could only be one person, Daring Derrick, who I have photographed before in my street performer series. We enjoyed his show, then moved on to an alley between Pearl and Walnut St.

Genny and I had visited this alley before and thought it would be a great location for a shoot sometime. The only problem was that we visited the alley at midnight, and it's apparently quite a bit busier at 3pm. We hung out there for a while and did some shooting. We would stand around for a minute of two while people went by, then throw the light stand back in place and fire some off. People would walk down the alley, and we would stop shooting so they could go by, and they would always start apologizing for interupting our shoot. It was pretty funny. I was expecting people to be annoyed, but I guess when you have a camera and lighting equipment, people must assume your some big deal, or you're shooting someone famous. We would always respond back that we were sory for being in the way. It's was funny for a bit, but got old, so we moved on.

Here's some more.

More Scream Scram!

2008-10-27T11:14:00.000-06:00

As Genny posted below, the two of us photographed the 9th annual Scream Scram friday night. It was totally awesome and a really really fun time. But it was also pretty overwhelming to cover. Fast paced, so much going on everywhere and then trying to get all the photos uploaded and keyword searchable by the next day. It was totally worth it, and we'd love to do it again next year; and 3 days later I finally have enough brainpower to blog about it in some detail...

Despite the hectic nature of trying to cover the race, it still left me with a warm fuzzy feeling. It was just a really fun event to be at. Everyone was having a blast, lots of hilarious costumes, lots of families doing the race together, just good vibes all around; and all for a good cause.

It was really great being there early and watching the excitement and fun build as people show up. Slowly, Washington Park filled with athletes in their hi-tech running costumes. Some of the more serious contenders were warming up when we got there by running laps around the park, and probably ran a few 5k's before they ran the 5k.

Eric Larsen, who is a global explorer and adventurer, attended the event to promote his upcoming adventure to the three poles of the Earth. The three poles would be North, South, and the ceiling of the world, Everest. He will be venturing to these great frozen places in an effort to raise awareness of climate change. Before the full race, there was the kid's 100m race, and in this race Eric ran with the kids while pulling two car tires behind him to simulate the sled he will be pulling to the poles.

As the 5k began, the starting line exploded with color. The racers were off, and it was our job to try and be a step ahead of them. We hurried to the midway point to take a few photos before we had to run off to the finish line. Anything you can imagine crossed that finish line. Skeletons and vampires, super heroes and villains, a screw and screwdriver, the burger king, Jack Sparrow, a taxi, a shower, and a bunch of people that I can only assume were Christmas stockings or various parts of Santa.

Afterwards, I set up my light near a wall and did some nice and easy pictures of people who wants portraits done. Here's a picture of a skeleton and the girl dressed as a shower. All in all it was really fun and constantly hilarious, despite the hard work. Genny and I had a great time and hope to participate again.

Scream Scram 08

2008-10-26T21:30:00.000-06:00

Friday was the 9th annual Scream Scram, a fundraiser for Sean's Hope and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society hosted by Scream Agency. Thanks to all their work, and lots of volunteers, everyone had a great time: men, women, children, dogs... martians, skeletons, vikings and princesses... Click here to see more photos.

Mt. Belford ( I think...?)

2008-10-10T22:43:00.000-06:00

Last July, Genny and I went on a Mt. Olypmus climb for a charity called Big City Mountaineers. We met many fine people on the trip, but the two that stood out the most; the ones we knew would be long term friends were John and Rob. We never thought we would be recruiting climbing partners from Iowa, but low and behold, they were in Colorado last weekend to climb 14ers and we wanted in (or out?)! We joined them for their third hill, Mt. Belford. The whole time none of us could remember the name of it and every few minutes someone was asking what mountain we were on. Up top, Rob and then John approach the summit. They were kicking my butt the whole way up, but let me go first to take their pictures. What nice guys.

Here, Genny walks one of the few moderately steep sections. The rest of the mountain was just plain steep. It was never too terrible, but it seldom let up. I feel like it's much easier to climb mountains with hard sections and easy sections, than one that's just kinda tough the whole way up. This led to the much appreciated Vitamin I break, as you can see below.

It was slow going and the weather always looked on the verge of going sour, but it never did. Just a pretty cold and constant wind, but no rain. For the first time in a while, I underestimated a mountain and didn't bring my hardshell pants. I figured my softshell pants would be enough, but the wind was just whipping right through them. Around 13,5000, after venting a lot of heat for a while, I felt too cold to be comfortable with going higher, and I was going to turn around. John was kind enough to let me borrow his wind pants, and they warmed me back up as I continued hiking.

After that, we were on the summit in no time. We spent enough time for a quick Hero Shot on the summit, and then we're off!

Lumpy Aspens

2008-10-02T17:30:00.000-06:00

The aspens here are in full glory, so I decided to go up to Lumpy ridge in Estes Park and grab a few shots. Here's one for now.

Cardozo Family Photos

2008-09-21T17:43:00.000-06:00

At the Magazine Conference last weekend Ben and I met Jonathan Cardozo, a man who's taking his two kids, Zippy and Adam, on a year-long adventure around the world. Ben offered to photograph them on their leaving day and so we were there bright and early yesterday as they were packing. Armed with new skills and photo gear Ben took some candid shots as well as some more formal portraits of each family member and the three of them together. We had a great morning with Zippy and Adam as Jonathan got all their things organized into the minivan. You can read about their adventure at their website: HappyFamilyAdventure.com. We'll share more photos and news about where they are as time passes. For now they're headed toward Moab. Bon Voyage!

A few days in the Park.

2008-09-19T13:43:00.000-06:00

I just got back from spending a few days in Rocky Mountain National Park. The Backpacker staff was having their gear testing trip. So after a weekend photography conference, Genny and I went up to join them for the last day. After Genny and her workmates went back to Boulder, I decided to stick around and take some more photos. Here are some of my favorites.

Pearl Street Mall

2008-09-04T15:51:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite places to take pictures in Boulder is certainly the Pearl Street Mall. It's always teeming with life and crazy, unique, interesting people. I'm always particularly drawn to the street performers, as they provide such a surreal subject for such an unusual place. Having grown up near Boston and attended (some) college there, it always bring back fond memories of Quincy Market. For anyone that really likes just being somewhere public and soaking in the life around them, Pearl Street Mall is the place to go. I've always ben quite the people watcher, which maybe I thought was a little weird. Until I got a camera; then it's like, 'Alright, boku people watching.'

"Hey! Get outta my case, man!"

Haha. That's what's it looks like, but I assure you I had his permission, and we had a nice chat about music. Another of the reasons I love the mall is that I'm a musician, a drummer in fact. There's always musicians playing, and very frequently percussionists. It's fun just to listen some times, but the camera almost always comes out.

Two of my favorite musicians I have met so far would definitely be these two. Dominic is on the flugelhorn and Gabriel is on the sax. I asked Dominic if he played any conventional gigs, and he replied, "No way. All that work, for bad money? I just made 10 bucks for playing a girl happy birthday." Gabriel has one of the sweetest tones I've ever heard on a sax; and I've heard a lot. In this picture, Dominic is clearly enjoying it, while Gabriel take a solo.

That's all for now. I'm thinking I'll go back soon, and meet some more interesting people. When I'm in the mood for some alone time, I more often find myself going to the Mall and merely spending time with people I've yet to meet.

Fun with Logs and Blenses.

2008-09-02T21:58:00.000-06:00

It's not every day you get something new, but today, September 2, 2008, we've got 2 new things. This morning we had a new lens arrive and now, a mere 12 hours later, we've got a blog as well. So far both are short. The blog will grow bit by bit, but our little lens will always stay just 14 mm. It might sound small but it's actually super huge (f/2.8) and totally boss.
What an exciting day!