Climbing in the Ouray Ice Park.
Yesterday a sparkling new Sony A900 24mp SLR camera arrived via Fedex, with a few lenses, so today I figured I’d go take it for a spin. What better place to go on a cloudy day than the Ouray Ice Park, just a few blocks from my house? See a few more photos below.
I spent a fortune on this digital setup, and I have high hopes. During the last year I’ve lost my enthusiasm for lugging around 20+ pounds of large format 4×5 gear and film, and I’ve been spoiled by the light weight and ease-of-use of the little Olympus E-420 digital SLR setup. With the recent generation of high megapixel SLRs, like the Sony A900, a new option emerges that could possibly be the ideal compromise of weight and image quality. Combined with the ultra-sharp 24-70mm Zeiss lens, the 24mp images are very impressive indeed, and in fact from what I’ve seen so far, I’d say that detailed 50″ prints are certainly in the realm of possibilities. Though this is a hefty camera compared to the Oly, requiring a heavier tripod also, the whole setup is still less than half the weight and bulk of the 4×5 system. I plan on adding a more in depth review of the camera here after I’ve had more experience with it.
(more…)
Rider: Mikel Goicoechea
My good buddies from Boulder just made a trip out here, and yesterday we had the old snowboard crew back together again. I’ve made countless turns with these guys, so it was great to show them the goods and slash some pow again.
(more…)
Marian Matta is a master of panoramic mountain photography. As you can see in his online gallery, he has a great ability to capture dramatic vistas from perspectives high up in the mountains. His photos are simply stunning. We have been in sporadic email contact for several years, and recently I asked if he would participate in an email interview, to learn more about his photography. Below are Marian’s answers to my questions.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I am 48 yrs old and live in Ostrava, Czech republic. Photography is still just a hobby, so I have to attend my normal full-time job. I work for an IT company as a tradesman and sell GPS navigations, PC’s, notebooks and accessories. But photography has been with me my whole life. I’ve all the time been so close to it. Even as a student in the 70′s. At that time, I was longing for photography with a mountain theme but I had no possibilities to buy a camera and shoot it. So I started around 2005 when the digital camera boom started here. I was really inspired with pictures from Patagonia and Dolomites. And so it began… I’ve started step by step to shoot panoramic pictures and I’d like to improve my skills and knowledge in this.
(more…)
Parker McAbery snowboards down the guts of a big gulch.
Today four of us did an exploratory hike up to about 12,400′ on a high windy ridgeline. We ended up riding a pretty heavy duty 2400′ line that we had scoped out from across the valley yesterday. The last two days have been a lot of fun, exploring new terrain and learning more and more about every nook and cranny of these mountains (sometimes the hard way).
(more…)
Unable to resist the gravitational temptations, today we gobbled up the fruits of our garden. The virgin powder has been tainted, forever scarred by our serpentine tracks… at least until the next dump.
Rider: Mike Bryson.
It’s been one year since I started this blog. Read some thoughts about my first bloggerific year below.
(more…)
Skier: Pete Harris. Today I traded my Thursday for my Saturday (one of the perks of running my own business), and met up with my GJ ski buddies to harvest more of the recent powder. I took them to my favorite mountain, and we plucked a couple more fresh chutes.
(more…)
[+] Rider: Parker McAbery. This afternoon we got out for a quick lap to sample the fresh snow from the storm that rolled through the last two days. It was gooooood!
Here’s a helmet cam video of part of my ride (the part before the helmet cam crapped out):
Click here to watch the Quicktime video.
Now… back to work.
