Two consecutive closing weekends, first at Crested Butte and then Monarch. Crested Butte has always been a little rowdy on closing day and this year was no exception. It was also really good skiing!

Costumes and even sometimes nudity have been popular closing day antics at the Butte. This year it was a little chilly for streaking but the costumes were out in force. 

At Monarch the following week it was more of the same. We had a warm day Saturday so we got the costumes out. I'm the hot dog. 

Finally it was back to great skiing on Sunday at Monarch with 13.5" of new snow. Fun!

I took all these ski shots with my Pentax K-5 and DA 18-55 WR lens. It makes for a versatile and weather sealed rugged package I feel confident taking on the mountain. 

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City of tiny lights, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

Better late than never! Now let the snow fly so we can catch up!
I hiked up a hill next to town the other night to catch the lights in the icy mist over town. It was about 5 degrees F which is normal for us this time of year.

I shot this with my K-5 and Rokinon 8mm Fisheye on a tripod for a 10s exposure.

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IMGP4614, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

It was an evening of really nice light. I tried to ride out to take some shots of a big military plane doing touch n' go's but missed it. The light stayed nice for a while so I just soaked it in and shot whatever caught my eye until dark.

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IMGP2570, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

Wow, this new park looks great. We just had a dedication ceremony and then the skaters got right to it! The people driving this project overcame a lot of obstacles to get this done and I think it's going to be a great amenity for our town. When some funds fell through late in the process the guys at Team Pain (the contractors who built it) decided to camp out to make budget instead of cutting any corners. What a great gesture!

I remember reading Thrasher magazine when I was a teenager and they would always have these fisheye photos of great skaters doing something cool so I thought I'd give it a try myself.

I used my Pentax K-5 & Rokinon 8mm f/3.5, a value lens and it worked great! I also ran a Sigma 530 Super flash for fill with the high sun.

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IMGP2152.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

I had a great time over the past few days with the Pro Challenge coming through Gunnison and then going with the race to Aspen and finally hiking back.
I'll post more on this topic but thought this shot of Tom Danielson of Boulder winning the stage was worth putting up right away. Now back to my other job...

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IMGP4423-IMGP4523.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

I camped near home over the weekend for my wife's and my 17th wedding anniversary. It was great fun and I set up my camera for some star trails late Saturday night. This is 100 consecutive 8s exposures stacked using ImageStacker software.
The Pentax K-5 has a very handy interval shooting feature that facilitates this kind of shot very well. I just set it up on the tripod, hit go, and returned later to review the results.

I just missed a big meteor while I was setting up (darn!) but I did catch a couple of small ones near the top of the frame. The red trail on the left is most likely a satellite and the horizontal ones are airplanes. Foreground fill light was provided by the almost-full moon rising to the East.

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IMGP4141.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

The Pueblo Raptor Center came by the local college with some of their birds who couldn't be rehabilitated to live in the wild. These birds now serve as educational tool. They are beautiful animals and it was really cool to be able to be so close to one that isn't stuffed!

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IMGP6920.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

Had a good but COLD early morning shooting the eclipse. Brrr!

I got this shot using a new (to me) manual focus prime, a Pentax-A * 300mm f/4. A lovely old piece of glass!

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IMGP8648.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

It seems to be off and running now. I shot this from the new Lupine Trail near Crested Butte. Fun (short) trail and the flowers were over the top!

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