Greeley Stampede

Ever since we got out to Colorado my mom has wanted to go to a rodeo. Today we went to the Greeley Stampede - Giddyup!

We go to Greeley about noon and as we expected, it was much like a county fair. Corn Dogs, mean-on-a-stick, lemonade from the food family, and a ferris wheel, tilt-a-whirl and midway from the carnival family. Before we could try any of the food, Tara and mom had to buy cowboy hats. Once the hats were firmly strapped on their heads, we followed our noses. Having not eaten much all day - we sampled plenty of skewered meat. I had a couple of corndogs, mom had steak-on-a-stick and Tara had pork-on-a-stick. It was delicious.

Once we had a full stomach, we headed over to the stadium. The rodeo started at about 1:30PM and it was a fast moving event - much faster than I expected. There were several different events culminated by the Bull Ride. I think we all came away from the rodeo extremely impressed by the talent of the buck-ing cowboys, but weren't terribly pleased with the treatment of the cattle in the roping events. I guess it's a good thing PETA wasn't there - some of the handling of the livestock was non-sensical in my opinion.

As soon as the cowboys were done riding the bulls, some daredevil/BMX riders took to the air and put on a spectacular show of gravity defying leaps. Those guys were definitely insane!

We couldn't leave the grounds without first getting our funnel cake on - to heck with the diet! They were delightful in every sense of the imagination. A pretty good day all around. Sidenote: The organizers of the stampede are not as photo friendly as many events. Several times we heard that one could take as many photos as they want, but public display of said photos was prohibitted. With that in mind, no Flickr photos from today. Instead I created a special gallery that will probably fly under the rader a lot more than Flickr would.

Click here to see gallery

I'm definitely glad we went - it was a LOT of fun. I'm not sure I would go again though because as I was processing over 1000 photos from the day, I really noticed how poorly some of the animals were treated.

Taste of the Rockies

We woke up early this morning - like 4:30AM early - and made the 75 minute trip up to the Rocky Mountain National Park. The weather was perfect, the company was well-behaved and the photography was pretty darn good. A great day!

First we stopped at Bear Lake and took several photos of Hallett's Flat-top across the smooth surface of the lake. At over 9700 feet above sea level, there was still plenty of snow around and it was actually kind of chilly.

After we got done at Bear Lake, we headed over to Sprague Lake. I've been there several times in the past and was hoping to get another great reflection shot but unfortunately, the wind started kicking up and the lake was full of ripples.

We got in the car and drove up Trail Ridge Road to the Alpine Center. Measuring just under 12000 feet, this is truly tundra conditions! The wind was howling, there were banks of snow 8, 10 and 12 feet deep! Despite this - the photography opportunites were phenomenal - including a pretty decent panorama (below)

We were all getting hungry so we decided to head back down the mountain - one last stop though. Horseshoe Park. The importance of this site probably isn't well known outside the state of Colorado. In 1982, a devastating flood occurred When the Lawn Lake Dam broke unexpectedly at 5:30AM. The water from Lawn Lake sped down through Horseshoe Park before sending up to six feet deep water through the town of Estes Park, CO. Several people were killed. The flood created an alluvial fan of debris at Horseshoe Park. While this is definitely a sad day in the history of Colorado, the geological outcome is quite spectacular. More information can be found here.

Finally, on the way home we stopped at Five Guys Burgers. We've heard good things about the burgers and fries and if it's good enough for POTUS, it's good enough for us! Maybe not the best burger I've ever had - but pretty darn good!

Bonus! We arrived back at our humble abode in the midst of a hail storm. Luckily there were no tornados in the area - but there was a covering of hail throughout the backyard. Needless to say - Sidney the Beagle was NOT happy.

Click to see full sized panorama

(Click on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)

Morning in LoDo

I woke up early this morning and headed down to LoDo - the Lower Downtown Historic District. I spent about 90 minutes walking around and getting familiar with the area, taking pictures along the way.

We've got a full weekend ahead of ourselves so it was nice to get out and have some time to myself before we start with chores, shopping and sightseeing!

(Click on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)

Denver skyline

It's been raining here quite a bit lately. Being from Florida, it just seems normal to us. Apparently, the amount of rain we've gotten in Denver this spring is bordering on epic. We lucked out and the skies cleared around 4PM and the rain stayed away until about 9:30PM. Mom and I got in the car and drove down to try to get some photos of the Denver Skyline.

This is the same location I grabbed some shots at last year, but I think these come out better - that's what another year and 20,000 shutter clicks will do for you!

We lucked out with some spectacular clouds though - it really adds something to the pictures I think. During the 30 or so minutes of twilight, I decided to try some things - including a panorama, zooming, and purposely blurring an image to produce some pretty interesting highlights. All in all, a fun evening - and it started raining about 2 minutes before we got home!

Panorama of Denver Skyline

(Click on photo to see full size image on Flickr)

Chez Jacobsen

Wow, I can't believe we've lived here for two months already! It was brought to my attention (ok, several times it was brought to my attention), that our friends in Florida have still not seen where we live. So, after work tonight I took the camera out and spent a few hours taking and processing photos of our new home!

Much to Tara's chagrin, it's called a Colorado Ranch. This four-level style is very common in Colorado. Needless to say, it looks nothing like a typical Florida Ranch house.

You enter the home and are greeted by hardwood floors on the main level of the house. The main level includes the living room, kitchen and eating area. The kitchen is a huge upgrade to what we've had in the past and Tara did a spectacular job setting this level up.

Down a half flight of stairs is the family room, laundry area and bathroom. The family room includes a wood burning fireplace and this is where Tara spends about 95% of her non-working hours. Apparently, we got lucky here. Woodburning fireplaces aren't allowed in new construction.

From the main level, up a half flight of stairs to the bedrooms. The upstairs has two guest rooms and a master bedroom. One of the guest rooms Tara has converted to her office. The second guest room is technically still a guest room but I'm slowly sinking my talons into it as a place where I can escape too. The guest bathroom is fairly typical, but nicely udpated.

The master bedroom is humungous by our standards. It includes a 3/4 bath and a walk-in closet. Out our window we are able to see the front range and Rocky Mountains. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't cooperating when I took this pictures. Trust me - there's a 14,000 ft tall mountain out there called Longs Peak!

One of the features of Colorad (for me at least) is no more St Augustine grass!!! The fenced backyard is of decent size and has real grass! We have a large deck off of the main level with our patio furniture and grill, and a smaller, lower deck a half flight of stairs off of the upper deck. From the upper deck, we have clear views of the mountains and the open space right next to our house. I was chastised this evening because I didn't have any photos of the wonderful flower garden that Tara and my mom have been working diligently on in the backyard. I promise, I'll get some pictures up of that soon.

But wait - I said four levels didn't I? Well, down a half flight of stairs from the family room is the basement - approximately 500 sq ft. This is where my mom lives! She's in the process of upgrading that area. Her kitchen was installed last week and rumor has it she might get her own door soon - currently she's putting her dogs out via a ground level window!

So, that's the big tour. We really like the house - it's by far the nicest house/neighborhood that Tara or I have lived in. It seems like we're close to everything but it doesn't feel like we're living "in a city" at all. Drive 30 minutes to the west and we're 10,000 feet above sea level in the snow capped mountains. I think I speak for all of us when I say we're looking forward to living here for many years!

(Click on image to see full size photo on Flickr)

Race Day!

We got up a bit later on Sunday and made it out to the track by 10AM. The first race was to start an noon so I took the opportunity to get some shots around the hospitality tent. While doing that, some of the Ducati Factory Xerox team came in and mentioned how they didn't have a photographer for their autograph session. We offered my services and they were both excited and grateful! The race was quickly approacing and I had a hike to get over to the "Bad Attitude" corner of Miller Motorsports Park for the start of the race.

After a 30 minute trek, I was in position for the start of the race. The first lap the bikes went by so quickly I don't think I got a single shot. Wow, time to put my game face on! The next time they came by I was ready. I ended up with about 400 shots of the 21 lap race. Time to get over to the Ducati Factory tent for the autograph session.

I arrived at the Ducati Factory tent and found out that the autograph session had been cancelled. There was a bad wreck in the first race and as such, the schedule got messed up and there wasn't time for the riders to get to the tent to sign autographs and get back to the garage to prepare for the second race. I was a little bummed but I had taken several shots of the Xerox team on the track and will send those to the Ducati Factory team to see if they want them.

As luck would have it, the cloud cover rolled in right when the second race was to start. This was a mixed blessing. On one hand, it really cooled down, on the other hand, the light wasn't that great. I wasn't about to put my camera away though so I proceeded to rattle off another 400 shots or so of the second race. Both races were won by Texan Ben Spies. Ducati Factory rider Michael Fabrizio came in second. Our best showing was Jakub "Kuba" Smrz who finished 6th in the second race. A great showing for Kuba, catapulting himself into the top 10 of the standings! Even better was the fact that he rode a bike that was built by Boulder MotorSports

All in all, it was an exciting weekend and I'm forever thankful to Brian Sharp and Chad Kemmerlin for including me in the activities. I came home with a battered and tired body, but I also had a TON of great photos. Enough of the story - here are the race pics. Enjoy!

Click here to see gallery of race images

Click here to see a gallery of Misc photos

World SuperBike - Day 1

The HANNS Spree World SuperBike race is being held outside Salt Lake City, UT this weekend and I got invited to the event to take photos for Boulder MotorSports as they have some riders in some of the events. I'll keep it short as I'm completely drained... Saturday was a blast. I can't wait to get back out to the track and flex my "media" credentials to try to get some better photos!

(Click on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)