Mountain Bike magazine article

Here is a job I shot for Mountain Bike magazine. It was a feature on Cotez, Colo and the mountain biking scene there. It originally printed in a subscribers issue and then reprinted with different photos in the newsstand issue. The cover image is unfortunately not mine, but I did get the opportunity to photograph Willow Koerber a couple of months later. See the photo in a previous blog post here.

 

For the same issue, I shot one of the Mountain Bike mag testers riding an Ibis Mojo HD. We photographed it up on Raider Ridge above Durango.

The newsstand issue

Another cool day at work.

Earlier this year, I got the opportunity to photograph a very cool home. I first discovered the home 3 years ago when Randy and I photographed a wedding on the property of the home. The wedding was pretty unique in that the ceremony was located on a grass runway on the property and the bride was flown in on a antique biplane piloted by the homeowner. The wedding reception was held in the airplane hanger. During the wedding, I saw the home from the runway and hanger but never got the opportunity to check it out. It looked to be a contemporary design and I was very intrigued.

A few weeks after the wedding, I followed up with the homeowner, Tom, to discuss photographing the house. At first, he was a little reluctant because the interior finishes were not complete but he did invite me to call him the following year. A year later, I called him to see if he was interested in doing photography. Unfortunately, the interior was complete but there was no landscaping yet. Tom was in no hurry and is a bit of a perfectionist himself, so it was on hold for yet another year. This past spring, I called Tom to see what was possible. He thought everything looked good and that we were ready to shoot.

Alrighty, persistence does pay off. I waited for three years to photograph this project and it finally happened.

The shoot was really fun! Since I waited so long to shoot this place, I put some days aside to put some extra time into it. Tom was very gracious and allowed me to spend several nights at the property so I could take advantage of the gorgeous light in southwest Colorado. It paid off and I got some incredible evenings and mornings to play with.

On one of the final days, Tom mentioned that he wanted some aerial shots of the property. My eyes lit up and a smile spread across my face. Tom had two antique biplanes and I was going to get to fly in one of them to shoot photos! He chose the 1929 Stearman which was the same plane he flew the bride in a few years earlier. We decided to shoot at dawn because the winds were light and the light would be sweet.  The next morning, Tom out fitted me in a classic leather cap radio headset, gave me a rundown of the rules and we were off.

Here's the view from the side right after takeoff

Control panel

View of Mancos, Colorado with the La Plata mountains in the background

Some days are a little better than others. This was one that I'll remember for a long time.