About two weeks ago, I went back to Wolf Creek for for a three full days of surfing and skiing. I still love that place.

I organized a trip for 8 or 9 friends and scored this great place in Pagosa Springs. Luxury. The kitchen was huge, the ceilings were high, and the craftsmanship was beautiful. If you’re ever staying in Pagosa Springs, definitely consider Lisl and Dan Keuning’s homes; they take really good care of them and are very hospitable. Even though our house came with a hot tub, we spent our warmer moments over at The Springs. There is nothing like having your hair freeze while your body is soaking in hot water and your muscles are unwinding.

The week before we arrived, Wolf Creek got pounded with snow…again! No avalanches this week, but they had about 140″ base on Friday and it was still snowing! Though most the runs got packed out by our second day, there was still tons of fun to be had between the trees. On Saturday, the sun came out and the trees were looking fabulous. At the top of Treasure Chair, there was a particular grove of evergreens that were blanketed by some of the thickest snow I had ever seen coated on trees. I unstrapped from my board and just went wandering around taking shots. It was pretty surreal.

On Sunday, James, Erin, Julie, and I strapped on our telemark skis, slapped on some climbing skins, and blazed our own trail at the top of Wolf Creek Pass. It was my first time cross-country skiing with my telemark skis and I loved it! Some of my favorite parts were having the winter silence occasionally broken by gentle “whooophfs” caused by large quantities of snow falling off a tree into deep powder. My personal milestone that day: I took my first backcountry telemark turn down a gentle slope…and bit it. I still have a long, long way to go with telemark skiing; luckily the season is still long.

Sunday was also the first time I got to play with my new toy: a Garmin eTrex Vista HCx. With it, I was able to track our XC route and when I imported the track file into Google Earth, I was able to get this terrain map. Pretty sweet!

After the snow settled and the sun started shining again, Wolf Creek was sitting under 51″ of fresh, light snow. Wanting to learn how to telemark, I burned my thighs on a couple of runs with my skis, but then I just had to strap on my snowboard and start surfing in the powder. It was amazing! I can’t believe they’re expecting to get *another* 40″ of snow this weekend! Unfortunately I’m going to have to wait until the weekend of the 14th for another chance on the snow. But since I’m organizing a trip for a group of people, that weekend will be full of skiing, cooking, board games, and sitting in the hot springs in Pagosa Springs.

Oh.

Yes.

If the current weather predictions hold, Wolf Creek is expected to get 53″ of snow by Sunday.

Fifty-three inches!

Can you feel my excitement?

About a month ago, I went hiking along the Big Tesuque trail in the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) mountains around Santa Fe. It was my last chance to see the fall aspen leaves before the cold nipped them off the trees. At the lower elevations, the leaves were still looking good, but as I took the trails to the top of the ski area, the leaves were thinning out. This thinned out look combined with the filtered, harsh sun made for some eerily beautiful shots of the aspen groves. Close to the top of the trial, I found a great clearing where I could read, munch on some dried mangos, and watch the sun go down behind Santa Fe. Here are some pictures from that afternoon.

A couple days ago, I cruised across New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma to spend the Thanksgiving holidays with my ma, who had come back home from Bahrain (where my parents are temporarily living), and my little brother. Although I’ve done the trip countless times, this was the first time I stopped and fired off a couple of rounds. The first couple of shots are of the Kadallic Ranch, an art installation owned by a helium tycoon / wheat farmer.

It was also cotton picking season, so I got see some huge cotton strippers in action, massive bales of cotton, and acres upon acres of unpicked cotton fields. It was really awesome to be able to go out and pick some cotton straight from the plants.

Finally, I also passed the 2nd largest cross in the Western Hemisphere…a staggering 190 feet. Welcome to the beginning of the bible belt. This was *the* largest until some copy-caters in Illinois nudged them out by 8 feet. Large crosses seem to be in vogue these days; my hometown of Edmond, Oklahoma sports its own 147 foot cross put up by LifeChurch.tv (formerly MetroChruch). Apparently some seafood restaurant across the street from the cross petitioned to construct 157 foot giant crab as part of it’s interstate signage, but the Edmond city council shot it down because it violated city ordinances limiting signs to 35 feet. Well, I must say that I’m glad the Texas-size ridiculousness stopped someplace.

Anyways, I’m back at home, stuffing my face with lots and lots of good food and playing video games with my little brother. Hope Thanksgiving break is going well for you all.

Before I owned my Canon 20D digital SLR (single-lens reflex) camera, I actually used to shoot with a great Canon A-1 film camera that my dad bought decades ago. It was the camera that taught me all the foundations of photography (f-stops, shutter speeds, ASA/ISO selections, depth-of-field, etc.) and it was also the camera that I made my biggest mistakes on (opening the film cover half-way through a roll, setting the wrong ISO so the entire roll was over/under-exposed, not loading film, forgetting to change the battery, etc.).

Though my first passion was black and white photography (I *loved* developing my own negatives and spending hours in the dark room burning and dodging for the perfect print), I started to shoot Velvia slide film right before I switched to a digital SLR. Actually, it was the beauty and saturation of the slide film that propelled me to finally get a digital SLR; I hated having these great slides and not being able to easily share them with my friends and family. I also hated taking both my film SLR (for quality) and my point-and-shoot digital camera (for convenience) on all my trips; lugging around two (not small) cameras was the epitome of inconvenience.

The last big trip I took my film camera on was Alaska; a couple friends and I backcountried through Denali and went down to Seward for a tour of the Aialik Glacier. It was a phenomenal trip. In case you’re wondering, the third image is of the Denali summit catching the last rays of sun.

After quite a bit of prodding by some good friends and family, I’ve decided to venture down the path of trying to sell my photographs. I have a long ways to go, but the first thing I needed was a new website to show off my favorite images. Eventually I’ll add the capability to buy custom photographs online, but before I did that I want to look into all the tax issues involved with being a Sole Proprietor in the eyes of the government. It’s all sort of exciting, but I have no plans of quitting my day job. It would be nice way to pay for my hobby, though!

Jump to my photography from the main page and let me know what you think!