We did a moonlight XC ski last night in some very cold temps. It didn't last too long but it was a beautiful night. The -2 temp was pretty tough and it was only getting colder (-20 this morning). The Gunnison Nordic Council has groomed tracks at Hartman Rocks now which is really nice. Conditions are thin so I'm hoping we get some more snow to make it really solid. It also gets warmer when it snows so that would be nice too!

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IMGP4004, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

I had hoped to be skiing this weekend but we don't have enough snow so I got a few rides in instead.
Friday I did a nice solo ride at Hartman Rocks and I kept noticing the moon as I was riding along. Almost as if it was trying to get my attention. Well, it did! I ended up taking several shots that ride which included the moon. This first one includes me as well!

With the moon constantly reminding me of it's presence and it's location in the sky, I had an idea. There's this neat bent old tree that I might be able to frame the moon under. It was maybe a mile away from my location when I had this idea and figured it might be worth it to head over there and see if it would line up.

Before I got to that bent tree I passed this big rock outcropping. With a little adjusting of my position I was able to capture the moon in the slot in these rocks. Cool, so far so good.

Then I got to the tree that brought me over this way. It wasn't easy but by balancing on a boulder (in cycling shoes) and using live view to compose while holding the camera over my head I managed to line this one up too. Hooray for the moon!

Finally on the way home the sunset started getting really good. I rode as quickly as I could to reach this little pond between the KOA and the airport in hopes of catching some nice sunset reflections. As luck would have it I caught the peak of a great sunset at the pond and I had time to snap a few more here before the last couple of chilly miles to get home. This one didn't include the moon as it was in a very clear part of the sky that wasn't as interesting as the parts with clouds. But that's ok. It was a nice ride and a good haul of photos for the day.

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IMGP1035-Edit, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

This is a composite image made from six different photos taken from the same 100 shot series. I went through and got the shots with visible meteors and layered them in Photoshop so only the meteors were visible against just one of the shot's background. I repeated that process once for the rocks which I light painted with my headlamp in one exposure.
Pentax K-5 and Pentax DA 15mm Ltd.

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IMGP1211-Edit, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

I got out early today to catch the Orionid meteor shower. It was peaking in the wee hours so I dragged myself out to try and get some meteor photos. I got a few decent shots and I liked this one. I also ended up with hundreds of fairly plain photos without any meteors so I stacked those for the trails below. I loved how all the different colors became so visible. Anyway, I'd say that was worth an early morning. I think I'll have a few good photos from it too.

I used the shareware application ImageStacker for this stack of 100 15s exposures.

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IMGP0299.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

My friend and neighbor Brian Smith won the Pummeler's Butt trail running race this morning and then the Pummeler's Butt mountain bike race this afternoon. Impressive!

Race results are here.

Buy photos here!

Both races were held at Hartman Rocks near Gunnison Colorado. They were organized by our great local trails organization Gunnison Trails and MTB OG Dave Wiens.

Photo details:

I put a remote flash in a tree for this one. I kind of like how it worked out.
Pentax K-5 & Tamron 28-75 f/2.8

Remote flash was a AF200 - a 1980's era pentax flash triggered with Cactus v5 triggers. I also had my Sigma 530 Super flash on the camera at full power.

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IMGP5868.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

I only spent a few hours out in the sage this year but it was fun to see and cheer on friends.
I was trying to get more interesting shots of the race than individual riders (although I did grab a few of those too).
Conditions were hazy this year due to wildfires.

I didn't take a ton of photos this year but I still got some racer photos in some good light Saturday evening. If you raced and want to see if I got a shot of you come over to my Zenfolio Gallery and have a look!

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IMGP9218.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

Half Growler (Saturday) photos are here.

Full Growler (Sunday) photos are here.

You can search for your race number to see what photos you are featured in. The search will look in all galleries so you may see photos of someone racing the other day with your same number. If you don't want to see that, add the word half or full to your search depending on which race you did.

Great job to everyone who raced or who was involved in putting it on!

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Challenging light conditions tonight but a fantastic moon. This was taken at Hartman Rocks. Dynamic range was fully utilized!

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IMGP3094.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

Hartman Rocks is dry. A bit too dry even, but the transition from ski to mountain bike was smooth and instant this year.
It was a nice evening out there last night with some great storm clouds rolling through the valley.
This shot is from the Top of the World trail looking North at a spot I've taken photos before.
Pentax K-5 & da40

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IMGP8987.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

I was mountain biking on Saturday which is odd for January around here and I brought the camera as I often do. Near the end of the ride I was thinking I should have just left it at home because the light was no good and I was getting tired and cold. Then suddenly the light broke through and illuminated this squall over Gunnison and having the camera became very worthwhile! I forgot about being cold for a little while and got these photos before a very brisk ride home reminded me.
Sadly the storm didn't give us any significant much-needed snow, but it was enough to enjoy a little skiing at Monarch the following day.

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