Northern lights

One of the most amazing things to see in nature is the Northern Lights. The first time I saw them was in northern Idaho. I stayed up until 4 a.m. watching nature's light show. Here is a picture taken by Associated Press photographer Bob Martinson of the Aurora Borealis spinning above the Talkeetna Range and a hay field on Farm Loop Road near Palmer, Alaska, on Friday, Feb. 29. The center of the circular corona, usually near Earth's north pole sometimes fluctuates further south and can be seen from a lower latitude as in this instance.

A bird's-eye view

A blue tit is reflected in a wing mirror of a car that is covered with raindrops in Friedrichshafen, southern Germany on Friday, Feb. 29. (AP Photo/Felix Kaestle)

total eclipse of the moon

The Clouds parted over Colorado Springs just long enough for Gazette photographer Jerilee Bennett to capture this image of Wednesday night's lunar eclipse. If you missed the event, the next one is Dec. 21, 2010.

Feature hunting

Sometimes the news of the day isn't very visual. Pictures of boarding meetings, the legislature or things in the future don't generally make good photos. Yesterday was one of those days, but we still needed good pictures for the paper. That's when the feature hunt begins. The way I look for a feature is every day when I'm out and about I try to notice things that might some day make a good feature. In the back of my mind I log those things like how the afternoon sun makes a cool shadow against a building or how in Memorial Park in the fall on Saturday mornings the junior football leagues play their games. Ideas that might make a good feature. A couple days ago while walking my dog along the Monument Valley Trail I noticed all the people running and walking. A feature opportunity. So yesterday when we needed something I went to the trail and found an interesting vantage point and shot the picture above of Air Force Academy track and field members running.
Some people may think features are a waste of space. If we ran them all the time, I would agree. But sometimes they are a nice slice of life from our community. I was an intern at the Missoulian in Missoula, Mont. One day I spent an afternoon looking for a feature in the rain and produced an average one. I was bummed. My photo editor Kurt Wilson told me that 50 years later someone could look at the paper and my photo and see what life was like in Missoula on that day. That gave me a different viewpoint on the feature hunt. They are another way of documenting life in our community.

Black Iron Bowl video

A couple weeks ago I blogged about my trip to Telluride for a story on the newly opened Black Iron Bowl. The story runs Friday in The Gazette and check out the video I produced at http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1155184276/bclid1155106690/bctid1418511525

Lovely pictures

Happy Valentine's Day with some images around the world. Above, Angie Sherbina, 16, and her boyfriend Rod Lats, 19, both from Federal Way, Wash., skateboard along Alki Beach in Seattle, on Valentine's Day Thursday. "After this I'm going to surprise her with something," said Lats "and then take her out to dinner." The couple spent the "whole day hanging out together." (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Karen Ducey)


A displaced Kenyan boy smell a rose given to people by Kenyan charity workers at an camp for displaced people in the Mathare slum in Nairobi. Kenyan flowers, mostly roses, account for a quarter of Europe's cut flower imports, and Kenyan growers have been pushing to keep exports up for the Valentine's Day despite ethnic violence that has paralyzed the East African country.(AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)


Bobby and Star Perez kiss as they joined dozens of other couples in a Valentine's Day mass wedding on the River Walk in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Three different views of today

These three pictures were shot today. One was shot in Spain, one in Iraq and one here in the United States. They couldn't more different in subject matter.
Above, a model displays an autumn/winter design by Miguel Palacio during the Pasarela Cibeles fashion show in Madrid. Spain's top fashion show has turned away three British models because they are too thin. Organizers of the fashion shows used a mathematical formula to calculate the models' body mass index, a measure of their weight in relation to their height, and 30 percent of the women flunked, said the Association of Fashion Designers of Spain. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)


Carolina Hurricanes' Ryan Bayda, right, is upended as he tries to score against Boston Bruins' Andrew Ference (21) and goalie Alex Auld (partially hidden) in the first period in Boston. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)


A mother kisses the foot of her dead daughter in a hospital yard in Baqouba, capital of Iraq's Diyala province, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. The 10 year old was killed in a roadside bomb blast. (AP Photo)

2008 World Press Photo winners

The winners of the 2008 World Press Photo contest were announced today. Here are five winners and to see all the winning images visit www.worldpressphoto.org.
Above, World Press Photo of the year 2007 by British photographer Tim Hetherington for Vanity Fair showing an American soldier resting at bunker, Korengal Valley, Afghanistan, Sept. 16, 2007.


First prize in the Arts and Entertainment Singles category of the 2008 World Press Photo contest by American photographer Ariana Lindquist showing a girl in a character costume, Shanghai, China, 2007.


First prize in the Daily Life Singles category by American photographer Justin Maxon, Aurora Photos, showing Mui, a homeless woman with HIV and her son bathe in the Red River, Hanoi, Vietnam 2007.


First prize in the Contemporary Issues Singles category by South African photographer Brent Stirton, Getty Images for Newsweek showing the evacuation of dead Mountain Gorillas at Virunga National Park, Eastern Congo 2007.


Third prize in the Sports Action Stories category by American photographer Chris Detrick, The Salt Lake Tribune.

On the lighter side of life

Sometimes it's nice to see photos that cheer you up, like these two from today's Associated Press wire. Above, an Ivory Coast fan plays a horn ahead of Ivory Coast's Africa Cup of Nations semi-final soccer match against Egypt in Kumasi, Ghana, Thursday. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)


Actress Charlize Theron laughs on stage before she was awarded the 58th annual Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year, Thursday at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Lisa Poole)

Extreme weather

The United States has seen some extreme weather this winter. Here are two pixs from yesterday. Above, Elaine Weston of Crested Butte, stands on a snow bank to shovel out snow so light can enter the windows of her home in the Colorado mountain town, on Wednesday. As snow keeps piling up in Colorado's mountains, the state's snowpack is building to its biggest level in more than a decade. (AP Photo/Nathan Bilow)


David Derreberry carries a photo of his niece, saved from the rubble of his family's home, in Clinton, Ark., Wednesday after a tornado struck the town late Tuesday. As they mourn those killed in the nation's worst tornadoes in more than a decade, people across a devastated swath of the South are also coming to grips with a deeply shaken sense of home. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)

Ski shooting

Sunday I checked out Arapahoe Basin's new Montezuma Bowl with my cousin and his friend. It wasn't a fresh powder day, but the light was good for photos. I almost always bring my camera equipment and over the years I've gotten to the point where it's no problem snowboarding with the extra weight. Here are some tips if you want to shoot some pictures on the slopes. 1) Bring someone to shoot or find someone at the base. If you don't and you are shooting in the back bowls, you may wait for hours for a snow rider to make a picture. 2) I carry my camera bodies, a 17-35 and 80-200 in my backpack along with a towel. I wrap the bodies in ski caps and the lens in pouches with caps on them. 3) I wear a fanny pack in the front with my 14 mm lens, strobes and other accessories. This seems to balance the weight and that makes boarding moguls much easier. 4) I also carry light gloves and hand warmers to keep my fingers and camera batteries warm. I found that a cold camera body will zap the heat out of your hands so I will duct tape hand warmers to my camera bodies to keep them warmer and make the batteries last longer. 5) Have fun. There are a lot of good pictures to be found on the slopes of Colorado.