On day 1 of our annual trip to Steamboat Springs this year, we were walking around the Gondola Area to see all the new places that were built in the last year (and there were a LOT). As we walked by the new Ski Patrol office at the base of the Gondola, a picture on the wall caught my eye. A beautiful barn with fall colors behind it that looked almost exactly like the famous Steamboat Barn, but wasn’t. It was a mirror image of it with a beautiful fall-color terrain behind it that doesn’t exist near the barn I take so many pictures of (search for Steamboat Barn).

The Famous Steamboat Barn

The women staffing the office had no idea where it was taken, but finding it became my obsession for the weekend. I had this stupid chest/sinus congestion that’s going around Colorado, so I wasn’t planning on spending much time on the slopes. So the search began.

I hit up local artist shops (no luck), then went to a real estate broker. They mentioned that the local paper had done a series on “Where’s this barn” over the last summer. So I headed over there to talk to the writer/photographer. He wasn’t in at the time, but the receptionist at the front desk told me of another local photographer (Don Tudor) who has a gallery downtown that I had missed the first time around.

So I headed back downtown. He knew where it was based on the picture I showed him (I took an iPhone pic of the barn in the Ski Patrol office).

So I headed over to take pictures. You can spot it from the road, but as you turn off the main road and head towards it, it turns out it’s on private property. I’m a believer in private property laws so I turned around kinda disappointed. As I started heading back in to town, I thought “It never hurts to call and ask”. So, being a geek with technology in the truck, I brought up a web browser, looked up the property owner’s phone number, then called and asked if I could go take pictures. The reply? “No problem at all. Have fun! I’ll let security know you’re there”

So, here’s a bunch of “test pictures” for positioning and location that we’ll use when we come back to shoot the barn surrounded by fall colors. I can’t wait to see this surrounded by fall colors! Hopefully I can talk them into removing the snow cat for those shots!

Tags: Barn,Catamount,Fall Colors,Steamboat,Steamboat Barn
Categories: Photo Albums, Travel
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I haven’t been on a photo shoot for a long time, and talked to Gregg about heading up to Steamboat Springs to shoot the 30th Annual Balloon Rodeo this year. I had heard about this last year, and wanted to come up, but I couldn’t find a room anywhere. So, last July, 50 weeks to the day before this year’s show, I reserved two rooms, and have just let them sit and “wait” for me to come up.

Turns out the hotel is right across the street from where they launch, so we got into town about dinner time, and scouted the lake and launch area for positions.

The first day (Saturday) had an unusual northward wind and all the balloons eventually ended up in or near town. The second day went much better with very light winds creating a box that the pilots could use to return to the landing zone (a few made it back).

Beautiful reflection

They got points for going over the lake and touching the water with the basket (called dip-n-dash), but a few got a little carried away, and ended up in more of a “dunk-n-dash” 

Dunk and Dash

All in all a stellar weekend for balloons, and the high-country Colorado sky with a polarizer on the camera made the pictures look as beautiful as ever.

There are three albums associated with this trip. The remaining two will be uploaded as I have get to cleaning them up.

Other articles from this trip (both mine and Gregg’s) are located at:

• Steamboat Wildflowers
• Baby Mountain Goats on a snowy day in July
• Gregg’s “Steamboat Barn in Alpenglow“
• Gregg’s “Nice Start to the Weekend“

The rest of the Steamboat Balloon Rodeo pictures are below the break.

Show me more… »

Tags: Balloons,Colorado,Steamboat,Steamboat Balloon Festival
Categories: Photo Albums, Travel
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