Summer’s end is certainly weighing heavily on me these days. Not that I can’t handle the cold — it’s that I can’t handle the torrid pace of life. September: it’s next week. My God.

It’s been a snap-happy time for me and my shutter release. There was the trip to Steamboat Springs for the Balloon Rodeo, the remarkable reunion of the Reitzugs, a portrait session with Michaelanne Dehner, and three weddings (only one of which I’ve had time to post just yet). In the midst of it all, I managed to go backpacking zero times. I’m fairly certain I won’t even get a chance next summer either, but “woah is me.” I live in Colorado, one of the world’s most beautiful places, and I’m healthy and so is Hailey, and the future: oh, it couldn’t be brighter.

So, without more rambling, here are summer’s loose ends of photographs — little spare bits that didn’t quite fit into the story line of any blog posts, whether past or future. At the top, glacier lilies near Buffalo Pass. In early July, I went hiking with Tim Lamberton (below right) and bagged my 21st wilderness area — the midway point to bagging all of them in Colorado.

At left is me at my favorite place in Colorado — Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. We stopped there en route to New Mexico for the family reunion. My cousin Nick, his wife Guilia and their adorable son Lorenzo (below) paid us a visit for a few days before hand, and since they were coming from Rome, well, how could you not see the Great Sand Dunes? We had to go, and Lorenzo had to fulfill his playing-in-the-muck quotient for this trip to America.

Once in New Mexico, we did countless things — among them the ambitious white seamless project, but we also did a half-day bug hunt with the fourth generation. That’s my nephew Isaiah (below right), pointing at the grasshoppers. The Nuggets jersey? His favorite piece of clothing. He doesn’t know who the Denver Nuggets are, let alone the first thing about basketball. He loves it because his favorite food is chicken nuggets. I love that boy.

And finally, a few golf shots from our recent trip to Idaho for Adam Huggins’ wedding. That’s Adam (below left), teeing up on the eighth at Sun Valley’s amazing golf course.

The views from the course — like this one from the second tee — were astounding. I love Idaho. Plan to go back when we have kids.

And as for golf course photography … yeah, I could definitely get into that.

Thanks for letting me have an indulgent and aimless blog post. Coming up: more from Adam and Tess’ wedding, a trash the dress shoot with Jodi and John, and a whole slew of great shots from Jacqie and Ken’s wedding.

We were there for the weekend of the Balloon Rodeo, a festival devoted to all things colorful and filled with hot air. What’s a balloon rodeo you say? Well, I’m not sure entirely, but based on attending the event, I think it goes like this: 30 balloons take flight during the first 90 minutes of daylight, and if the wind doesn’t send them down the valley, they compete in goofy games like a beanbag toss. Cattle, broncos and clowns have nothing to do with it … and PETA is no where to be found either.

Many of these shots were taken by my lovely wife Hailey, as she attended both Saturday and Sunday mornings’ festivities. (I went hiking all day with my buddy Tim Lamberton on Saturday…pics of that to come later).

As you’ll notice from many of my posts, Steamboat Springs is becoming a go-to hangout for us. We have access to a condo up there, and since its a good three hours from Denver, it’s right in that sweet spot: close enough to be convenient, far enough away to fully unplug.

Along for the trip were Hailey’s parents, our good friend Jenny Jordan (minus her husband Matt, who was at U.S. Nationals for Fencing) and the Lambertons. We drove up Friday, looked for moose on Rabbit Ears Pass, dined downtown, hiked Saturday while everyone else went to the Balloon Rodeo and the Art Fair, and then Sunday we all went tubing down the Yampa River. Sunday night’s drive home was a bit mournful — I’m increasingly having a harder time leaving the mountains after a weekend like that.

So anyway, back to the rodeo.

The balloons’ mass ascension takes place in a field just south of town. One of the “rodeo tasks” is to lift off, then dip the basket into this lake and lift back up again.

We also learned that the Upper Yampa River Valley is ideal for ballooning because of its “box winds.” At lower elevations, the winds take you down valley, but as you get higher up, they take you back up the valley. Doesn’t always work, but when it does, it saves gas for the chase vehicle.

OK, coming up I’ll have images from my day hike with Tim, photographs from John and Jodi Hardee’s wedding, plus a very personal project that involves the white seamless and almost everyone from my mom’s side of the family.

Well, things are starting to pick up on the photography front now as well, beginning with this past weekend. As a baby shower gift, we gave our friends Tim and Lexi a family photo session.

Cora was born on February 10 and is now just over a month old. On Saturday, we headed out to their house in Franktown, hung out and took some pictures.

We did a series by the window — up close with the 50mm lens — and a few with the new ringflash (below).

See the resemblance? Just give Cora a few weeks and she’ll be all smiles like Dad.

Their dog Kana is perhaps the fastest land-born animal in the world (seriously: faster than a cheetah), but Tim was able to corral her in time for a shot. Ringflash + dogs eyes = freaky.

Being of the Irish persuasion, the Lamberton’s were looking forward to today, and Lexi’s sister had given just the right outfit for the occasion.

Let’s just say Cora wasn’t fond of the hat, or her dad wearing it.

So things are about to get interesting. This weekend we have an engagement photo session, and two weeks from Friday we embark on our 2009 trip. We’re heading to Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico for Holy Week. It should provide some amazing spectacles … I’m just hoping I’ll be sharp enough to do them justice. We leave April 3 and come back April 13. I think we’ll have internet access for much of the time, so I may be blogging from Mexico.

Both Tim and Lexi seemed remarkably relaxed and laid-back for first-time parents. That’s Tim (above) wrapping her up in her blanket. If his residential law gig doesn’t pan out someday, he could always work at Chipotle. Nice wrap, man.

While we were there, Tim’s brother and sister-in-law — Rory and Natalie — stopped by. Below is Rory holding Cora for the first time, and Jenny watching her sleep.

Tim recently started his own family blog, which will document Cora as she grows up. For this circle of friends — which consists of four couples: Hailey and me, Tim and Elexis, Matt and Jenny, and Stu and Shannon — this was the first baby.

I love this one (below). It’s always fascinating to watch a newborn figure things out with their eyes. Here, she’s studying Hailey (with a little suspicion, no less).

The funny thing about me holding Cora is that she’s so small, the enormity of my head really comes through, don’tcha think?

Tim, Lexi and Cora checked out of the hospital midday Thursday, after checking in midday Monday. It was a long delivery, but they’re home and happy (in fact, Tim just called asking for a quick tutorial in WordPress).

Mama Lex and Papa Tito. Congrats guys.

The blog has been pretty static, but I’m going to be ramping up with a lot more imagery in the coming days and weeks. We just purchased an AlienBees ABR800 Ring Flash. Why? Hopefully the bad ass images it takes will explain why. Plus, birthday images (Jer and Isaiah turned 3 on Sunday) and hopefully an announcement of 2009′s big trip. We’re hopefully booking plane tickets this weekend. Stay tuned.

I highly recommend clicking on each photo to see them larger, especially the first one. As always, your feedback in the comments box about your selection would be much appreciated.

#1. Italian funeral and oblivious British tourists with gelato, Locorotondo (Puglia), Italy.

#2. Tim Lamberton celebrating autumn in his own special way, Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

#3. Vendor at Campo dei Fiori Market, Rome, Italy.

#4. Hailey enjoying the wildflowers south of Crested Butte, Colorado.

#5. Andrew and a pair of rainbow snails at Brewster Flats, Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

#6. Sergio the butcher, Assisi (Umbria), Italy.

Thanks for voting. And don’t forget to vote for my Travel Photo of the Year and my Nature & Landscape Photo of the Year. I’ve received 17 and 11 votes in those categories so far, including a tie in the Nature & Landscape category.

Tim is not just an early riser, but a marvel of science. As I write this, I’m trying to recall ever seeing him yawn. I’m trying to recall him drowsy, lethargic, or even wiped out.

The guy is always alert.

I lived with Tim for a year right after we graduated from college, I’ve backpacked with him five or six times, and his energy is boundless. Maybe his wife, Lexi, has seen him yawn — and maybe all of this will change in February when their baby girl arrives, but for now, Tim is the kind of guy who sprints through the grass at a flock of blackbirds, the kind of guy to take a sweep-oar boat across Grand Lake in five minutes, the kind of guy to twirl fire around himself, the kind of guy to climb on top of a hay bale and rock it back and forth while giggling like a school boy who snorted his 7-Up.

It was this ceaseless energy that had Tim up early and raring to go last Sunday at dawn, perfectly willing to drive my ass around the ranch country surrounding Steamboat Springs.

He’ll probably comment on this post about my commentary on him. Go ahead, Tim. The form is below.

The Upper Yampa River Valley is defined by wide, sprawling ranches with cinnamon-roll hay bales. These ranches are speckled with forked cottonwood trees that stand over the aimless wandering of the Yampa (one of Colorado’s most pleasant rivers). I love it in the early morning when the highway is empty and the fog is lifting off the river. There are always flocks of ducks on the slow river, and by 8am its common to have seen three or four great blue herons.

I’m sure the valley looks quite different today, just seven days after these photos were taken. The plant life in the valley was brittle but still alive and vibrant with color. Since then, a cold front has moved in and the complexion of everything in the mountains is changing rapidly as things tilt toward winter. My next blog post will be from yesterday’s hike in the Eagles Nest Wilderness. Night and day, the difference one weekend makes.

Below is my favorite barn in the valley. Steamboat Springs has become famous for its barns — tourism ads and travel articles have made them icons because they are so photogenic. Tim and I were getting hungry, so we didn’t linger long at the barn, but I tried my best to replicate a shot I took a year ago with the Olympus.

Above is the new shot with the Canon 40D and a Sigma 10mm-20mm 1:4-5.6 lens. Below is a photo I took 54 weeks earlier when I was shooting with an Olympus E-500 and a Zuiko 14-45mm. Clearly I had better clouds a year ago…

…Or at least better clouds facing south. This year, to the north, I had these wispy angel-wing clouds to work with. I love how the barn’s roof mirrors the upward action of the clouds.

Here is another view.

And on the way back to the condo — with breakfast at Freshie’s permeating my thoughts — we spotted this mailbox. The only thing more quintessentially Colorado than that is the license-plate coffee cabin in Crested Butte.

A year ago, Hailey and I drove up Buffalo Pass Road but only got as far as the Dry Lake Campground. We were in her little red Alero, which has roughly 2 inches of clearance, and the road was getting a bit too rocky. It’s not a 4×4 road by any means…it was just getting annoying hearing things scrape the bottom of the car.

This go around, our friends were driving, and I was driving them nuts: “oo-oo-oo…stop here…” These are patient people folks. They let me photograph at nearly every bend in the road.

We reached the top of the pass right around 5pm, just as the light was getting super rich. Buffalo Pass sits on the Continental Divide, and right there, straddling the watersheds, is Buffalo Lake (above). There didn’t appear to be an outlet on either side, but I have heard of a few lakes in this type of position that supply water to both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. One of those flukes in geography.

View Larger Map

Here is a topo map of the route from Steamboat Springs to Buffalo Pass. Gotta love The Google. Turns out there is an outlet and it flows to the Gulf of Mexico via the North Platte, Missouri, and Mississippi Rivers. Thanks Google. Mine own eyes couldn’t have seen that.

Anyhow, there isn’t much of a story at Buffalo Lake. We stood on the shore, we saw a duck. Like I said earlier, these friends of mine are patient people, even when you step in the way of their binoculars as they look at duck.

Taking shots like these brings me back to those early years when I was first getting into photography with my Nikon FM. I was 18 years old, ready for college, and I had a whole summer devoted to two things (1) making $8/hour at a day care center Monday through Friday and (2) hikes in the mountains with Matt from Saturday to Sunday. Those were good days, and capturing the story of each hike became an obsession. Nowadays, landscapes are bit harder for me. As beautiful as the scenery is, it’s tough to find that unique way of seeing it.

Below is a panorama of four shots I stitched together in Photoshop (click on the image for a larger view). This is looking north toward Wyoming, about 2/3 the way up the pass.

Here are the girls…Lexi, Hailey, Shannon and Jenny. All from different walks of life, all married to dudes from south Denver.

This is the quintessential Colorado sky. It’s impossible to be grumpy, consumed, nervous, anxious or irritable under a sky like that.

I think the only spot that tops this for fall color in Colorado — that I’ve seen firsthand — is Kebler Pass. I have been over Dallas Divide a few times, but never in the fall. Same with Maroon Bells. Perhaps next year we’ll go camp near Dallas Divide and Silverjack Reservoir. Autumn is increasingly becoming my favorite time of year in the Rockies. It is just so overwhelming with its beauty, its color and its fleeting nature. It’s hard not to be moved by it.

At the end of Buffalo Pass Road, we pulled over and let Tim loose. He was feeling cooped up, so he raced into this field, flushed a flock of blackbirds and then cast muscleman shadows on a hay bale. The next morning, I got an encore of showmanship, but with better results. Perhaps I’ll get that post up by this weekend.

Fall in the Rockies…Don’t blink, you’ll miss it. One cold night and all the aspens go gold and red. One windy day and they’re empty skeletons. Fortunately for me, Hailey and six of our closest friends, this past weekend was a case of perfect timing. Above, we have Tim and Lexi Lamberton (left and center) tossing leaves into the air with Jenny Jordan (right) at the Dry Lake Campground near Steamboat Springs. Also along for the fun were Shannon and Stu Kilzer and Jenny’s husband, Matt. Mostly the same group as the Grand Lake trip from a few weeks ago.

As you can see, there was much jubilation.

The route to Steamboat Springs is always an enjoyable drive. Coming home: not so much, but I’ll get to that in a later blog post. Up I-70 to Georgetown we could start to see the first veins of gold, winding courses of quaking aspen, hugging the gulches. Into Summit County, the epicenter of the pine beetle epidemic here in Colorado. I’d say at this point, roughly 70% of the pines are dead…either gray gnarly skeletons of their former selves, or sickly red-needled towers waiting to be torched. Fifty weeks of the year, it’s one of the saddest sights in America…but this weekend, the aspens and their blazing gold and rusty leaves overwhelmed the beetle kill. I hardly even noticed the dead trees that are everywhere.

From Silverthorne, the route descends the Blue River to the Colorado River at Kremmling, weaves through sage-brush hills and Middle Park and then passes over Muddy and Rabbit Ears Passes before a spectacular descent into the Yampa River Valley and Steamboat Springs. Just shy of Muddy Pass, the aspens return, all of them in full fledged fall folliage (say-that-three-times-really-fast-I-dare-you). Cresting Rabbit Ears, the willows and their tiny red leaves take over. It is a landscape of rust and copper colors. A bull moose wandered through the willows … something we only caught a quick glimpse of at 50 mph. A U-turn and a frantic drive back to the spot and he was gone.

Above-left is Fish Creek Falls, a short, easy and popular hike (translation: a frustrating hike for Matt) just northeast of Steamboat Springs. We checked it out, wandered downtown, found a great bookstore/cafe (Off the Beaten Path Books) and then spent the late afternoon and early evening driving up to Buffalo Pass, where all the rest of these images were taken.

Aspens and pines (alive ones!) at the Dry Lake Campground.

Stu and Shannon walking back to the car at Dry Lake Campground. Click on the photo and you may be able to see Shannon sticking her tongue out at me.

Ahhh, to retire as a National Forest Service Campground host. Perhaps in another life, but there is definitely an appeal to being the guy who chops wood all day, chats with outdoorsy types, sleeps in a camper under the stars and cleans out the outhouse——never mind. What a lousy job.

Those are seedpods of wildflowers and red willows along the road side in the late evening light.

And then we decided to have a little fun with the fish-eye lens.

Yes, it is quite funny how covered in leaves and dirt I was.

Back on the road, the aspens only got thicker and deeper in color. Coming later this week…parts 2 and 3 of the Steamboat weekend.

After eating meat pies (aka wet cigar in a pie crust) and drinking pints of Guiness at Scot Fest, we loaded up the cars and drove into Rocky Mountain National Park. Stu, Tim and I were in one car, Hailey, Lexi and Shannon in the other, and we twisted and turned our way up Trail Ridge Road.

We went by the area I had planted grasses a few weeks ago and endured more pec-puckering cold in the wind. Honestly, it is non-stop up there…the bristlecone pines and elk that live up there are tough sons-of-bitches.

Speaking of elk:

They’re beginning to get horny up there. We came upon this Mac Daddy on the west side of Trail Ridge. He had a harem of roughly 12 cows and 4 or 5 calves. The females were mewing, which I’ve never heard before. It sounded like humpback whale calls echoing in the forest. This bull just stood vigilant, presiding over the whole herd. An amazing encounter.

In Grand Lake we checked in to the Lone Eagle Hotel (check out the fancy, stitched horse decor above…doesn’t it look fresh off the set of No Country for Old Men?), and sought out Mexican and margaritas. Along the way, we came upon a Cobra rally from the Denver Cobra Club.

Can you still call it a rally if they are all parked for the night?

Over margaritas, each couple scraped together their versions of “how we met,” which is always entertaining. Men remember it one way, women remember it another way. It gets funnier with alcohol and lots of hot sauce and chips.

This post goes out to Tim (green shirt) and Lexi (seated). Lexi is due in February and they just found out yesterday that it’s a girl. We’re all very excited for them.

So what’s next? Well, not too much on the docket. Maybe the Great Sand Dunes next weekend. If so, that might be a three-parter. That place is remarkably photogenic. Beyond that, well…If any of you want to come over and model in front of the white seamless backdrop (or you have any other ideas), let me know. With winter coming, I thought it might be fun to do some close-up hoodie portraits. Try to capture the essence of cozy…and maybe get a new stock agency where I can post things.

Oh, by the way: my collection is migrating to the PhotoShelter Personal Archive. I’ll have to market it on my own, but you can order prints and download high-resolution files straight off the site.