True North Mark's Blog

Redstone is a very neat little town set in one of the valleys in the Colorado mountains.
We dropped into the general store and had some really nice coffee and home made cookies.
All of the houses were really cool and kind of funky looking in their own way.
There was even a skating rink with free skates hanging up in a shed and a voluntary donation system if you used them.
Read that as being ‘way too risky for this little black duck’, after having just recovered from shoulder surgery.
Pretty happy with my skiing this trip and all in tact, which was the mission statement!
Now getting home could pose a challenge!

We had a bit of an explore day today and headed out to Redstone on the advice of a local lady.

We had quite an adventure and have plenty of shots to work up.
This is the first one from this morning which is of the Snowmass Village.

Just as you enter Aspen there is a beautiful aqua blue river.
I saw it when we drove over a bridge to get to Aspen on the first day and chose today to get out and scout what I could find.
Typical of a lot of perspectives in snow country it is hard to get close enough because of deep snow in the closer areas, but I did my best.
Whilst there shoot I ran across a team of documentary film makers using actual 16mm film! They were doing a documentary and getting some B roll stuff for the doco.

I set out this morning to do a sunrise shoot at Snow Mass in Colorado where we have been since New Year.

I only managed these as it was extremely cold…possibly -15 -20 degrees C.

Well after a bit of an epic journey getting to Colorado we are now finally here and the place is stunning.
At 1800 this evening they put on a lantern run which looked very cool with hundreds of lanterns skating down the mountain and finishing off at base camp.
Pretty dam cold out and Lee didn’t venture far from the various fires that are scattered around the place.
Off to get some shut eye now and freshen up for some skiing tomorrow.
Happy New Year everyone! Its still not New year here yet!

The last 3 around the world Clipper Yachts departed on schedule at 1300 today.

The first 3 left on Sunday.

Not a lot of fanfare for an event of its class. The first 2 legs went from the UK to Capetown then Capetown to hear.

I think the next stop from here is Sydney.

The Fremantle Sailing club has been very busy providing support for these crews over the last few weeks.

I saw a bit of potential in the sunset clouds this evening so I headed out to North Fremantle for something different.

This is the first image from my little excursion.

I shot this in September with Christian Fletcher whilst out on a 3 day photo shoot.

This is the Solar farm between Cervantes and the Brand Highway, which is also next to a big wind farm.

The best thing about having a drone is to get the high perspective and to see things whilst touring around that you would totally miss without one!

I shot this images in September whilst out on a 3 day adventure with Christian Fletcher.

The lakes are out in the Wheatbelt area.

Lee and I went to the Elton John Farewell concert last night.

What a fabulous evening! Elton is still able to put on an amazing performance with a fantastic experienced team of old rockers!

The mixing and quality of the sound was as good as I have ever heard it. As someone who suffers from Tinitus I find that badly mixed performances just become noise to me and I end up leaving, but the sound last night was incredible.

Couple the above to a sensational stage set up and visuals and the usual flamboyant Elton John choreography then you really do have a show.

What a way to finish a career and to be remembered as a rock star who was great till the final performance and not to be remembered as a has been.

They played for 3 hours straight and finished off with Yellow Brick road.

The lead guitarist was relatively new to the band and came recommended as an acoustic guitarist and had only recently picked up an electric guitar, but man oh man did he work those strings!

The drummers and the rest of the band were all at the top of their games was well.

I would rate that concert as up there with the top 4 I have ever seen, together with Michael Jackson, The Eagles and Adele.

Nice work Elton and band…a real pleasure to watch.