How to charm a couple of Cobras

This weekend I had the opportunity to do a photo shoot with 2 rare snakes.  I'm putting together a calendar for my local Mustang car club.  I was surprised when I got a submission from one of the members and it was 2 Shelby Cobras.  Unfortunately the pictures were too small to use.  I asked the person if he would have the time to have me come down and get some high resolution shots and he said yes!  I drove about an hour and a half to his location but it was all WELL worth it.





When I got there he opened up his "barn" to uncover 2 beauties just begging for attention.  Both of these cars are original Shelby Cobra's but not built in the 60's, they happen to be built around 2000 by Shelby Automobiles.  We took a few photos inside the barn before wheeling them out onto the pavement.  We found that moving them around was easy at times but harder to get them in position for shooting so the owner fired them up and WOW!!  Talk about waking the neighbors!!



I photographed them for a couple of hours and in a couple of positions and I think I got a few good shots!  We put the red race-ready cobra away and then I heard, " you ready to go for a ride?"  OH YEAH!  Getting in and out of a car that was meant for racing required a bit of finesse and those that know me know I have 0 of that stuff.  Once nestled it's a bit tight but that's the whole idea.  He started up the 427 Cubic inch engine and it roared through every bone in my body.  He needed to get the mail so off to town we went.  I was really surprised how tight the suspension felt and how nimble this engine on wheels felt!  Once we got on the road there's where the car really wanted to GO and go we did, there were several times we hit over 100mph in seconds!    Needless to say I have a permanent grin that will probably last a month!

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Spooky Night 4x4 Run

In October every year the Rising Sun Toyota Land Cruiser club sets out on a night run to celebrate Halloween.  This is my 2nd year going to this awesome get together and it was such a wonderful turnout!!  My buddy Mike asked me along with some other mutual friends in his newly transformed FJ80.  An unsuspecting grocery and kid carrier turned into 4-doors of Colorado trail pounding fun!





Anyway, we started with a cookout near Rollinsville, just an hour outside of Denver.  There were so many that showed up this year because of the Indian Summer we are having that the cook out turned into a feast!  There were chili's, hot dogs, brats, chips, cookies just about everything you can think of and more than enough food to feed an army!




As dark fell we began packing up the food and jumped in our 4wheeling rigs, this year there were around 20-25 vehicles. We had such a great time, no break downs or problems.  This year was much different in there was no snow.  The first run Mike and I did it was cold and is was very snowy. We all had a great time with a big group of wonderful people.  Hopefully we can do it again next year!!  You can see the rest of the photos here.

Muscle Car Prints

I got some prints today.  It's a bit of a bitter-sweet story.  I belong to a local Ford Mustang club here in Denver and one of it's members (Steve) posted saying that his father-inlaw, Bryan Hardy was in the hospital with something that was really serious.  He is an artist and loves muscle cars and paints them as a passion.  I clicked on the link and instantly fell in love with the quality work!!  Well, I bought a few prints and had the chance to meet Steve and his wife Lisa tonight to pick them up.

Unfortunately Bryan passed away this last Friday after being in the hospital for a couple of weeks, but Steve and Lisa told me how excited and happy it made him to know that people from the club liked his work and bought prints!  It made me feel so good that I could have given a dying man who I never met a moment of smiles and happiness.  I'm sure he will be greatly missed and the prints I bought will be framed and placed in the garage to be treasured!

http://www.classiccarportraits.com/index.asp?page=home.html&top=we

- Ian

Best Man Fail

I couldn't stop laughing!

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- Ian

I'm back in Telecom!!

Most of you know I started a new job back on May 8th.  After being unemployed for 7 months and then working in a camera repair shop to get by I was presented with the opportunity to get back in Telecommunications working on Avaya equipment again.  The place that hired me is called ACT Conferencing; they are global company that offers audio and video conferencing bridges for other companies.  My role would be to maintain their current Avaya phone system and I would also be responsible for their bridging equipment which I would have to learn on the job.

The best part of this job is where I get to work!!  Their HQ office is located in Golden in the Denver West business park and it is absolutely beautiful!!!  I take every chance I can get and go for walks outside because it's so calming and rejuvenating.  They have 2 water falls and a large pond to walk around surrounded by pine, cotton wood and weeping willow trees......ahhhhhh  :D

Here's a picture of my desk and office.  I have a laptop and dual 22" flat screens!  We are on the 3rd floor so I have a nice view of Green Mountain



Outside there are nice greenery and wonderful walking paths





This is one of my favorite features is the waterfall pools just outside the back door of the complex, it's soooooo relaxing when the work world is just too much!!



There are various benches and bridges to sit or stand around the waterfall pools



Nice Lush walking paths!!



Lots of statues around the park, great places to eat lunch outside and occasionally there's someone playing  music to set the mood



The larger pond to walk around.  Every day for the first 3 months I watched ducklings and their parents swimming around this pond



What a WONDERFUL place to work!!



The locals are very nice too



Beautiful flowers everywhere!



I'm going into my 5th month at ACT and still love every moment of it.  I have a lot more responsibility than I did at every other job but I'm also treated with more respect and allowed more freedoms which is so nice.  The surrounding environment helps me every day to keep my sanity; I've never been happier working somewhere

- Posted by Ian

Ian's on Twitter!!

Follow Me. Yeah, I'm such a Lemming!



- Posted by Ian

Pictures from Colo Stangs 9/11 Poker Run

I attended the 9/11 poker run that my club puts on every year today and I had a BLAST.  This year we cruised up Deer Creek Canyon and Lisa let me drive her Stang since mine is still under the knife so to speak.  It was sooooooo much fun and I got to see people I haven't seen in such a long time.  Anyway, this event is to raise money for Operation Gratitude to help our troops over seas and we raised over $400 to send them.  I took over 100 photos, check them out here

Here's a preview:




















check out the rest here

- Posted by Ian