I’m on a roll, entering two contests this week!  The last one was for a calendar to benefit Roxborough State Park.  Now it’s time for the Telluride Mountain Run (I love their logo).  Winner gets to run 38 miles for free!  I’m sure my non-runner friends are shaking their heads at that…

Here are the instructions:

We want photos of mountains, people in mountains, running, people running, cute animals anywhere, steep things, dedication, post-race meals, sunsets, sunrises, dancing, backflips, bonfires and efficient use of energy. The winner will be the person who can get a single photo with all of those things at once. As always, we value creativity and originality.

I considered the audience and came up with a few shots I thought might qualify.

1. baby goats

2. my son talking to a marmot on Massive

3. Leadville thunderstorm

4. Leadville train tracks sunset

5. elk skull I found while out hiking – I put it on a stick and popped some aspen leaves into the eye sockets

6. me running Red Rocks at sunrise

7. my son on Quandary east ridge

I ended up going with the skull shot because of the emphasis on creativity and originality (but probably should have used something else, that one is too off-putting for most folks).  I didn’t win, but the photo was nicely featured on their page here.  Congrats to Matthieu Lefort for taking the prize!

As was the case with Duck vs. Osprey a couple of weeks ago, this was another round of right-place, right-time.

I was driving down a dirt road near my house when I spotted a red-tailed hawk sitting on the ground.  I pulled over for a shot thinking it may be feeding on something, but it took off and flew across the road in front of me.

Then I saw a bald eagle sitting on a pole, and thought that was great since I hadn’t seen one around these parts for quite a while.

When I was looking through the viewfinder, I noticed the eagle looking up at something.

It turned out to be a pair of hawks coming in to buzz the tower.  Then two more eagles (one juvenile) showed up!

For a minute it looked like a WWII dogfight with wings and claws flashing and slashing their way through the sky.  It was awesome! The hawks broke off the conflict and then it was game on between the original eagle and the young one.

One took off in hot pursuit of the other and I jumped in the car and sped down the road throwing gravel for about a half mile to get back in position to intercept some of the action.  Any photographer-discipline went straight out the window as I was cranking off shots left and right trying to grab something.  It was all happening fast and a little too far away, but I got a few that show a little bit of what it was like.

The adult prevailed and circled around me once before heading southeast over the horizon.  I just stood there smiling.