The top of the ski, not ski advice....

The weather has been unusually clear and cold around Seattle lately, and this past weekend I headed up to the mountains for a day of snowboarding. I usually chase the snow, and am in the hills when it's stormy, so it was a wonderful change to bask in the sun and play on the slopes under clear skies. There were fantastic views of the Cascades all around, and I somehow managed to avoid getting a sunburn.

I was brave and took my DSLR with my long zoom attached; the resulting giant camera got plenty of curious glances. My 80-200 f/2.8 is my best lens, though, and it turned out some good images.

Here's a detail of some skis propped up outside the main lodge. I love long lenses for their ability to isolate a subject. On reviewing my images, I actually found that I need to remind myself to stop down the lens more, even though I'm generally a fan of shallow depth-of-field.