Bolts From the Sky

Endless rain.

Salt Lake City has been a sad state of affairs the last few weeks. The rain won’t stop.

Little Cottonwood Canyon residents are lining the river with sandbags, and a few of the reservoirs are overflowing.

Last summer all I had to complain about was the endless heat, now its the rain. We’ve been treated to some serious fireworks display courtesy of the thunderhead clouds rolling through.

My buddy Matt Boynton snagged a couple of cool shots from his house in SLC at the same time I grabbed one up in Park City.

Wild stuff, glad I had my camera. Thanks for the photos Matt.

Rockets on Memorial Day

A Memorial day field trip to watch super bikes rip at 180 mph? Sounds good to me.

Besides falling off the back of a moving golf cart and stuffing my knees, palms, and photo-bag into the asphalt I would call it a successful trip. Nothing like a little bit of centrifugal force to start your day off with a headache.

Unfortunately Seo’s buddy Matt got the short end of the stick on a sketchy pass and ended up sliding out of the race in one of the first corners after a couple laps. Ultimately he turned out to be ok and walked off the course with a pretty beat up bike.

I’ll admit this was my first attempt at shooting anything on a track, and more specifically, anything bike-related. Seo lent me a somewhat out-of-alignment 100-400mm 4-5.6 which produced an interesting array of somewhat focused shots. Not that I’m complaining, even with a sharp 300 or 400mm tele I would have been hard pressed not to skunk myself on the first attempt. Trying to mount my 1.4x converter on the said tele was like looking into a really up-close-and-personal-blackhole… I would not suggest this technique if you lack a long lens.

After comparing blurry photos, having some laughs, and downing a beer or two the three of us headed back to Salt Lake. Photo-dork outings never get old.

A few selections below, possibly more once I have a chance to do a thorough edit.

Nocturnal Expression Session

A few days before it started raining here in Salt Lake City I hit the rode on my single-speed at night.

Kind of fun to explore the neighborhood while everyone else is asleep, you get the entire street to yourself.

Lots of cats running around, not much else though. Ample time to teach yourself how to ride without your hands on the handlebars… again.

Took some fiddling with my Super Clamp but I was able to rig my 7D to the frame and still be able to pedal. I’m sure there are easier ways to accomplish these shots but the experimentation was fun.

Looking forward to doing this up in Park City . There’s significantly less light pollution so you can actually see the stars. Seems like it would be a nice touch.

Jason Smith’s Dirty Deeds

Up to no good last night with Jeremy Miller (@jmillsent).

Jeremy and I rolled over to Farmington, UT to shoot some portraits and video with dirt bike climber Jason Smith. The bike you see in the shot below was custom-built by Jason and his father. Just imagine the man hours that go into a production bike, then try to fathom how you would build this yourself. Impressive to say the least.

Too Busy

Too busy for what? Shooting, that’s what.

Arrived at the Canyons at 9:30, left at 2:30. Shot one photo.

Why? 30+ in of snow in 24 hrs and probably 60-70 in a 48-72hr period. No way I’m going to ignore that. So, I shredded with Stan Evans and his buddy Adam from Redbull.

After a long season of looking at snow, talking about snow, posting about snow, watching other people enjoy snow, and generally not getting a chance to actually enjoy.. snow.. I took yesterday as the opportunity to clear my head.

Hell yes.

Exposing the Stars – Alta

Quick, late night ride up to Alta.

Shot the below at 30s apiece and varying ISOs, no timer or bulb triggers so everything had to be done at min shutter speed (hence some noise).

Feels great to get out of the city and watch the cats do their thing.

Nice Little Saturday

No Home Depot, no Bed Bath and Beyond, just a little ride into Sugarhouse to get business done.

Pushing a 6in travel bike around city streets isn’t the most enjoyable thing in the world but it gets your legs jacked, oh snap.

Stan Evans and I went on a mid-day caffeine binge with our laptops to do a little people watching, bullshitting, and general business. Cruised some neighborhoods and ended up mowing down some wings before we pedaled back up to the ‘hood.

Not too shabby, a nice little Saturday.