Monday, June 29, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Joe McNally...
I spent saturday at Joe McNally's one day lighting workshop is Dobbs Ferry, NY. Lots of lights, lots of gear, lots of setups. Other than seeing how he works through each lighting setup the best part was getting to split up into small groups and set up our own shots in the basement of the building the workshop was held in.
Micheal, Seshu, and I ended up with Aaron. Above, you can set two of my setups, both shot with 2 small flashes and one tri-grip diffuser.
This one (above) is from a little later in the day when we got to shoot Joe's setup with Aaron. In this shot, in addition to the lights inside, there are two gelled sb-900s at full zoomed to 200mm on a 30' lightstand (we're on the 2nd floor here) outside the windows throwing the shadows on the back wall.
We each got to shoot the lights that Joe (and his team of great assistants) set up for each set, but there were a couple of setups late in the day where there wasn't time for us to shoot, so hopefully we'll see a blog post soon with Joe's shots from those (and the rest of the day) soon.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
the decider has decided?
quick one here, for the folks that aren't on twitter or facebook... dc.decider.com (the dc edition of the onion's av club site) picked the bakers dozen portraits as one of their top 5 for artomatic...
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Hoo-Ha!
Matt, Post-XXC
Went down to Harrisonburg this weekend for the Hoo-Ha! Matt, Evan, and I rolled into the venue around 5:30 on saturday evening as the Super-D was finishing, hung out for a couple of minutes to say some Hellos and check out the Team IMBA tent, then hit the course for a quick pre-ride. We had some mechanicals and I had a contact lens issue that made the ride a little longer than expected, so even with cutting out everything past the first downhill we didn't get back down to the base until almost 8.
Since we got back so late, all the food was gone so we drove into down, dropped our stuff off at Chris's place and then walked over to Dave's with another guy who was staying with Chris for some food and a few beers. The pizza was good and a few rounds of beers showed up before Chris showed up and we walked over to another bar for one last round. All of this lead to a later night than expected and a few minor regrets from some the next morning.
Sunday morning rolled around and Evan was trying to fix some major brake issues on his bike, so Matt and I left him with Chris and made a dash for the venue to try and get him in to the XXC, which started at 9. Since i wasn't racing until 11 i was able to help him get his bike & gear together while he registered and he made the start on time. Evan did eventually get his brakes sorted out and lined up with the experts for the regular cross country race, but more mechanicals kept him from finishing.
Three Generations
I knew that I definitely wasn't up for the 35-40 mile XXC, but I was going back & forth in my head about which class i should enter. I made the move from sport to expert a couple of years ago, though my expert results were never very good, usually within 2 or 3 places of DFL (or just plain old DFL), and i've not done any realy training this year. More importantly, this wasn't a course to play lightly with (it starts with a 1000'+ vertical climb) and the difference between 1 & 2 laps could be the difference between a race that i enjoyed and helped get me back in the saddle and a race that left me miserable and wallowing in my loss of fitness.
I was a hard decision to make, a bitter pill best swallowed quickly than lingered over, and one that no doubt I'll get some flak for. In the end i registered for sport and settled into a nice spot near the front of the starting grid of the 30-39s as the whistle neared.
The start was chaotic and faster than i'd expected. it was something i hadn't seen for a while, since the only straight XC races I did last year where the wednesday races, and those were almost a year ago. We started on a long prologue loop that gradually climbed on fireroads and then returned down some paralell singletrack. After a little push at the start i dialed it back, knowing the climb was coming, and watched a lot of the sport fields pass me by. My legs were very quickly filling with lactic acid (no warmup of course) and feeling the burn so i was worried how I'd do on the big climb to come.
To call this climb tough is an understatement, it's a beast. Around a 1000', now almost all singletrack, straight up to the top of Massenutten Mountain. The climb kept throwing new challenges at you -- rocks, wet roots and mud, tight switchbacks -- so I was glad I'd seen it the day before. It didn't take too long to settle into a rythym and find the pace i could keep, and before too long i was starting to pull back some places, eventually finding myself riding between a couple of friends. I traded places back and forth with Charles a couple of times on the climb, but Mike Bender stayed just out of reach. The climb now ends with a new section of singletrack that starts with 6 switchbacks and then ends with some giant slabs of rock before you cross the road for one last time and start heading across the ridge knowing that the worst is behind you and best riding of the day is dead ahead.
the ridge ride is short and sweet. rocky, but mostly rideable, at least it was the day before. the race my oxygen deprived brain and lactic acid filled legs were still recovering from the beast and combined to make for a few bobbles. a quick hike a bike across some rocks i'd only attempt with a bigger bike and some armour and then onto the main event, upper ravine trail.
Mike Carpenter (l) and Rich Edwards (r)
really, there aren't many words to describe this downhill... there are some nice insloped turns to start off the ride down the mountain and then you get into super flowy bench cut trail. constant grade reversals and turn cur just right so that you can almost stay entirely off the brakes and just let the bike run. with the pre-ride having left an imprint of the trail i ripped this downhill, getting air of the grade reversals built into the trail (for sustainability reasons, of course).
from there the course continued on through the lower reaches of the ridge, some short steep climbs, some rocky twisty singletrack, a couple of short fast downhills, and some fireroads thrown in for good measure before you pop out into a field and make a big right hand turn into the finish. still can't find results online, so i'm not sure where i finished, or how long it took. doesn't really matter as far as i can see though, since the idea was to have some fun (and raise some money for IMBA and MORE).
Post race i broke out the camera gear while i was waiting for Matt to finish and shot some portraits. Didn't get quite as cohesive a result from them as i did from the Baker's Dozen shots, but i like 'em anyway. See them all over on flickr
Thomas Jenkins
Since we got back so late, all the food was gone so we drove into down, dropped our stuff off at Chris's place and then walked over to Dave's with another guy who was staying with Chris for some food and a few beers. The pizza was good and a few rounds of beers showed up before Chris showed up and we walked over to another bar for one last round. All of this lead to a later night than expected and a few minor regrets from some the next morning.
Sunday morning rolled around and Evan was trying to fix some major brake issues on his bike, so Matt and I left him with Chris and made a dash for the venue to try and get him in to the XXC, which started at 9. Since i wasn't racing until 11 i was able to help him get his bike & gear together while he registered and he made the start on time. Evan did eventually get his brakes sorted out and lined up with the experts for the regular cross country race, but more mechanicals kept him from finishing.
Three Generations
I knew that I definitely wasn't up for the 35-40 mile XXC, but I was going back & forth in my head about which class i should enter. I made the move from sport to expert a couple of years ago, though my expert results were never very good, usually within 2 or 3 places of DFL (or just plain old DFL), and i've not done any realy training this year. More importantly, this wasn't a course to play lightly with (it starts with a 1000'+ vertical climb) and the difference between 1 & 2 laps could be the difference between a race that i enjoyed and helped get me back in the saddle and a race that left me miserable and wallowing in my loss of fitness.
I was a hard decision to make, a bitter pill best swallowed quickly than lingered over, and one that no doubt I'll get some flak for. In the end i registered for sport and settled into a nice spot near the front of the starting grid of the 30-39s as the whistle neared.
The start was chaotic and faster than i'd expected. it was something i hadn't seen for a while, since the only straight XC races I did last year where the wednesday races, and those were almost a year ago. We started on a long prologue loop that gradually climbed on fireroads and then returned down some paralell singletrack. After a little push at the start i dialed it back, knowing the climb was coming, and watched a lot of the sport fields pass me by. My legs were very quickly filling with lactic acid (no warmup of course) and feeling the burn so i was worried how I'd do on the big climb to come.
A New Dad Who's Kept His Fitness -- Monavie/Cannondale's Jeremiah Bishop
To call this climb tough is an understatement, it's a beast. Around a 1000', now almost all singletrack, straight up to the top of Massenutten Mountain. The climb kept throwing new challenges at you -- rocks, wet roots and mud, tight switchbacks -- so I was glad I'd seen it the day before. It didn't take too long to settle into a rythym and find the pace i could keep, and before too long i was starting to pull back some places, eventually finding myself riding between a couple of friends. I traded places back and forth with Charles a couple of times on the climb, but Mike Bender stayed just out of reach. The climb now ends with a new section of singletrack that starts with 6 switchbacks and then ends with some giant slabs of rock before you cross the road for one last time and start heading across the ridge knowing that the worst is behind you and best riding of the day is dead ahead.
the ridge ride is short and sweet. rocky, but mostly rideable, at least it was the day before. the race my oxygen deprived brain and lactic acid filled legs were still recovering from the beast and combined to make for a few bobbles. a quick hike a bike across some rocks i'd only attempt with a bigger bike and some armour and then onto the main event, upper ravine trail.
Mike Carpenter (l) and Rich Edwards (r)
really, there aren't many words to describe this downhill... there are some nice insloped turns to start off the ride down the mountain and then you get into super flowy bench cut trail. constant grade reversals and turn cur just right so that you can almost stay entirely off the brakes and just let the bike run. with the pre-ride having left an imprint of the trail i ripped this downhill, getting air of the grade reversals built into the trail (for sustainability reasons, of course).
from there the course continued on through the lower reaches of the ridge, some short steep climbs, some rocky twisty singletrack, a couple of short fast downhills, and some fireroads thrown in for good measure before you pop out into a field and make a big right hand turn into the finish. still can't find results online, so i'm not sure where i finished, or how long it took. doesn't really matter as far as i can see though, since the idea was to have some fun (and raise some money for IMBA and MORE).
Post race i broke out the camera gear while i was waiting for Matt to finish and shot some portraits. Didn't get quite as cohesive a result from them as i did from the Baker's Dozen shots, but i like 'em anyway. See them all over on flickr
Thomas Jenkins
Monday, June 08, 2009
rogues gallery?
thomas jenkins, chris scott, and mike carpenter
just 3 of the many who've made harrisonburg a great place to ride, race, and just hang out. made some more portraits this weekend after the hoo-ha. different look this time. these are a very preliminary take on a couple of them. crops still need to be fixed, processing needs to be finalized. there are more coming, this is just a sneak peak.
Monday, June 01, 2009
details, details, details
shot the dcmtb group pic tonight and once again have reminded myself that i need to do a better job of paying attention to the details... a few to many overlapping heads and shaded faces for my liking.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
things not blogged
all kinds of things going on and not blogged about...
1. artomatic opens on friday (probably today since i'm writing this at 11pm). the bakers dozen portraits will be there on the 4th floor, east side of the building somewhere. if you're there, look for them. if you're there for opening night then look for me (or give me a call), we'll be there for a while.
2. bakers dozen portraits are also in issue two of xxcmag.com
3. i'm riding the hoo-ha next weekend for team imba-more. we're raising money for IMBA, MORE, and the fountainhead project. if we average $1000 in donations per teammember we get $1000 each in matching from SRAM, so please donate here to me or one of the other team imba-more members. donations are split 50/50 between IMBA and MORE, but MORE gets 100% of the matching funds.
4. the va imba festival @ stokesville was a blast this past weekend. since we were traveling with sam, we only went down for one night. got two good rides in, braley pond with punga, and lookout by myself, though the lookout ride ended with a flat and a snapped derailleur hanger that lead to the lucky discovery of the stumpjumper's magic gear. more importantly, sam had a great time, had lots of fun with ryder and andrew, and did great camping.
5. in aid of #3 (above) we're hosting a ride and barbeque this saturday as a fundraiser. current plans are for a ride at rosaryville (fast loop at 7:30, slower lap at 8:30) followed by grilling at bike doctor waldorf at 11:30. rain plans to be announced, but we won't ride dirt this saturday if conditions are bad.
6. next spokes column will be out in the coming week.
7. heather's lavender wit tastes good, but the golden ale is kicked already. how did we get through that so quickly?
1. artomatic opens on friday (probably today since i'm writing this at 11pm). the bakers dozen portraits will be there on the 4th floor, east side of the building somewhere. if you're there, look for them. if you're there for opening night then look for me (or give me a call), we'll be there for a while.
2. bakers dozen portraits are also in issue two of xxcmag.com
3. i'm riding the hoo-ha next weekend for team imba-more. we're raising money for IMBA, MORE, and the fountainhead project. if we average $1000 in donations per teammember we get $1000 each in matching from SRAM, so please donate here to me or one of the other team imba-more members. donations are split 50/50 between IMBA and MORE, but MORE gets 100% of the matching funds.
4. the va imba festival @ stokesville was a blast this past weekend. since we were traveling with sam, we only went down for one night. got two good rides in, braley pond with punga, and lookout by myself, though the lookout ride ended with a flat and a snapped derailleur hanger that lead to the lucky discovery of the stumpjumper's magic gear. more importantly, sam had a great time, had lots of fun with ryder and andrew, and did great camping.
5. in aid of #3 (above) we're hosting a ride and barbeque this saturday as a fundraiser. current plans are for a ride at rosaryville (fast loop at 7:30, slower lap at 8:30) followed by grilling at bike doctor waldorf at 11:30. rain plans to be announced, but we won't ride dirt this saturday if conditions are bad.
6. next spokes column will be out in the coming week.
7. heather's lavender wit tastes good, but the golden ale is kicked already. how did we get through that so quickly?
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Monday, May 04, 2009
this is one of the coolest things i've seen in a very long time...
Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.
Saturday, May 02, 2009
spokes magazine...
the first installment of my run as the "singletrack" columnist in spokes magazine will be hitting the racks in bike shops everywhere soon. if you want a sneak preview, you can pull down a copy online at http://www.spokesmagazine.com/ (pull down the may 2009 issue).
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
options... white balance
pardon my obsessiveness for a minute. non-photo geeks might want to tune out.
on the left is the original in-camera auto white balance. in the middle it's set in lightroom off the blacks in the jersey. on the right it's set off the whites in the jersey. anyone care to offer an opinion of which they prefer?
on the left is the original in-camera auto white balance. in the middle it's set in lightroom off the blacks in the jersey. on the right it's set off the whites in the jersey. anyone care to offer an opinion of which they prefer?
you can click through to see them bigger on flickr.
Monday, April 20, 2009
The Bakers Dozen "Project"
kent
Thanks to all who played along with the Baker's Dozen project... The results are up on flickr now. Edits are still preliminary and some of the post processing has gone a bit too far, so expect to see some changes.
mike
The results aren't quite what i'd expected -- thematically or visually -- but i'm still really happy with them...
scott
I'd been seeing the project in my head in black & white, but once i started shooting i knew it was going to end up in color.
judd
The lighting needs a little work. Most of it was complete dumb luck combined with nikon's CLS mad science. basic formula: -2 stops EV comp + ( +1 stop flash comp + ( 1.7 stops A-channel [main, normally camera right] or 1-stop B-channel [fill/rim, camera left] ). the later night shots got some CTO gels...
marc
There was more than a little lightroom work on them to dial up the mood.
jason
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
spring sunday
first weekend of spring, first mountain bike ride of the year... i got a good lap in at rosaryville on sunday. it might not sound like much, but between sam, the weather, the house, and various weekends away it was the first time i'd been out on my mountain bike since sam was 3 weeks old.
st. michaels, md
my expectations were low, but i was happily surprised with how my body felt. the climbs hurt a little more than they used to, and i'm sure i was a good bit slower, but i didn't feel as bad as i'd expected to after the hiatus i've had. at least i'd been out on my road bike a couple of times to get my legs back under me.
with grandpa
i'd hoped to grab a couple of pictures of the ride, but when i pulled the little camera out of my bag i found it had a dead battery. oh well, next time i guess.
after the ride we drove out to the eastern shore for a lazy afternoon. a little lunch, a stroll around st. michaels, and some fun with sam. perfect.
st. michaels, md
my expectations were low, but i was happily surprised with how my body felt. the climbs hurt a little more than they used to, and i'm sure i was a good bit slower, but i didn't feel as bad as i'd expected to after the hiatus i've had. at least i'd been out on my road bike a couple of times to get my legs back under me.
with grandpa
i'd hoped to grab a couple of pictures of the ride, but when i pulled the little camera out of my bag i found it had a dead battery. oh well, next time i guess.
after the ride we drove out to the eastern shore for a lazy afternoon. a little lunch, a stroll around st. michaels, and some fun with sam. perfect.
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