tour of utah 2016
I have more! In an actual gallery! You can look at them if you like.
Aug 22
1 Comment
what’s in my bag
We were sitting in a van with not especially functional air conditioning in an especially hot part of the planet talking about not much of anything. The landscape blurred. The air conditioning labored.
We got to joking about the weird things we carry. My bag and its collection of odd ball contents had already become a running joke among us. Hungry? I got you. Bleeding? Well, I can fix that, too. At least temporarily.
I promised my friends I’d make a list in the spirit of Glamour’s recurring feature. It pretty much goes without saying that Glamour’s bags are way more, well, glamourous than mine. But I’m pretty sure I have more snacks — and snacks always win.
So here goes!
chill vibes
Recently I had the chance to travel to Nosara, Costa Rica. The chillest vibes, you guys, the chillest. Nosara is around three hours from airport in Liberia, through jungled coastal mountain ranges, along winding dirt roads. It’s the kind of place where you want to turn off your phone and stay awhile. Also, there’s surf. Warm water, bikini-ready, surf. A++ would go again.
the stories we tell
I wrote a pair of essays for Adventure Journal about an adventure in the forest. There were bikes. And a mischievous van. Also, whiskey, a thing I highly recommend for adventures. Here is Part 1, about a van and Part 2, about a long trail by a big river.
Dec 4
adventures in the forest
So bike packing, in the rain, in Oregon, is a pretty hard thing to do. But beautiful! And highly recommended, though maybe without the rain part. I think I’d skip the rain part.
I spend three days on the North Umpqua River Trail with Specialized. We rode the Hellga fat bike, went fly fishing, and drank a little whiskey. Hey! It was raining! You can’t go adventuring in the rain without whiskey.
During all these shenanigans, I carried a camera bag. It began to feel like part of my body, actually. Should you need to carry cameras long enough for them to feel like part of your body, Fstop bags are the way to go. They crush, basically.
Also, Goretex socks. If you’re going to go adventuring in the rain, you need Goretex socks. And whiskey.
I made a photo essay for Bicycling Magazine about the trip. Making pictures in the rain in the Oregon forest was not easy! It was really dark! I’ve never shot ISO 25,000 at noon before! Light. I like light.
Anyway, it all worked alright. Read more over at Bicycling!
Oct 1
wide eyed
I’m pretty sure I posted more selfies for this story than I ever have before in my entire internet life. So there’s that. The 360fly is a new action-adventure camera with an extra-wide angle lens. It captures all the things. You can read all about it at Men’s Journal if you like.
espresso
I would not mind waking up to this set-up in my kitchen. Salvatore makes custom espresso machines in a workshop just outside Solvang. His metalwork is amazing. I wrote all about Salvatore and how to make the best possible morning espresso for the October issue of Bicycling Magazine.
If you’re into espresso, bikes, cool things made out of metal, Italy — whatever you’re into, go find yourself a copy of Bicycling. I’m happy to have done the photography for the story, too. Read words, look at pictures, drink espresso. Life is good.
Also, you can read this story online if you have some kind of weird aversion to paper. So go do it already.
chasing the race
I ran around like a crazy person at Tour of Utah and made photos and wrote words. Every day was like a puzzle with a bunch of pieces missing. This image was one of those lucky strikes that got me through. I picked a spot near the final corner and Eric Young launched his race-winning sprint right in front of me. Thanks bro!
For my friends who are into looking at pictures, here’s a collection from the week’s shenanigans — Tour of Utah Gallery.
The biggest near-disaster was the part where I opened my camera bag and realized I hadn’t packed any camera straps. Like at all. Oops. Good thing my brother had an old one sitting around I could borrow. I spent the week with a D200 strap on my D3 and felt super pro. Maybe that’s why so many dudes wanted to explain photography to me. Anyway, I think I’m just going to leave it on there.
The most useful thing I had in my bag? 2x teleconverter. That thing saved me a few times when I just wasn’t really in the right spot at the right time. It turns out I’m not that good at running really. I did some podium photos from some pretty odd places. In one case I climbed into a windowsill of a building.
Only one pair of sunglasses was destroyed in this adventure. I’m counting that a win.
Thanks for a fun time, Utah and thanks Bicycling Mag for sending me out to chase the bike race. Let’s do it again sometime!
