No Friends on a Pow Day?
There is a rare event that only comes around once in a blue moon in the cascade mountains. The winds blow from the east, the temperature drops, and the snow intensifies; creating a magical thing called blower pow. Blower pow is super dry ultra-low density snow that is a snowboarder’s dream to find. Such an event occurred in the cascades two weeks ago and the images below depict my good friend Chris’ first experience riding in such mind blowing conditions. Big shoutout to him for being such an awesome rider to work with.
Tenth Annual Bermsled Halloween Race
If you're an avid mountain biker living in the Seattle area, chances are you've at least heard of GHY Bikes' Bermsled Halloween race put on every year. And if you haven’t… well you've been missing out. Out of the many amazing bike events we have in the northwest, it's easily near the top of my can't miss list. In fact I turned down a post-meeting beer offer just to get there in time for race runs. Yeah it’s that good.
Now the trail isn’t super technical and the racing isn't ultra competitive, but that's exactly what makes it such a great event. It has such a chill vibe, riders of all ages and skill riding in their Halloween costumes and simply having a great time. Oh yeah, and finding out which friend is the fastest down the sickest downhill pumptrack trail in the area. Thanks to AJ and the rest of the guys at GHY bikes for all the hard work they put in to make it all happen.
Dreams of Spring
We knew it was too good to be real. Everything from the sunshine to splashing through a few puddles pointed towards spring riding. The only thing to remind us that it was still winter was the occasional snowflake fluttering down. Alas, here in the PNW, the saying "if you don't like the weather, just wait ten minutes" also happens to be true if you do like the weather. Hence the snowflakes have become more constant and now we wait for that next day of blissful riding.
New Year, New Look
It's that time of the year again for a website update. Really excited to be adding a whole new commercial category this year and finally releasing some of the product work I've recently added to my portfolio! Most of which I personally use on a regular basis in the field.
Happy Thanksgiving!
It's hard to believe that I have been in Seattle for over a year now! Time really flies when you live in such an awesome place. Looking back at the past year I have so many things to be thankful for. I've been to so many awesome places, met some really cool people, and done some pretty crazy things. I can't wait to see what the next year brings!
On a side note here are some images from an informal jam that went down last month! The guys were throwing down some banger tricks!
Duthie Group Ride
Riding with a group is almost always more enjoyable then riding alone. Last weekend I was fortunate enough to join a great group of riders on one such ride at Duthie Hill! Here is a few select images from that day. If you were a part of the ride head over to my Facebook page to see if I got any images of you! Thanks to GHY Bikes for putting it together!
Intro to Vlogging
Starting a little adventure into Vlogging! If you can bear with me through the roughness then I invite you to follow along on this journey!
Renton Skatepark
I was finally able to stop by the Renton skatepark last week to photograph a couple of the local BMX riders. These guys can definitely shred! Throwing turn downs on their "warm up" run was the first hint of what was to come. As the sun started setting, the session heated up with dipped 360's and backflips wrapping up the session before the sun finally set.
Anthony Brownrigg gets inverted over the nipple feature at Renton skatepark.
Kyle mid turn down on his "warm up" run.
Kyle throws a dipped 360 over the nipple feature with a brilliant sky behind him.
Kyle Plante catches his breathe as the setting sun lights up passing storm clouds.
Lake Michigan Windsurfing
One of the many great things about living in northern Michigan is the lakes around us. Whether you simply enjoy relaxing on the pristine beaches or getting involved in one of the many adventure sports on the water, we proudly have some of the best lakes in the world right outside our front door. Windsurfing is a relatively unknown extreme sport in this area with athletes far and few between. Any opportunity I get to photograph a windsurfer I gladly take. The wind on Lake Michigan was perfect this day; a strong, offshore, consistent wind was kicking about two to three foot waves. Below is the series of images I took of Chris Righi windsurfing on the big lake.
Day on the Water
Firstly it's been awhile since my last blog post and I have a lot of catching up to do with several shoots waiting to get more then just a brief glance. I'll be posting fairly regularly again starting with my most recent shoot from Memorial Day weekend. With the ice now gone and air temps climbing into the mid 80's I jumped into the water to capture windsurfers and kiteboarders ripping it up. A strong westerly wind gave them all the power they needed to tear by me, slashing waves and jumping clear over in the process. It was pretty thrilling to watch these athletes harness the wind in such a creative way.
Back to Michigan Part II: Fun in the Snow
As much as I miss the Florida sun I have to admit that I'm enjoying being back in the north again. The first thing I did when I stepped off that plane was to take a deep breathe of the crisp, cold, northern air.
Shortly after arriving home I had scheduled a photo shoot on the ice of Lake Michigan not realizing that the Aurora Borealis also known as the Northern Lights. Just as neared the end they started to appear leading to an amazing light show like I've never seen and ultimately an amazing image. Thank's to Gelli Javellana for modeling in the freezing cold weather a little longer than planned.
On second note I also managed to spare some time from tax season to take a trip even further north; crossing the Mackinac Bridge and into Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Waking up one morning to several inches of fresh snow to play in, we adventured through snow covered forests and along the icy Lake Superior on snowmobiles.
