Photos of this life

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

My weekend with a legend

Ok well maybe not quite a legend but highly sought after. This past weekend I rented a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM from borrowlenses.com . Things have been a bit hard for me lately and I needed to take my mind off stuff so I had planned with some co workers to go with them to the famous glamis sand dunes. I chose this lens because of its versatility shooting action. Action shots are one of my favorite type on photography so naturally I was excited about the challenge to get great photos. The main challenge would be to working against a highly unstable terrain and extremely dusty conditions. I was lucky enough to be able to ride along with a friend in his Yamaha rhino to make getting close easier. I feel happy with the way I approached and accomplished my goal of getting the photos that draw you in and make you feel as if you were there. A lot of the vehicles on display were some truly stunning pieces of machinery. Overall I feel extremely satisfied with the way the 70-200mm f/2.8L lens performed and handled everything glamis had to throw at it. Not only was this lens excellent at keeping up with the fast paced action. It did very well when I took it out for a night of street photography. Canon truly has a stunner in their fast telephoto line up. As always hope you enjoy the photos and let me know what you think.

The quads we brought with us

Legendary Honda 250R engine

Being towed

Trevor ripping it up on his Honda 450R

My personal favorite. Processed in Photoshop CS5

You like them spinnin tires?

Oldsmobile Hill

Yamaha Banshee

Eat my dust

Probably the nicest rail I encounted

Beastly bi-turbo V8

Doing wheelies up the hill no problem

Random kid playing in the sand

Exhausted

Ridiculous Yamaha Banshee

Having a bad day

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Natural colors. No Photoshop

Drunkie being thrown out of The Rialto

Protecting the gear from the harsh enviroment

In the end I was so impressed with the performance of this lens. I'd say probably the only thing more enjoyable than a weekend with this beauty, is a weekend with a beautiful woman.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Hello iPhone 5

I recently acquired the new iPhone 5 and one of the main features I was excited about as a photographer was the camera. My usual shooting setup involves a canon dslr and a few lenses depending on what I'm shooting. Never before have I had such a powerfully portable camera with such high image quality. So far it's been quite a fun camera to shoot with. First impressions are very good and the more I get used to composing without a viewfinder it's becoming easier. Tomorrow I will be going out of town to the glamis sand dunes. More exciting than the riding that's sure to accompany the trip is the fact that ill be bringing along the legendary canon 70-200mm f/2.8L lens. My next post will be all about my weekend with that huge chunk of glass and other lovely bits. Until next time

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Taking it to the streets

I've been watching alot of digital rev videos on youtube lately. I quite enjoy their style when it comes to reviewing lenses and cameras. Its all rather fun really. One thing I've paid particular attention to is their street photography. I was immediately drawn to the candid portraits of people interacting with their surroundings. With some motivation in hand I headed to downtown Tucson at night. I thought with it being night would add a different element. All the keepers I posted on my facebook page in black and white. I thought I would share the color and b&w ones on the blog along with some camera settings. Have a look and let me know what you think.

Too much to drink

50mm, 1/50th sec, f/2.8 ISO 3200

50mm, 1/100th sec, f/4.0, ISO 3200

Late night chat

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50mm, 1/100th sec, f/4, ISO 3200

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50mm, 1/100th, f4.0, ISO 3200

Late night dancing

50mm 1/100th sec, f/1.8 , ISO 3200

Hard at work

50mm , 1/100th sec, f/4 , ISO 800

You looking at me?

50mm , 1/100th sec, f/4 , ISO 800

Friday, September 7, 2012

Keep up the pace devil dale

Its friday and I'm really excited for the weekend as it holds much activity. Saturday morning I will be entering my first criterium race. Its basically a lap race with a set finish time and whoever finishes first wins. I have high expectations for Jeff and myself. As I said in my last post my Cannondale took a pretty serious beating from the accident. After some time and sweat shes officially back on the road. Here are some photos of the repairs along the way. So the legend of the devil dale begins. In spirit of the race tomorrow i'll leave you with a link to a song for the 2012 Olympics by muse. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66molzUEkWI . "It's a race, and im gonna win whatever it takes. You won't pull ahead cause i'll keep up the pace"

You gotta have the shoes to do the dance

Front wheel. Rigida from france

New rear wheel with hub

Devil dale in for repairs

Shimano cassette

Rear wheel for Quintana Roo. 650c wheel with frankenstein cassette. Half hyper glide half dura ace.

Comparing the size of cassettes. Left is 9 speed Dura Ace. Right is 7 speed Hyper Glide

7 speed hyper glide cassette installed on rear wheel

Bent rear wheel from accident

Special tools purchased for cassette/freewheel removal

Rear wheel dissassembled old parts not needed

Thanks to a new gearing setup she can climb with the best of them. Sabino Mt. Hill

Top of Snyder Hill.

Looking through the aero bars at the descent

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

9:00 am

I'm simply waiting for that time because then I will enter the final stage of my recovery. Surely its been too long since I've updated, but quite a bit has been going on and I'm going to share some of that with you. After my last post I entered Tour of the Tucson Mountains. It was the 26th edition of the race and supposedly the last one ever. I hope thats not the case because i really enjoyed myself that day. After that event I realized I wanted to do more racing so I set my sights on the upcoming time trials. My first time trial came at Arizona City, AZ. I signed up for the 40k to test this style of racing and I learned the hard way how difficult time trails are. Those races now in the rear view my confidence was high and I was ready for the next time trial in Red Rock, AZ determined to do well. Two and a half weeks before the event I went for a training ride with my friend Ralph and Jeff, and that's when it happened. After all the hard work of riding through gates pass, after we has rode up the front side, down the back side, up the back side and finally coming home. As I passed Ralph coming through a right turn I realized I was going way too fast. Apply the brakes to follow through the next turn and my rear wheel locks up. As my rear end is sliding from under me I correct the bike and go off the side of the road. Here for my oh so soft landing was a layer of boulders and cactus that had my name written all over it. As I make my tumble off the bike upon impact of my front wheel I'm thrown on my right side which takes the brunt of the fall. I've now ended up in the middle of the street from rolling and I really cant move yet. As my friends ride up freaking out all I can do is lay there like a piece of bacon sizzling on the hot road. My whole right side is in absolute pain and I cant really feel my hip. I can move my hands and legs which was a great sign but I need to get out of the road. After a kind gentleman offers to give my busted ass a ride down the hills I'm finally realizing how lucky I am to be alive. Amazingly no serious injuries but I didn't come out unscathed. My whole right leg was practically bruised for two weeks. The major impact my leg took actually created a massive hematoma under the skin. This past friday I recently had surgery to finally remove said hematoma and it feels great. This whole experience really brought me down and helped me think about a lot of things. I have a deeper respect for what i'm chasing and it feels good to know i'm so close. So close to getting back to the one thing I craved so much, Speed.