Racing is Black and White
There isn’t a single person who hasn’t seen the old images from the Tour de France and thought “man, those are some cool shots”.
Race photography comes at us these days with such hyper-real clarity, and amazing color that, at times, it can be a little overwhelming. And this is coming from a photographer that LOVES to make life look hyper-real. Long gone is the simplicity of the black and white image in bike racing. The colors jump off the page and the rider’s eyes burn holes through the screen with fierce intensity rarely seen. These images work. They are beautiful and portray the venues beautifully.
But, there is still something to be said for a solid black and white image. It has no color…only tonal range. In reality, this is the way the image is first seen. Either on film or through a digital processor, the camera sees only tonal ranges. The range of light runs the gamut from intense white to absolute black. Within each extreme there is no detail, no information. But, if a photographer can create and image that spans the entire length of the tonal histogram (from absolute white to absolute black) and catch all of the tones in between a beautiful picture can be had.
This last weekend, I shot a race on the eastern plains of Colorado. It started in a town famous for the world’s first rodeo. Realistically not much has probably happened there since. Granted, they do have a great rodeo every year. In any case, the race started in Deer Trail Colorado and ventured into the plains to the east of town. The race flyer warned of high winds and high heat. Not a great combo. Mix those two elements in with rolling hills, no trees and a bunch of fallow wheat fields and the photography turns to be fairly monochromatic. What a great opportunity to shoot in black and white. In reality it was a relief. Normally I am shooting with mounds of extra light. I will remotely trigger one or even two speedlights and drop the exposure of the back ground down a bit. But this day was different. Nothing but me and my camera. Just the landscape and a mind that was thinking in terms of tones instead of color.
Life becomes very simple when a photographer thinks this way. Color is washed out. All that remains are shades of gray, and values of light and dark. Contrast creates the drama in the photo. There are no blue skies to stare into. No green trees to contrast with the blue sky. No colorful kit of the road cyclist. Instead you get dark eyes crying out in pain and sun bleached faces that contort from extreme effort. Roads revert back to “black top” and cloudless blue skies go white. What a wonderful way to view the world.
I had my day of shooting, and it was glorious. No frills, no strobes, no fancy techniques….it was me, my long lens and the world. When I got home and looked at the images I thought to myself ”are they as cool as those Tour de France images?” The answer? NO way in hell. But it was a ton of fun and it shows what racing in Deer Trail Colorado is like.
When it Rains…..
Last week I was sitting in the car waiting for a client to show up. All week it had been sunny and the early morning light was perfect for a shooting. Today however, as I sat in my car, the clouds opened up, the fog rolled in like a lumbering old man and a steady drizzle threatened to end the entire thing.
Even though it wasn’t the exact lighting I was hoping for, the light was beautiful and wrapped serenely around the landscape. With time to kill, I pulled out the I phone took a shot, tweaked it with Tilt Shift and sent it off to FaceBook with the caption, “not sure the photo shoot is going to happen.”
Within minutes a response was posted from my good friend Dug Gordin. That is not his name of course, I had to change it to protect his innocence. So, Doug (oops,) Dug posted a quick little response that said… and I quote “A real photog would find a way…” so true.
Seconds later, the client pulled up completely excited about the shoot. ”These clouds are perfect” he said, “they totally fit the theme”. With that we were off.
15 minutes later, we pulled into the parking lot of the highest trail head around. By now the clouds sat even lower but the drizzle had eased up. The shoot was to take place on a rock outcropping that rested 100 yards down a drainage. I loaded up the light stands, got the extra batteries and heaved my 50 pound pack onto my back. I was ready to descend.
It only took a couple of minutes to get to our secret location and it was well worth the scramble. The model edged out onto the giant boulders that hung 500ft off the ground. This was going to be tricky. Everything around was slick with the fresh rain. Every boulder was glossy and the light bounced off the granite like kaleidoscope of colors.
Working with the fading sun, we noticed two things had changed. First of all, the rain was back. Second was the LIGHTNING. The low hanging clouds randomly exploded. On and off they went with increased frequency. But, in the words of my buddy Dug, “A real photog would find a way…”. So we kept shooting.
Within minutes the conditions deteriorated. Water was pouring off the rocks, the sun had almost completely set and suddenly the lighting was lower and firing off every couple of seconds. Without any warning, (that’s the way lightning works you know) my entire head started to tingle and a burst of light thundered just feet above. But with Dug’s words of wisdom “A real photog would find a way…”, we pressed on.
Soon it was too dark to shoot and time to begin the now treacherous hike back up the the ravine. I wish I had some harrowing tale of near death, but that is not the case. Soon, we were at the car and headed back to town.
In the end, Doug (oops) I mean Dug had great advise “A real photog would find a way…”
Out In the Oil Fields
Growing up in Wyoming, the lights from the glowing oil derrik seemed to be the western version of the Northern Lights. They were untouchable and mysterious. They represented a world I knew nothing about.
I remember driving through the vast empty space between Green River and Laramie, lost in thought. Pondering what life must be like on a rig. After all, the derrik ran 24 hours a day, rain or shine, in extreme heat and extreme cold. At times the only lights in the world during the dark windy winter months would be the luminous glow from a distant drilling rig. That was part of the allure of the drilling rig.
A month ago, I was commissioned by a wellhead company to document the work of installing wellheads, BOPs and the maintenance needed to keep it all running. Before I knew it, I found myself sitting on a 12 passenger turbo-prop headed to the distant plains for North Dakota. The Bakken Oil field is one of the largest and most active formations in the lower 48 states. The discovery of oil in North Dakota has turned sleepy cow towns into busting oil stations.
Watford, North Dakota is such a town. Just recently it was written up in the New York times. The author discussed the challenges the city faces and the struggle with housing the men working the Bakken field. This town would be my home for the next 5 days. For 14 hours a day, I followed a group of men around to the various rigs while they installed BOPs, lubed wellheads and performed general up keep. Finally I got to see the inside, or rather all around the mystical drilling rig.
The men that work these rigs are made of movie stuff. They have their own language. They have their own hand signals. They even have their own names for the specific jobs on the derrik, and unless you have proven yourself, they have their own name for you. These men are hard. Working 12-14 hour shifts in the dead of winter, exposed to the elements with some of the most dangerous equipment in the world, makes a person tough. The work is wet and thick with muddy oil that bubbles form the hole. The tools are enormous and one misstep or a slip in attention and life becomes very serious very quickly.
As I was shooting pictures of the men installing a BOP, one of the guys said to me, “hey, don’t step there.” I looked at him with my usual “yea, no shit” look since he was pointing to a large pool of watery mud, that had the consistency of thick chocolate milk. What did he think, I would just step in a pool of water with my camera strapped to me? So, I looked at him, with that same look and said, “yea, ok”. Then he looked back and said it again; I must have been getting closer to the pool. With the same look I said, “So, it isn’t just a pool of water?” ”Nope,” he said ” ya step in there and we’ll never see y’again. That goes down 150 feet and there is no way to get ya out.” Needless to say, I didn’t get any closer to the hole.
In the end, I got some great shots for the company. But the shots that truly stand out in my mind are the images of the men on the rig. One of my favorite photographers did an entire series on oil rig workers. Richard Avedon, in the mid 1980′s produced the most vivid and striking images I have ever seen. My images are not the same in any stretch of the imagination, but they do capture what the work is like. Oh, and for the record, the guy with the sledge hammer is the one who told me where NOT to step.
Constant Motion in Palisade
One of the most rejuvenating assignments I have had this year was to cover a women’s specific cycling camp in Palisade, Colorado. The camp is the brain child of Susannah Gordon. Together with Corey Hart the camp was an undeniable success.
Over the course of four days, the women of the camp were treated to six amazing rides, an afternoon lecture series from industry pros, wine tasting, jet tubs and some of the best food in Colorado. The week started off with a fun ride through the vineyards just minutes from our hotel, the ever classy, Colorado Wine Country Inn.
Later that afternoon, Todd Carver with Retül bike fit technology, was busy making sure that every woman at the camp had a bike that fit them perfectly. Todd wasn’t the only one running the women through their paces. Corey was in another room testing each woman for their Lactate Threshold (LT). I am glad I was only taking pictures, because this test looked to be a doozy.
The evening ended up with a great presentation by visiting pros Tina Pic and Kimberly Baldwin. They told of their racing adventures and answered questions as wine from the region flowed freely. As the night wore on, it was clear that everyone was having a great time and couldn’t wait to get rolling in the morning.
Early the next day the Trek Women’s Demo program was ready to loan out some of the hottest bikes on the market. The Madone 6 series seemed to be the bike of choice with it’s electronic dura ace shifting and killer carbon frame. Every woman that tried one raved about the performance and decided to use it for the remainder of the week.
Each day brought nicer weather and the 70˚ temps were a delicious reprieve from the snow that plagued Denver. All of the days worked out well. In short, this camp had everything any woman cyclist could want. Wine, women pros to ride with, great food, amazing long rides and information from professionals that coach and train some of the best athletes in the world.
The most exciting part of my week was the ability to capture the expressions and joy that each woman expressed. At times I was on my bike, riding along and taking pictures in the group. Other times I was in the car, attempting to catch the action of a 40 mph descent through the Colorado National Monument. What ever the situation, it presented amazing shots. Why? Because the women were having a blast.
Where else can you have four full days or riding your bike with international pros, glean information form trainers and bike fit pros that have worked with Lance Armstrong, drink award winning wine, and finish the day in the company of amazing women while eating hand-crafted meals? And just think, all I had to do was take pictures.
Another Day at the Office
One of the areas that I have been totally getting into this year is….making movies from still photography. This type of work is blowing up right now. And, there is not set form or structure. These shorts are on the internet all over the place. Most recently photographers are being nabbed up by companies such as At&t and major insurance giants to produce low cost movies with a very unique look.
Most of the time, the videos don’t have the look of a classically composed “stop motion” movie. Instead they are shot with the camera set to high-speed shutter and shooting images between 2-8 frames a second with low res. jpegs. The look of the video can vary greatly. This is what makes this type of shooting so much fun. All of the same techniques used in a still shot can be employed when shooting at multiple frames a second. Blur can become very effective. Short depth of field often brings with it a mystical quality and all of the cool special processing techniques just add a little extra boost to the final product.
This video was created with the intent of using it during the grand opening for an advertising company in Denver called Amélie Company. They are a specialty firm that produces some great work for international companies. We shot early in the morning, trying to capture the feeling of coming into work. The milling around, getting coffee, checking emails, all became the focus of the shoot. Along with the morning activity I tried to give the viewer a sense of the building. I wanted them to see the work space and the great character of the office.
Take a look and let me know what you think.
http://www.vimeo.com/10917227Union on Snow and Skis
My friends Paul and Roberta live life. They love to go non-stop. They hold nothing back and have a blast. Their wedding was no different. As a commercial photographer that specializes in lifestyle images and and fast-paced action shots, the idea of shooting a wedding on skis sounded like a blast. The backdrop for this event was to be the stunning Devil;s Thumb Ranch located in Tabernash Colorado.
The day started early, very early in fact. My good friend, Paige Eden and I were on the road at 6am. Just 10 hours before, an avalanche closed the main road between Denver and Devil’s Thumb, turning out easy two hour drive into an epic 4 1/2 hours. When I first told Paige about this wedding she was so excited about the cool opportunities that she actually asked to join me on the shoot. What a great opportunity for me. Paige is one of the most respected and sought out wedding photographers in the Rocky Mountain. The chance to shoot an event with her is not one to be missed.
The day of shooting started promptly at 11 a.m. Paige and I met the bride and groom on the south end of the ranch. Already they had logged a solid 5 miles of skiing. The sun burned off the morning fog exposing the the glowing crystals of the newly fallen snow and the immensely blue sky. For the next hour, we wobbled around on snow shoes, clicking off frame after frame, capturing the stunning scenery and brilliant custom ski outfits that Paul and Roberta had specially designed.
Devil’s Thumb is littered with old barns and miles of immaculately groomed nordic ski trails. Between the aged wood and smooth rolling lines of made by the grooming machines, I couldn’t wait to see the final images. We paused a while at one of the most popular barns to shoot some “formals” against a banner for the Nation Championship Nordic Races. Soon the hour was up and it was time to head back to the main lodge for the outdoor ceremony.
Once back at the main lodge, we fired off more frames of the bride and groom getting ready for the ceremony. Friends rolled in, or rather glided in, and soon the event was in full swing. The formalities finished with a group ski followed by cocktails and soon my camera focussed on the drinking. This glorious day finished with a personal series I invented on the spot. I like to call it…”The Drink”. The final images I shot that day was a series, each of a different guest taking a drink. I know, it sounds a little lame, but it was truly silly. Take a look at the shots and let me know what you think. I would love to hear comments on “The Drink”.
Celebrations in Denver
In 1965 Rachel B. Noel was elected to the Denver Public Schools Board of Education. This successful election made Mrs. Noel the first African American Woman elected to public office in the State of Colorado. In 2008 Mrs. Noel passed away leaving a living legacy of hope, tolerance, and inspiration that thousands of people benefit from today.
A month ago I was asked to cover the Rachel B. Noel Awards Ceremony that took place at the Shorter A.M.E. church in Denver. I arrived early, not knowing the grand scope of the ceremony and was soon to learn that I was asked to cover one of the most glorious awards presentations/celebrations in Denver.
Over the next four hours I photographed local community leaders, educators and honorees as they came together and received recognition. During the ceremony, the audience learned of the great accomplishments of Rachel Noel and joined together to commemorate her life. This night brought the songs and voices of various church choirs together as well as members of the community who have made great changes in our city. Together we learned of the people and groups that have helped create a stronger and healthier Denver.
Our lives were enriched with the stories of triumph and struggle that brought so many people to Denver. The choirs rejoiced with soloists praising the work through song. The program flowed seamlessly for two full hours of vocal melodies, tribal drums and dedications.
Following in the legacy of Rachel Noel, five awards were given and one Distinguished Visiting Professorship was granted. Each was presented to people who fought against racial discrimination and inequality. Each was presented to people who, like Rachel, make a difference.
This night, the following awards were given:
Distinguished Visiting Professorship
Julius E. Coles
Academic Excellence
Metro State African and African American Studies Department
Community Engagement
Jeff S. “Brother Jeff” Fard
Community Service
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Denver Alumnae Chapter
Spiritual Leadership
Shorter Community African Methodist Episcopal Church
Community Activism through the Faith Community
Lost Found Members of The Nation of Islam in North American Universal -African Improvement Association
Congratulations to all who earned awards. Your work is truly outstanding and is making a difference in this world.
Riding In the High Desert
Almost 5 months ago, my long-time buddy, Phil McIntosh and I headed back to the small town in Southwestern Wyoming where we grew up. We both had a bunch of work to finish up so we didn’t begin our six hour trip until early evening. But, in our heads that was perfect. It was the first time in a LONG while we had taken a road trip together and we had been looking forward to it for quite some time.
Pointing the car north we sailed up the I25 corridor, everything synched. The music pulled memories from distant trips and adventures long past. The night sky darkened and millions of stars peeked through the fading glow of a fall sunset. Our chat circled around family, lost adventures, jobs, cars and biking. After all, cycling was the draw to head home.
When we lived in Green River Wyoming, not much was going on. It was the mid 80′s. We liked alternative music in a town that thrived on country. Things like skateboarding, snowboarding and mountain biking were not looked to highly upon. But in the 20 years since, much has changed. And that is why we came back to our old haunt. Over the last two decades, Phil’s dad Tom, and a group of his buddies have worked tirelessly to make this sleepy western town a mountain bike mecca. The cool thing is that for the most part, they have succeeded.
Over 40 miles of trails now surround the town. There are smooth rolling runs with banked corners and great rollers. And then, there are the uber technical lines that feature six foot drops and narrow ladder bridges. There is great climbing and even greater descents waiting to test your luck. All of these trails were the back drop for my camera.
My assignment was to shoot images for a feature article appearing in Mountain Flyer Magazine. In every issue, the magazine covers a certain biking destination. Many of the spots are new or developing. The March issue will spotlight the history of mountain biking in Green River. My job for the weekend was to get the images that would supplement the story.
As it turned out, we didn’t have the classic October weather I was hoping for. The high only reached 40˚ and the wind worked its hardest to be a classic Wyoming howl. Our shoot, scheduled for Friday and Saturday, was to cover five different trails and a newly built skills park. Nat and Rachel Lopes, of HilRide, created the layout for the park and the Tom and his gang of bike fanatics moved tons of dirt to create an amazing bike park. I stood in awe the first time I saw their creation. Green River now had the coolest bike park around. That’s something to be proud of.
So, for two days I followed the group of ten riders around, scoping out the best places to shoot. We all shared stories of great trails and wipe-outs and injuries and geeked out on the coolest gear and newest parts. What more could you ask? True to Wyoming style, the skies shone crystal blue with lofty clouds adding to the contrast. I shot mostly with off camera flash, but kept the light harsh so it would balance out the look of the sun. Over the weekend I took over 1,000 images. And from that, about 15 will be used for the story. In the end, the coolest shots were the ones that reminded me of my buddies and biking in Wyoming. It is a classic tale, two guys head out on a road trip to mountain bike for the weekend. This time we have pictures to prove how much fun it was. Thanks to all the folks in Green River for being such sports with the photo shoot. Nice work with the trails.
Stellar Art
I don’t know how I did it, but when my wife and I moved back to Denver, four years ago, we landed right in the middle of some amazing artists. And all of them live within one block of our house. There are painters, photographers, world-renowned astral physicists and sculptors. We live in our own little art mecca.
The house directly to the north of ours is this amazing 1920′s structure that is home to Monica Aiello and her family. They are truly a renaissance family. Being working artists, they have traveled extensively. They show and sell their work around the world and have been major contributors to the art scene in Denver. In the late 1990′s they lived downtown and ran one of the most frequented galleries around. Today, they live next to me and focus on producing pieces to fulfill the incredible demand for their talent.
Monica and I have worked together many times. Most recently she hired me to produce images of her paintings that are hanging in shows all around the country. In 2009, Monica shipped off pieces to Washington DC, California and Colorado Springs. It is always fun to work with her. The size of her craft is simply amazing and the vibrant colors and textures are always a challenge to represent digitally. For hours at a time we talk about the pieces. She describes the process and the complex moon-scapes she uses as her models. Each work has a voice of its own that must shine through the image that I make.
Some days the subject of the shoot is only 1 foot squared. Other days, the pieces are part of a tryptic and each section must be photographed individually and composited later in photoshop. These are the most challenging as the light needs to match in all three images.
Each painting takes approximately three weeks to complete. Her intricate system of layering resin, string and paint has been honed over the last decade. From the inception of an idea through completion, Monica works closely with scientists and astral physicists to zero in on a specific area of study. Each painting, painstakingly represents a portion of a galaxy, moon or planet that has been mapped by NASA scientists.
Monica’s work provides an opportunity that not many photographers get to experience. I work with another artist who has collaborated with the best NASA scientists to produce something of great beauty. Each day, I see these pieces, this beautiful art. I witness the process from start to finish and then my camera captures the final polished result. The difficult part is making them look as radiant as they do in reality.
Monica is currently showing at the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center. Visit the website or take a trip to Colorado Springs to see the show. It is well worth the trip. For those of you who can’t make it, please enjoy the images that I made of Monica’s paintings.
Into the Clouds
A week ago, I headed north to the Erie Municipal Airport to meet my buddy Chris Dillis. Chris recently enlisted my services to produce promotional images of the new Gobosh 700 light Sport aircraft for Sky Raider Aviation .
We really should have know better than to book a shoot for Monday morning in the middle of January. For the past two weeks temperatures had been in the 50′s with no wind. Today, 30 degrees and gusts up to 50mph. Well, that pretty much took the ax to our thought of flying and shooting for the day.
It was now time for a quick re-group.
Sky Raider Aviation was looking for new images of the stunning Gobosh 700. Out at the Erie Airport, Chris specializes in light sport instruction and licensing. I had never heard of such a thing. I was always under the impression that becoming a pilot, of any sort, was years in the making. Very much out of reach for the common man. Was I wrong.
The new light sport aircraft, like the Gobosh 700, is great for anyone who wants to learn to fly. Within a month, you and a buddy could be heading down to Santa Fe for lunch or dropping into Crested Butte for a day of skiing.
As I said, the wind was howling. It was freezing cold. What were we going to shoot? Our talk centered around the great lines of the plane. The long nose makes it look like a high-end aerobatic plane. And the winglets curve gracefully up at the tip of each wing. All of these design features created great angles that would absolutely pop once captured by the camera.
I felt we needed a little extra push, so I decided to bracket all of the images and process them using an HDR program. It was time to get a little funky. Chris had mentioned that he was looking for shots that stood out, not “run of the mill” pictures of planes. So, I decided to shoot six frames of each image and process them in Photomatix. After the rough HDR processing I planned to tweak them even further in photoshop using multiple layers to bring out the sky and the colors of the plane.
We shot for about an hour and a half before we were both wind burnt and chilled to the bone. In all it turned out to be a pretty good shoot. Granted, all of it was on the ground. But as a photographer, you roll with the punches.
MSC – Crested Butte
I had the great pleasure of spending the weekend with a great group of racers who completely dominated the Cat. 1 Women’s race on Saturday. The Yeti Beti Crew asked me to join them in Crested Butte for a weekend of Mountain States Cup racing. I was charged with getting images for their team site as well as pics for the sponsors.
We started the day with a team shoot. For the next 20 minutes, I was a little under the gun since their race was “scheduled” to start in 60 short minutes, and all of the girls still needed to warm up. We took about 20 images trying to work with the great flowers and the dark dramatic sky and then…they were off to race. While I broke down the lights (with the help of my assistant Jason) and got the extra gear back to the car, the skies opened up and began to pour on everyone.
For the next 3 hours the racers battled rain, slippery slopes, rocky downhills and greasy grueling climbs; all while I tried to catch as many shots as I could without drowning my gear. The weather made for very dramatic lighting and great images. The soggy hills also made for very treacherous racing and the Yeti Beti crew got slapped with a broken collar bone and some trail rash that required quite a few stitches.
Once we were all “back at the ranch” it was time to enjoy pizza, drinks and of course, the hot tub. Thanks ladies for allowing me take your team shots and be housemates for the weekend. Happy racing.
Kickstand Magazine
A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to shoot images for Kickstand Magazine (www.kickstandmag.com) for a Kryptonite Lock advertisement. The shoot fell on the tail end of the Cinco de Mayo celebration, here in Denver and needed to mix the urban scene with the cruiser bike. In all, it made for a fun shoot and I was able to play with a new HDR program.
