TooFatToRace Photography

Better later-er-er than never-er-er.

2011-07-13T20:01:00.013-05:00

Potomac Velo Club's Wednesdays at Wakefield series is in full swing. In fact, it's 75% done and, were it not for a fortuitous thunderstorm this afternoon, would be 100%.

I was out of town for the first race, but shot the second and third. The shot above might be my favorite (personally shot) mountain bike race photo ever. I tried to re-create the magic the following race, but the lack of dust in the air made the shots less magical.

The third race in the series may have been the first W@W race at which I spent zero time shooting the downhill woop-de-do section. That section usually gets you the best air-catching shots, but after years of parking myself there, I need to find new angles. Stay tuned for the resulting photos.

Better late than never!

2011-06-10T13:19:00.003-05:00

Oh hi.

I just realized that Potomac Velo was directing people here to view my pix of their Greenbrier Challenge MTB race. I shoulda figured that out weeks ago, but as I haven't gotten any angry emails, I'm guessing I haven't had much traffic 'round these parts.

Anyway, the photos from the race are hosted (for the time being) on my Pbase site, here:

http://www.pbase.com/gmr2048/2011greenbrier

I'll also update the list over there

<------------

at some point and put Greenbrier at the top.

Ahhh, blog. Welcome.

2011-05-24T17:17:00.003-05:00

So welcome back, faithful blog!

I changed domain registrars from that hideous, busy-paged, up-selling, misogynistic, elephant killing GoDaddy to the white, clean and neat Hover.com. Took me a couple of days to work out the DNS forwards and settings so we were offline for a bit...but I doubt anybody noticed. And we're back!

This past weekend I shot the Potomac Velo Greenbrier Challenge MTB race in Boonsboro, MD. The photos should be posted tonight or tomorrow. I'll post again when they are. I just wanted to post something so people wouldn't think this page had gone the way of the dinosaur.

Aieeee! Crap! Last week's Wednesday at Wakefield race

2010-07-06T21:28:00.007-05:00

So I meant to post this last week when it wasn't a week late, but work got the best of me...

I got out last week to shoot the second of Potomac Velo Club's Wednesdays at Wakefield mountain bike race series. The night was cool and comfortable (compared to what's predicted for tomorrow's event). The shooting with the new 7D was amazing. I fired off roughly 1,070 images and of them, about 1,040 were keepers. Maybe not Sports Illustrated-keepers, but keepers.

Here are a few favorites:

Crossin' 'em up.

A bit of Photoshopery for fun.

Fast corner.

The rest of the gallery can be found here (and in the links over on the left). Hopefully this week's race will be a bit more timely spoken of.

Oh, for those of you into that sorta thing, I created a Facebook page or group or something. Come on over and join in the fun. Ok, so there's not much "fun" there yet, but I'm hoping fun people show up and bring some "fun" along with 'em. And beer. Bring beer, too.

2010 USAF Clarendon Crit

2010-06-27T07:21:00.006-05:00

A few weeks back, I got out to shoot the 2010 USAF Clarendon Crit in Clarendon, VA. It's one of my favorite local road races to shoot due to the vibe and location.

I didn't have press creds this year, so I wandered the field as a spectator with a camera. I tried coming up with different photo ideas, but in all honesty, this year's shots look pretty similar to last year's.

The one thing I did that was new and exciting for me was to shoot HD video using my Canon 7D. I didn't have a tripod with me, so the video is simply braced against a barrier, so it's a bit shaky, but for a first try, I dig it.

I haven't the faintest idea how to embed video in a blog post, so if you're interested in seeing a < 1 minute clip, go here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gmr2048/4702262302/in/photostream/

.

Just like LL said...

2010-04-26T19:35:00.015-05:00

"Don't call it a comeback...I've been here for years..."*

...I just haven't had much to say lately.

I finally got out to shoot something interesting (relatively, I guess). The 2010 edition of the Greenbrier Challenge mountain bike race was held this past Sunday in Boonsboro MD. I made the drive north and clicked off a couple of thousand images on my new(ish) Canon 7D camera. The day was overcast and threatened rain, but produced none (thankfully). The course was damp/wet and I settled in at a sloppy log crossing complete with a landing zone of roots and ruts about a mile from the start/finish line. Hilarity ensued. (Not really. There were a few crashes but thankfully none very bad. Everybody re-mounted their steeds and rode off.)

The overcast lighting and high ISO abilities of the new camera produced some great images. And the new AF system on the camera allowed me to come home with far fewer throw-away shots than my old 30D ever did.

Anyway...help pass the word to others who may be interested in seeing themselves in all their muddy glory.

Uh, edit to add, I guess a link would be helpful, eh? Sorry, I'm a bit rusty at this.

Greenbrier Challenge gallery.

* Have I used that line before? I think I might have.

SpeedFreaks endurance race

2009-10-26T19:54:00.007-05:00

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to shoot the first (annual?)...

(Official artwork by buddy, world traveler and artiste extraordinaire Blue-Eyed Devil of Wrench-in-the-Gears fame.)

...SpeedFreaks Stage Race in Leesburg, VA. Brought to you by the same fine folks who run both the Leesburg Baker's Dozen race each spring, and last winter's SnotCycle, it's run on the same private farmland singletrack. SpeedFreaks was a two-day event, but I only managed to make it out for the second day.

After a bit of rain for Saturday's race, the Sunday portion couldn't have been more perfect. Cool temps and blue skies the whole day.

When I set out to shoot this race, my plan was to emphasize the fact that it was a fall race, as opposed to all those spring and summer races. I had a couple of ideas in mind, but mainly, I wanted some leaf color in my shots. I wasn't having much luck finding color around the evergreen/pine grove part of the course. While standing around considering my options, I had a chance meeting with Rob, one of the organizers. He offered to escort me to the back side of the trails, a section I'd never seen. I happily agreed and followed him across the fields.

At the far end of the trails, I found some cool rock-drop obstacles as well as some colorful trees. After wandering around looking for an appropriate place to set up, I finally found a couple of trees that offered some nice color. I hunkered down and snapped away as weary riders pedaled past.

Unfortunately, I couldn't spend the entire day out shooting the race, so after too few hours in the field, I had to pack up and head home. Once there, I posted my unprocessed shots from the day to my pbase gallery. I tweaked a couple of shots (seen above) and posted those to my main flickr page.

At the end of the day, I realized a couple of things:

1) I need a wider lens. A nice 10-20mm would be sweet. Either that or a nice full-frame Canon 5D Mark II. Whichever :)

and 2) I have *got* to get out and ride the race course. I know so little of the trails there, I don't even know what all I'm missing. The trails are private and only open for the races each year (and a few pre-rides). Since I shoot (and don't race), I need to get myself on board one of those pre-rides.

W@W #4, 7/15/09

2009-07-19T10:06:00.005-05:00

My photos from the fourth and final (for '09) Wednesdays @ Wakefield race have been posted.

As usual, feel free to grab copies of the web-sized images for your own personal use (blogs, email to friends, Facebook, etc). If you want full-sized copies (either digital ($15) or print ($25)) let me know. Images on the Pbase site are batch-processed. Full-sized images will be individually hand retouched so they'll look better than the small ones.

Thanks to PVC for putting on a great race series. And thanks to all of the racers for giving me such great subjects to shoot! See you next year (if not before!).

W@W #4, 7/15/09

2009-07-16T21:21:00.003-05:00

If anybody is anxiously waiting, the photos from W@W #4 should be posted on Sunday. Please spread the word. Sorry for the delay...I've got to duck outta town for my older daughter's lacrosse tournament.

-gary

Quiet 'round these parts, eh?

2009-07-13T07:48:00.024-05:00

As usual, the summer is proving more busy than anticipated. I had hoped to shoot the 12 Hours of Lodi Farm, the 12 Hours of Cranky Monkey race, as well as the complete Wednesdays@Wakefield series. In reality I missed Lodi and the Monkey, and at best I'll hit .500 on the Wakefield series. 'Tis amazing how much time these babies take.

The good news is that I was able to make it out to the third installment of the Wakefield series last week (the photos are posted here). The shooting was same as it ever was. There's a high treeline right next to the most interesting part of the course (the fast downhill woop-de-dos) which casts it into shadow by race time (5:30pm) and deep shadow by race end (~8pm). So I spent the first part of the race shooting on the less-interesting part of the course that still had decent lighting.

This junior-class (possibly super-junior class) racer was my favorite of the day. 99.9% of all racers (and riders...including me) skip this ~18" high rock obstacle (also seen in the photo above), since there is an easy bypass next to it. Not this kid! He went up and over for no other reason than he could. And he did it with a cast on his arm! In fact, he was the only person to hit it during my hour shooting from this location (a hour that included the beginner as well as the hotshot singlespeed classes. Bravo!

After spending the early part of the race in the sun, I decided to head over to the downhill woops and try to get some acrobatic shots of racers catching air. By the time I got over to that part of the course, another photog had set up shop in the prime location. That, along with the high growth of vegetation along the trail forced me to try and find some other creative angles. I resorted to using on-camera flash while letting the camera automatically drag the shutter (allowing both subject and background to be correctly exposed). The results were pretty good.

Not sure what this week's race will hold. I'm kinda tired of shooting in the same two spots. Tho shooting practically anywhere else would require a full studio light setup. Which I doubt the racers would appreciate :)

No Hours of Lodi Farm

2009-05-01T13:32:00.001-05:00

Sadly, due to a death in the wife's family, I'm not going to be able to shoot one of my favorite races of the year - 12 Hours of Lodi Farm - which happens noon to midnight, Saturday.

You racers have a good time. And try not to do anything interesting or particularly photo-worthy till next year, k? Thx.

Leesburg Baker's Dozen race photos posted

2009-04-21T08:06:00.000-05:00

I've posted my shots from the Leesburg Baker's Dozen mountain bike race. The gallery can be found here.

The posted shots are free for the taking/use non-commercially (Facebook/blogs/whatever). A photo credit and a link back to the gallery is all I ask in return.

Full-res digital files are $15. 8x10ish" prints are $25 (assuming my source image is good enough to sell/print). Email me if you're interested. The posted shots are straight out of the camera (no post-processing). Any full-res file or print will be hand tweaked and should look better than the web version.

...essing...Processing...Processing...Proc...

2009-04-19T19:21:00.005-05:00

Processing pix from the Leesburg Baker's Dozen race on Saturday. Shot roughly 700 shots. There's gotta be one or two worth sharing...right? Right?

We can only hope. Stay tuned. Pix, write-up and lessons-learned coming in the next day or two.

Off-season race

2009-01-31T21:09:00.020-05:00

Today saw the first (annual?) running of the SnotCycle mountain bike race in Leesburg, VA. Run on the same farm course that the Leesburg Baker's Dozen race uses in the spring, this race gave me the unusual opportunity of shooting a mountain bike event in winter.

And I blew it.

I tried. Sorta. I showed up with an actual plan and everything: I wanted to use a long, fast lens (200mm f/2.8) and go for shots of racers with a really shallow depth of field. I arrived before the start of the first race at 10am (and at about 12°). I wandered the farmer's fields looking for suitable backgrounds to blur out (thereby highlighting the riders). The color options were pretty limited: stick-brown of the leafless trees, brown-spotted amber of the dormant grass fields (spots courtesy of the cow poo (yay!)), and waaaaay of in the distance, an occasional stand of evergreen trees, giving some life to the scene.

So I set up and waited. And waited. Aaaaaannnnndddd waited. I picked a spot that was about 75% of the way through the course, so it was gonna take a while for the racers to reach me. Why I waited on top of a hill where the wind could constantly cool me is beyond me. But that's what I did. Probably 40 minutes later, the first racers started streaming past. I moved around as I shot, jockeying for interesting angles/backgrounds. I half-heartedly fired off shot after shot. I just wasn't feeling it. I didn't want to shoot hundreds of shots of racer after racer after racer. That's what I tend to do at the local summer races. Sure, it's nice to be able to provide racers shots of themselves. And it will occasionally earn me a few bucks. But it's gettin' kinda boring.

I looked for opportunities to take more artsy/active/general-interest shots, but sadly, this course offered little (that I'm aware of) in the way of "technical trail features" (TTFs - log crossings, drops, water crossings, jumps, rocks, unusual obstacles, etc). So it was pretty much just shootin' racers racin' past. When run in one direction, there is a decent 1-2' drop where you can usually get the more acrobatic riders wheelie-dropping off. Not the most exciting subject, but more interesting than simply racers riding through an amber field of dead grass spotted with mounds o' cow poo. Unfortunately, the race today was run in the opposite direction, eliminating the one pseudo-technical bit.

So I wandered the course for a couple of hours, firing off shots hither and tither. In the end, I think I came home with only ~100 shots, and of those, ~30 were immediately deleted due to being out of focus because of my ridiculously shallow DOF. I've really got to get smarter and shoot with something between the 1' I did today and infinity. There's a lot of wiggle room in there. I'm not sure why I didn't make better use of it.

In a perfect world, all of my general rider shots would have come out like this one:

Unfortunately, not many did. A few more shots can be found in my flickr stream.

Blowing the dust off (sorta)

2008-09-25T18:45:00.008-05:00

My bike shooting this summer was kept to a minimum with the birth of a daughter on July 25th. I did manage to make it out for a road crit in Reston VA. I'm not exactly sure why, but I never posted the photos here. So without further ado...

You'd think that with such small pool of bike shots, it would have dawned on me to actually post some, huh.

I may try to get out a bit this fall and shoot some cross races. But in all honesty, cross racing doesn't hold much interest for me (as either a cyclist or a photographer). Who knows, perhaps I've just not experienced it correctly yet to fall in love. We shall see.

MIA @ W@W #4

2008-07-16T13:38:00.009-05:00

It looks like I may miss the fourth and final W@W race tonight. Kinda got a lot going on at the moment, and I don't think I'll have time to do what needs to be done and get to the race. Sadly, that puts my W@W attendance rate at only 50% this year. I had much higher hopes.

W@W #3, 7-9-08, photos are posted

2008-07-12T15:08:00.005-05:00

My shots from the third Wednesday at Wakefield race are posted here.

I think the links to all of galleries (on the left) may actually be fixed, too. If you notice any problems, please email me.

Men at work

2008-07-11T22:39:00.003-05:00

Most of the links on the left are broken at the moment. I renamed many of my Pbase galleries for easier reading, and didn't realize it would break every link pointing at them. Poor link design on Pbase's part. I'll go through and fix them all this weekend.

W@W #3, 7/10/08

2008-07-11T07:42:00.002-05:00

Wednesdays at Wakefield
Take 3
7/10/08

After missing the second W@W race last week due to a schedule conflict, I was able to make it out to the third this week. I'm still going through the photos (and boy, is my "delete" button tired!) and will have them posted this weekend. Until then, here are a few shots I quickly processed last night:

Dharma.

The choke.

Feelink OK.

Pete (I think).

Wheelie droppin'

Every time I shoot, particularly bike races, I learn something new. This week, I learned that you should shoot from somewhere that the racers can see you. People tend to show off for the camera, which results in far more interesting photos than if they don't know you're there. I spent most of the first race sitting in a creek bed, shooting riders as they zoomed past. 99% of the racers had no idea I was there. As a result, there aren't too many shots like the wheelie-drop above. Most people just rode across the tiny creek. Had they known I was there, I bet there's have been some more interesting acrobatics.

The second thing I learned this week is that I need to spend more time considering depth of field when shooting. It's pretty easy to understand...at least in theory. But I still managed to completely fail in it's implementation. Even with my handy smartphone-based Java DOF calculator in-hand. My problem, I think, was that I was shooting at a spot ~15' away, and I was focusing *on* that spot. The DOF started at about 15' and went to infinity. Therefore, most of the riders that crossed at that spot were out of focus, while the trees and brush behind them were crystal clear. I suppose I should have focused on a spot maybe 10' away, which would have put the riders in that 15'-to-infinity zone, and therefore in focus. That would have lead to many more keeper shots, and a less traumatized delete-key finger. Something to keep in mind for next time, I guess.

Edit to add: One more thing I learned (or re-learned, or simply remember) after numerous failed shots last night...shooting with really slow shutter speeds (1/60s, 1/80s, 1/100s) and panning with your subjects is quite difficult. Yet another contributing factor to the pile of worthless photos in the recycle bin today.

Done!

2008-06-28T21:12:00.002-05:00

Ok, all of my shots of the 6/25/2008 W@W race have been posted (thanks to Potomac Velo for the link from the official page!). My gallery is here. See you guys next Wednesday.

Work in progress.

2008-06-27T21:25:00.008-05:00

I've got the shots from both the 5:30pm race and the 6pm race posted. I'll get the 7pm race up tomorrow (Saturday).

Standard disclaimers apply: These were quickly (and ham-handedly) resized and sharpened for the web. Electronic copies are free for the taking (for non-commercial use). Right click, save-as, done. If you want to buy a full-sized, lovingly processed digital or print version (assuming the full-res image is up to snuff), without copyright text, contact me at gmr2048 at yahoo-dot-com and we'll work out the details. If you want to use a shot commercially, contact me and we'll figure that out, too.

With a steady flow of riders finishing one race and starting the next, sometimes determining which riders belonged to which group was difficult. So I had to make some guesses. If you were running in the back of the 6pm pack, check the 7pm photo set. I may have accidentally put you in with the wrong group.

W@W2008, v1.0

2008-06-26T16:26:00.005-05:00

**UPDATE** All shots from the 530pm, 6pm and 7pm races are up (plus a few shots of racers pre-riding the course). The gallery is here.

I shot the first Wednesday@Wakefield race of the 2008 season last night. I haven't had a chance to slog through all of the images yet, but I did find this one that I thought I'd throw online as a placeholder. More to come.

Note to self: Flash photography is hard. Trust your f/1.4 lens more next time.

Being there

2008-05-04T20:21:00.003-05:00

This past Sunday saw the 2008 edition of the "12 Hours of Lodi Farm" mountain bike race in Fredricksburg, VA. Hard as it may be to believe, I actually managed to drag my butt out to shoot it. I was out "in the field" from about 8pm Saturday till 2pm Sunday with naught but a two hour nap between 5am and 7am Sunday. I have no idea how all of those solo racers can actually ride a bike for 12 hours. I could barely walk back to the truck from shooting in the woods at 5am without falling over. Kudos racers.

All of my straight-outta-the-camera shots are on my Pbase site.

As an aside, I've been trying to come up with a way to make the best use of my two paid photo services: Pbase (good for mass image storage and grouping by event) and Flickr (good for general photo exposure and comments/critiques). I think my new plan is to dump every decent image from any given event to Pbase, and then edit/tweak/process my favorite shots and shots of friends and post those to Flickr (with a link back to Pbase site for anybody who wants to wade through all of the images). This, in my mind, seems like a good use of the two services.

I took the liberty of liberating somebody else's map of the trail network at Lodi from the official race web page. They had it as a 7MB TIFF download. There's no need for that. I converted it to a JPG and reduced its size by an order of magnitude to about 600kb. Much more handy size.

2008-04-28T10:31:00.005-05:00

How to be a great photographer: "f/8 and be there"

Why I'm not a great photographer: That whole "be there" part.

I had nothing but good intentions of going to shoot the Greenbrier Challenge mountain bike race this past Sunday. Unfortunately, something came up and I wasn't able to make it.

Looking at local Flickr user extraFunky's shots of the event, there was some good shootin' to be had. Soft lighting, sloppy trails, muddy riders. Man. Wish I would have been there!

Hopefully things will pan out better for next weekend's 12 Hours of Lodi Farm race.

TooFat@work

2008-04-25T18:09:00.003-05:00

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Photo of your's truly behind the lens, by Jim Folliard at gearshift.tv

For god's sake, somebody get that boy a sandwich, he's wasting away to nothing!

Next up on the shooting deck: the 2008 Greenbrier Challenge on Sunday.

Leesburg cont'd.

2008-04-21T17:14:00.004-05:00

The rest of my Leesburg Baker's Dozen photos are up. Check them out here, broken down (roughly) by hour. These are pretty much straight outta the camera. The only editing I've done is to resize them.

I'm sticking to my "free as in beer" ethos again this year:

If you want a copy of the web-sized version of the image (for non-commercial use on your blog, web page, whatever) right-click, save-as, done. I'd appreciate a link back to my gallery, or an image credit, but I'm not gonna be a hard-ass about it.

If you want an edited, fixed-up, full-res JPG suitable for 8x10" printing, email me. Assuming the full-res image is up-to-snuff, I'm gonna charge $10 for it. If you want an actual mailed print, it'll be more.

If you're a non-profit trying to save the world or something, email me. I'm a sucker for a good cause.

TooFatTwoOhOhEight

2008-04-20T19:25:00.009-05:00

The 2008 mountain bike racing/shooting season kicked off for me on Saturday with the Leesburg Baker's Dozen race in VA. Unfortunately, I had lost track of dates, and was surprised on Friday to find out that there was a race scheduled on Saturday. As I already had plans for most of the afternoon/evening hours Saturday, I decided to hit the race early and try for some shots in the pine grove section (which, while I quite like this shot, overall only went so-so):

My master plan then had me taking off for my other planned activities, and afterward, heading back out to the race for some night-shooting ('round about midnight).

I had a couple of specific shots in mind that I wanted to try after dark, and I think I managed to nail them pretty well. I wanted something with rider's light trails with the farm silo in the background (since this was a race on a farm, I thought it only appropriate):

And I wanted some shots from a high vantage point, showing the racer's light trails running through the field:

After spending most of my daylight shooting hours in the pine grove, I decided to go back and try for some interesting "light-trails-weaving-through-the-trees" shots. Some worked better than others:

My next task is to figure out how to get the light-trail shots, but be able to hit the rider with a flash at the end, so they show up on "film" (similar to what this guy did). The trick is ensuring that I don't distract/blind the riders and cause them to ride off the trail into a tree.

I still have to weed through all of the almost 700 images I shot. I should have un-edited copies up in a day or two. I'll post back here when the task is complete.

Gearing up (so to speak)

2008-01-24T07:55:00.000-05:00

So, looking forward to warmer times (probably something to do with to the high-of-20-degree days we've been having around here lately), I decided to post up links to a few of the local favorite MTB races coming up this spring. I hope to shoot all of these, but I'm sure conflicts will arise.

Leesburg Bakers Dozen Saturday, April 19, 2008

Greenbrier Challenge Mountain Bike Race April 27, 2008

12 Hours of Lodi May 3-4, 2008

12 Hours of Cranky Monkey Saturday, June 28, 2008 Quantico Marine Corps Base

Cranky Monkey Series
* Race #1 - 7/27/08 - Wakefield Park - Annandale, VA
* Race #2 - 8/10/08 - Fountainhead Regional Park- Fairfax Station, VA
* Race #3 - 8/24/08 - Quantico Marine Corps Base - Quantico, VA

Wednesdays at Wakefield series (hopefully details coming soon). The nice woman who's now running the PVC website contacted me the other day asking to use some of my photos on the site. So look for some of my shots of PVC racers on display when the revamp is complete.

Blowing the dust off...

2008-01-23T09:47:00.001-05:00

I know. Been mighty quiet around these parts, hasn't it?

Winter is light on MTB races, and heavy on cyclocross races. While 'cross racing seems like a fine sport, it isn't my favorite. I imagine shooting it would be cool enough, but it's much harder for me to motivate to get out to a 'cross race. Ergo no cross photos = no bike photos (not counting drunken personal road cycling outings with friends) = no bike-blog posts. Sorry racefans.

An email from the woman re-vamping the Potomac Velo web page prompted me to invest a little time in this dormant blog. Seems she's going to be revamping their site and asked to make use of a few of my 2007 race photos. Which is cool with me.

I revamped the list of photo galleries on the left side of this page. Listing all the races I've shot in reverse chronological order, instead of just pointing a single link over to my Pbase site and making you wade through the galleries yourselves.

Look for another post in the next day or two. After that...who knows? Spring can't come fast enough as far as I'm concerned.

Dirt Crit

2007-08-08T08:30:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday saw the Dirt Crit edition of the Cranky Monkey race series. As usual, I was out there TooFatToRace stylie, sitting on my butt in the weeds, camera in hand, sweat oozing from... well, it was pretty hot.

For those who want to cut to the chase...the photos are here. Broken down by race start time. 8am, 10am and 12pm.

The nice thing about the Crit format is that the course is relatively short, so the riders do a bunch of laps. Therefore, I had lots of opportunities to shoot each rider.

Shooting race after race at the same park (this is the...um...4th one this season, I think) leads to a lot of similar looking photos. Trying to find a different angle, I spent a good deal of time under the cover of the trees this week. I was shooting at a fairly large log crossing. I strategically positioned myself so I'd be able to catch the hotdogs flying/jumping...

or running over it:

...and also get the more conservative riders who went around it

The results were pretty good (IMNSF*ingHO).

I was also using my new flash mod, with my homemade battery pack mated to my high-tech Sigma flash (as opposed to my old low-tech Vivitar flash). That worked out pretty well, but the Sigma flash did crash on me a few times. This has happened in the past and was supposedly remedied by me sending the unit back to Sigma for reconditioning. Apparently, it needs some re-reconditioning.

Here's one of the shots where my Sigma let me down. My buddy JoeP showing off his mad nose-wheelie skillz:

And here he is again on the next lap, when my flash was behaving itself (but the photographer couldn't keep the subject in the friggin' viewfinder). Apparently, that nose-wheelie thing is intentional:

To end on a photography note: I'm beginning to wonder if the Canon 24-70mm lens wouldn't be a wise investment. The Sigma 24-70mm lens that I use seems to take a couple of seconds before focus-locking on the target. The Canon lens has internal motors which should alleviate this. Maybe I'll just rent the Canon for a test-drive before dropping the cash on a purchase.

Pimping a friend

2007-07-20T07:44:00.000-05:00

My buddy Ben has posted his photos from the third W@W race. See them in all their glory at his gallery. Cool stuff!

W@W photos posted

2007-07-19T18:50:00.000-05:00

Got the photos from yesterday's Wednesdays at Wakefield race posted. Did I already talk about the slow-shutter speed technique I was trying? Did I mention how I'm not so good at it yet? Ok, good. So you don't have your hopes set too high, then? Great. Now that we're all ready, have a look:

http://www.pbase.com/gmr2048/wednesdaysatwakefield71807

I did manage to sneak in a couple of not-terrible shots. These are a couple I liked:

Gwadz in his first of two races (madman).

Mr. Happy, Butch, pre-riding the course.

I don't think the guy behind was trying to scream and scare the shit out of the guy in front...but that's how it looks to me. And it makes me laugh. (Best seen larger size).

And the gun show. Who could resist posting this one? He was nice enough to give me this pose on two laps!

W@W #3 (7-18-07)

2007-07-19T11:44:00.000-05:00

(Crossposted from that other blog of mine, since I don't know if anybody knows that this one exists yet).

The threatening rains held off, so a friend and I were able to go out and shoot the third Wednesdays @ Wakefield race last night. He got some amazing shots using some fancy off-camera flash techniques. Really cool stuff (and depressingly better than my own stuff!). Once he gets his images posted online, I'll put a link here (and on all the usual message boards) so people can see his work.

For my shots, I was attempting something different. (Different from Ben's stuff, and different from my usual stuff). I was using a flash while shooting at a really slow shutter speed and panning along with the riders as they passed. (Called "Dragging the shutter"). 1/80s, 1/60s, even down as low as 1/30s. Consider that I usually shoot at 1/250s and wish I could go faster (and still be able to use a flash), those are some slow shutter speeds. This gives a really cool effect when you can pull it off correctly. The problem is that its really hard to pull off correctly. I shot about 450 images over the course of the evening. I've only given them a cursory going over and I can already tell that there are a lot that need to be culled. I think I got a few really nice shots. But for each nice shot, I probably have 20 or more throw-aways.

Anyway, I'll be processing/culling my images tonight, so hopefully I'll have them online by tomorrow. They'll be in their own directory here:

http://www.pbase.com/gmr2048/biking

I'll post to all the usual places when they're up. Thanks to the riders who had nice things to say to me last night. It's always cool to hear that people are seeing and enjoying your work.

Damn weather.

2007-07-11T18:47:00.001-05:00

So they canceled the 3rd Wednesday at Wakefield race tonight. Spotty rain throughout the day and heavy rains around the park conspired to do us in.

My buddy Ben (aka Rasmussen Photo) and I had planned on attending the race to shoot some pictures. Unfortunately by the time the organizers decided to call it we had already left work, driven to the park, and hiked to the far end of the power lines...in the rain. What are you gonna do? Sometimes the optimism just oozes forth from me. C'est la vive. Some days you're the statue.

If there's a speck of good news to come from today, it is that the gent in the Potomac Velo jersey who told us the race was canceled also mentioned that they might re-route next week's course to include the new slalom downhill section (in all its banked-turn glory). On the walk out to our shooting location today I had mentioned to Ben how that would be a cool place to get some photos. I'll have to make sure I get out there early next week and stake out my favorite turn. Stay tuned.

On the horizon...W@W #3

2007-07-10T11:09:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is the third race in the '07 Wednesdays at Wakefield race series. I'm pretty excited to go out and shoot it, since I was out of town for the last race. I've had a lot of great comments and talked to a ton of new people because of the photos I shot at race #1. Hopefully this race will provide more of the same. Ego stroking is always a good thing (in my book).

I just noticed that the race sponsors, Potomac Velo have been kind enough to link back to my pbase gallery from the official Wednesdays at Wakefield site. Thanks guys!! It's definitely appreciated!

2007 W@W race #1 gallery up.

2007-06-21T21:34:00.001-05:00

OK. I've gone through my shots from the race on 06/20/07, dumped the really *really* bad ones, and put everything else up online at my pbase gallery. Check 'em out.

If you want copies of the pbase-sized images, you're free to right-click and save-as. Free for blog/web/email whatever non-commercial use you want. If you want full sized digital ($10) or prints ($25 including shipping), shoot me an email and we'll work out the details. Any full sized digital or print will be far better quality than the small shots on pbase. Those shots were bulk-resized, and not tweaked at all. I'll take good care of the full-sized shots.

Here's a shot I spent some time on this afternoon. I took the shot of Camp from my earlier post and cloned out the other rider (sorry buddy). It came out pretty well (IMNSHO). Photoshop skills are coming along. Slowly.

Here's one more. This is the "oh shit" moment when the guy from my last post looks down and sees the ginormous gash in his leg. He's OK. He posted on the MORE forum that the gash was 5"x1"x1", and I believe it. It took 30 stitches to put him back together. 15 *under* the skin (effing OUCH!) and 15 *in* the skin.

I realize now that had I been a more seasoned photojournalist, I would have kept snapping detail shots of him and his injury with one hand, while dialing 911 with the other. Damn it. I guess these things come with experience.

Some people...

2007-06-21T08:50:00.000-05:00

This guy just can't keep his friggin' tires on the ground!

W@W race, 2007
See what I mean?

WW@W race, 2006

The first photo would be so much better if that poor second rider didn't look like he was about to run face-first into Camp's ass.

Anyway. I shot the first Wednesday at Wakefield race last night. Well, most of it. Halfway through the first race, a guy (rider #707) crashes in front of me. Not badly. Just a bobble/fall/hop off the bike kinda crash. When he goes to hop back on his bike, he notices the 4-5" gash on the back of his right calf. That thing had to be 1/2" deep or more. Thankfully, I only saw it for a brief second. But it was bad. The guy says something like "Shit, that's a big hole", hops off his bike, pulls his shirt off and ties it around the gash. I tell some passing racers that we need a medic out here (back side of the power-lines, maybe a 1/2 mile from the start/finish line). I grab my cell phone, punch in 911, and look up to see dood jogging/limping/hopping down the trail towards civilization. I say something like "Er, that might not be the best way to do things" just before 911 picks up and I give them the scoop. They ask "Is he having trouble breathing?", I say "I dunno, he just took off jogging down the trail, so I guess not". When he jogged off, he left his bike, so I decide to walk it back for him. I have an 10-second-long internal debate about whether I should walk it back now, or at the end of the race, after my shooting is complete. I decide now, in case he has somebody with him who can take it. By the time I get back to the start/finish area, he's long gone in the ambulance. I leave the bike with the race organizers (it was too small for me anyway) and head back out into the field just as the second race is starting. I shoot all of that race, but have to contend with fading daylight.

So, the photos should be resized and posted tonight (not that anybody actually reads this blog (yet)). I'll post in the usual forums/blogs once they're up.

Sticking with the Creative Commons-esque give-something-back-to-the-community vibe, I'm going to give away digital copies of the small shots free for (non-commercial) blog/web/email use.

However, it must be said that "Beer ain't free". So if people want full size, printable digital images, it's gonna cost them $10. If they want 8x12" photo prints, it'll be $25. Contact me via email (gmr2048 at yahoo dot com) and we'll arrange things.

Quiet around here

2007-06-15T11:34:00.002-05:00

Things have been pretty quiet around here lately, but that will soon change. The Wednesdays at Wakefield race series is starting up next week. The full schedule is:

Race #1 - June 20
Race #2 - June 27
Race #3 - July 11
Race #4 - July 18

Make-up dates (in the event of bad weather) are scheduled for July and Aug. I'll be outta town for the race on the 27th, so let's all do a little rain-dance for that one and try to get it pushed back, shall we? Ok, thanks. Much obliged.

Also on the horizon is the Cranky Monkey race series. Starting the season off this year is a new "12 Hours of Cranky Monkey" on June 24th. Unfortunately I'll be outta town for that one too (keep on rain-dancin'!). The rest of the series kicks off in late July and goes on into August:

Race #1 - July 29 - Wakefield Park - Annandale, VA
Race #2 - August 5 - Wakefield Park - Annandale, VA
Race #3 - August 19 - Fountainhead Regional Park- Fairfax Station, VA
Race #4 - August 26 - Quantico Marine Corps Base - Quantico, VA

I'm still short my preferred lens. I called Sigma a couple of days back and they claim the repaired lens will be shipped out early next week. I'll be holding my breath. If I have to, I'll rent a similar length lens for a race or two, but I'd rather keep my $35 in my pocket and use the lens I already own. Or maybe use the money to rent a nice fish-eye, or ultra-wide lens and get some new and exciting angles.

Hopefully I'll see you on the trail. If you do see me, pull some sick moves, so I can get some interesting photos of you and use you as a resume filler, k? Thanks again. You're too good to me.

Good news, good news, not-so-good news

2007-05-31T18:12:00.001-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I sent my Sigma 24-70mm lens in to manufacturer for repair. It was having problems auto-focusing. Today I placed a call to Sigma to see where things stand. The word is...

Good news: Yes, there is a problem (aside from the photographer!).

Good news: Yes, it's fixable. Even better, the lens is still under warranty, so there should be no charge.

Not so good news: They're waiting on a part for the lens. It will be another two weeks before they expect to ship it home. If I had to guess, I'd say they'll have it even longer. Nobody ever meets the time-to-repair estimate in this world.

This is gonna be cutting things close. The Wednesday @ Wakefield race series starts a few days after the lens' estimated (and anticipated) return. I had a great time shooting these races last year and I'm really looking forward to this year. I guess worst-case, I could drop some cash and rent another lens for the first race. Guess we'll have to wing it and see where we are as race-day approaches.

12 Hours of Lodi homepage updated

2007-05-22T10:56:00.000-05:00

The fine folks at Teambikeworks.org have updated their homepage with "12 Hours of Lodi" race info. Once again this year, they feature one of my images, and give me a link back to my gallery (where -new for 2007- I'm trying to sell my wares instead of giving them away). Hopefully this will prove fruitful.

This year's image is of local rider Becky cranking up a hill on her NINER singlespeed. The only problem is that the image file on their site is god-awful if you view it in Firefox of Safari. If you view it in IE, it looks fine.

(Nasty GIF image removed)

I tweaked a copy of the image myself and sent it to them asking that they replace the existing image with the better looking one (for both our sake).

They wrote back quickly and said they'd try to get it fixed ASAP.

Update: TeamBikeWorks replaced the image with a better-looking JPG, but it's about 25% of the size.

Oh well. I'm done trying. Maybe I can get a job with them as their web developer. I'm no pro, but I've got basic skillz.

More Lodi

2007-05-11T09:47:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple more shots from the 12 Hours of Lodi race last weekend. Just random people that I happened to catch in (what I think are) cool photos.

Ooh, and a little snake dood that I found hanging out in the woods.

Most likely and Eastern Garter snake, if you were wondering.

Lodi, 2k7

2007-05-07T21:09:00.000-05:00

Third time's a charm.

For the third year running, I made the trek down to the 12 Hours of Lodi Farm in Fredricksburg, VA this past Sunday. I had hoped to get an early start, but a late night Saturday kept me in bed until 7:30am on race day. By the time I hit the trail with camera in hand it was nearly 9am.

Hometown favorites "The Big Meats" put in a decent showing this year, as usual:

D(Did somebody say 'fatBOY!'?)T:

Spearman:

(No, really...he races, too!)

and returning prodigal-Meat, Butch:

Also seen on the course was the pink fury M.C. RickyD:

And the mighty Gwadz:

The rest of the cast of characters, friends and strangers alike, can be seen in my pbase gallery. Spread the word far and wide. The images in the pbase gallery were dumped straight from the camera to the web. I didn't spend the time to tweak each one. Just so you know.

I think the time has come for a different tactic on my image distribution. In the past, I've freely given away my shots: low-rez, high-rez, it made no difference. My thinking was always "One day, when I'm more comfortable with my skillz, I'll start charging a little something for my efforts". Well friends, the day has come. As a pro-shooter buddy said to me recently "Your camera was expensive. Lenses are expensive. Gas to get to these races is expensive. Your time is valuable. You should charge something for your work". This fact was driven home as I filled my truck's gas tank to the tune of $53 on the way to the race.

So, in the spirit of open-source/creative commons/help-a-brother-biker-out, if you want only the small, low-rez copy of the pbase image for non-commerical use, feel free. Right-click, 'save image as', done. I'd appreciate a link back to the gallery if you use the image on your website, blog or whatever. At some point I'll put a CreativeCommons notice here (and in the gallery) so you'll know what you can (and can't) do with the images. For now, let's just say no commercial use unless you talk to me first. gmr2048 at yahoo dot com. I'm easy.

If you're interested in a full size, ~300dpi image, suitable for printing 8x10" (maybe bigger), that I've spent some time tweaking and perfecting. I'm gonna charge $10. Shoot me an email and we'll talk.

Greenbrier

2007-05-02T21:40:00.000-05:00

Here's another shot from Greenbrier. This one was a bit overblown, but I liked the way it came out. Not your (or "my") standard shot. The rider is Elsie Torresan. (Sshhh...she's Canadian). We'll never tell. We promise.

(Click the photo to see a larger copy)

Greenbrier photos posted

2007-05-01T21:52:00.000-05:00

...and there was much rejoicing...

...yay...

I batch-processed* and posted all of my Greenbrier race photos over in my pbase gallery. Feel free to go over and look through them. I edited out the most hideous shots (lucky you!).

I was only there for the Elite/Pro race and the start of the SS/clydesdale/expert/everybodyandtheirbrother race, so there are few, if any, shots of people who actually may read this blog (sorry Gwadz, I missed you totally).

*="batch processed" means I didn't give each photo my undivided attention. I set rough parameters in my image editor and ran the whole bunch of them through. So the original images look better than the ones posted to pbase. Not that you particularly care...I'm just sayin'.

But for the tire, the race was won.

2007-04-30T20:58:00.001-05:00

The story of frustration, as told in four images.

Local fave Jeremiah Bishop after just having limped across the Greenbrier finish line with a flat tire. Coming in 4th place.

A couple more from Greenbrier

2007-04-30T19:24:00.000-05:00

(Click the images for larger versions)

Another in my series "No idea who this guy is, but I liked the shot". I foresee this being a long and interesting series.

"Sponsored by..."

The rest of the top 4 riders in UCI points (if I understand the race numbering scheme correctly). From left to right:

2 Jeremiah Bishop
3 Chris Eatough
4 Jeff Schalk

Pictured below (in my earlier post), the #1 UCI points guy, Todd Wells.

Before and after

2007-04-29T21:48:00.001-05:00

I shot the Greenbrier Challenge Mountain Bike Race in WayTheHellUpThere, MD today. Actually, I shot only the UCI Elite/Pro race, and the start of the SS/Clydesdale/Expert group. I had planned to stay longer, but by the time the pros race was over, I'd had enough standing-around-in-the-sun time.

Todd Wells managed to pull out a win despite flatting about a kilometer from the finish line. The gods must have been smiling on him, because Jeremiah Bishop, the racer who had been in the #2 position, flatted at nearly the same moment. They both decided to ride in on the flats. Todd managed to keep up the pace and win. Jeremiah came in over 8 minutes back (in 4th place). Full results here.

As they lined up before the race start, I snapped a decent "before" shot (click the images for the slightly larger versions):

At the end of the race, I was at the finish line and caught him coming in for the win on his new prototype "airless tire" system. It promises to be all the rage in the '08 season:

More shots of the race to come. Stay tuned.

Another Lodi '05

2007-04-27T23:24:00.002-05:00

Here's a shot where I got a cool background blur. I desaturated the image, and decided I liked that even more than the original.

Lodi 2005

2007-04-27T23:06:00.000-05:00

Here's another one of those "I have no idea who this guys is, but..." shots.

The "but" here is that he looked like he was having a damn good time. That goes a long way in my book. This is early morning. Maybe 8-8:30am. If you're enjoying yourself at that hour, you're doing OK.

12 hours of Lodi 2005

2007-04-26T18:31:00.001-05:00

Here's a shot I took at the 12 Hours of Lodi race back in 2005. I forget why I processed this shot, but the guy is a local. He may have written me asking for a better copy than the unprocessed (and god-awful) original I had posted to pbase.

Anyway, here's the end result after a little love and attention.

More Leesburg

2007-04-25T17:00:00.000-05:00

Two more shots from Leesburg. I liked this shooting location because it told the whole story in a sentence: "You're in a mountain bike race on a farm. The end."

Clicking on the photos takes you to the unedited, slightly larger versions.

Leesburg Baker's Dozen

2007-04-24T21:32:00.000-05:00

Another one where the colors really stand out.

Last cross-post (hopefully)

2007-04-24T13:25:00.001-05:00

Here's another shot from this past weekend's Leesburg Baker's Dozen race. Originally posted on my other blog. Now that this blog is up and running, I don't expect to do this cross-post nonsense anymore. Nothing but fresh content, evermore.

"Some Guy Dropping In"
2007
oil on canvas
(just kidding)

New photos

2007-04-23T21:32:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of my favorite race photos from this past weekend's Leesburg Baker's Dozen. Click on the photos for the full web-sized image.

Rider Mike Buchness (thanks for the ID, Lee!). I like the way the photo came out, with him riding right out of the frame.

Don't know who this guy is either, but I love how the bright blue of his jersey/shorts compliments the bright orange of his bike. No saturation enhancement on this shot, either. It's straight out of the camera.

That's it for tonight. Look for more favorite photos in the future.

Oh, and I've migrated all (I think) of my old bike/racing posts from Rant-o-riffic at this point. So this is *the* place to check out the best of my race photos from now on.

Master plan for TooFatToRace

2007-04-23T21:14:00.001-05:00

The plan for this blog is...

To be a place where I can direct people (usually mountain bike racers) when I post hundreds of new race images to my pbase site. Racers can come here, then jump directly to the most recent series of photos I have online.

...and...

To be a place where I can highlight my best/favorite race photos, so as to isolate them from the hundred of other race photos that I don't necessarily like so much...or that are just run-o'-the-mill shots.

Kinda like a portfolio of strictly mountain bike race photos. Who knows, maybe one day Sports Illustrated will happen across my little collection and the phone will ring. Maybe.

Leesburg Baker's Dozen

2007-04-22T10:02:00.000-05:00

I spent a few hours yesterday (4/20/07) out in Leesburg, VA shooting the Leesburg Baker's Dozen 13 hour endurance mountain bike race. It was a beautiful day and I'd have been happy to spend all 13 hours shooting. Unfortunately prior commitments left me only a couple hours of shooting time. Luckily, many of the friend's I had in the race were running solo, so I had plenty of chances to catch them in action.

My pbase gallery of the photos (straight out of the camera and ham-handedly resized) can be found here:

http://www.pbase.com/gmr2048/leesburgbakersdozen&page=1

If you see a shot you like/want, let me know and I'll get you a full sized version. Some shots may look better smaller. If I can (and if necessary), I'll clean up the photo too. If you want to use the shots anywhere non-commercial (message boards, blogs, whatever), I'd appreciate a link back to the gallery and a photo credit. If you want to use the image commercially, contact me. I'm cheap and easy ;)

And finally, please feel free to cross-post the gallery link to the all of the usual MTB sites so people can see themselves in action.

Intro

2007-04-22T09:19:00.001-05:00

Since I do a fair amount of mountain bike racing photos, I decided to consolidate them under a single blog banner. Welcome to TooFatToRace.

To email me, use toofattorace at gmail dot com.

I'll post my most recent set/links shortly (from the Leesburg Baker's Dozen race on 4.21.07). As time permits, I may even go back and migrate older bike racing posts from my other blog to this one.

Feel the Love

2007-04-09T12:20:00.001-05:00

I received an email from a buddy pointing out that Team Bike Works, organizers of the "12 Hours of Lodi Farm" race, have updated their web page for this year's event and have used one of my photos from the '06 race on the home page.

Pretty cool. I'm fairly sure I told them last year that they were free to use my shots on their page as long as they gave me a photo credit and a link back to the gallery. Both of which they did. I just kinda wished they'd have shot me an email mentioning the usage. Here's the shot they used after last year's race:

Anyway, this year's race is the same weekend as another event at which I'm volunteering my photography...err...skillz: The American Red Cross of the National Capital Area's Fire & Ice Ball (The National Capital Area Chapter's Annual Gala).

So a busy weekend is planned, but hopefully I'll come away with a bunch more MTB race photos, as well as a bunch of formal shots of Gala attendees. I've never shot an uber-formal event like this. Here's hoping it goes well. Oh, yeah. I'll be sporting a tux, too.

Almost famous

2007-03-30T23:59:00.001-05:00

A couple of weeks back, I submitted my second photo (shown above in ultra-crap quality, click on the image to see a BIG, ultra-crappy quality version! I know you can hardly contain yourself. It's ok, go ahead. Click it.) to the "Rider's Eye" section of Dirt Rag Magazine. By the comments in this thread over on the MORE forum, it sounds like it was published. The rider with the mad skillz is Larry Camp who rides (used to ride?) for local VA bike shop The Bike Lane.

So it ain't National Geographic (or Sports Illustrated, for that matter). But I dig it.

(Edited to add link to the Bike Lane)

Baby steps are better than no steps

2006-11-18T18:26:00.001-05:00

A couple of weeks back, I mentioned that my buddy Michael from Speedgoat Cycles in PA wanted to use one of my photos of him from Lodi in an ad for their shop. Well, the ad is out in the latest issue of Dirt Rag (Issue 123).

As thanks for the photo, Michael was kind enough to send me a copy of the mag, a Speedgoat shirt, and a couple of pair of bike socks. Actual payment (of sorts) for a photo. That almost makes me a professional, doesn't it? Time to update that resume!

In other, similar "Holy crap that's my photo in print" news, local racer, rider and writer Joel Gwadz had his story published in the free Mid-Atlantic cycling mag "Spokes". The story was about the recent Wednesdays at Wakefield race series and was accompanied by a couple of my shots of the racers (like this one of the author). Visit a local bike shop and grab your stack...er...copy today!

Half Credit

2006-09-25T23:25:00.001-05:00

In trying to get my mountain bike race photos into the hands of as many racers as possible, I spoke with Potomac Velo people (who organize the Wednesdays @ Wakefield race series). They asked that I send them links to my shots, and they'd post them on the official web site. Well, I did...and they did. Sorta...

http://www.potomacvelo.com/2006waw.htm

Unfortunately, the way they have it worded on their home page, it looks like Pete is a fantastically prolific photographer:

"See photos from races 1 & 2. Thanks to Pete Toscano.
More photos are available: June 22; July 19; July 26"

I've written them asking that they add my name. Hopefully they will.

I'll be back out there tonight to catch the final W@W for '06.

---UPDATE---
Man! Talk about service! Between the time I started this blog post this morning, and a few minutes ago when I actually hit "publish", the kind folks at PVC updated the web site to include the credit. Yay PVC! Thanks guys!

"See photos from races 1 & 2. Thanks to Pete Toscano.
More photos are available courtesy of Gary Ryan: June 22; July 19; July 26"

W@W #4 photos

2006-08-03T02:06:00.001-05:00

My Wednesdays at Wakefield race #4 photos are up (race date 8/02/2006). Not my favorite set. I still have a lot to learn. I got a ton of images perfectly focused on the foliage 5' behind the riders. I think it was because I was trying to trust my camera's focus system to track the rider automatically. Never again.

Anyway, the photos are here. Tell your mother, tell your father, send a telegram. (5 bonus points to the first person to ID the song and artist of the preceeding lyric). If you want a full-sized image, let me know and I'll see what I can do. A lot of the images are OK web-sized, but may look nasty full sized.

A huge thanks to the racers who thanked me for taking photos. I found it pretty funny that they'd thank me for something I really enjoy doing. But it was nice to hear. Also another huge thanks to the folks who stopped to talk and thank me at length before and after their races. Definitely an ego booster.

W@W v3.0

2006-07-27T10:41:00.001-05:00

I posted my shots from last night's Wednesdays at Wakefield race (#3 in the series, 7/27/2006):

WAW III

As usual, in the interest of time, they're unprocessed , uncropped, and only quickie-resized so the quality isn't the greatest. If you see something you like shoot me an email (gmr2048 at yahoo dot com) and I can get you a full sized (possibly better quality) version.

Thanks to the couple of guys who came up and complimented me on the photos and the gallery. It's good to know people are enjoying my "work" (if you can call it that).

2006-07-19T12:19:00.001-05:00

Photo news

My rapid rise to world-famous professional photographer has begun! Stand clear and watch my ascent with big googly eyes of awe. Or something.

A buddy works for Speedgoat Bicycles up in PA. They use photos taken by shop employees in their print ads. Since my buddy is usually the guy taking the pics, he's rarely in them (damned physics). Anyway, he asked if he could use my shot of him at the 2005 12 Hours of Lodi Farm race in one of their ads in an upcoming Dirt Rag mag. Being a shameless attention whore, I of course said yes. Here's the result:

Also on the photography front, I had a local rider (a friend-of-friends) ask if he could submit some of my photos along with a story he's writing for a cycling rag. Not sure how hard it is to get stories accepted, so good luck to him. I'll post more if/when I hear whether or not the story will run.

2 fat 2 race

2006-06-23T01:17:00.001-05:00

(This is my first use of the "2fat2race" moniker. Later changed to "TooFatToRace" and applied to this blog).

My shots from the first Wednesdays at Wakefield race are up.

http://www.pbase.com/gmr2048/wednesdays-at-wakefield-6-22-06&page=1

I managed to shoot 475 photos in about 2 hours (weeded down to 423 for your viewing pleasure). Take a look and let me know if you find any of yourself. I have larger/better quality copies of most images.

The quality of these thumbnails is a bit lacking. I batch-processed them; resized, and rotated (where necessary). The full sized images should look substantially better. Shoot me an email if you see something you want a copy of. gmr2048 at yahoo.com.

Please post the above link to all the usual locations (blogs, MTBR board, MORE board, etc). If you want to use the photos anywhere, please let me know first. If it's an online location, a link back to my gallery would be nice so other riders can find shots of themselves. Plus...I like to see my name in lights, as it were.

Credit

2006-05-25T21:23:00.001-05:00

It took a little while, but it's nice to see that Team Bike Works' official "12 Hours of Lodi Farm" page has finally put up my photo credit and link. Not sure if anybody will look at the page again until next year's race. Oh well. Next year, maybe I'll try to work something out with them in advance. Hopefully by then, I'll have better flash photography skillz.

I GIVE UP!

2006-05-19T00:05:00.001-05:00

Uncle! I surrender! Whatever you want to call it, I'm done working on photos from the 2006 "12 Hours of Lodi Farm" race. Fin.

The first 130 images, I individually post-processed (resized, cropped, adjusted brightness (if necessary), adjusted sharpness (after the resize), cloned out unwanted spectators a couple of times). They can be seen here.

For the final 76 images, I simply batch-resized then posted them. No sharpening. No brightening. No cropping. Presented "As Is" for your viewing pleasure. They can be found by clicking this link, or by clicking on the red tricycle image on the last page of the Lodi gallery.

In addition to all that, I was contacted by a number of racers for whom I (gladly!) worked-up full sized images of themselves. (I love knowing that people enjoy my work). But had I spent the time to post those last 76 images, the race would have been long forgotten.

Anyway, pass the word. If any racers find shots of themselves and want larger/better copies, have them email me (gmr2048 at gmail dot com) and I'll see what I can do.

-g

Cool

2006-05-16T23:16:00.001-05:00

I've been spending a lot of time processing the hundreds of shots I took at the 2006 "12 Hours of Lodi Farm" mountain bike race (still have more than 200 to go through, too!). After I had the first few batches done and posted, I sent an email to the race organizers. Guess they liked my photos (at least one of them) cuz it made it onto the official Lodi homepage. Only drag is that they didn't credit me or provide a link or anything.

So I sent them an email, explaining that I'd like a credit and a link back to my pbase gallery for the race, cuz I figured other racers might want photos of themselves. They were nice enough and said they'd provide both. I'm hoping it happens sooner rather than later. One of these days, I'm gonna have to start charging for my services. Gotta pay off these camera parts somehow!

So much for that

2006-05-11T16:41:00.002-05:00

So I ran out of steam on the "Photo-a-Day" project. Who'd have guessed. It started to feel like a job (after only...what...8 days?). "Must...process...more...pictures...". So that was passively abandoned.

I did manage to get down to Fredricksburg, VA for a couple of hours near sunrise this past Sunday for the "12 Hours of Lodi Farm" mountain bike race.

I hit this race last year, and got a lot of cool shots out of it. Although I only had a bit over 2 hours of shooting time this year, I was hoping for similar results.

As far as the photos go, I started off badly. Super-stoopid rookie mistakes. I was keeping shutter speed vs. focal length in mind while shooting, but not shutter speed vs. high-speed mountain bikers tear-assing past. Consequently, my first bunch o' shots suffered from too slow shutter speed (even with the use of my crappy flash). The little LCD on the camera didn't allow me to notice my mistakes. Thankfully, as the sun rose, the light got better and my shutter speed was able to increase a bit (for those who care, I was shooting mostly AV mode), so my later pics were better in terms of blur (and lack thereof). I ended up shooting something over 300 shots in two hours. Many of those have been/will be tossed. So far I've processed and posted ~56 shots (at the link above) and have probably another 100 to do. I'm not doing much post processing on them. Just a quick resize and "save for web". If anybody reading this happens to see a shot of themselves that they want, email me (gmr2048 at yahoo dot com) and I'll be happy to send you the full size image (if it's not crap).

So the next time I get delusions of grandure and start thinking I want to become a pro photographer, I'll come back and re-read this entry and realize just how far I have to go.

TNSMarathon

2006-03-02T11:50:00.003-05:00

Still on the subject of biking...

This past Tuesday, I tagged along on the regular TNS ride run by the DT/Spearman/Stoner crew. This week promised a larger group, and a group of really strong riders. That should have been my first warning sign.

We met at the usual spot in Arlington, headed east to DC and (as far as I knew) a nice bar with heat and beer and pizza in Georgetown. To my dismay, we rode right past the bar, and then down to the K street underground. We met a couple of other guys there, then started peadling out on a path I'd never even seen before (evidently the "Capital Crescent Trail"). I asked one of the other riders what the plan was, since we were now pedaling away from the beery salvation of the bar. He said he thought the ride was going to head up to Bethesda, then over through Chevy Chase, pick up Rock Creek Parkway, and pedal back down into Georgetown, ending at the bar we'd first discussed. I gave him the ol' "hahaha that's a good one ohshityourenotkiddingaboutridingallthef*waytobethesdaand
backareyou" look. Since it was dark, thankfully, he missed the horrified look on my face. I told him nothing personal, but if I all of a sudden wasn't around anymore, it simply meant that I turned my ass around and pedaled for home. I could manage the Arlington to Georgetown ride without too much trouble. An Arlington-to-Georgetown-to-Bethesda-to-Chevy Chase-to-Rock Creek Park-to-Georgetown-eventually-back-to-Arlington ride might be a bit beyond my endurance levels right now.

So the ride headed north. The stronger riders tearing-ass into the lead. DT being kind enough to hang back and keep me company. He and I pedaled steadliy onward, me never sure where I was gonna run outta gas and turn around.

Despite the trail feeling like a neverending mountain climb all the way out of DC (mainly due to the optical illusion created by me forgetting my perscription glasses, an ever so slightly uphill path, and a the circle-of-lighted-salvation-in-the-darkness provided by my helmet light, I felt surprisingly good with each passing pedal stroke. We managed (well...*I* "managed", there was little question DT would be able to pull off the whole ride) to make it all the way up into Bethesda and the halfway point, where the rest of the riders were waiting for us.

Once we regrouped, a few photos were snapped and we headed out on our return journey.

Thankfully, the road ride down Rock Creek Parkway is mostly downhill heading back to G'town. And not too heavy with traffic. We would have made great time, had there not been 3 flats in rapid succession, costing us over an hour of stand-around-in-the-cold -and-watch-other-guys-fix-flats time. Two flats were on "Spearman's Own Experimental Tire and Wheel Set", which proved a bitch to fix. After a fair amount of fighting with the hardware, he got rolling well enough to get us all on the road again. A few short miles later, we finally pull into the bar for well deserved beers and warmness and pizza.

Beers flowed. Pizzas arrived. Smack-talk ensued. After a couple of hours, the crowd begins to disperse as riders headed for home in waves. The last group to go was Spearman, DT and me. After all the pedaling done so far, we still have to ride back out to Arlington...5 or 6 miles distant. And by this point, my headlight is long dead.

The ride home is uneventful (thankfully). Rides home usually seem to pass pretty quickly for me. One of the benefits of a few beers at the midpoint, I guess. There's just a very fine line between "uneventful, quick ride home" and "shitfaced, powersliding into home plate on a bike". I'm still learning where that line is.

So, when all was said and done, we rode somewhere between 36 and 38.x miles. Probably my longest road ride since doing the 63 mile "Tour de Cure" a few years back. I was happy that my legs and lungs held up as well as they did. The next day, I felt pretty good, too. Guess there's hope for me and this "biking" thing yet.

Slack. Biking. Probe.

2006-03-02T11:24:00.001-05:00

I've actually been doing some cool stuff lately, but I've just been too damn lazy to write about it. So I'll try to condense into a single catch-up post...

Last weekend I went camping/biking with a bunch of friends I rarely see anymore. We hit Green Ridge State Forest in MD. The camping was chilly, and the biking kicked my ass; but it was a great weekend none the less.

Green Ridge has a 12 mile (mostly) singletrak bike loop with a few "easy out" escapes for thos who burn out before completing the full loop. I don't know how much climbing there is in total, but it's a hell of a lot more than I'm used to at Wakefield. A couple of friends and I decided to do a short night ride after we arrived on Friday. Temps were just about 19 degrees. The other two guys are in far better riding shape than I, and were nice enough to go easy on me. We did about 6 miles total, including about 2 miles on fireroads to and from the trailhead.

On Saturday, try as I might, my friends wouldn't let me bag out of the longer planned ride. I'm glad they didn't. We added one more rider (a guy recovering from a torn/dislocated/busted-up shoulder) to our group. With temps in the 50s, it was a perfect day for riding. Despite feeling like the shorter ride the night before nearly killed me, I felt surprisingly good once on the trail in the warmth and sunlight. Busted-shoulder-guy and I managed 9-10 miles, including about 3 on fireroads. The two other guys did the full loop.

Sunday, we woke up to snow falling. Most folks decided to break camp early and head for home. I packed all my junk into the truck (where it still sits, for the record), hopped in line with a caravan of vehicles heading east, and drove for home.

I'll end Part One here. Look for Part Two, comig soon to a theater near you.

This just in...

2005-11-15T15:20:00.001-05:00

From the "Shameless Self-promotion Department". Word on the street is that the image of Lee Dier that I shot at the 12 Hours of Lodi Farm mountain bike race a few months back (and submitted to Dirt Rag Magazine) has been published in the Rider's Eye section (basically, the "reader's artwork" section). So it's not published-published, but it's closer than I've ever been to being published. Which is to say...it's pretty frickin' cool.

Here is the snap straight from the camera. The one I submitted had a fair amount of post-processing done (mainly brightening, cropping, and noise reduction).

For those interested, it's in issue 118. I looked yesterday, but my local bike shop still had issue 117 on the shelf.

This is dumb

2005-10-06T12:51:00.001-05:00

DT pointed out a link that I found a bit annoying...

http://www.untitledname.com/archives/2005/10/nypd_bicycle_th.html

Seems the NYPD saw fit to cut a bunch of bike locks off of legally parked bikes, and steal (impound?) the bikes.

So I emailed the NYPD and asked what was up:

"I recently saw a report about the bicycle removal from city signposts around the Bedford Ave L station in Brooklyn: http://www.untitledname.com/archives/2005/10/nypd_bicycle_th.html. I was curious as to why this took place? It seems (from the report above) the bicycles were locked in legal places.

Being a avid cyclist and somewhat an environmentalist, I can't understand why the NYPD seems to put up any roadblock it can to discourage cycling in the city, and thereby encourage more vehicle traffic."

We'll see if they bother to respond. If they do, I'll post it here.

(Update, as of 4/23/07, they didn't bother to respond. Surprise!)