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Prom Date

Prom was last weekend at Pacific Grove High School. After living in PG for awhile and Terry coaching the PGHS boy's soccer team for a couple of seasons, we've made a few friends there. And a few of those friends know we do photography and ask us take a few photos every now and then. Last year Terry did photos of Honor and her boyfriend Niccolo before prom and came away with some great images. Of course Honor asked Terry to do some photos of them again this year, but Terry was in Colorado last weekend...which left me to shoot all by myself! I was a little nervous...I had never done a portrait shoot by myself. The unspoken division of labor around Welliver Photography goes something like this: Terry shoots people, wildlife, and Massey; I shoot landscapes, flowers, and muddy bikes. This division isn't on purpose, its just the way the best images seem to play out. Shooting these two for prom was clearly Terry's lane, but I figured I'd take one for the team and try to produce something to commemorate Honor's last high school formal. Fortunately my job was fairly easy. Honor is beautiful and Niccolo is a cutie and together they are adorably fun. The hardest part of the evening was the wind howling off the ocean, but we made it work. Here are a few images from our whirlwind shoot before these two headed off to dinner and the big dance.

Thank you Honor and Niccolo. You guys are great.

Thirsty Thursday: Hellyer Friday Night Lights

Rambler: Beth Drink at Hand: 2009 Trader Joe's Grower's Reserve Zinfandel

In honor of the first night in the Friday Night Racing series tomorrow night at the track, I thought a little Hellyer Park Velodrome love was in order. Terry, who has suffered through supported me at just about every possible form of bike racing out there will tell you that track racing is the most spectator-friendly cycling discipline. Cyclists whip around a 300-meter banked track on fixed gear bikes with no brakes. It sounds dangerous, but the lack of brakes, coasting, or shifting keeps everyone moving at a consistent pace, so events with experienced racers are actually very safe. The racers compete in various events throughout the evening, from 1-on-1 match sprints to straight-forward scratch races to chaotic points races, and there's even a kiddie kilo for the little ones to take a lap around the track.

The Friday Night Races are quality events. Race Promoter Hernando throws a pretty rockin' party at these Friday Night Races, and local racer/photographer/designer-extraordinaire Steve Anderson designs awesome posters to get the word out. Seriously, how cool is this poster? On a typical Friday night you can expect to see numerous world and national champions, current pros, and up-and-coming uberfast racers throwing down the gauntlet and going all out--incredibly fun to watch.

For photographers, the track is stacked with shooting opportunities. Early the evening the light streaming from the west end of the track is great.

 

The racers are very accessible at the event as well. Between events you can get down on the infield for a different perspective.

A few shots of the racing action...

This is one of my favorite moments that Terry captured at the track...these two had just finished an incredible head-to-head battle in a match sprint. Afterwards, in true Hellyer fashion, they congratulated each other on a good race. That's the best part of the Hellyer community--everyone is supportive and encouraging. A very inviting place to race.

Hellyer Park Velodrome is located in Coyote-Hellyer Park just south of San Jose (995 Hellyer Avenue, San Jose, CA 95111). From the 680/280/101 interchange take 101 south for 5 miles to the Hellyer Ave exit. At the bottom of the off-ramp turn right. At the stop sign go straight into Hellyer Park and follow the signs to the velodrome. The spectator gate is located on the south end of the velodrome (from the parking lot walk counter clock-wise around the track to get to the gate). There is a $6 per vehicle Santa Clara County park entrance fee, but admission to the race is free!

If you can't make it out to the track this Friday, there are more Friday Night Races in August and September. Racing goes on at Hellyer on days and nights other than Friday too, so check the Hellyer calendar to see what's coming up. If you're interested in racing at Hellyer (which I highly recommend!), you'll first need to complete 3 beginner sessions. These sessions are typically on Saturday mornings, but again, check the calendar.

 

Should be a great weekend...get out and enjoy it!

Massey Monday: In the Grass

A few shots of the little birder in the grass. Beth and I had just gotten home after a half-day of cycling races. Massey and I had been for a run in the morning before the races so she was pretty relaxed. Fortunately, that didn't stop her from having a good time laying in the grass and modeling for me (and a bit of ball). I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story...

Note: The close up was taken without looking through the viewfinder. I was chasing her around the yard with the camera in hand and just happened to hold it low and click it off about 12 inches from her. One of my better ones of her to-date.

Thirsty Thursday: Old Coast Road

Rambler: Beth Drink at Hand: Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA (thanks Devon and Aspen!)

To say I was excited for my training ride yesterday is an understatement. Everything aligned with the prescribed workout and weather and available time to go and the re-opening of Highway 1 after a landslide to go hit the dirt of the Old Coast Road.  I rode part of the Old Coast Road a few years ago, but hadn't been back since. Its a beautiful gravel/fire road that starts right next to the Bixby Bridge north of Big Sur and heads south in the highlands along the coast to Andrew Molera State Park. Gorgeous scenery on a road that makes for perfect Leadville training. The road is a mix of hard packed dirt, gravel, rocks, and deep ruts and is 100% beautiful the entire time.

I quickly found myself fighting a conflict between my two favorite hobbies as I started down the road. The road is fun to ride, and there's something interesting to photography at just about every turn. I am a regular reader of Eric Benjamin's Adventure Money blog, drawing inspiration from his incredible photos during his epic training rides in the beautiful Kansas Flint Hills as he prepares for the Dirty Kanza 200. I wanted to make some similar images, but I had to discipline myself not to stop every 5 feet to snap a frame of something cool with my trusty Canon G10. The G10 doesn't get anything phenomenal like our regular SLRs will capture, but it gets the job done when I'm out riding.

When headed south, the ride starts with a quick and fairly steep drop into a beautiful redwood forest. The road is a fairly gentle climb here, cruising through lush green of redwood forest undergrowth along Bixby Creek. The road is nicely tacky here and I rolled along fairly quickly despite the uphill pitch.

A few miles in the first of the El Sur Ranch "No Trespassing" signs appear, which are a bit of a downer. The middle 6.5 miles of the Old Coast Road pass through the El Sur Ranch, with constant reminders of private property on either side of the road through this otherwise pristine land. The road starts a steady climb up here, out of the redwoods and into the wide open, rolling hills. The sudden transition from dark forest to bright grassland is startling at first, but the warmth of the sun is welcome.

The next section of the road is a little rough. Its a 2-mile descent down a deeply-rutted, curvy road with all sorts of loose gravel and big rocks. The ruts are ideal training for the Leadville Powerline descent, forcing you to look well down the road and watch your speed. While the legs recover on this descent, the arms and brain get a workout! Another short stint through another redwood forest and then a climb through coastal chaparral to the most beautiful views on the ride. Quail run across the road and fly startled out of scrub oak on the side of the road. Poppies dot green pastures all the way down to the Pacific. I could sit here for hours, but I don't think that's what my coach had in mind.

A view of the Point Sur Light Station...and more poppies.

I made a quick stop to take a few photos, but once my heart rate was back down to the 120s, I knew it was time to roll again (damn my quick recovery!). Finally the last of the "no trespassing" sign were behind me and the road got a little more rocky. I was headed down another tricky, rutted hill when I suddenly had a stop sign and Highway 1 in front of me. I thought the Old Coast Road was about 13 miles long, but my GPS said 9.93 mi. Guess I got bad information as there was definitely no more road; just the entrance to Andrew Molera State Park and a bus stop along Highway 1. Time to turn around and head back.

The way back was just as lovely as the way out, and I was feeling great. I felt a huge smile grow across my face so many times as a tootled along at a rather pedestrian pace, enjoying the warm sun and the alternating views of the Pacific on my left with the cone-shaped peaks of the Ventana Wilderness on my right. I even paused to take a quick photo of the road ahead, thinking it looked so nice snaking up the distance hills.

Yeah, that's the same tricky 2 mile descent I previously described. What goes down must go up, eh? I forgot how long that hill was when I started up it--fantastic training for Leadville! The sun suddenly felt hotter, the wind suddenly stronger, the rocks suddenly bigger. I picked my line through the deep ruts, put my head down, found a rhythm. Two miles and 1,010' elevation gain later, I made it to the top. A quick drop back into the redwoods and I was back to a great view of the Bixby Bridge...and sadly, the end of an awesome ride.

If you'd like to explore the Old Coast Road, head south from Carmel on Highway 1. The road is on the east side of Highway 1 at the north end of Bixby Bridge. I think its best sampled on a bike (mountain or cyclocross), but a car with good ground clearance could make it as well. The poppies are just getting to full bloom out there, so go check it out.

And lastly, a little plug for a fellow bike riding photog...if you enjoyed the photos on the Adventure Monkey site linked earlier in the post, check out the photocycling tour he offers in the Kansas Flint Hills. He's still looking for a few more participants for his May workshop and its seriously dirt cheap! Its definitely on my bucket list.

Massey Monday: Navigator

There's something about this dog and a car ride. She loves a long road trip just the same as a 5-minute ride to the market. And she watches the road like its her job the whole time.

This image was made with my old Canon Elan 7E and Kodak Tri-X 400 film. Same round of film shooting as detailed in this Thirsty Thursday post a few weeks ago.

Thirsty Thursday: A City Walk

Rambler: Terry Drink at Hand: 2009 Rail2Rail Old Vine Zinfandel

Old, old photos...okay, not that old, but back from 2006. So, no MFT, no EOS40D, and no real craft. Tonight, I intended to post some images of flowers or cherry blossoms or something 'springy' from the past. Unfortunately, none of the 'springy' images from back then really jumped out at me. I browsed through project after project in Aperture. Nothing seemed to inspire me to create a blog post. I finally stumbled across a project of images that I took with a Canon IXY 700 (PowerShot). Definitely not a high performance camera...back then these didn't even shoot raw. Nevertheless, the best camera that you can have is the one that you have with you.

Beth's job back then always had her working in downtown Tokyo at the New Sanno hotel. I always seemed to be able get away to visit her when she was working. During these visits, Beth would have to go to work and I'd go wandering about Tokyo. And when I say wandering, I really mean walking. No subways. No trains. No taxis. No buses. All walking. These images are from a trek starting at the New Sanno through Ebisu and Shibuya and finally ending in Shinjuku. Always a bit of fun for me. I sure wish I had a bit more craft back then. I wasn't able to capture everything I remember, but they're enough for me. I always enjoyed trying to capture the architectural lines of the buildings. And in the case of the last image, the great lengths that were taken to hide construction work in the city...a wall of leafy contact paper with a lock to keep everyone out!

And, by the way, I...(sorry Beth)...we can't wait to go back.

Massey Monday: Ducking

Birding? Nope, not today...ducking! She used to be afraid (or at least tentative) of the water. But now it's no big deal. I actually thinks she prefers to hunt birds (correction ducks) in the water. Since she pretty knows that she's going to get a bath when she gets home, so she figures she better make the most of the chase. Now, she never seems to get close...I'm going with "the water slows her down." Fortunately, not catching anything doesn't seem to make the chase less worthwhile. It's such a joy to watch her in action. Sometimes she seemingly flies out of the water like a flying fish...and other times she hits the brakes (they'll fly right by). How ever she decides to hunt, she sure makes it look fun...a constant smile on the face and the occasional tongue hanging out (like MJ).

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Thirsty Thursday: Mystery Rolls

Rambler: Beth Drink at Hand: Naked Grape Pinot Noir (yeah, I bought it because of the name...don't judge me!)

Something a little different this Thursday...not so much about a cool place to go shoot, but rather about an attempt at shooting some film! About a month ago I walked into the local camera shop with 3 rolls of exposed Kodak Tri-X 400 black and white film in my hands. I bought this film when we lived in Japan...yep, that's right, purchased 2006 most likely. It was well past the expiration date! I found one roll already exposed when I was organizing some camera stuff when we moved into the new house. The other two rolls I took recently. Actually, that's not even true...I found my film camera with a 1/2 exposed roll in it. So I had a roll and a half of mystery images (I had no idea what that old stuff might be) and a roll and a half that I had shot within the last few weeks. I waited the requisite week to get the processed film back from the lab and then had to wait a few more days for Terry to scan the film with our Nikon CoolScan film scanner before I actually got to see what I had.

It turns out that the old "mystery roll" was pretty old...from 2008! That also means it was exposed, tossed in a box, moved Lousyana, endured the heat of that place, moved back here to California, and finally shown some chemical bath love. Back in '08 a friend was considering buying a digital camera, so I loaned him my digital camera when he went out to shoot with us at Point Pinos one evening, and I shot film with an old Nikon full manual camera. Here are a few from that evening.

I played around with the blur tool in Aperture and made this one look a little bit like a tilt shift. Best I can do since Terry won't let me get an actual tilt-shift lens.

A few months later we went to Yosemite. I guess I took the camera with me to finish that roll from the summer evening at the beach. I don't even remember having it with me. But of course I took a Tunnel View photo in black and white--because no one has ever done that before!

Fast forward to 2011...I decided to try a roll in my Canon Elan 7E on our way north along the coast to Pescadero. I used the Photodiox adapter with the Nikon 50mm manual lens. It was pouring down rain, but I couldn't let this bike go without a quick photo. Terry kept making fun of me because I kept looking at the back of the camera after snapping the shutter--but there's no instant feedback in the form of a LCD screen on the back of a film camera.

To finish off that roll I took the camera along on a quick hike with the dog in Ft Ord and shot a few here at home.

With all the bike riding / racing I'm doing these days, its not easy to get away to shoot for a whole day, much less an entire weekend. But changing up the routine in familiar locations proved fun. I got something different than my normal images and that makes me happy.

Get out and try something new or different this weekend. You might be surprised by the results!

 

Thirsty Thursday: Getting the Shot

Rambler: Terry Drink at Hand: Pinot Noir (boxed, from Target)

No fancy wine tonight...just a nice box from Target. So, the pictures below were taken last year as part of the 2010 POTD project. Of course, only one made the cut. Like most days when I was living in Monterey, I'd go for a run in the evening (of less than 3 miles) and then head out with the camera to get a shot. I usually tried to wait for the sun to get low on the horizon so that I could get the "golden light" and perhaps get that beautiful sunset with the rocks and ocean. Unfortunately, the days leading up to these shots weren't so promising, so I set out to my favorite spot to shoot birds. For some reason, I was in a "try and capture a bird in flight" mode. The spot I like to shoot birds (or gulls) is just before you reach Point Piños on the Bay side.

Usually there are quite a few birds hanging around the rocks. To my surprise when I arrived at this spot, birds weren't the only wildlife playing in the ocean. There was one otter who just seemed to be enjoying the waves. Ditching my thoughts of birds (Massey's jaw just hit the floor as I typed this), I sought to get a decent shot of the otter. And so there I am, with my 100-400mm hiking on the rocks trying to get as close as I can to the little guy without getting wet...400mm only gets you so close (the 1.4 extender would have been nice).

Everything was going well. That is to say, I was snapping off shots not knowing if any were actually turning out, but I was hopeful. And then, it happened. Watching the otter, I stepped on a rock that had some seaweed on it and slipped. Oops! Fortunately, I fell quite gracefully and saved the lens. Whew! The only damage was a big scratch on the back of my 40D. Thankfully, the 40D is metal and not plastic. Slight flustered, I saw that the otter was closer than he had been and was able to get a shot of him just dipping over the wave...and that became my POTD for that day.

So, get out there this weekend and get the shot....and watch your step!

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Race Report: Boggs 8-Hour Mountain Bike Race

There is just something about Bike Monkey's annual 8-hour romp through the Boggs Demonstration Forest up north of Calistoga, CA that I love. The singletrack there is so much fun and the trails are very well maintained. The Bike Monkey crew does a fantastic job of organizing the event, and for some reason, I keep signing up for this 8 hours of suffering on a mountain bike. This was my 3rd Boggs, and oh boy, it was completely different than my two previous experiences! Before I get into the details, I have a few obligatory shout-outs. First off I have to thank Bike Station Aptos. JT and Courtney have been incredibly supportive, and mechanic Trey worked some serious magic to get my bike back up and running after last weekend's rather destructive wet sand race. The new brake pads (there was no more "pad" left on my brakes after last week...just metal on metal!) and new drive train worked great. Thanks guys! I also have to thank Honey Stinger for fueling me through the race. I had a regimen of gels (gold, strawberry, and banana flavors), cherry blossom organic energy chews, and a peanut butter-honey energy bar that got me through the day. Finally, and most importantly, huge thanks to Terry. He's getting pretty good at supporting me during these endurance races. He set up a little feed area for me with bottles laid out and food at the ready. Most laps he was there to make me eat or give me what I needed, some laps he was off playing with Massey, but he prepped the everything before he left. I always had what I needed when I needed it. And he took all the photos you see here. He's awesome!

Now, as for the race. I was excited to arrive at the venue to some sunshine and relatively mild temperatures for 7 am. After a week of warm temps, I assumed the trails had dried out pretty well. It was going to be a great day! But during the pre-race announcements, we got the bad news. We've had a pretty soggy few weeks here in California, and when more than 2" of rain has fallen within 2 weeks, all events at Boggs are supposed to be cancelled. Luckily the race organizers and forest guys got together and we still got to race--but instead of an awesome 8 or 9 mi singletrack loop o' fun, the course was a 5-mi loop entirely on fire roads. And since the conditions were a little icky and the course was so short, the race was shortened to 7 hours. I figured the fire roads would be relatively dry, so no big deal, right? I would quickly learn otherwise!

I lined up for the mass start alongside about 600 riders. I had no idea who I was racing against...solo racers were mixed in with the 2-person and 4-person relay teams, and race numbers didn't correlate to category. I wasn't too concerned about a result as I wasn't expecting to podium in the women's expert division. I was using the race more as training for Leadville anyway (and the fire road change was actually more realistic training for that event).

So off we went, a good steady climb for the start, then a crazy fast descent. I have a mild fear of fire road descending after crashing really hard when I was 10-years-old out in Crested Butte, CO on some lose gravel at the bottom of a hill. I don't like cornering on gravel while going 30 mph. Fortunately I had 7 hours to get over that fear. Everything was great until we got to the first left turn and then I saw it...MUD. Sloppy, slippery mud that went on for about 1/4 mile. Then another section with a big puddle. Then more puddles. Then little mini-streams. There was no way around the muck, only through it. I vividly remembered thinking "Two weeks of this in a row? Are you kidding me??" as I hit one puddle and thick muddy water splattered all the way up my shin. I mud-sprayed and everything from the waist down was pretty well soaked 1/2 way through the first lap. Ugh. But what can you do? So, I pedaled on, knowing it would be a long day. At least it was nice out and hell, I was riding my mountain bike...it really wasn't so bad.

It took me about 2 laps to get settled as my legs felt a little heavy at the start, then the next 4 or 5 laps went by fairly easily. The conditions weren't great, but they weren't horrible, and the short laps were mentally very easy to tackle. My goal at the beginning of the day was to get 60 mi in, so I had to do 12 laps. Around the 9th lap I was starting to feel it a bit. Sections of the course were starting to dry up, which meant all those soft spots that easily rutted in the morning were now hard, dry ruts. I felt like I was taking a beating. My bike was getting heavier from the mud. My feet were soaked. This photo was around lap 10 I think...you can't tell where my knee warmers end and my skin starts!

Fortunately I finally started to see some familiar faces around the course at this point. My BSA teammate Malia was there racing on a 2-person women's team (and they won!!), our good friends Heather and Justin were there camping (they smartly decided to go play on the singletrack rather than deal with the fire road muck), and I could hear a few voices cheering for me as I rolled through the staging area each time. I pushed out my 12th lap and found Terry...who of course, as he does every single year at Boggs, told me to do one more lap. I was actually feeling *relatively* good, so I headed out for one more...lucky 13...and was done. I was really happy with my effort and how I felt throughout the day. And I was so happy to be done. I technically still had time for 1 more lap, but at that point my hands were sore, my legs were tired, and my girly parts weren't really excited about sitting on the saddle anymore. So I called it a day.

Back at the car we took stock of the mess. I have no idea how I was seeing the trail through those glasses, and I'm so glad I didn't wear my new SIDIs. I had mud was in my hair, in my ears, in my teeth, everywhere.

I slowly got out of all my gross clothing and tried to clean up as best I could. Then it was off to get beer and a burrito! I was fairly certain that I hadn't placed, but was curious to see the results before we headed home. They said they would post them shortly, so we waited. And waited. And waited. At least we had the dog to play with while we waited. She even got her first taste of beer.

Finally the results were posted...but only the top 3 in each category. Since we'd waited that long, I at least wanted to see which teams the top ladies were racing for to see if I could remember them blowing by me out on the course. And then to my surprise, there was my name! In second place! Holy crap! So we had to wait a little longer for the podium. And classy me, I only have one jersey for my new team, so there I was, on the podium, in my muddy, stinky jersey. Oh well. Glad we stuck around.

Of course, after all that fun, there's always the clean up. Here's the aftermath of 6:45 minutes and 65 miles in the mud. It all got the hose.

No racing next weekend. Next up will be the Sea Otter XC race followed by the Santa Cruz crit the same weekend. Its gonna be fun!

 

 

 

 

Massey Monday: Tennis

She has many different toys, but her favorites are: tennis ball, blanket, TJ bone, and rope.  Tonight's events called for a bit of tennis.  Massey tennis isn't the usual throw, chase, return.  It's more of a chase her around and try to pry it from her extreme death grip.  She likes to tease you with the ball...so much so that you begin to wonder if you're entertaining her or she's entertaining you...enjoy.

Thirsty Thursday: Road Trip

Rambler: Beth Drink at Hand: Peppermint herbal tea

I know, I know, that's a pretty lame drink for Thirsty Thursday. I have an long mountain bike race this weekend, so I figured a small alcohol taper was a good idea. Of course this race isn't nearby which means ROAD TRIP! Well, its not much of a road trip, just a few hours north of here, but we'll still be loading the car full of bike stuff and dog stuff and food and assorted unnecessary crap and hitting the road.

In honor of our first trip in awhile, I thought we could revisit our big-ass road trip from last fall. In September I decided I'd had enough of the Dirty South, so Terry rescued Massey and I from Lousyana and we drove back to California. Four days, five states, four National Parks, and six burritos later, we were happily home on the left coast. It was the typical road trip--dodgy hotels, hole-in-the-wall cafes, sad little towns, and miles and miles of road. We took a ton of photos on the road trip (gee, that's shocking!), but I found a few that said "road trip" to me.

Every road trip needs good weather. Blue skies and fluffy clouds.

Road trips are always filled with dusty, rusty old towns seemingly fading with time.

Much of our route followed the old Route 66 across New Mexico, Arizona, and part of California. This sign was in Moriarty, NM...home town of one of my good friends.

More lonely roads and more lonely roadside views. The telephone poles below mark the old road bed of Route 66. The road is long gone, but the relic telephone poles still stand in Petrified Forest National Park.

Every road trip needs a good navigator...maybe next time we can find one who doesn't slobber on the windows.

And the navigator needs breaks to stretch the legs and patrol the surroundings for dangerous creatures. She's clearly on high alert here.

Its definitely not a road trip without sampling the local cuisine. We didn't find a girl on a flat bed Ford in Winslow, AZ, but we did find the Brown Mug Cafe! Great mix of Navajo and Mexican flavors. Incredible.

And every road trip needs a diner and/or drive-in stop...and the Astro-Burger Drive-In didn't disappoint! We've been trying to find a way to get back to Boron, CA to get more tacos!

Mmmm, yummy yummy in my tummy carnitas at Astro-Burger.

The quintessential piece of any multi-day road trip: lodging. Ironically, we didn't stay at any of these establishments. Guess I just had a thing for motel signs on the trip.

Lonely California desert.

And then, finally, our first glimpse of the beautiful blue Pacific. After a year and a half away that thick, foggy marine layer never looked so beautiful.