The Adventures of Jono

All the pretty horses.........and more!

Just like the rest of my "off season" the variety of things I've been shooting lately continues to grow. That's the fun thing about the supposed off season that's fun.....doing different things. About 3 weeks ago I shot a horsemanship clinic not far from home. Living in Arizona provides some unique opportunities to shoot back in time, as I like to think of it. Whether it's shooting some strange geological formation, indian ruins, petroglyphs or a local cowboy the opportunities are vast here. So I took advantage of that and went out to shoot Ricky Quinn, a real modern day cowboy and, some would say, horse whisperer. Listening in at his clinics one can't help but go through some deep introspection to work through the human and horse relationship or just make yourself a better person all around. More times than not the issues that people are having with their horse stems from their own personal issues whether they be control issues, self confidence, lack of focus, communication problems or some other deep seated issue they don't even know about. It was all pretty fascinating and made for some exciting shooting. 

If you've never seen a horse get ridden for the first time you have got to do it! The horse in question was  Mack. He's about 1 1/2 years old and I remember the day he was brought to the barn. He had little spindly legs and just tufts of hair for a mane. If you got too close he would give you a good nip before he learned some manners. Seeing that saddle go on for the first time was amazing. Mack was mostly freaked out but Ricky calmed him and worked him slowly until he slid on the saddle pad, then after a little time the saddle went on and got tightened into place. Mack exploded in protest. You could see his head dip and body compress and then expand like a tight spring. After a few good bucks and a run around the ring he settled in. Ricky moved around him cautiously and settled him down again. Then he loaded up onto one side of him with a foot in the stirrup. Mack again protested against the new feeling of weight on his back. Ricky tried again and this time Mack stayed calm. Ricky got on and let him move around the round ring. After about 10 minutes Ricky yelled to open the gate. With the gate open he steered Mack through it, out onto the road and then off onto the trails. I've never seen anything like it. 

A week after what seemed like stepping off a movie set of the wild west I shot a local team sponsored by Taser. They wanted to do something a little edgy to go with the brand and since they have an amazing headquarters just over in Scottsdale we shot there. This shot was taken in the entryway to the building where it is a round room made of brushed stainless steel and polished concrete floors. It was really dark in there and I added a couple lights to make things pop, one with a blue gel on it that reflected around the room. We did the whole nine yards with group shots and head shots at several places in the building. This weekend we are going out to do all the action shots. That's where I'll get the good stuff! 

After shooting Taser it was back to shooting some racing. The next week I went up to Boulder to shoot at the Boulder  Cup cross races. What a great time that was! The weather was perfect and we had good crowds both days. I even shipped my bike up there earlier to do some riding with Cyclingnews tech editor James Huang. He had me gasping and wheezing at trails over all of  Boulder but I really enjoyed it. I'll definitely be back there again next year. 

To the Canyon and back

Usually at this time of the year things have slowed way down and I get to catch up on all sorts of things that don't get done during the season. This year I've had some personal projects that I wanted to work on during the winter too. But as usual things have been more hectic than planned. We had a great trip to Sundance, came home and had visitors, hiked in Sedona, did a trip to the Grand Canyon and now it's today already. 

The Grand Canyon was pretty, well.......grand. It was way better than expected. I've been there before and peered over the edge and thought wow, now that's a big hole. But this time it was different, somehow the scale and beauty of it really hit me. I visited the famous Kolb Brothers studio and saw the photos they had painstakingly gotten of the canyon so many years ago. I also got to go there with my neighbor and friend, Doug.  He goes up every year and hikes the canyon on, or as close as he can get, to his birthday. This year he hiked from the north rim to the south rim all in one day. He left the north rim at 3:30am and hiked straight through until I met him on the south rim about 11 hours later. I'm not sure if he wants me to advertise his age but I hope I can do half of what he does when I am 73, or geez even now for that matter.

I did actually hike down a ways on the Bright Angel Trail and it was spectacular. The trail is steep, rocky in places and rutted from tourists and mules. On my way down I was lucky enough to spot a family of big horn sheep.  What a site they were perched there on the edge of that rocky precipice. Mom was there and one of her babies with a couple other adults further out on the ledge. I stayed for a while and then moved on down the trail all while strategically avoiding the gasping tourists and mule poo. It kind of reminded me of this Tour de France stage finish back in '04.........

The night before I had a little time to get out under a full moon to take some photos. I don't do that very often but it was good fun. It was great to be out there at places that I had been at a few hours earlier and was elbow to elbow with tourists. They had no idea what they were missing. I was going along and feeling pretty proud of myself for braving the cold breeze late that night when I could have been back in the hotel room snuggled up with a movie. That was just about when I started hearing things. A little earlier I had left the car and saw a sign warning against mountain lions and it was messing with my head.  I knew that if a mountain lion was there I wouldn't hear it anyway so their weren't any there, right? After balancing myself on the edge of ledge over the black pit of a canyon below and hearing more rustling in the bushes I decided I had enough and packed it in for the night. 

I'm not sure what made my trip to the Grand Canyon so good. I think part of it was that I had taken the Grand Canyon for granted and now I saw it in a different light. And I think part of it was going with Doug and seeing his joy at accomplishing his goal. But either way I'll be anxious for another trip up there soon, rustling bushes or not! 

Living Color

I'm just back from Sundance, UT and don't have enough time for a full post but I wanted to at least post a couple of photos. It was amazing with the leaves peaked and we even got snow over the weekend.  And it was an especially nice contrast to my previous week spent in Vegas for Interbike and a great way to finish off the season. If you've never been you'll definitely have to get your weekend there booked soon. I'll get more on line in the next few days as I get caught up on everything else around here. 

Leaving Las Vegas

I survived! It was tough but I did it. After shooting the Cactus Cup Friday-Sunday I shot Cross Vegas Wednesday and then the USA Crit Finals Thursday night. In between that it was the dirt demo on Monday and Tuesday with the actual show starting Wednesday and wrapping up on Friday.

We saw some good racing throughout the week and even had a certain L. Armstrong out for the cross race. I'm not sure what he was thinking when he signed up for that and I think after the first lap he was really questioning his judgment. But it was cool to see him out there mixing it up with the big boys of cross and getting a proper woopin. We'll have to wait and see if he fires up the Leer jet to make it to any more of the skinny tired dirt races this season.

The shooting was definitely difficult all week with 3 of the races being at night; the Cactus Cup fat tire crit, Cross Vegas and the USA Crit Finals. The thing about shooting at night is the shots are either pretty cool or total crap. I had a little bit of both. And I did try a couple of different things which made it more interesting for me and hopefully created some good images.

It was fun to see some people during the week that I hadn't seen for quite a while. Interbike is always good for catching up with people even if it is only for a brief time. I saw one friend whom I hadn't seen since last year at Interbike. We had a quick conversation and agreed to see each other again at the same place and same time next year. And so it went for the rest of the show.

Back at the Mirage Mark Z tried his hand at a little 21. I got this shot with the iPhone just before the pit boss just about yanked it out of my hand. Hey I saw the movie Casino, no need to stick my head in a vice over a cell phone photo of a game that I don't play anyway. Geeez. It was a fun night though after a hard week of work. And even better was the thought of not having to get up early the next morning.

The next morning I did get to sleep in a bit and then loaded up the truck to head back to AZ. It's a nice drive between Vegas and Phoenix and always look forward to it. One part I like is driving across the Hoover Dam. In another couple years you won't do that because of the bridge they are building across the canyon but for now it's a pretty awesome site to be right on it and look down.

So this week I am back home for a bit before heading up to Sundance, Utah to enjoy a couple days off. After passing through there for the Tour of Utah and seeing how beautiful it was I couldn't help but go back. My plan is to not do too much of anything. I am bringing the cameras though because it is peak leaf season. I'll do some hiking and work on some landscapes along the way. And I'm hoping I can find a good book before I leave so that I can occupy some time with that. But other than that I hope to be as lazy as possible....... like that ever works out.

What happens in Vegas.....

This week I am in Las Vegas for Interbike, the yearly industry show for all things new, shiny and carbon. The big excitement this week is Cross Vegas tomorrow and the World Crit Championships on Thursday night. The even bigger news is that Lance Armstrong will be here to race cross tomorrow night and then he is doing a press conference Thursday morning. I'll post a couple pics of the craziness that ensues.

I've got things to write about USPRO and the Tour of Missouri still too. It's just been so hectic that I haven't had a chance to sit and get some thoughts on screen. I went from USPRO to Tour of Missouri and then here to shoot the Cactus Cup and now Interbike. I'll be back soon with some updates from the week!

It's all about the numbers

I got back last night from Greenville, SC and shooting the USPRO Championships where we had the closest finish I have ever seen. Tyler Hamilton just beat out Blake Caldwell to put on the stars and stripes jersey. It was so close that no one could tell who won. When they finally looked back at the view from the super high speed camera you could see that Tyler won by about 1/2 of a tire, or .002. Without that camera their would not have been any way to declare a winner. Congratulations to Tyler and to the Rock Racing team! Mark Z provided the superb coverage that you can read over at Cyclingnews. 

I've got a bunch of writing to get caught up on here but in the meantime I wanted to write about an interesting conversation I was having with my moto driver Chris Monroe, who has just started his own blog over here at MotoFoto. It seems that some of the moto guys were discussing how we have such long days out there and we are shooting like crazy but they only end up seeing so few photos online or in print. Well I got to worrying that Chris was going to drop me right there on the side of the road and find someone newer, younger, lighter and much better than me so I was trying to explain the shooting phenomenon to Chris with much expediency. I pleaded my case well enough to convince him that it was worthwhile getting me around and that I would try harder. I'm sure that during most of our days together he thinks I am just taking in the country side while he expertly maneuvers us between cars and riders, through lush valleys and over craggy mountains, down dusty roads and beyond just to "get the shot". But during those times my mind is calculating and processing the information at hand. It's a complex machine :) I think about the race, who's riding well, who's in the break, what climbs are ahead or what descents, how far is it to go and who will be there at the end? Their is an uncertain number of influences that decide where, when and how I shoot. Beyond all that I've got to deal with outside influences like the weather or a bumpy road. Sometimes us waiting an extra 30 seconds somewhere seems nuts I know, but it can make all the difference in being in that crucial spot to see the action that makes the race. Decisions like this need to be made constantly throughout the day. 

During one day of racing I shoot hundreds of images, some work out and some don't. We work very hard to get those images. So Chris and the fellas are thinking that with all of the work we do and all of the images I come back with why don't they, and everyone else, see more. A legitimate question. While pondering this query this morning I just happened to come across a blog post by very well known photo journalist Vincent Laforet. He is recently back from the Olympics where he spent 18 days shooting the events. In his post he gave a great example of images shot verses images used. 

Laforet spent 18 days shooting at the Olympics and finished up with 28,444 frames shot. Out of that he edited it down to 1,509 "selects". Out of that 1,509 he transmitted, or used so far, 273 images. That means that out of 28,444 frames shot he used just under 1%! 

Laforet goes on to explain how Sports Illustrated had 10 staff photographers over there and they shot over 300,000 frames! After the first round of edits that number was dwindled down to 17,000. After a hand off to the next level of editor it again got cut down to 1046 of what they call "super selects". And once those images went to the SI director of photography he sliced that last number down to just 135 frames. That means that out of 300,000 images that the SI staffers shot only .045%, or 135, were selected. 

If you compare all of that to my day of shooting the USPRO road race I ended up shooting 900 frames. Out of those 900 frames I pulled out 120 on my first pass through which puts me at 7.5%. Out of those 120 I used 42 which puts me at about 4.6% for the day. Now I didn't have remote cameras going like they do at the Olympics or anything like that so that definitely skews the numbers but I think I'm pretty happy with my 4.6% for the day. Hopefully that 4.6% will keep Chris from trading me in on a better model. 

Seriously though I'd never thought about it quite that way until Chris asked me about it. I always try to end up with as many good images at the end of the day as possible but I've never calculated it out like this to see where I was at. Next week we head out to the Tour of Missouri and I'll have to see what my percentages are like there. If by mid-race you see me standing on the side of the road with my helmet on and no moto driver you'll now I haven't gotten those percentages up! 

Blogging on the go

Woohoo blogging from the iPhone! With my recent consistancy of not blogging I thought I better get on the ball again and post something. And since I recently switched to the iPhone which has all of these cool apps what better way to stay on top of things than using it to blog? Of course I'm still figuring this out so we'll see how it goes.

Right now I am at the airport and on my way to Greenville, SC for the USPRO championships. Greenville is always fun but since I was just at a race in Park City the scenery will definitely be lacking. But the racing will be very good and I'll be looking for big things from Hincapie and Leipheimer.

Tomorrow I am going to shoot a couple portraits for ROAD. I'm not sure exactly who it they are going to be yet but of will be fun. I've enjoyed doing more of that type of shooting this year. Earlier in the season I got to do a shoot with Mark Cavendish. It's pretty cool to get to spend some time with these guys and then see them do so well later in the season.

Well that's it for the first post from the iPhone. I'll work on another later in the weekend.

Oregon

I'm just back from Bend, OR and the Cascade Classic. I've got a bunch of photo editing to do and some sleep to catch up on so I will do a post about the trip later in the week. Just so you have the inside scoop though, one of my shots of Levi Leipheimer will be on the next cover of ROAD magazine. Can't wait to see it.....

Looking beyond the race

As some of you may have realized from my photos I like to bring in elements from outside of the race. The race action itself is important that's for sure but give me an old barn, some horses or pretty much anything  interesting and I'll try to get it into a shot. Sometimes, however, I see things that I just have to shoot but I can't work them into an image of the race no matter how hard I try. This happened to me June 5th in Reading, PA.

It was during the womens race. After the women took off on the small crit course I walked around to get a couple shots I had gotten last year. As I walked over past the first turn I noticed this guy with a camera and big lens but he was looking up in the air instead of at the race. I crossed over the road to see what was happening and when I asked him what he was looking at he pointed up. High above the race on a tall building across the street I could see a bird on a ledge with wings spread wide. The wind was catching it and it would go a little off balance, pull its wings in to recover then stretch them out again. At first I wasn't sure exactly what I was looking at but then the guy explained that it was a baby Peregrine Falcon and it was about ready to take its first flight. The guy was frantic because, he explained, if the flight doesn't go well the bird could just plummet to its death on the sidewalk or perhaps right into the race.

The womens field came by again and Ina Teutenburg had attacked. It's always great to see Ina back in the states racing. She's the scrappiest rider out there and doesn't mind making herself suffer to ride everyone else into the ground.  She  kind of reminds me of the  Peregrine Falcon. Once an endangered species they have fought back from near extinction, to survive the falcons prey on other birds. They are very fast and can fly up to 70 mph while going after supper and can dive at up to 200 mph to attack prey. That's one scrappy little bird if I've ever seen one. Today Ina was the falcon and everyone else was prey.

With the baby bird still lingering precariously close to the edge the mum swooped in from out of nowhere.  Wings were flapping, feathers were ruffling and the falcons screeches pierced the air. My hands grew sweaty on my camera as I watched the seemingly impending tragedy. Finally, after much protest, the little one brought its wings back in by its sides and seemed to settle down. The mum landed on a nearby ledge and then dropped down to another one closer by. She must have known the dangers and maybe knew that the young one wasn't ready yet. 

Up above I heard a familiar noise. I hear it on the weekends a lot back home but I was surprised to hear it here. Sure enough, moments later I saw the mirrored alloy hull of a B-17 bomber passing over. What was with all the distractions today?  Is their a race going on or what? A couple riders tried to attack Ina but to no avail. She calculated every move and spent her energy cautiously. With all of the action at the front the field blew apart with women scattered all over the course. Just like the mother falcon above, team directors were screeching orders into race radios with either  encouragement to those off the back or orders to move up to those who could still hang on. No matter, they were all prey.

One more time the mother falcon swooped and this time came down on the same ledge as the young ling. Just when she did that I noticed another fuzzy head pop out and then another. The mum had 3 young ones up there to look after. But with the mum on the ledge now the first one, with wings by its sides, backed in closer to the wall of the building and away from the chaos below. She had done it, she'd calmed everyone down and kept the family together for another day. Thoughts of me having to run across the street with  cameras flopping everywhere, shoot the riders as they lean through the first turn and then swoop in to catch the falling bird just before it crashes to its death began to subside. Time to breath.

Back in the race it was one lap to go. In the distance you could barely see the riders as they came through the last turn. Ina swooped across the road and into the lead with a couple hundred meters to go and never looked back. Somehow I got focused back on the action and got the finish shot. What a day......I need a beer.

If you can't take the heat......

  Philly was hot! It was Africa hot. The big discussion the day before was the heat and we all got up the next morning thinking about the heat. When we rode the course the day before the heat was debilitating and I couldn't imagine many would go the distance. We took bets on how many guys would finish and I lost, I guessed 48.

Manyunk and the wall were packed. I think I saw more people on the descent off the wall than ever before. This year they had barriers lining a lot of it and it was probably a good idea. In years past I've seen people get pretty far out into the road when we were going by at 50+ mph. A lot of people will hang their hands out wanting a slap as you go by. Last year I made the mistake of responding to one guy and as we went by we slapped hands so hard.....geeez that stung. He was most likely too drunk to know how much it hurt. Lesson learned for me and I'll never do that again.

What gets me through the days are cookies. Man I love cookies, especially chocolate chip. But it was a sad day to be a chocolate chip and I was getting more on my hands then in my mouth. Never the less I persevered under such dreadful conditions and ended up having a pretty decent day. My old buddy Brendan came out to drive me around on his moto. He's been driving me there for the last 5 years or so and we've worked together since 2001 on other things so it's getting to be a sort of tradition. Usually he drives me all week but he had bike troubles. The throttle cable was stuck and when he went to fix that a fitting on the gas line broke. I told him that we didn't need to fix that throttle cable anyway because we only need it in one position, wide open! Using his better judgment and not listening to me he got another bike to use.

Speaking of lessons learned......we had an incident with a photographer during the week. I won't mention names because I don't want to go there but he should have known better, especially being as good as he thinks he is. We were in Allentown and part way through the race this guy decides it would be a good idea to kneel down in the middle of the road just after a fast right hand turn off of a decent. And then he had his moto driver waving traffic around him so that no one ran him over. Of all the stupid things I have seen people do at races that has got to be the worst. Not only do you put yourself in danger but you endanger everyone else around you. I have always lived by the code that the riders come first. I may do some nutty things to get a shot like hang out of a tree, climb on to a train car, balance on a skinny rail on the side of a bridge or who knows what else I have blocked out of memory for therapeutic reasons but I would never endanger the safety or lives of others. I'm still amazed at the lack of common sense shown in that situation. What was it Forest Gump said, "stupid is as stupid does."

So, back to Philly.......Manayunk was packed. Every time up the wall the fans had multiplied. And every time up it got hotter and hotter. At one point I tried to sit in the road to wait for the riders but I couldn't do it because the pavement was too hot for my delicate posterior. Even standing out there the bottom of my shoes were hot. On one of the last laps we went through an area where they had put some tar down to seal the cracks and when the bike rolled across the tar the motorcycle slid sideways a couple of inches. We kept it up no problem and a mental note was made, the road is melting. I've seen it so bad in France that the riders tires sink right into the asphalt. That's what happened to Biloki when he crashed and Lance cyclorossed it around him. (As a side note they had just passed me and the crash happened right around the corner. We couldn't see much but knew it was something bad when we drove by.) But for the most part we have a better mixture of asphalt in the US so we don't see it much. 

By the end of the day we logged one of the longest days ever for that race. It ended up being about 6'15". The heat kept the speeds down mostly until the last couple laps. I was surprised that a break didn't get up the road but the field sprints are fun to see on that course too. It's such a buildup to see them go down past the big screen and into the circle, fighting for position the whole way. They come out of the circle and I watch them through my big lens to try and see what is happening. The mass of color starts to take shape as they get closer and closer and a cloud of dust rises behind them. Riders are spread across the road going elbow to elbow at 40+ mph. As they get bigger and bigger in the lens I decide who is in front and focus on him. Closer, closer and then bdddtttttttt the shutter fires like a machine gun going off at 10 frames per second as they cross the line. Just like that the day is over.

Gripping I tell you, gripping!