UPDATE: Images are currently being uploaded to my online gallery. Here you will be able to download the low-res digital version for sharing… or you will be able to purchase high-res digital copies and prints if you so choose. We are hoping to have everything uploaded by sometime tomorrow… if you don’t see an image of yourself just keep checking.

View Complete Gallery

Also, while on the course I ran into another gentleman taking photos. Here is the link to his website… the more the merrier right.  
Aladino Mandoli Super D Gallery
Aladino Mandoli’s Fat Tire XC Gallery

So, yesterday was the nth annual Copper Harbor Fat Tire Festival. Usually this race seems to serve as many people’s last hurrah for the season. It’s a great race with a low-key attitude. The race start isn’t until 2pm and afterwards there’s BBQ, beer, music… pretty much the whole town of Copper Harbor comes out to party. It’s the type of event you end up not wanting to miss even if you’re not a racer.

Now don’t get me wrong… the low-key attitude doesn’t mean that this race is a walk in the park. On the contrary, it’s my opinion that this is one of the toughest and most technically  challenging races in the midwest. It would be interesting to see what other people think, but the Fat Tire course is pretty unrelenting and the downhills are challenging enough that there really isn’t ever an opportunity to rest.

Anyway, if you like to ride and haven’t ever attended… you should. And if you are a long-time participant feel free to share your perspective in the comments section.

Below are some sample images from the race. Over the next day or so we will be uploading the rest of the images for your viewing pleasure. A big thanks to Ryan Holt for helping cover the race.

Enjoy!

One of the younger participants looking to destroy the competition…

It super cool to see the next generation competing in the kids race…

Usually, I try and move around a lot on the race course in order to get a variety of compositions. And this year I was planning to do the same. I hiked in and set up on the Red Trail at this relatively steep roll down into a double bridge. I figured the faster competitors would probably ride this section and planned to pack up and move once I started getting a lot of walkers. However, more people rode this section than I thought. I think it was because it sort of sneaks up on you and you don’t really have time to think about it before you’re committed. In the end I just stayed here and waited for the sweeps to come through.

When I first setup the position of the sun was such that I could hide it behind a branch to help reduce the amount of lens flare. Problem is… the sun moves. In the image at the top of this post there is very little flare with the sun behind a branch. In the image 4th from the top the sun is in an open part of the sky and I was getting a lot of flare. Not much to do but try and keep it from totally ruining the image. In the image above the sun is back behind the trees and again the flare is gone. What are you going to do…

Will making his way down the roll down…

Trash getting all crazy with the champagne…

Image below courtesy of Ryan Holt…

This weekend Michigan Tech hosted one of the early collegiate mountain bike events. Yesterday, the downhill and cross country events took place in Copper Harbor, and today there were short track XC and dual slalom races at the Tech Trails. I think it would have been cool to go watch the downhill event yesterday, but work was in the forecast and it wasn’t meant to be. Today I made the effort to head up for the DS race. It’s too bad that not too many of the schools came up as they are missing out on some great trails and good courses. The C4 crew did a great job with the organization and with preparation. There was a lot of digging that needed to happen to insure that there was a finished DS course to race on… and they got it done and it’s a great little track.

Anyway, I just thought I would share some of the images I shot today. I used a couple of speedlights to highlight the riders, and I like the way the images turned out. I did have problems focusing. The foreground was pretty dark without the flash, and with a background as contrasty as this my camera kept wanting to focus on the leaves in the background. It seems like a little thing, but an out of focus subject is pretty sucky.

Until next time…

Just what the title says… was walking around today after doing some work and snapped these.

Yesterday one of my bosses at the shop enlisted me to create a new poster for next years Ladies of the Lake sea kayak symposium. The theme for next year is the Oscars, and Bill provided me with the poster below and asked me to put a paddle in the Oscar’s hands and change all of the info to reflect our event’s sponsors, location, and dates. On the phone I said sure… not a problem. Then when I saw the poster he wanted me to cannibalize… let’s just say this is one of those easier said than done kind of moments. And you know what… I think it turned out pretty good. Last night I wasn’t feeling like tackling the 3d text, but I think that I came up with something that works just fine. I might take a moment and give it a go if I can find some time, but I’m happy with it as is.

Take a look at the original. This took me quite a bit of time to fix and cover up and just get a clean slate on which to put the text. I haven’t needed to do anything like this in a while and I have to say it was pretty fun. I do enjoy little challenges like this.

Let me know what you think.

Dan packing up the kayaks at Bete Gris…

Friday after work we met up with some people at the KBC. While there we hatched a plan to paddle out to Manitou Island. The next day I arranged for someone to take my shift on Monday and on Sunday morning we met Danimal a little before 11:00 at Bete Gris, packed our boats and got our paddle on. This is a great paddle if you don’t have a ton of time or a ton of money and are looking to get away. The south side from Bete Gris out to Keweenaw Point is generally quite protected and even if the weather isn’t good enough to make the crossing out to Manitou, you can still get in a good 10-12 miles of paddling, camp, and then return to your car.

However, if the weather cooperates, you get to make the 3-5 mile crossing over to Manitou (depends on where you leave from) and can then camp in this beautiful little cove on the east side called Fisherman’s Cove. From there you can paddle back to your vehicle at Bete Gris, or you can continue around the Keweenaw to Copper Harbor where you can grab a bite to eat at the Mariner and then get one of the nice guys from The Keweenaw Adventure Company to give you a ride back to your car. Or maybe you already stashed a bike up in Copper Harbor and now all you have to do is ride back to your car… Lots of options.

Our route…

Mari paddling along the Keweenaw…

Taking a break at Montreal Falls…

Making the crossing to Gull Rock on our way to Manitou Island…

Our campsite for the evening…

The Danimal hunting for agates…

Out our front door…

Hunting for the path to Perch Lake…

Still hunting…

Dragging the row boat we found out to Perch Lake…

When you gotta go… you gotta go…

Some evening frisbee action with Dan’s LED powered toy…

Moon over superior

A little bit of fog in the morning…

Rounding the far east side of Manitou Island…

Launching from the ferry dock near Bay Furnace…

So, I have four brothers and for the last couple of years we have talked about getting together and doing some sort of trip every year. At this point in time, this is the first trip where we’ve all made it. The plan was to paddle around Grand Island near Munising, MI. We were to meet up sometime on Tuesday afternoon sort equipment, then paddle up the east side of the island to Trout Point. On Wednesday the thought was to paddle around the north end of the island and camp that evening on the south part of the west side. However, the weather was not very cooperative and in the end we paddled up to Trout Point and then back.

Fortunately, the whole point of this trip wasn’t to go paddle somewhere… it was to get all the brothers together and hang out… and with the crappy weather there was more time for hanging out. Overall it was a great time. It’s always good to see the fam. Hopefully we can work out a winter BroTrip and get some skiing in.

We saw some pretty good sized waves considering we had a few first-time paddlers…

Playing on the rope swing at Trout Point…

Telling stories around the campfire…

Stargazing…

Morning session on the rope swing…

Some cliff jumping at Trout Point…

More rope swinging…

Eating breakfast around the fire…

Just hanging out in one of the caves on the paddle back…

As I was driving back from the Kuparisaari Triathlon the wind was just howling and I knew that there were waves in the forecast… So, I decided to take a detour on my way home and swing by Mclain State Park to see what the big lake was up to. The scene that I stumbled upon was like nothing I had ever seen before. The waves were awesome, the water was warm and there were damn near 20 people out surfing… 20!  I didn’t know there were that many surfboards in all of the U.P. On top of the board surfers, which was by far the largest contingent, there was a small group of windsurfers and a solitary kite boarder.

I have to say, it is pretty sweet to see the surf community growing and it’s cool to see everyone out together enjoying the shit out of themselves. Anyway, here are a few images from the hour or so that I stayed out there. I’ve got my camera… now all I need is a board and a wetsuit.

Later.

Just wrapped up shooting the first ever Kuparisaari Triathlon in Lac La Belle at the north end of the Keweenaw Peninsula. Congratulations to all of the participants and to Megan and the rest of the volunteers that helped out today. The weather looked pretty intimidating early on, but the wind held off and from my perspective it seemed like the perfect day for a race. Below you will find some of image samples from the event taken by Ryan Holt, Chris Schmidt and myself.

You can find a complete gallery of our coverage –> HERE

Below are images courtesy of Ryan Holt…

Here are some additional images courtesy of Chris Schmidt…

Just a quick post of some images I shot earlier this evening… sometimes it’s just fun to walk around with a camera.

The shop that I work for – Down Wind Sports – recently entered the online outdoor specialty arena with a new website aimed specifically at outdoorsy women called Namaste. One of the things that every website needs are decent visuals and I’ve been asked to see what I can come up with. Currently they are using some stock imagery, but that only goes so far. It would be much nicer if we could highlight some of the local talent and outdoor resources. I think that eventually we should even allow our online patrons to submit photography from their own adventures.

Anyway, there are different outdoor categories… bike, run, hike, yoga, etc… The plan this morning was to capture some decent images for the running category. Unfortunately the image I had in my head was not to be. It ended up being pretty overcast this morning and because of the lack of good morning light I scrapped my initial idea and decided to explore the local ski hill. It’s not uncommon for people to use the ski hill in their training. Also, this winter I found a great vantage point where I could place a skier in the frame with the local lift bridge in the background. This morning’s trip up the hill was just supposed to be a scouting trip. I wanted to see how tall the grass was and make sure that I could still compose the image the way my mind saw it as everything now sits a couple of feet lower due to the lack of snow.

Even though we were just scouting, I think we came away with some decent images. It was still pretty over cast while we were exploring and that forced me to use a high iso and slow shutter speed to get close with the exposure. Due to the slow shutter speed there is definitely some motion blur around the runner. Also, the slightly lower vantage point isn’t quite as good as when there is snow. I’d like to return with a ladder, some strobes, and some less humidity (= less haze). But, now at least I know what I’m working with. In the end it didn’t take us much time to get these images. It was about 10 after 7:00 when we decided to scrap the other location and head up the ski hill, and after a handful of passes by my beautiful runners we were back on the road headed to our respective jobs before the clock struck 8:00.  Not bad for 40 or so minutes of work.

Stay tuned… more to come.