New Fargo Complete

I got this finished late last night. Still have some finishing touches and I need to make a crankset spec change for the final build, but it's ready to roll! This bike is going to take me places this year. I can't wait.

Have a great Friday and a great weekend.

Ride your bike! Take some pictures!

Bring it

So...a few weeks ago a friend of mine from down south (Texas) sent me a note saying some magazine named Minnesota/Minneapolis one of the top 5 places NOT to live. It cited weather as one of the main reasons. Well, I call BS. MN rocks. As proof, I'd like to submit the following piece of evidence.

This is on my commute home from work along the glorious and beautiful MN River Valley. I want to remind you that this is in a major metropolitan area filled with food, art, education and the most diverse and active bike culture in North America. In my mind, why wouldn't you want to live here? Oh...And this is just one of the 4 seasons we have here in MN. Bring it!

Looking Up

I finished up a photo project last night. Ran across this image from Santa Cruz in 2010. Got me thinking and dreaming.

Sony NEX-5N - Update and new images

Today just an update on my continued use and experience with the Sony NEX-5N mirrorless compact camera. You can read my original review here. At the time of writing that review, I was sort of on the fence with the Sony. While I was pleased with the images, it just didn't quite "feel" right. Hard to fully put my fingers on why, but some of it was the IQ associated with the inexpensive kit lenses and the rest was the feel of the camera. It felt like a gadget. Truthfully I was very close to selling it a few times and then something happened. The 4 way controller stopped working on my main DSLR, a Nikon D7000, at Christmas and required me to send it in for repair (I am still waiting for it to return BTW). This put a halt to me moving on and let me spend more time with the Sony NEX-5N.

Right now I absolutely love this system. What changed? Great question. 3 things changed. First, I tried the OLED electronic viewfinder. Second I tried the amazing Sony Zeiss 24mm f1.8 lens. Third, I tried the manual focus assist with focus peaking to address the autofocus accuracy issue. Honestly, with these 3 changes this thing is a new camera. One of which I absolutely love. So much so that I am considering investing a bit more in Sony. Right now Sony is the only camera manufacture that can fit my compact camera needs adequately as well as have fast DSLR's with APSC sensors for motion and a high resolution full frame sensor for landscapes. There are also adapters that allow use of the Sony Alpha lenses on the NEX as well as adapters for me to use my Leica M mount lenses on the NEX bodies. Overall, I am very pleased. I only have one remaining quible and one area I'd still love to see improvement. 

Dust - I have used and traveled with many, many cameras with interchangable lenses. The NEX series is the worst of all of them for dust contamination. This is a major issue that needs to be fixed. Right now, I am at apoint where I won't change a lens in the field.

Autofocus accuracy - While I have solved my primary autofocus accuracy issue by the focus peaking assist, I still would like more speed and accuracy in focus lock. Many new smaller cameras such as Olympus and Panasonic are killing it with their small sensor cameras in this area. Sony has to improve.

Anyway, I'm loving this camera. It's light. It is compact. It is wildly capable. Here are a few landscapes and still life images from the past month. All taken with the Sony NEX-5N and Sony Zeiss 24mm f1.8 lens. All shot RAW and processed in Adobe Lightroom 3.6.

Sunrise - This shot is one of my recent favorites. Love the feel and the mood. There is incredible detail in there too thanks to the lovely Zeiss lens.

Anyway, as you can see, I'm pretty pleased with my camera set up. Now....If Sony would just come out with a few other Zeiss NEX lens to complete the lens line up.

Where art thou winter?

Seriously! That's all the snow we have in MN in February?! Darn it anyway. I want snow. I need snow because I've got plans. It's good for my business too. Where art thou winter?

So....Since winter isn't coming to MN this year, I decided last night I'd start my spring & summer project. Project Horsethief. I'm building a real trailbike. If that doesn't make it snow, I don't know what will.

Have a great day and an awesome weekend folks.

Ride your bike! Take some pictures!

Adventure bicycling and Adventure Cycling Association

Just putting a quick post up sharing a little video produced by my place of employment. I was interviewed about the category of adventure bicycling and my involvement with Adventure Cycling Association.

Putting Adventure Cycling on the Map from Quality Bicycle Products on Vimeo.

For more information about Adventure Cycling Association, click here to be redirected to their website.

My First Month with Film

So...I am one month into my film experiment and I thought I'd take some time to share some images and some initial impressions.  

First, I love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. I love the feel of the images. I love the look of the images. I love slowing down a bit. I love finishing the roll followed by the mystery of waiting to see the images. I've shot several different films already and I love them all. My favorites being Tri-X 400 and Portra 400.

Second, I hate it. I can't stand that I it takes so long to get through a roll of film. In my first several rolls I frequently want to switch back and forth between black & white and color films. I'm sure some would say just shoot color and convert digitally to black and white while others may say you should only shoot black & white. I like both. 

Third, I find it interesting that in the past month, I have printed more images than the last 2 years combined. That just isn't right. Seriously, I've shot less than 500 images on film in 2012 and something like 40,000+ digital images in 2010 & 2011 and I've got more to show for those 500 than the previous two years combined.

Anyway, those are my initial impressions. I'm still going forward with this project because I believe it is making me a better photographer.

I thought I'd also share a few thoughts on my Bessa R4A and 21mm Cosina Voigtlander lens. This is my first forray into a rangefinder camera. Overall, I am very pleased with the kit. While it took me a bit to get used to the focus method of the dual rangefinder images becoming one, I have gotten a handle on it and have grown accustomed to it. In fact, I really like it. The Bessa functions well. The only thing I've noticed is that I struggle to find the AE lock button on the back. I think I will add a little mine grip/texture to it. I also find that I'm still trying to figure out how to meter the overall image when set in A. A few of my images have come across pretty dark.

The only other thought I have is about the 21mm f4 Cosina Voigtlander lens. It is very, very sharp. The quality is very good. The focus action is so smooth and I like the stepped aperture ring. My only comment here is that it doesn't focus close enough for how I shoot wide angle. I like to get close to subjects and I am finding that I can't quite get close enough. It isn't a huge deal, but it is noticable as I've had to step backwards frequently so I can get the camera in focus. I guess I've trained myself a bit differently and it's taking some time to retrain. I may give a try to something like a 25 or 28mm. We'll see.

Now....enough talk. How about some pictures? 

 

And this last images goes out to my friend Kid Riemer who's racing Arrowhead 135. Go get 'em Kid! Good luck to all racers!

One month of film down, 11 more to go!

Celebrate the Silence

This past weekend, my wife and I got away for a respite. We spent Saturday and part of Sunday at a retreat led by a friend and held at the Villa Maria Retreat and Conference center outside of Redwing, MN. It was timely, really fun and needed.

While at the Villa I was overwhelmed with the silence. I heard no air planes. No kids. No phones. I had no email. Only an occassional train would sound in the distance. Really, the only sound I heard at the retreat was the sound of the old radiator and heating system.

Truthfully, I struggled a bit with the silence. Silence is so vast. It's endless. As I sat there in the silence, nothing distracted me nor redirected my thoughts. The only thoughts going through my head were the ones generated by my own brain. I wrote in my journal that while the silence gave me peace, it also gave me anxiety. My days are not often filled with silence or the opportunity to fully think freely.

In dealing with this overwhelming silence of the villa, I went through my normal processing cycle of thinking about what I was going to do tomorrow when I got home followed by what I had to do next week? My upcoming trip to Montana for ACA? Frostbike? My future? I could go on and on. But you know what, I ran out of things to plan fairly quickly.

One of the things we discussed at the reatreat was celebration. I've been struggling thinking about some changes that I have started to implement in my life. You've seen one of these changes here on the blog in that I am blogging less so I have more mental capacity to think and do other things. What you may not know about is that blogging less is only one of my changes I've implemented for myself. These changes are both personal and professional. I have end goals in mind. But, they are different than in the past and I've had anxiety around them.

That is when one of the messages of the retreat hit me. I need to make these changes and celebrate the change. I need not worry about what others think of my changes. I just need to take care of myself, move forward and celebrate the journey I've been on. I got to sit there and relish in the vastness of the silence and focus on what I have accomplished over the past few years and also where I am headed. I found great peace and clarity in my choices.

And if the message wasn't clear enough, I slept great Sunday night and woke up to fresh snow on the ground. I grabbed my bike and hit the road and trail to work. I rode into work alone in a dark snowy silence. The only sounds were that of the occassional stick or branch breaking below the snow as my fat tire(s) rolled over it. By the end of my day, I got nearly 5 1/2 hours of fat tired saddle time. I took only 6 pictures, one of them below. The rest of the time I just rode and took in the beautiful MN River Valley.

Celebrate the silence.

Ps. I am taking a blog holiday. I'll be back with a post and images Monday.

Denali - In full view

I sat down to write about this past weekend where my wife and I attended a retreat out near Red Wing Minnesota. I wanted to write about the vastness of the silence of the villa as well as the peace and joy I experienced while away. However, when I sat down to write I saw the new film & slide scanner sitting next to my computer and I jumped into digging through old boxes of film and slides. That's how my simple mind works and wonders.

I immediately went back to my old Alaska to Utah bike tour of the 90's. I shot color slides and black & white film. I have done little with these precious images and memories. In fact, I bet I've only printed about 1/10th of the images I captured. Well....the time has come to delve into the past and start rehashing those memories.

It will take me a while to really get this all figured out, but I am going to spend some time scanning images and see if I can put together some stories worth telling. Until then, here is my first lo res scan. Shot on T-Max with my old Pentax 35mm film camera.  I know I need to learn how to clean the negatives and do some touch up afterward but I thought I'd share my starting point. It also adds a bit of a vintage feel to the image. Hope you enjoy.

Denali - In full view

I call this image In full view. Denali had eluded us for some time and on this day, we got our first perfect glimpse of the full mountain. I find the hardest thing is to gauge the size of something like Denali. Imagine that snow line being roughly 5-8,000 ft. Simply incredible.

So...Lot's more to come as I process and scan images. I can't wait.

Photo Friday - Snow Dreams

A Dusting - Portra 400 - scanned - converted and toned in Lightroom

I can't believe it is January 19th and we've got essentially ZERO snow. The pic above was taken on an early morning of a few flurries. Yep, I'm dreaming and scheming about riding fatbikes in the white stuff. Soon...I hope.

Hope your week has gone well. Mine has been spectacular. Very little excercise and activity but spectacular none the less.

Have a great Friday and weekend.

Ride your bike! Take some pictures!