Up North

I just finally got some words and thoughts together about my recent trip up north to ride fatbikes. Check out my story today on the Salsa blog. Click Here to be redirected to Salsacycles.com.  Thanks. 

Break time

Break time on the St. Louis river

Wow! What a week it's been. I expected to be back today with a bunch of words, deep thoughts and some great images. Instead, you get a short post with a single image. I am absolutely exhausted and the same time energized. This past week has been filled with great people and opportunity. I saw many old friends and made some new ones. All great folks with a shared passion for bikes.

Truthfully, I am in recovery mode. Much like after some kind of big ride, event or race when a body needs to recove, my mind needs to process all the conversations, events and details. While this past week hasn't been taxing on my body, it has been mentally very challenging. I came home last night after our big show and settled in with my family, a movie, some left over Thai food and Bell's Hopslam. It was all I had in me and it gave me great comfort and peace.

So, that's all I've got today. I'm headed to work. I hope to process some images today from my recent Mukluk ride up north. I think I got a couple of keepers. Until then, take a look here at my friend Hansi's blog. He got some great stuff.

Checking out and going North

I'm checking out for the week. While I wish I was just going on a sweet bike trip and riding my bike in a beautiful and far away land, I sadly am not. Nope, this week is a busy week at my place of employment. We are essentially putting on a tradeshow and each year brings exciting challenges and new opportunities. This year is no exception. While it is technically work, some of it really is fun. In fact, most of it is fun other than the fact that the days are really long and I don't get to spend that much time with my awesome family. I'm really looking forward to seeing so many friends and colleagues from around the USA. There will also be an international contingent to the show.

In fact, I am headed north on Thursday with a few of my friends from Japan. Since we have essentially no snow here in MPLS, I'm taking them north to fatbike and give them a little MN North Shore experience. This trip will also serve as a scouting trip for another northern adventure I've got planned for early March.

Anyway, with that, I am headed out. I took this last picture because I've been getting comments that folks are tired of seeing my bike alone, leaning or lying down on it's side. This picture is proof that I do infact ride my bike and get out and about. It may not be happening often enough, but it is happening. I just often ride alone at the hours I most enjoy riding.   

So....Enjoy your week. I'll be back next Monday. I'll likely be posting some candid random photography stuff this week on my tumblr site as well so make sure you check that out by clicking the image on the right sidebar.

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!

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.

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!

My Salsa Mukluk 2 build

Ok...I've been riding this bike for a while and I have been promising the build report. Here it is. Before I get started I want to let folks know that I work for Salsa Cycles. As such, this is just my build and a few thoughts. It is not a review of the bike. Just how I built it for me. Hope you like it. Got questions? Ask in comments or send me a submission from the "about me" page.

Most of the parts come from my Mukluk Ti bike that I have been riding for almost 16 months. Why did I take the Ti bike apart? Well....I've got plans for the ti bike and it is almost complete. The Mukluk 2 is my everyday fatbike that I intend to use for everything, all surfaces and all types of activities.

Frame - Salsa Mukluk 2 size large

Fork - White Bros Snowpack (but this will change to Salsa Enabler for bottle and rack mounts)

Headset - Cane Creek 40

Rear Derailleur - XTR

Front Derailleur - SLX direct mount

Crank/BB - Surly Mr. Whirly with prototype Surly rings - Cant remember sizes

BB cups - Hope Stainless

Cassette - XT 11-34 9 speed

Chain - SRAM

Brake - Avid BB7

Brake Lever - XTR right lever

Shifter - Paul Thumbie mount with Dura Ace 9 speed shifter

Cables - Jagwire Ripcord compressionless housing

Bar - Salsa Bend 2 bar flipped upside down

Stem - Old Salsa scandium S.U.L

Grips - Prototype

Seatpost - Thudbuster ST

Saddle - Fizik Aliante Gama MTB

Hubs - Salsa 170mm Rear with Surly 135 rear disc hub as front

Rims - Surly Rolling Daryls

Rimstrips - Surly Red

Tubes - Surly

Tires - Surly BFL front/Nate rear for all out traction or 45Nrth Husker Du's for speed and XC

Pedals - Time pedals if above 20 degrees. Flat pedals if below 20 degrees.

Other - Framebag - Salsa by Revelate Mukluk bag

So...That's the set up. I absolutely love it. It is my monster do all soft surface go almost anywhere bike. As mentioned above, I am putting the stock Enabler fork on the front so that I have the bottle and front rack mounting options available on this bike. The White Bros Snowpack will be going on my original prototype Mukluk Ti bike which I hope to share sometime in the future.

Well, how about some pictures?  

Old Car - A black & white photo exploration

If you've been around the Gnat blog for long, you have likely seen an image of an old car I like. We went off trail and checked it out during my River Ramble ride. I wanted to go back and shoot the scene without other cyclists and with evening light. With my broken collar bone and my rest period from cycling, I did not think I'd get down this year to shoot it. Well, with our very mild winter here in MN, I was able to get down there on my own. I shared a couple of images here and in various places on the web, but today I share the the black & white images. All shots taken with my Sony NEX-5Nd with kit zoom lens, shot RAW and converted to B & W in Adobe Lightroom. 

I am printing this last shot for my cube wall @ work.

I sure love exploring on my bike and finding interesting stuff like this. All these shots were shot the same evening at the same spot, but as I post them I see that two of the images above are not actually part of the old car. Anyone know which two? 

Now, I gotta go find something else. I can't wait.

Back at it

Happy New Year! I'm back and ready for the new year. It was a great holiday. Hope you had a great holiday too. Before I get into today's post, I want to thank all of you for the emails, notes and comments over the last few weeks. They mean a lot to me and I am thankful.

Back from North Dakota - Big. Fat. Happy.

Today marks the first post of the new year. I'm taking this opportunity to set the tone for the coming year and share some changes to this website. Before I share exactly what my plan is, I'd like to share my guiding principles for the coming year.They are not new year's resolutions. They are guiding principles for my actions.

• Quit wasting time and money unless they are getting me to a specific end goal.
• Health - I need to tackle my sleep disorder. If I can control it, I can control my hunger, manage my food portions and loose weight…which in turns makes me sleep better.
• Ride my bike for the joy of riding my bike. This past year, riding almost always felt stressed for one reason or another. I just want to enjoy riding for riding and not make it into something it isn’t. This is why in the spring, summer and fall I am going to go back and ride my Salsa Fargo as much as possible. Last year I rode a slew of other bikes and I did not enjoy riding as much as when i rode my Fargo 99% of the time the previous year.
• Smile more and have more fun. In all circumstance and in all places.
• Find time to ride with the people that are important to me.

So....Just how does this relate to this blog? Great question.

This blog has exceeded my wildest dreams for starting a blog. Truthfully, I never imagined that I would last this long blogging. Through these last several years I have met amazing people and been inspired countless times. This blog really helped me develop and foster the creative side of me that I had stuffed away years ago. It has also fueled my passion for photography.I could go on and on.

It has also become a bit of a crutch. Recently, I have found myself developing and moving in different directions than the tone and the "image" of this blog. I have also found the time and dedication needed to keep it engaging and growing to be a challenge. So much so that I have not been able to learn some new things.

So....Today I am making some changes. Starting today, I will be blogging less here on the Gnat blog. I want these posts to be meaningful, relevant and most of all, filled with good content. I suspect 1 - 2 good posts per week.

Oh what will I do with my Mukluk this year? My full build post is coming soon. Making some changes to the whole front end and then will make a complete post.

What will I do with this additional time? Another great question.

First, I will spend time with my family, ride my bike(s), and learn new things. It is time to reinvest in myself. I've got more to say here, but I think this will be the topic of an upcoming post.

Second, for quick in the moment creative thought, I have started a new website powered by tumblr. You can click here to go to the new site. It is focused on quick content and sharing and not as much on words, themes and events. The site will include a bit more non bike related photography, but you can count on a good dose of bike related imagery over there. Truthfully, I have thousands and thousands of images I have not shared here because I couldn't work them into a story or they were not quite on target for the feeling of this site. Now I can share them and I will. I will be posting daily, sometimes several in one day. In setting up the site, I used many images that you may have already seen if you are a regular reader here. However, over time, I expect the content to diverge quite a bit.

So...Bring in the new year. I'm ready. Again, check out my new site by clicking here. Imaginegnat.