50 Miles of Grit!

Road Apple Roubaix is a gravel "race" out in Garrettsville, Ohio. This year's edition was warmer then usual but very sloppy. I brought my Canon R8 into the bar for the after party and snapped a few images but I spent most of my time just hanging out. I did do a full ride recap on YouTube and the video is linked at the end. Road Apple is always a great event filled with so many friendly faces.

Playin Hooky on the Bikes

With the mercury rising over 60 on a February day it was time to slam the laptop shut and head out on my bike. I met up with Ben at the abandoned MEC building and we drank a few beers and took some photos in some awesome light. We then headed down some abandoned tracks and off into Highland Square for a patio beer in the sun. 

I can work when its dark.

Kent in the Sun

Erin and I decided to ride out to Kent to get some Taco Tontos. I brought my nifty fifty(50mm f/1.8) on my Canon EOS R8 and we decided to stop and take some portraits along the way. I've been taking a lot of bike photos since the sun is setting a little later but mostly with the pancake 28mm. I decided I wanted to shoot some with a shallower depth of field on this day.

Furnace Street & Ace Burns

I've always thought this was an interesting building - I believe I've made some photos of it on Kodak Tri-X before. When I rode by last night the light was pretty perfect with the sign roughly matching the sky in exposure. I also stopped to photograph the burned out Ace Rubber - one of the first places I ever photographed with a digital camera - soon to be just a memory. When I was in Boston I saw the crazy images of the inferno on social media. That and more randomness after the jump.

Ryes & Shine?

This was a fun shot - having everyone illuminated with the bike lights. We had just finished having dinner and drinks at new all day breakfast spot in Cuyahoga Falls called Ryes & Shine - it was great!

Roaming Boston

I spent the last week working in Boston - I was shooting photos and videos for a seafood company and its subsidiaries. I will show some of that work eventually but these are a few images I made roaming around with my friend Eric. I had extended the trip to spend the weekend hanging out with him. We checked out some breweries, walked around the harbor and also up by the old bear cages in Franklin Park.

BellTower by Bike

Erin and I hoped on our bikes and rode out to Bell Tower Brewing in Kent. I had my Canon EOS R8 slung over my shoulder with the 28mm f/2.8 panckae lens. We stopped to take a few portraits on the way. I also snapped a few while rolling on the way back and also when we stopped to shed some layers.

The Keys to Good Light

One of the few things I appreciate about winter is the long magic hour. I needed to get some keys copied and there is this great old school lock shop(lock smith?) over in the Middlebury part of Akron. Of course I turned it into a chance to cruise around and take some photos too.

The Thumbnail.

I stopped on my ride to take this photo for a thumbnail for a YouTube video. I keep trying to remind myself to do this. Thumbnails are super important in YouTube so giving myself the best image possible to work with is something I should be doing. So many times I end up having to pull a still from the footage my GoPro took - that can work well - but leeway in editing is obviosly limited. The video I made is linked after the jump.

Industrial Gravel

Gravel riding has been the fastest growing segment of cycling for years. Riding on interesting gravel and country roads that are more off the beaten path and with low traffic. Here around Akron we've been doing our own version. Rolling through the post-industrial landscape on abandoned old train tracks and roads - seeing the ruins of the past.

Magic City, Magic Hour

Magic City Brewing is right off of the Towpath Trail so we ride there often - it also happens to be one of our favorite beer & food spots in the Akron area. Another thing I happen to dig about it is that it sits across from a lake. It gets these great low sunsets through the windows. I've found so many different cool shots over the years and in different seasons because of it. (Really pretty from the patio in summer too).

Vintage Digital

When I first started assisting at the studio I now own they were using an RZ67 with a Phase One P25 digital back. This was an almost medium format sized, 22MP sensor that cost $30,000. I have run some film through the collection of RZ67's here but hadn't tried out the P25. After a bit of an odyssey to get it working(vid at the end) I finally made some images. I have to say I'm impressed with how well it hold up. It is obviously a slow way to shoot - definitely suited for studio work - but I took it to the bike shop and messed around with it handheld anyways. I want to have more fun with this - the lenses are amazing - but here is a what I've done so far.

Missile Toe

Missile Toe is the "World's Greatest Christmas Band" and I have seen them many times over the years - and they have graced these blog posts many times too. On this night however they were doing rock & roll and punk covers for a friend's bday. They were awesome as usual and I had a blast. Weasel Face also played - they do a Ramones cover set. I just brought my Canon EOS R8 and my 35mm 1.4 because I rode my bike and it was raining. My Sigma 35 is my favorite lens for things like this and the light was good enough that I got away with some decent shots without a flash.

To Shoot or Not to Shoot

I drove to Pittsburgh for a surprise birthday party last weekend. Besides a brewery stop on the way out we spent most of the time hanging out at a friend's house. When I got home I realized how few photos I really took. I try to remind myself to shoot some of these moments but at the same time I often get caught up in just enjoying myself. I definitely feel people have a tendency to over document things and not enjoy the moment enough - all those IG video stories - moments experienced through the screen instead of directly through your own eyes, only to be swiped past once and the forgotten....but at the same time I am so glad I have captured moments of friends that are no longer around. Also a reason I still think photography can be more powerful than cellphone vids. 

 Anyways - maybe I actually struck the perfect balance on this night - a couple fun shots to look bak on - but an evening of great conversation with the camera often in its bag too.

Abandoned and Freezing

The temperature was only 11 degrees but I stil wanted to get out and do something. A short bike ride downtown to meet up with friends and explore an abandoned factory? Why not - that is what we do in the Rust Belt. I have friends who have been to this place before and they said how interesting it was - the company left it as a complete time capsule - nothing had been removed. There was still a lot of cool old stuff in the offices(the stuff looters and tweakers don't care about but that photographers and arm-chair historians like me find interesting), but all of the much else of the metal and parts that could be removed had been. It is just wild to me that all of this left behind could have been simply it write-off, just left to rot and become the city's problem(not uncommon around here).  

Johnstown, PA

For the second year in a row I travelled to Johnstown, PA for a cycling event called Higher Ground Hundo and hosted by Hope Cyclery. I arrived on Friday afternoon, grabbed some food then headed over to the bike shop for registration. I also walked around the area snapping some photos with my Canon R8 and 28mm f/2.8. It was then time to go set up camp at a city park. The next day was the ride - I didn't take any photos as it was 43 degrees and rainy - a really tough day out. The whole story of the ride is in the video at the bottom. I snapped some more images on Sunday morning while waiting for Erin to pick me up and take us to our next adventure.

Quick Trip to the Queen City

Erin had to head down to Cincinnati for work so I tagged along. We got in on the later side, had some dinner and then headed to our Air BnB. The 'beeb was really cool so I snapped some photos. We were in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. In the morning we went to a couple bakeries and then Erin went off to her work meetings. I rode my bike and made a video.

Grand Island

After our bike event we headed up to the Hiawatha National Forest. It was very pretty up this way - everything just feels different from home. We stopped in Munising at a brewery before jumping on the ferry and heading to Grand Island. Grand Island was recommended to us by a few friends who had been up this way before. We arrived in the early evening and rode to our rustic cabin. We got settled in and then walked down to the beach. The water in Lake Superior is stunning and I was snapping a bunch of photos before we walked back to the cabin and had a fire. In the morning it was drizzling but we still went out for our ride around the island. The ride all the way around the perimeter is about 20 miles.