I have been a little out of practice when it comes to approaching strangers for their portrait. So I did a little confidence building exercise where I attempted to get 5 portraits as quickly as possible.  I decided I was just going to ask anyone and everyone in order prove to myself that I could do it. I have this habit of coming up with all sorts of excuses as to why I shouldn’t takes someones portrait when really I should just take the portrait and decide later. Learning from actually doing will trump any other sort of learning experience and the beauty of it is that is worked out really well this time.

This guy has to be the most surprising stranger I have ever photographed, one second I am taking his picture and the next moment he is stripping in the middle of Union Square in Downtown San Francisco which was packed with tourist and street performers.

After Tampa I flew straight to San Francisco to shoot my cousins Christine & Evan so expect another blog post here shortly which will be all about SF!

November 14th 2010 marked the start of my first real motorcycle trip. The goal was to ride from Overland Park Kansas to Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, which lies about 140miles over the border from Laredo Tx. Attached to Hidalgo is a park name El Potrero Chico, in this park are limestone mountains like I have never seen before and climbing to match. My route took me down through Missouri and into Arkansas where I got on the so called “Trans Arkansas Trail” which is a mix of asphalt, dirt roads and technical track through National Forest.This low speed crash happened in Ouachita National Forest AR, which I am absolutely in love with, there is a simple and quiet beauty to this place that I throughly enjoyed riding and camping through. Not having a whole lot of experience on motos in general it was inevitable that I was going to wipe out after spending the whole day in gooey mud that felt more like ice than dirt. Only damage was a broken mirror when I went over the handle bars.  More of Ouachita at SunriseThese two guys, Rocky and Robert were an incredible help when my chain broke and locked up my rear tire in Benton AR. Rocky helped me get a tow truck and Robert gave me a whole rundown on how to do proper bike maintenance and install a new chain properly. Without Robert using his lunch break to help me I would have installed the chain dangerously wrong. So the lesson here is if you ever have a break down make sure it happens in a small Arkansasian town  My route took me through Louisiana next which I found to be different from what I expected. It felt much older and seemed to have a lot of character and beautiful old neighborhoods to explore. looking forward to a currently unscheduled return trip which will spend time photographing people from places like Baton Rouge, Shreveport and New Orleans.The Gulf! It was just my luck that beach was covered with birds instead of oil. El Potrero Chico illuminated by a full moon and a sky full of stars! Absolutely incredible destination for rock climbing I can not recommend it high enough or the place I stayed, http://www.elpotrerochico.com.mx/This is another climbing area about 40miles south of El Potrero named El Salto. If I thought El Potrero was amazing El Sato is even more impressive. I have nothing to compare this place to. El Salto blew my mind. I had no idea that Mexico had this kind of experience to offer. It literally changed my entire perception of Mexico irrevocably for the better.This waterfall was one of the most beautiful I have seen. The volume alone was impressive but as you can see near the top of the frame, the water had carved out a natural bridge under which the water falls and creates a wake when it hits the pool in which my friends are standing. This is what El Salto climbing looks like. You are climb inside of caves and through tunnels, pulling on ‘tufas’ and stalagmites. All from place with breathe taking views. This is Ryan, the most talented rock climber of our group and a big part of why the El Salto experience was so much fun. Ryan and Arandeni pulling on so really cool climbs.Attempting to speak spanish was always an adventure and perhaps a bit humbling when the most common thing I said was ‘No entiendo, perdon!’

After two days in El Salto we returned to El Potrero and finished up with a rest day and one day of climbing that just whetted my appetite for a return trip. There is so much rock here that you could spend months and not hit it all. After those 2 day I packed everything up and headed for the Columbia International Bridge early Sunday morning. Columbia is a great option for missing all the US bound traffic that clogs Nuevo Laredo crossing. I made it back home after 2 days of intensely exhaustive riding. The last day of riding involved getting up at 2:30 am near Austin Texas and riding all the way back to Kansas city, stopping only to nap on a wooden pallet behind a liquor store and eat.

What I learned:

Imperfection is inherent in everything we do. Inescapable so.

Imperfection meaning, annoyance, failures, pain, suffering and set backs. It’s by accepting that baseline and working through it in spite of everything that allows us to accomplish and enjoy the goals we set. I think this realization is right in line with the old cliche of “It’s about the journey not the destination.” You have to learn to love the process and everything it entails in order to find happiness and succeed.

Family is everything.

The only things in our lives that really have true value are the people we love. All our plans, efforts and possessions can be rendered meaningless by an injury or catastrophe. In that light the only thing that has any value are the connections we’ve formed with the people that will be there for us through the successes and the failures.

I love stepping back and seeing myself or my bicycle just dwarfed by the area it sits in,  as if to say this tiny machine can overcome these endless expanses. I can’t help when seeing these settings but think of how this relatively uncomplicated machine could carry me around the world if I wished. I have come to think of this bicycle as my personal expression of freedom.

The more I contemplate what I do and why I do it the reason always seems to come back to freedom. That intense and very specific feeling of freedom, the kind where you can feel it through your whole body. England has been good for that.

This what many many miles of the English country side have looked like. These fields filled with little white flowers are my favorite type, I love the simplicity of their beauty. I think dreamy might be the right word, I wanted to nap here but with no shade I’d roast like the very un-tan white boy I am.
Sometimes I get lucky and find just the most incredible side roads that weave through the country with little or no traffic. The two people you see above were both photographed in the city you see below, Cromer. Cromer was one of my favorite cities yet, it is so classically European feeling and set right on the water. I ended up resting here for a whole day and sleeping on the beach, I am glad I did because it really gave me the opportunity to experience the city and people instead of just seeing it.   I have never seen cobble stone used so extensively before. Here in the South East UK it seems like they use it for everything, from streets to churches(which literally every town seems to have!) to walls to houses. But then again I haven’t seen a whole lot of big rocks either so that may explain it

After leaving Cromer I headed south to Norwich a middle sized city with “a church for everyday of the year” as I was told. After doing the hopelessly lost tourist thing for a while found myself on a park bench next to another Englishman who told me I should go to Amsterdam and watch the WC final. I thought that was a pretty good idea so here I am, in Amsterdam blogging about the UK. Tonight is the Final and 50-100k people are expected in the main square to watch the game so of course I will be there.  After that I have no idea where I will head…

So expect the next post to be all about Holland and my new cycle touring friend!

The coolest part about this shoot was that it was more than just a shoot, it was a chance to really get to know Don, Laura and Emmet. Laura and Don were generous enough to host me for 5 days in Ely, UK(which you’ve already seen a bit of from my last post) Over the last 5 days I not only got to meet my new little cousin but I actually got know him a little bit and what I learned was he LOVES to sit in his high chair eat, AKA pound his fist on the table, squeal with excitement and laugh like it’s the coolest thing ever,  and he has the most fun of any kid I have ever seen on the swing sets! I have so many awesome pictures of all his crazy energetic facial expressions, they go from fierce to happy to surprised looking all in the blink of an eye, I wish I could post them all but I will have to save some of those for the gallery. This shoot really wasn’t so different that any of the other 5 days I spent with Laura, Don and Emmet. Laura  always seemed to be going for walks with Emmet and spending time in the park or downtown.  Ely is such a great city for walking almost anywhere you want to go and is filled with great little parks a riverfront and an incredible downtown. For this shoot we really just made a loop around from the riverfront on up the hill to the front of the Cathedral, stopping for a snack on the way up. I said Iwanted something ‘classically British’ and as Don pointed out, you can’t really get any more British then a British flag atop a English Cathedral, so here it is Classically British
My time is Ely was fantastic and I feel really lucky to have had the chance to spend some time here. Thank you, Laura & Don, so much for the intro to the country, the incredible meals, Don and Laura are a team when it comes to whipping out fantastic meals, and for totally rocking this shoot