Dave Schmidt Photo

Made by Hand #3 - Wildwood Vermont

2018-04-07T09:25:00.000-04:00

When you approach Sean Murry’s Wildwood Vermont workshop, you are overwhelmed with the smell of cedar and you soon realize why. There are cedar hunks everywhere in varying stages of completion; from raw blocks to finished sanded mugs waiting to be laser engraved and oiled.

Sean turns these hunks of wood into a beautiful mug in a process that takes several steps that he has been perfecting for years. Oh, there’s a bit of sawdust and shavings everywhere too. It turns out wood turning eliminates about 90% of the wood on the way to the finished product.

Like the other shops I’ve visited, this one could use another thousand square feet of space to spread out – it’s tight, mostly due to the lathe that is big enough to turn ten-foot house columns (something he’s actually used it for). Also like the others, the equipment has been highly modified to make the process as efficient as possible.

The efficiency is necessary as this one-man-band has turn a few thousand of these one-of-a-kind beverage holders. I watched Sean prep the pre-cored blanks to be liner ready which requires attention to detail to get the liner to fit just right. Even so he cranked through a stack of blanks in near robotic fashion.

Tucked away in another room is a laser engraver that allows him to customize the work, whether it’s the mugs or beer taps and other items he makes for local businesses.

I tried to count the number of steps from raw wood to finished good and I think it is somewhere near ten, all from Sean's hands, which is something few users will ever fully appreciate. Next time you're looking for something useful and unique, whether for yourself, someone else or even a corporate gift, Sean's mugs are the perfect solution.

You can find Sean’s work in his Etsy shop

Don't miss:
Made by Hand #1 - Silo Skis
Made by Hand #2 – MTN Local Snowboards

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For the photo nerds: Shot with a Canon 7D MII with two off-camera speedlights; one softened with a Gary Fong Lightsphere and another with a Honl focusing grid, both triggered with PocketWizard Plus IV's and positioned with all-purpose Justin Clamps. Everything on manual. Images processed in Adobe Lightroom and finished in DXO Silver Efex Pro. (no commissions earned on recommendations – it’s just the stuff I use).

For the wood shop nerds: Sean would normally be wearing ear protection to reduce the noise of the lathe and the dust collection but was forsaken for the photos. I know, we’re setting a bad example for the kids, but you’ll get over it.

What's Next? Do you make something cool by hand and think you should be featured? Live in Northern Vermont (or willing to cover my travel), get in touch via IG, FB or my website.

Made by Hand #2 - MTN Local Snowboards

2018-02-14T16:26:00.000-05:00

Some people park their car in the garage, but there isn’t a chance in hell that Max Holzman’s truck could fit into his as it has been turned into his own little snowboard factory. Ok, factory is a bit of a stretch but somehow he’s fit everything you would find in a much larger facility capable of making hundreds of boards into one-half of his two-car garage (the other half holds a couple motorcycles and metal working machines, of course) to make his MTN Local Snowboards.

The centerpiece of his production capabilities is a single-cavity, high-pressure press that he built from scratch starting with a couple steel I-beams. There is a band saw on wheels, so he can roll it onto the driveway when he needs to trim the excess off after the boards have been pressed. There’s a rebuilt Grindrite tuning machine somewhere in there, a layup table with buckets of clamps, stacks of veneer, sheets of base material, rolls of fiberglass, piles of edges, buckets of epoxy and plenty of boards he’s already pressed. All of this is carefully surrounded by everything you could ever imagine you might need to make a snowboard and more. There is a heater in there too, but that might take the edge off the coldest of winter days, but not much more.

Max worked on the opposite end of the production process for several years as the supervisor in the warranty department at Burton. He knows what can break a snowboard and worked backwards from there and after a lot of trial and error and thousands of mistakes, he’s producing a board that rips. And that’s not his opinion, but that of a few former pros including Seth Neary, Seth Miller and Tricia Byrnes.

Max isn’t making hundreds of boards and really doesn’t want to, but everyone he does make is done one-at-a-time with year's of passion for snowboarding poured into each one.

If you toured the Burton Factory (when there was a Burton Factory) you would have seen a few rows of presses very similar to this one, which is in Max's garage.

Because you never know what you might need.

Happiness is a hand-built snowboard.

The band-saw is rolled onto the driveway to trim boards after coming out of the press.

Somehow he makes it all fit, just need to dress warm.

Check them out at mtnlocalsnowboards.com

Don't miss: Made by Hand #1 - Silo Skis

Other work: DaveSchmidtPhoto.com

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For the photo nerds: Shot with a Canon 7D MII with one off-camera speedlight softened with a Gary Fong Lightsphere, triggered with PocketWizard Plus IV's and positioned with the all-purpose Justin Clamp. Everything on manual.

Made By Hand #1 - Silo Skis

2018-01-17T15:52:00.001-05:00

New year, new project. I've had an idea for a personal photo project (other than chasing waterfalls) for some time and finally started to put it in motion. The project is 'Made by Hand' and will feature portraits of those that actually make/build/create with their own hands.

Having moderated a couple panel discussions with the craft ski makers around Vermont, it seemed like a good group to start with and Lars Whitman with Silo Skis in Richmond was kind enough to be the first.

Lars has built a portable workshop in a trailer which sits in his front of his house, which sits remotely on a 100+ acre lot in the woods and off the grid. Without any windows in the trailer you can easily forget about the beauty around you but as Lars puts it, 'that would be too much of a distraction.'
I spent a few hours with him as he laid up a new pair of skis using locally sourced wood and eco friendly epoxy. Having been around the ski/snow business for a while, I've seen the process done on industrial scales but it was very cool to see it happen on a personal, single pair level with homemade jigs and templates.

Lars will also work with you to help you build your own pair of skis if you're looking for something unique to slide down the hill with. www.siloskis.com

Don't Miss: Made by Hand #2 - MTN Local Snowboards

Other work: DaveSchmidtPhoto.com

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Warren Falls

2017-06-11T14:18:00.001-04:00

Warren Falls is a very cool spot - too cool for its own good. Conveniently located adjacent Rt. 100, just south of the town of Warren, complete with a nice parking lot for the first 20 or so cars, it is an overly popular spot on a hot summer day, thanks to frequent call-outs in travel blogs and magazines. The rest of the time, it's a pretty peaceful spot, as long as the crowds have remember to pick up after themselves. These photo's were taken around 8:30 in the morning on a Saturday in June - I'm sure the people showed up later that day and right now, as I write this and it's in the high 80's the day after, it's probably packed - like the image at the bottom from last summer.

upper falls

Middle Falls

Lower Pool

Bottom of the Falls

Just below the falls

What the falls are like on a hot summer day.

The Case for a Point-n-Shoot Camera

2017-05-19T12:46:00.001-04:00

The point-n-shoot camera business has been decimated by the iPhone and other smart devices with a camera built-in, and understandably so as mobile device makers have really improved the quality of the cameras they're stuffing in them. These are great for just about every snapshot you might want to make, but there are a few times when that camera in your phone just doesn't cut it. One of those situations is when you need a powerful zoom lens.

Zooming an iPhone is a joke; it's all done digitally which simply means it's a computer enhancement of of the basic image and the results are miserable. There is no mechanical change in the lens. Ok, all you iPhone 7 Plus owners are now screaming - "not mine! I have an optical zoom!" And you're right, you do, but only a 2x optical and 10x digital zoom - enough to make a portrait a little more interesting, but useless for sports, wildlife or other long range subjects.

Recently, I went with my son on a soccer tour of the UK. The highlight of the trip was the FA Cup semi-final match between Chelsea and Tottenham in Wembley Stadium along with 86,000 other fans. What an insane game (highlights here) but I wasn't about to drag in my Canon 7D and 200mm lens and they probably wouldn't let me in if I did. The iPhone would only have be good for the overall crowd shots or this panoramic of the place.

No, the camera of choice for this game was a Canon SX710 HS, a $300 pocket camera with a 30X optical zoom and a 20mp sensor. That 30X optical zoom is the equivalent of the 750mm lens on a 35mm camera - just huge! Not enough? Get the newer SX720 HS with a 40X optical zoom - a 960mm equivalent! Now there are some optical physics at play here as the lens is a 4.5mm - 135mm lens, but when you couple that with the 1/2.3" sensor, you get the equivalent of the 750mm lens on a 'full frame' camera. Confused? Read more on sensor size and its impact here.

Just how close can you get with this lens on this little camera? Let's take a look. You saw the wide angle perspective in the panorama above, which gives you an idea of where we were in the stands, and here's a 'normal' shot with the 710 of the field and stadium.

Now, let's get in on the action. First, the player lineups at midfield.

And here's some of the very happy Chelsea fans waving their flags in our end of the stadium (it's always more fun to be in the winning sides area).

And here's some real action shots. First, on our end of the field.

And on the far end of the field.

And none of these have used the full zoom power yet! Make sure to reference back to the 'normal' shot to get an idea how close this little camera is getting us.

To see what we can do at full zoom, I focused in the the cameras behind the goal on our end of the field. Why? First, I'm a camera nerd and I watch the action in the photo pit almost as much as the action on the field (someone get me a photo credential next time!). Second, see those little things sticking up on the top of the cameras? Those are PocketWizard radio triggers, a company I've worked for in the past and based right here in Vermont. It's always cool to see their products being relied on around the world and when I worked there I always wanted to someone to get me this image, but never got it, so now I have it. (hell, I even gave it to them but they haven't done anything with it yet).

What else can you take pictures of with this tiny camera? When the owl stops by our yard, he's always fun to get a photo of and when the moon is full, it's an easy target, as long as you can steady yourself enough.

What don't I like about this camera? First, the wifi and app system to transfer images to your phone is absolutely horrible. Most of the time I give up and just take the card out and put them on the computer. Hopefully they've fixed this on the newer model.

Second, with a zoom this powerful, you have to be able to steady the camera to get sharp images. In bright light that's relatively easy with a high enough shutter speed, but a mini-pod, or some other stabilizer is needed otherwise.

Overall, it is a great camera to have with you when you want to get close to the action.

Back in the SAP House

2015-04-09T12:31:00.001-04:00

Growing up in New York State, my pancakes were rarely lucky enough to get real maple syrup. When I moved to Vermont, it seemed like one of those unwritten rules that you only use the real thing and my kids have never tasted the likes of Aunt Jemima. But real maple syrup isn't cheap, quite the opposite with a gallon selling for around $40. To understand why it costs so much, you have to hang around a sugar house for a day and watch the magic happen.

No, not your commercial sugar house, more like making moonshine in a backyard still. This is a very small private sugaring operation where things are done the old fashion way; just old taps dripping into metal buckets collected by hand and poured into the holding tank. Just collecting the sap will exhaust you.

At least a little a little modern horsepower is used in the collection process.

The firebox was lit around 11am, and here, at around 2pm we're watching for the first sign of syrup. With a ratio of 40 gallons of sap needed to make one gallon of syrup, it takes a lot of boiling to bring it down.

Keeping the firebox stoked requires a very steady load of wood.

When it sheets coming off the ladle, you know it's ready.

and there it is.

Killing time at the Champlain Valley Fair

2014-08-26T19:29:00.003-04:00

Shots taken while shadowing a posse of 12 year olds hitting every spinning ride they could get on (and not one puked).

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First Cover

2014-08-14T16:55:00.000-04:00

A few months back my niece, Carol Ann (aka MotoCarolAnn), emailed me and said that I might get a call from American Motorcyclist Magazine as they were using her for a story. She had suggested they should consider me to take the shots. I've been published in their magazine before which I think put them in the right place to contact me. A few emails later and everything was set, well, almost set.

The story was about people that might not fit the typical motorcyclist image and for Carol Ann, they wanted a shot of her at work. She manages a clothing store in a mall. The magazine thought it would be a great location to shoot and so did the owners of the store. Mall management wasn't so enthusiastic. In fact they emphatically said NO WAY. Obviously they're more concerned what their risk managers might say then some exposure in a magazine. They may have just watched 12 O'Clock Boyz (a must watch documentary) and thought we'd be riding wheelies in the mall. Either way, the mall shot was out. Plan B was simply to shoot in a strip mall parking lot. Not the most exciting location but we'd make it work.

I drove the 6 hours down in the afternoon and we poked around some strip malls in Danbury, CT. We picked one for the shoot and had my niece meet me there at 7am the next morning with her boyfriend. That would give us a couple hours before stores opened to get the shots. We needed ten different shots, each taken with both work cloths and riding cloths and they had to match as closely as possible. This took a bit of the spontaneity out of the shots but not too much. It also was time consuming with wardrobe changes with each set-up.

The weather cooperated perfectly with nice morning sun and I used natural light for most shots and was happy to leave the big lights in the car. For a few shots I used a simple speedlight as a fill light.

Through all the communication with the magazine, the word COVER never came up but when the issue arrived, there it was - Carol Ann was the new American Motorcyclist Cover Girl. Another two shots were used with the story but they did not run any with the side-by-side wardrobe as they had hinted, but after landing the cover, I'm OK with that.

Special thanks to Ed Pudvah for his help and arriving with a perfectly coordinated jacket and Triumph Thruxton.

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Stowe Antique Car Show 2014

2014-08-10T16:37:00.002-04:00

Spent an hour or so this morning wandering around the Stowe Antique Car Show and taking photos of hood ornaments and other details. This show has just about everything including cars from all eras and all continents, a few bikes, trucks, firetrucks and a group of army vehicles. Apparently Saturday is the day to go with twice as many vehicles as today, but there was still plenty of interesting vehicles to check out.

The challenge at car/bike shows it trying to take shots that don't look like they were taken in some hot, dusty field with a bunch of other people wandering about. To do that I use a small, handheld flash held off camera and underexpose the shot while pumping the flash power up to compensate. This is combined with using a wide aperture to create a shallow depth of field and put the background completely out of focus.

Below are the favorites from the day but you can view many more shots from the event here. Prints are also available via the link.

Shots from other car and bike events can be found here.

And, for anyone interested, here's a great source for hood ornament identification.

Pontiac

someone buy me this car...

Rover

Electric cars are not new. This one from the 1930's.

Chevy

An amazing Rolls restoration

Rolls Royce

Pontiac

Pontiac Woody complete with authentic travel stickers.

From the muscle car section

The story behind this bike was pretty amazing. We'll see if anyone can guess what it is on my facebook page.

A perfect example of how a bit of underexposure with flash makes for a very interesting photo.

You can view many more shots from the event here. Prints are also available via the link.

Shots from other car and bike events can be found here.

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The Williston 4th of July

2014-07-07T21:53:00.002-04:00

There is magic in small town July 4th festivities. Williston has a lot of that magic and this year's 4th of July Parade and Frog Jumping contest were great fun for all. Its been fun over the years to watch our boys grow up from being the little guys on the side of the road snatching candy to carrying the American Flag in the Boy Scout Color Guard this year.

These are my favorite shots from the day. To see a lot more photos from this year, click here.

Boy Scout Troop 692 leads the parade. I think I know that kid holding the American Flag.

Doggy Day Care's customers get in on the parade.

US Representative Peter Welch

He bought it new.

A lot of excitement for a free water bottle.

The Imported Car Center's copilot.

Former US Marines.

Risking life and limb for candy.

Candy Crush

In need of more candy.

Williston fire chief's personal ride.

Chief


The wonderful Bill Skiff, hosting the frog jumping contest for more than 20 years, now has his own children's book starring Willie the Jumping Frog. More on Willie here and here.

Brayden's prize frog

Zoe gets her frog flying

Javier, (far right) an exchange student from Spain, definitely enjoyed his frog jumping experience, as did Joe, Doug and Ian.

Asa

By the time I took this, the crowd had dropped from the throngs at the start of the contest

Before being released back into the wild, we did a little frog photo shoot. This was shot with an extension tube on the lens to allow for extreme close-up.

Faces and frogs from years past. You can get a print of this here.

To see a lot more photos from this year, click here.

Click a year to see more images: 2013, 2012, 2011 and more...

Prints of any image always available. Contact me dsphoto(at)comcast.net

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Kayaking the LaPlatte River

2014-06-02T13:33:00.003-04:00

Spring is always the best time to paddle the LaPlatte River in Shelburne, VT. With Lake Champlain still swollen from spring runoff, you can paddle into usually unreachable places and cut corners in the normally meandering river. The green ash, silver maple and black willow trees that love the annual flooding create an endless sea of reflections in every direction. The trees that arch over the river make a kaleidoscopic tunnel to paddle down.

This 225 acre marsh near the mouth of river into Lake Champlain is a protected area with some help from The Nature Conservancy who has a little writeup about it here. Access is easy by using the boat launch at the mouth of the river on Lake Champlain right on Bay Road. Once launched, turn right and paddle under the Bay Rd. bridge. Once your round the first corner, the rest of civilization disappears quickly and the sounds of birds and a thousand frogs take over. There is at least one beaver family in the area that will usually let you know it's their turf with a good slap of a tail.

For photos, the challenge is to keep the kayak still enough while still moving forward so the glassy smooth surface is not disturbed in the direction of the camera. These photos were all taken with a small Sony NEX6 camera in a high contrast black-n-white mode then post processed in Adobe Lightroom to pull up the shadows and add some sharpening. Most had some localize dodging and burning as well.

There are duck eggs for anyone that makes it to the end. Photos from a couple years back can be seen here.

The tunnel of bent trees over the main channel of the river

Silver maple tree bark

The view looking west very near the mouth of the riven into Lake Champlain

Here are your duck eggs, nestled into the crook of an old tree

Prints of any image always available. Contact me dsphoto(at)comcast.net

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Kayaking Lewis Creek

2014-05-30T22:29:00.002-04:00

This was my first visit to Lewis Creek near Ferrisburgh, VT. There is a fishing access off of Long Point Road near the mouth of the creek in Lake Champlain. With the water level in the lake still higher than normal due to spring runoff, there is little current in the creek and paddling upstream is not an issue. With much of the low lying areas still flooded and incredibly calm water it made for some beautiful reflections. Once again, I couldn't choose between color or black and white so some of these appear both ways.

Bingham Falls

2014-05-21T22:39:00.002-04:00

I drove past the path that leads down to Bingham Falls over 300 times before I finally stopped to explore it a few years back. Now I try to stop whenever I can. There are multiple layers to the falls as the water, fresh off the slopes of nearby Mt. Mansfield, starts its journey to the Atlantic. The emerald water is magnificent and always on the chilly side.

Bingham Falls can be found on Rt. 108, about one mile east of Stowe Mountain Resort. Look for a large pull-off on either side of the road. The trail to the falls is on the north side of the road and has a large sign a few steps into the woods.

These photos were all taken with a Canon 5D Mark II with a 6 stop neutral density filter to allow for 15-30 second exposures.

Color Prints of all images are available here.
Black and white prints available here.

Upper Bingham Falls

Middle Bingham Falls

Lower Bingham Falls

Small stream tributary

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BTS in the Jewelry Department

2014-05-19T22:21:00.001-04:00

Twice a year I shoot product shots for my friend Marsha Drake. She usually has a few standout pieces that I use for a "glory shot" to be used on her mailer, a history of them can be seen here. This time around I stuck with a standard black background shot (Amazon has patented the white background!) but although it looks like a pretty straightforward shot, there is quite a bit of set-up, tweaking and post to get it as you see here.

The three pieces were placed on clear plexi that was tilted at a 45º angle. This allowed the rest of the necklace to hang behind but allow for a little separation. There was black seamless behind the plexi and I had to put black paper on the ceiling to kill reflections in the plexi. The main light was an AlienBee 1600 with a 36" octa softbox just slightly to camera left. I used two LED spotlights to back-light the stones and these had a few pieces of foam core to block spill light in unwanted places. I wasn't too concerned about color balance based on how the image was going to be used, but the LED's were 5500º K, close enough to the AlienBee flash.

Camera was on a tripod to allow for the one second exposure needed to back-light the stones. The camera was triggered with a corded remote trigger and the flash triggered with a PocketWizard PlusX, which is perfect for a simple studio set-up like this.

Post was started in Lightroom before the final cleanup and sharpening in Photoshop. Here is the before and after of the base photo:

As seen in the unretouched RAW file

after Lightroom and Photoshop

The logo, designed by Stride Creative Group in Burlington, was added along with the border for the final design.

Here are some of the other pieces of jewelry:

These were shot using a 50mm lens with an extension tube for the closeup. I used an aperture of F22 to maximize depth-of-field. Here's the set-up for the necklace shots:

The necklace holders are DIY from parts found in a hardware store and they work great for holding very small items, whether the subject or reflectors.

There were some rings too:

Have something small (or large) that you need quality photos of? Contact me: dsphoto(at)comcast.net

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Cape Cod Morning

2014-05-01T09:16:00.000-04:00

For my kid's spring break this year we decided to visit a deserted Cape Cod. Even with the Massachusetts' schools also being on break, they all obviously decided to head to warmer climates further south. The Cape was left pretty much empty. April is not the best time to go if you want to go swimming, but all the beauty of the Cape is still there and you don't have to fight the summer crowds to enjoy it.

I'm an early riser and whenever we're on the road and the kids sleep in, I'll get up and out hours before they see the light of day. On the Cape, this meant a few days hours each day to explore the beaches of the Cape Cod National Seashore and take photos.

All of these images were taken with a Canon 5D MII, 17-40mm lens with a B+W 3.0 neutral density filter. This filter is basically black and only allows a little light through it allowing me to use much longer shutter speeds than you normally would without this ND filter. Average exposure time was between 20 and 30 seconds which smooths out the water and gives a mystical quality to the fog. The camera was mounted on a sturdy Induro tripod and triggered using the 2 second delay to avoid vibration.

Click on the photos to see them larger. Prints available on the click-through site or limited edition (edition of 20) signed and matted 12x18 prints can be purchased directly by contacting me. dsphoto(at)comcast.net

Le Count Hollow Beach, Wellfleet

White Crest Beach, Wellfleet

Cahoon Hollow Beach at the Wellfleet Beachcomber

Chatham Lighthouse Beach

Ryder Cove, Chatham

Coast Guard Beach, Eastham

Selfie, White Crest Beach, Wellfleet

Seacoast Soccer Tournament 2014

2014-03-24T08:42:00.002-04:00

Select Photos from the Seacoast Soccer Tournament, March 22-23 2014

U13 - Winners of their bracket.

See full gallery here.

U12

See full gallery here.

And for your own review, here's the disallowed goal. Doesn't look like the goalie had possession to me. Some calls go your way, some don't...

U11

Full Gallery here.

See more pictures of each by clicking the links:

U11

U12

U13

Staten Island Ferry

2014-03-04T20:38:00.002-05:00

One of the best attractions in New York City is a free ride on the Staten Island Ferry, whether you're sight-seeing or simply commuting to the Rock. The view of lower Manhattan is amazing, especially now that the Freedom Tower is complete on the outside, but most tourists seem to be more interested in the drive-by of Lady Liberty who is always there with her torch to greet them.

On a recent visit I took the ferry a few times across the harbor and lucked out with beautiful light, a few feathered friends and a US Coast Guard escort.

Click on an image to see it larger.

What are you looking at?

All photos taken with a Sony NEX 6 camera with post processing in Lightroom.

The Frozen Landscape of Lake Champlain

2014-02-18T09:04:00.004-05:00

With the ice on Lake Champlain somewhere around 20" thick, its safe to explore frozen west coast of New England. This trip was simply out a well traveled path to Lone Tree Point, just north of Burlington, Vermont.

DaveSchmidtPhoto.com Completely Redone

2014-02-05T16:48:00.003-05:00

DaveSchmidtPhoto has been completely redone. Loads of new images, new pages, and a whole new look. Check it out here.

Gaspé in 72 Hours

2013-08-01T09:16:00.003-04:00

One of the motorcycle rides I have had on the to-do list for some time is a ride around the Gaspé Peninsula. It's just far enough away that it needs four days and getting four days that align with good weather had never materialized, until now. With that window opened, I loaded the bike and headed north.

Day one started at 2pm after a last minute oil change for the bike. First target was Beecher Falls, VT, in the very northeast corner of the state. From there I crossed into New Hampshire and up Route 3 through the very remote northern tip of the state. The border into Canada was one that you pull up and wait for someone to appear. Want to avoid lines? This is the place.

In Canada, you immediately you see the change in the landscape as the mountains fade into rolling hills and towns are far more frequent. I had come this way to ride through Lac-Megantic, where only weeks ago a run-away train had rolled into town late at night and destroyed the center of town and killed 50 people. A major disaster anywhere, but here in this tiny lake-side tourist town it seemed absolutely surreal.

With the sun dropping, I needed miles and motored to Quebec City for the night.

Day two needed to end at the tip of Gaspé, which even from Quebec City is a long way away. With a 6:30 start and highway for the first couple hours I had 200 miles done by coffee at 10am. From here it was two lane along the coast for the next few hundred miles and the pictures take over...

For 450 miles, there was nothing but epic coastal road. In places like here, it was clear that the sea was eager to claim back the road. For this stretch, there was a solid tail wind which boosted gas mileage to over 55 mpg.

The Gaspé has sprouted a lot of wind turbines.

La Martre Lighthouse

Cape Madeleine

Cape Madeleine and the Cape Madeleine light at left.

Cape Madeleine Light

A poor shot of the end of the Gaspé Peninsula. Stunning in real life.

Cap-Des-Rosiers Light

Looking east along the southern road inside the Forillon National Park near Gaspé.

Looking west along the southern road inside the Forillon National Park near Gaspé.

Beyond Gaspé the view towards the

Sunset from a hilltop just on the edge of Percé

Looking back across the bay towards the tip of Gaspé.

You turn the corner and the town of Percé comes into view. Spent the second night in a motel at the bottom of this hill. That tall rock you see here is the same long rock with the hole in it you see below.

Percé is an amazing place and I was on the stony beach late taking long exposures of the rock formations under a clear, moonlit sky. Those images can be found here.

Heading out of Percé a look back at

Site historique du Banc-de-Pêche-de-Paspébiac

The view west when crossing into New Brunswick from Quebec

The view east when crossing into New Brunswick from Quebec

The bike is a Yamaha Super Ténéré

Crossing New Brunswick heading towards Maine.

Somewhere in upper Maine. Didn't see another car for about 20 miles.

See that bag on the back? That's the camping gear I never touched.

After dropping into Maine I spent the last night in Camden for a short visit with an old friend doing a workshop at the Maine Media Workshops. The last 250 miles on day four was spent in the rain figuring out where there were breaches in my rain gear...

Total Miles: 1670
Total Time: 72 Hours

See also:
Long Exposures in Percé and The Road to Nova Scotia

Long exposure in Percé

2013-08-01T09:16:00.002-04:00

On a tour of the Gaspé by motorcycle, I stopped for the night in Percé, one of the more amazing pieces of coastline in eastern North America. Up late and up early.

Prints of this shot are available here. Prints of the other photos are available by request.

See the rest of the trip photos here.

F1 Montreal

2013-06-11T23:49:00.001-04:00

Last year I went to the Formula 1 Montreal Gran Prix armed with my iPhone for a camera. That was a mistake. We had first row seats in the hairpin and the shot opportunities were excellent. I did not make the same mistake twice and brought a decent camera and lens to Montreal for the 2013 race.

We sat in Senna Corner which is the first few turns of the track. Despite being 3/4 of the way up the stands, I still managed some shots that, with some rather generous cropping, make it look like I was a lot closer than I was.

I'm still working other angles to someday have a very hard-to-get official "just-sign-away-all-your-rights" photo pass to one of these events. Maybe next year for the first ever Gran Prix of New York City.

Read more about the finances of the Montreal Gran Prix here. Montreal results here.

Senna Corner, Stand 11, Row P, Seat 14...

Q2 was red flagged with less than 2 minutes remaining. When they reopened the course it was a mad dash from pit lane to get one last lap in to try and make it to the final qualifying session for the top 10.

Lewis Hamilton, the favorite of the Brits sitting behind us. Listening to them was almost as entertaining as the race.

There were roughly 290,000 people at the race. 90% where a hat.

Pole sitter and winner, Sebastian Vettel

Vettel

Hamilton

Perez

Hamilton

Charles Pic (had to look it up)

Romain Grosjean

Massa


Hats

Vettel at the flag.

Out on the track for the awards.

Hamilton, probably a bit peeved he could not catch Vettel (and got passed by Alonso near the race end) puts a little bubbly up Vettel's nose.

Webber, who came in a fighting forth, joins them on the podium.

This is what 290,000 trying to catch the subway looks like.

Hanging out in the hairpin post race.

'69 Norton Commando

2013-06-05T22:20:00.000-04:00

Got a call from my friend Jack at The Classic Bike Experience the other day. Something about a new bike he and his team just finished restoring. It was going to be shipped off to Florida to its owner but before it left, he wanted to know if we wanted him to bring it over for some pictures. Of course we did.

What showed up was a beautiful '69 Norton Commando with a blue metal-flake paint that looked so deep you could dive into it. This bike is a classic among classics. In its day, it was the fastest production twin there was and the brand lives again today with a modern version of the classic cafe style Commando.

for more old British bikes, check out this series of posts:
- the British Bikes, part one
- the British Bikes, part two
- the British Bikes, part three
- the British Bikes, part four

May Surprise

2013-05-26T22:07:00.002-04:00

Mt. Mansfield. May 26, 2013

Interested in a print? Click here.

Huntington Gorge Rages Again

2013-05-25T21:19:00.000-04:00

Huntington Gorge is deadly when it's running normal. When it has rained endlessly for a few days, it becomes a beautiful raging monster. This is how it looked on May 25th, 2013.

Upstream

Just above the top of the Gorge

A short video of what it really looked like...