Gregg Bleakney's Blog on Visual Storytelling, Adventure Travel, Bike Touring, and Cycling

Pirates of the Rainforest - Sierra Magazine & UTNE Reader

2013-05-12T17:21:00.002-07:00

Client: The Sierra Club - Magazine and Online
Reprinted: May 2013 UTNE Reader - Magazine and Online

Researched, photographed and written over a period of four months in the backyard of my youth, Pirates of the Rainforest investigates the explosion of specialized forest product poaching on Washington State's Olympic Penninsula. "Pirates" is the first major non-cycling feature I've produced with both words and photos. I love cycling, but for me it has always been about travel and adventure--not racing, or gear--so in 2013, I've decided not to chase big races around the globe, but to re-focus my storytelling around my core passions: environmental issues and creative adventure travel, exploration, and people. With that said, I was honored when UTNE Reader selected Pirates for re-print in their issue compiling essential environmental issues writing. My fingers are crosses that this is the first of many environmental issues projects to come.

Finding Authentic Travelers (and underwear models) in Colombia for ExOfficio's Made to Adventure Campaign

2013-04-02T16:52:00.001-07:00

Client: ExOfficio - 2012 and 2013 marketing materials: catalogs, print ads, visual merchandising, trade show, web, email, and social media.

*Click here to see sample images and videos from the campaign

When ExOfficio asked me to produce their Made to Adventure 2012 spring/summer marketing campaign in the most authentic destination possible, I just knew I had to make it happen in Colombia. I lived in Colombia in 2009 and have been on assignment there at least once per year since 2008—it's probably my favorite country to photograph.

To extend ExOfficio's branding theme of "authenticity" beyond the destination itself, we decided not to hire models, but rather to use social media and networking along the traveler's trail to find real people on real adventures in Colombia. With two talented assistants, Kathryn Friedman and Willa Kammerer, and my friend and fixer extraordinaire, Hernan Acevedo, we set out a 10-day, 2,000+ mile road trip through the country to track down travelers that fit with ExOfficio's brand ethos in real-time. By the end of the production, we’d photographed 38 different people for the campaign—all of them were on amazing journeys and had incredible stories to tell.

The adventure took us to 14 different shoot locations--4x4-ing over 14,000 foot passes in Los Nevados National Park, walking across barren patches of sand in the Tatacoa desert, drinking Colombian rum in a string of cobbled spanish colonial towns, trekking through a valley with the tallest palm trees in the world, and chilling out on dreamy Caribbean beaches in Tayrona National Park.

The product focus was ExO's spring / summer line (including underwear). We carried three large duffel bags full of hundreds of clothing samples in the trunk of Hernan's Subaru wagon. The challenge was not only to look for travelers who matched the look ExO was after, but the talent also had to be the correct size and gender for the samples we were shooting in each geographic zone--eg. sun line in the desert, surf and water on the coast, Bugs Away in the jungle, urban travel in colonial towns, and cool weather and trekking garments in the Andes. It was also always a careful conversation to ask people we'd just met to consider modeling underwear. But alas, using a mix of careful planning and serendipity as the guide, everything came together perfectly.

Here's a few images of the travelers we found for the campaign:

Mari - Found traveling on a bus through the Andes. Profession: teacher on the Galapagos Islands. Home: Bay Area

Willa checking out a hand made guitar in Bogota. Home: New York City

Brian: Found in a hostel. His two year motorcycle road trip led to Colombia. Home: California

Audrey: Found on the street in a bohemian beach village. She's traveled to 46 countries in the past 5 years.

Sultry, Sexy, Chaos - the 200th Anniversary of Colombia's Carnival

2013-03-12T12:30:00.002-07:00

It was hot, it was sexy, it was chaotic, and it was fully booked months in advanced. The 200th anniversary of Colombia's carnival was the event of the decade for the Caribbean port of Baranquilla--and after spending the better part of a day unsuccessfully internet-ing in search of a place to crash, I hopped the Boeing-train from San Francisco --> Houston --> Bogota --> Baranquilla without a clue as to where I was going to base camp during the 4.5 day party. But things always tend to work themselves out down here. "Colombian creativity" they call it.

After I touched down, my friend and master fixer in "Locombia," Hernan, put some calls in from his Bogota HQ while I was spooning through a rather putrid bowl of cow intestine soup at Mac Mondongo restaurant in downtown Baranquilla. He had a friend who had a friend who had a friend who had a single bed available in her hotel. The catch: it was a pay-by-the-hour nooky-house on the wrong side of town. "No problemo," I thought. During coastal stages of my cycling trip from Alaska to Argentina, I put my time in at many an hourly rate love shack as there simply weren't any other options. In fact, let me take this opportunity to share a favorite Tom Robbin's quote regarding said establishments.

“These were the kind of splotches that might enliven the bedsheets of a Third World beach motel.”

From Mac Mondongo's, I hopped in a cab and mumbled the hotel address to the driver. "Where?"--he touched on the brakes. "I'll take you there, but if you leave your room for 5-minutes, you'll be returning without any clothes on your back." Baranquilla doesn't have the best reputation for "tranquilidad." Just at that moment, my cell blip-blipped. It was a text from another one of Hernan's friends. "My family has an extra apartment we use for entertaining out of town guests. You can have it tonight."

And that's where I put down my bags--8 hours after landing--on the eve of my first night in Quilla. The next day, I was taken-in by an incredibly fun family with an apartment just a click from the Carnival parade's starting point. They hosted me for the next 4 nights.

My super-dooper fun host family in Banquilla during Carnival

From Baranquilla, I took a bus down the Caribbean coast to Santa Marta where I bumped into a few of the cute dancers I'd photographed during carnival. They invited me to join them at a another "friend of a friend's" hotel on the eastern edge of Tayrona National Park. Fortunately, the chicken bus dropped us off at the wrong address. We walked down a random dirt road through the jungle anyway and somehow ended up at one of the most fantastic beach pads I've ever laid eyes on. We slept in hammocks for three days--taking photos, drinking Ron Viejo de Caldas mixed with fresh juice, stargazing, and picking sand out of our ears. I like to call it serendipity--but must give props to my "Locombia" friend Hernan's description of my post carnival R&R, "that's life in the f-ing tropics man."

The beach pad of beach pads. I hit this stretch of sand for some post carnival R&R.

Please enjoy these photos from the 200th edition of Colombia's Carnaval de Barranquilla

A Traveler's Eyes

2013-02-27T13:51:00.003-08:00

Cucoy National Park, Colombia - 14,000 feet.

Marta and Raul made a bet that travel on two wheels would yield the intangible reward of life unfiltered, of travel beyond the typical tourist's bubble. They were two years into a three year cycling trip through the Americas when I spotted them in a mountain hut last week (without their bicycles). I see eyes that reveal themselves only after authentic experience--the eyes of a traveler.

Can you see them too?

Marta and Raul's Website:

The Americas By Cycle

2013 - My Storytelling Roots

2013-02-04T09:39:00.001-08:00

New Logo - Gregg Bleakney Visual Storytelling

Lip biting, gear sorting, list making, camera prodding. My standard pre-assignment ritual. Tomorrow I'm hopping a bird to Colombia for seven weeks. If there's a place on the planet that feels like a second home, it's Colombia. I've been shooting there every year since 2008--but this trip is different.

2012 was surreal for me. A flurry of around-the-world flights to 13 countries. Big goals, big projects, intense assignments, and killer new clients. It all blew by so fast. When I close my eyes, my memory spins, I get dizzy on experience. Now it's time to press pause.

This year I want to re-connect with my roots as an adventure travel visual storyteller, when my spirit was unfiltered, peripatetic, sniffing butts (see below) and wandering on a Ribbon of Road. So I'm kicking off 2013 with a completely re-designed website and blog that better express my personal brand. Most importantly, I carved out a block of time to journey back to my second home for no other reason than to follow my visual curiosity. No assignments, no deadlines, slow down, anticipate.

Below, I've re-published an interview I did with National Geographic Adventure Magazine as I was pedaling from Alaska to Argentina. This shortlist of lessons learned while I established my storytelling roots (but before I knew that I would become a visual storyteller) are just as viable today as when I wrote them down in 2006. A perfect guide for my 2013 endeavors. Let the serendipity begin.

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Seattle reader Gregg Bleakney and his friend Brooks Allen are pedaling the Americas from tip to tail to raise money for diabetes research, in a project they dubbed Ribbon of Road. Bleakney gave us a few pointers during a pit stop at Machu Picchu in Peru.

Be Nice. "In 100 Mile House, a former South Cariboo gold rush town in British Columbia, I camped with a 78-year-old Russian military captain. Over a few beers, he shared his most important safety rule for traveling in foreign lands: 'Always remember that nobody wants to fight, cheat, or rob a nice guy.' Sometimes it's tough to be nice when you've ridden 80 miles in 100 degree heat through the Peruvian coastal desert and you're attempting to order dinner for the tenth time from a women who claims that your money is fake. But I've fully embraced this rule and it hasn't let me down so far."

Sniff Butts. "Be like a dog--sniff butts. Smell things, stare at things, touch things, taste odd-looking food, and talk to strangers. At some point during my middle-class American upbringing, I lost touch with my animal instincts. When traveling on bicycle you are much more exposed to the elements than when traveling in a car or bus. Engage all of your five senses to better protect yourself and interpret the world around you."

Surround Yourself With People Who Support You and Your Dream. "While cycling on a jungle road in Chiapas, Mexico, I was assaulted and robbed by machete-toting banditos. As a result, I lost a substantial amount of gear, my cycling partner, and my self-confidence. My sponsors immediately sent replacement gear and my friends and family gave me the emotional support I needed to continue with my journey. Without their support, I would likely be nine to five-ing it right now, daydreaming about what could have been. Brooks rejoined the trip a few months later."

Simplify. "The less stuff you have, the less you have to worry about. My bike and gear tipped the scales at 135 pounds when I started this trip in Alaska. Through a large 'mail-home' package, misplacements, and mysterious disappearances, my kit now weighs in at under 100 pounds. I don´t miss anything, especially when climbing 16,000-foot passes in the Andes.

Surrender Yourself to Your Dream. After about nine months of being on the road, I finally realized that this experience was not just a temporary departure from my real life, but that my dream had actually become my life. At that point, I became more flexible with my planning. I let my dream pull me forward, rather than me attempting to push it forward. Since this 'surrendering,' I've been much more relaxed, happy, and able to cope when things go awry.

Follow The Good - Short Story and 13 page photo essay: PAVED MAGAZINE

2012-03-30T18:35:00.006-07:00

Paved Magazine's winter edition features my 13-page photo essay about India's common man cyclists. Paved is now available as an iPad / iPhone app for anyone interested in checking out the images + short story about an epiphany brought on by a severe drug overdose, devil monkey twins, and a few words of wisdom from a sari wearing stranger while making 20,000 portraits of Indians on two wheels.

PAVED Magazine Cover - South Australia Aerial Series

2012-03-12T10:11:00.016-07:00

Some fresh work from this year's Tour Down Under has hit the newsstands.

Paved Cover

First up, the cover shot and 10-page feature picture story/short essay for Paved Magazine (a new magazine from the makers of Bike, Powder, and Surfer) from my 2012 aerial series.

I've had many inquiries about how this this image was made--here's the lowdown.

This project was inspired after sitting next to National Geographic's aerial specialist George Steinmetz at the The International Photojournalism Festival of Perpignan in 2010. Ever since, I've been looking for a cycling venue where I could secure a helicopter credential to execute aerial photography over a peloton. In January of this year, the the opportunity presented itself at the UCI World Tour Event, The Tour Down Under.

Peloton and wheat fields, South Australia

I had just a few minutes per stage directly above the peloton to make the pictures for this assignment. Each morning, the heli-pilot and I would meet in a ball field across the street from my hotel to review topo-maps of the route. We picked target locations for the shoot and cross-referenced our take-off duration, flight speed, and the actual start time/average speed of the peloton in attempt to intercept the cyclists over these locations for quick bursts of image making. The timing needed to be perfect--and a bit lucky. Air traffic control granted us two to three turns (hovers) over the bunch (1,500 feet) at each intercept point before we had to turn the airspace back over to the TV choppers. Because each stage was scheduled at mid-day--I needed to work with what I had--harsh sun and the beautifully patterned landscapes of South Australia.

Though I always think that there is room for improvement, in just a few days since publication, these images have become some of the most requested prints and editorial use licenses of any cycling-related photos in my archive. I think more aerials are in my future.

G

Shooting bursts out of the Bell Ranger

2012 Kickoff = Back to Back to Back to Back Around the World

2012-03-08T20:17:00.017-08:00

2012 has kicked off with a flurry of travel activity, fresh projects, and zero downtime. First, because most of my new assignments are hitched with words, photography, and video production, I decided to change the name of my business to Gregg Bleakney Visual Storytelling from GB Photography to more accurately describe what I do. You can check out the new logo art on my portfolio website here.
It's been such a jet lagged year that I've yet to post or see most of the work I've produced--but here's a skinny version of 2012 goods so far:
January:
- Helicopter Over the Tour Down Under. Produced a series of aerials from a helicopter over the first World Tour of the UCI calendar (The Tour Down Under) for a picture story in PAVED Magazine.
- Adelaide, Australia / ER Italy. Wrote and photographed in-depth travel guides to Adelaide, Australia and Eastern Italy for the 2012 VeloNews Ultimate Guide.
- Cycling Gone Global. From China to Colombia to India, Malaysia and back again--words and pictures for a long form VeloNews story on the sport of cycling's new global frontiers.

- Investigative Piece on the DL. Polished the last bits of my long-term investigative story. I can't say what it is yet--my only hint is that it has nothing to do with cycling.
February:
- Follow the Good. - A 10-page feature picture story and short essay for Paved Magazine about India's working class cyclists.
- ExOfficio. Wrapped the 2012 ExOfficio storytelling production in Colombia for their Spring/Summer catalog, advertising, and mixed media campaigns. Thanks to the hard work of two amazing assistants, Katie and Willa, and an out of this world fixer, Hernan--in just two weeks, we managed to build an incredible still, video and sound asset base (nearly 30,000 files) while sourcing 38 models, 4 different 4x4s, hundreds of looks and garments, 1 fishing yacht, planes, buses, and 1 skiff plus a multi-thousand mile road trip through the high Andes, scorching deserts, tropical jungles, national parks, spectacular beaches & colorful colonial towns. Over and over again, the impossible was made possible and the net result of this shoot is an authentic take on adventure travel with a commercial spin--and as far as I know, it's never been done before. Much more on this later, behind the scenes, and a bag o' goodies.

- Tour of Langkawi Malaysia. After a near-direct swoop from Bogota to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, I sat on the back of a motorcycle for 10-days to cover one of the more interesting cycling races on the UCI calendar, Le Tour de Langkawi. A proving ground for both asian cyclists and up and coming europeans, the race's route wends across and over Malaysia--jungles, burning sunshine, extreme humidity, monsoons n' all. Words and photography to be published in a future edition of Paved Magazine.

Here are a few images from along the way:

ExOfficio Winter 2012 Storytelling Campaign

2012-01-27T16:51:00.000-08:00

Since last Fall, I've been working with adventure travel clothing manufacturer ExOfficio to help build an archive of storytelling content for catalogs, look books, in-store merchandising, and advertisements. The campaign is scripted around authentic travelers and stories rather than manufactured moments. To gather images, I've scouted the globe for fellow travelers who fit the ExO mold--then I simply hang out and photograph them in real travel scenarios. Cambodia, Vietnam, South Korea, Southern Mexico, India, the Amazon/Orinoco, and Argentina have all served as backdrops for the project.

Next week I'm dropping-in to Colombia with a team of storytellers to document a tale of self-discovery and renaissance--for both the country and its travelers. It's a fresh commercial concept with a compelling editorial thread. Real travelers, real destination, real stories. Still imagery, video, music, words. All coming this Spring/Summer to an ExOfficio touch-point near you!

Here's a few images and videos from the winter campaign:

Don Thomas cameo in Nat Geo Kids

2011-11-23T06:33:00.000-08:00

Don Thomas is making a cameo in National Geographic's new Ultimate Weird But True book for kids--and I couldn't think of a more appropriate title for the book, considering the character selected for the two page opening spread:) Photo taken in high-desert of Bolivia.

Fall Work with New Clients

2011-11-01T14:48:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy Fall season and busy is good in the world of visual storytellers. With two laps around the world in the past six weeks to amazing destinations like Beijing, Emilia Romagna Italy, New York, Southern Mexico and Olympic National Park--I think that I've become time-zone agnostic. Some of my images from these assignments are starting to publish in print and online. Below, I've included some tear sheets from the past weeks. Enjoy!

Gregg

New Client: Bicycling Magazine - November 11 Issue/The Ride of My Life

New Client: New York Times - October 11/Tour of Beijing

New Client: WIRED Magazine - RAW FILE/Tour de France iPhone

New Client - Cyclesport UK - October Issue/Tour of Beijing Feature

New Client: La Gazzetta dello Sport, Italy - October 11/Beijing Bike Culture Feature

VELO Magazine: December 11/Tour of Beijing

Paris Brest Paris for La Gazzetta's Sport Week Magazine

2011-09-01T16:11:00.000-07:00

La Gazzetta dello Sport is Italy's biggest newspaper and the largest sporting publication in the world. Each weekend, they publish SportWeek Magazine as special insert in the newspaper. The magazine recently featured a photo-essay of my work from the Paris-Brest-Paris ultra endurance cycling race. Held every 4th year, the race was a precursor to the Tour de France and has been running for over 100 years. I shot the race with my trusted moto-driver, Mr. Stephan Schier, for 90 sleepless hours--rain and shine, along the incredible backroads of Brittany and Western France.

La Maglia Rosa - Feature Picture Story for September's VELO/VeloNews

2011-08-29T22:29:00.000-07:00

September's VELO Magazine (formerly VeloNews) is featuring a picture story I produced about the history of the Giro d'Italia's modern-day pink leader's jersey. Researching the article took me into the heart and soul of the race with the sport's biggest champions, directors, and business owners--and of course, plenty o' gelato. What a fun gig indeed.

Backyard

2011-08-18T03:13:00.000-07:00

I've been living in the countryside near a small town in eastern Italy. It's late-summer, the fruit is sweet, it's hot, and most people are on vacation at the sea, the lake, or wherever it is that they go to cool off. This is what I see when I'm here.

Next week, I leave for China.

It's been nice to have a backyard.

My pasta class from Grandma down the road

Din Din on top of the ridge

At the lake

Sausage Fest

legs at the station

At the swimming hole

the usual Sangiovese loop ride.

Totally NOT behind the scenes at Le Tour de France

2011-07-28T23:41:00.000-07:00

After witnessing the crazy press hordes, photographers shouting at each other, and tales of friends being elbowed in the face in the finish line pit, I decided that the press pass for the Tour de France that allows "behind the scenes" access wasn't really so "behind the scenes" after all. Here's a video from the photographer at Bicycling Magazine where Frank Schleck gets knocked off his bike by the crazed "behind the scenes" media who are scrambling to get a shot of the moment he hugs his brother after loosing the time-trial (and the Tour itself).

I like my freedom to roam and since this freedom is effectively restricted in the press area, I decided to scrap my press pass and big cameras to wonder around outside the lines and shoot 2011 Tour de France w/ an iPhone--as a fan/spectator. My goal was to convey what it's like to be a "normal person" without a press pass at the Tour de France. How close can a fan get to the athletes, what's the vibe, and how fun, wacky, wild is it (fans are much more chill than the media)?

Here's a short gallery photos from the 2011 Tour de France:

2011 Tour de France iPhone Gallery - Images by Gregg Bleakney

Outside Magazine. India, RadioShack and New Frontiers

2011-07-26T07:16:00.000-07:00

The August 2011 issue of Outside Magazine back cover "Parting Shot" is an image I made of Team RadioShack during their warm-up ride for the Tour de Nasik cyclothon in India. I'm fascinated by pro-cycling's recent push to expand into new global frontiers and am equally glad that mainstream, non-cycling magazines are willing to publish pictures of the trend.

A Car-Free Tour de Suisse Experiment

2011-07-06T02:21:00.000-07:00

For more photos see the VeloNews Tour de Suisse Web Galleries: Lugano Prologue and Car-Free Gallery

Last summer (while in Switzerland researching trips for the VeloNews Ultimate Ride Guide) I discovered the Swiss National Bike Network and its nine cross-country road bike routes with 82 local and regional trails covering 9,000 kilometers. I also learned that for an extra $10 (above and beyond my train ticket), SwissRail allows travelers to toss a bike onto any Swiss train. Wonder-twin-power-activate this rail and trail system, sprinkle some heart-thumping terrain on top, and you get a veritable Disneyworld for DIY cycling junkies.

This summer, with 1-month remaining on my annual 50% off Swiss train pass, $7+ per gallon gas prices, and an assignment to photograph several Tour de Suisse stages, I wanted to see how far I could push the Swiss transportation infrastructure. Would it be possible to shoot the race using only trains and a bicycle?; i.e. no cars or motos. To find out, I put this “carbon-free as possible” Tour de Suisse experiment in-motion after the stage 1 prologue in Lugano, where I aimed my bars north to Zurich and fully embraced my roots as a steel frame riding, wool sock wearing, earthy-crunchy Pacific Northwestern cycling photographer.

Rather than follow the race from point to point, I based myself in a small village near Zurich with easy access to a train station and feeder lanes to the Swiss National Bike Network. From this hub, I could hop a train or pedal to the beginning of stages and either hang at the start or spin ahead on the Tour de Suisse race route until I found a scenic spot to shoot the passing peloton. Next, I would catch a train to the finish or ride a National Bike Network trail back to Zurich.

In 2010, I somehow overlooked the fact that Switzerland has no open container laws but took full advantage of Heidiland’s public beer drinking tolerance this year by rewarding myself at the end of each day’s photo-shoot with one or more Swiss brewskies. Prime swilling locations included the grassy slope of stage 7’s 2383 meter Fluelapass and every time I used the rails to get back to my crash pad near Zurich. In total, I managed 386 kms of cycling with 4630 meters of climbing to cover 4 stages—a far cry from what the racers hammered but much more fun than sitting in a car.

I was never alone on the trains or trails and met meet hundreds of cyclists who were also using this rail/bike combo to follow the race. South Africans, Germans, Italians, and Swiss, by the end of the race I’d made two-wheeled friends from all over the globe. It’s truly been a “pinch me this ain’t real” experiment.

Here's some photography from my car-free 2011 Tour de Swiss gig:

2011 Tour de Suisse - Images by Gregg Bleakney

Giro d'Italia for VeloNews Magazine

2011-06-27T07:10:00.000-07:00

In addition to producing daily and theme photography packages for VeloNews.com during the 2011 Giro d'Italia, some of my work from the race is starting to turn up in print too. First up--a photo-essay and general content images sprinkled throughout the VN July issue.

Some popular galleries and content from my Giro coverage on VeloNews.com:

Photo Essay, Team Androni - The Giro's poorest team with the biggest dream

Interview with Giro race director Angelo Zomegnan

Photo Essay, At the Giro with Gregg Bleakney

The Giro was just a super-dreamy gig, when I have a little more time to digest it all, I'll post some light color galleries from my own wild ride around Italy in this blog.

Outside Magazine Pacific Coast Cycling Spread

2011-06-22T04:41:00.000-07:00

It's nice to see mainstream mags. (i.e., beyond-niche cycling publications) pimpin' travel bike trips and destinations to their readers--so kudos to Outside for featuring this image.

This shot was made two years ago with fellow vagabundos gMack, Hall-Pass Ben, and Sir Scotty M. in the Quinault rainforest, an alternative route option for the popular Pacific Coast Cycling Trail that loops around Olympic National Park and/or the Hood Canal to Astoria, Oregon. We landed an assignment to test cycling-specific rain gear and decided that it would be appropriate to do the testing in the rainiest place in the Lower 48 at the rainiest time of year. As luck would have it, nary a rain drop glazed the tarmac during our 4-day shoot and I had to get creative to make it look wet when it was actually sunny and uncharacteristically super-fab November weather.

Regarding the swag test results...for me, bike travel ain't about the gear, it's about traveling differently and experiencing landscapes and people in a more intimate way than possible with a car or plane...but if you just have to know, the article on the topic by Sir Scotty M. is here.

Ditch Logic - A Podcast from the Dirtbag Diaries

2011-05-31T02:56:00.000-07:00

Listen to the Podcast on Patagonia's Cleanest Line

I had a great time working on this podcast about how my two year "out in the world" bicycle trip changed my life. I think that Fitz and Becca did a great job of keeping my thoughts in line--heck, they even got my big bro to speak without mumbling! This, more than anything I could write in a portfolio bio section, explains my path to photojournalism.

G

Tour de India -- Road Magazine Photo-Essay

2011-05-31T02:53:00.000-07:00

Made In Italy - Feature Story for AC Magazine

2011-03-28T16:47:00.000-07:00

This month, Adventure Cyclist Magazine is running my semi long-form feature on the Price family bicycle touring company, ExPlus. Most of my work for Adventure Cyclist to-date has been focused on my personal travels. Since 2010 my photographic projects have grown to include feature writing and I've found that first person format limiting (and overdone quite frankly--I bore myself sometimes). Initially this piece was slated to run as a fairly standard travel narrative about cycling across Sardinia but I change my mind after meeting the company founder, Rick Price. I found Rick's story of ditching a small town on the Oregon coast to pursue true love and a life of travel in Italy fascinating and decided to trash my first proposal to focus on his journey instead of my own. Fortunately, the editors of AC were cool with this (at least as far as I know). When I first dropped this "change of subject" think on Rick he responded, "that sounds like a bad idea...I'm not very interesting."

I disagree:)

Cover Shot and 45-Page Feature Story - What I Did Last Summer

2011-03-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

Last May, my 11-day assignment to Sardinia accidentally turned into a dreamy four months of scouting Europe for the best routes, trip operators, hotels, and people in-the-know for VeloNews' 2011 Ultimate Ride Guide. The issue hit the newsstands this week.

For my part, I produced articles on Italy, Switzerland, France, and Spain--45 magazine pages of reviews, short stories, and interviews in total. I also created a photographic package and podcast for the feature(s). I'm entirely grateful to the editors of VeloNews, who gave me tons of creative freedom and the authority to stay away from the top-10 list format (usually researched by a cubicle googler who's never done any of the stuff they are recommending) that has become so common in today's toddler attention span, search engine results driven publishing world. In short, they let me keep it real.

Life's a boomerang. My former career in software started at the University of Oregon where I founded a digital publishing company called WhereNext.com with a group of college buddies. We focused on, of all things--travel guides to Europe. I remember starting that company with dreams of stomping the streets of Europe ala Rick Steves--tracking down fresh new destinations and activities for young, independent travelers. However, WhereNext quickly scaled to include a full staff of talented writers and as the President, I assumed the role of working the upper floors of towering office buildings in Seattle, Angel investor meetings in Portland, and unassuming cafes in Silicon Valley to raise multiple rounds of VC funding to finance our growth. So it was odd, though entirely fulfilling, to find myself doing what I originally set out to do after college--but with a 13 year detour.

A few pages from the article:

New Client - British Airways Magazine

2011-02-23T17:09:00.000-08:00

En route to India a few weeks ago I had a nice surprise when I noticed the passenger sitting next to me flipping through a Twilight feature I worked on for British Air's in-flight magazine, High Life. I forgot the photo-spread was out this month. Later, I had a "pat myself on the back" moment when that same passenger asked me what I did for a living and I simply pointed to the image in the magazine he was reading (and the diminutive dude in the bottom corner of the image--tripod self-portrait). But before I could let my ego get carried away with itself--I was quickly reminded of my bottom of the rung coach class status by the olfactory splendor of a freshly reeking bathroom--which was conveniently located just behind my right shoulder in the triple-7's back row--which in retrospect, was a proper warm-up for the streets of India.

Quinault Rain Forest - British Airways High Life Magazine, February - 2011

Some E-Pubilished Work w/ Patagonia, British Air, and Cycling News

2011-02-19T19:30:00.000-08:00

Three online publications are circulating some of my fresh images this quarter. Two of them are new clients: British Airways and Cycling News. British Air pulled one of my shots of an ancient Maple Tree from Olympic National Park for a Twilight feature on their homepage, CyclingNews is using a gallery of shots of Team RadioShack and Liquigas @ the Tour of Mumbai II, and Patagonia Clothing Company is rotating an image of single-speeding through the Thar desert in Eastern India during my "India on Two Wheels" project.

Secret Maple Tree in the Quinault, Olympic National Park

My $50 Indian-made fixie at a pit stop in the Thar desert.

RadioShack and Liquigas image gallery on the world's largest cycling web-site