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Valid 07/01/2010 thru 07/05/2010
Happy 4th of July!!
Once again, I’m going to make an attempt at writing a bit as filler in between some awesome mountain biking photos.
The NW weather this summer has been unpredictable…. But once again, rain or shine, I was pretty excited to shoot this third leg of the NW Cup DH series in Port Angeles. I love shooting DH races….. Saturday was nice…. not a cloud in the sky….. Sunday was a mixed bag of sun to light rain and everything between, but I’m not complaining.
Ok, this about it for my story intro, So much for writing. But why write when a picture tells a thousand words…. and I got a bunch of pictures.
The last time I shot the trail “King Diamond” it was rainy and foggy. This time, with the week of rain prior, everything was nice and green and no dust, no mud and nothing but sunshine on Saturday.
I finally got a chance to shoot at the final jump of the Pro/Cat I course during practice. I would like to shoot this during the actual race, but I think it would be crowded. I usually try to avoid the crowds on race days. Typically, I shoot the big jumps, tight corners and anything that might be considered too close to the course during practice. Practice is the time for racers style. No-time for air-time during a race.
Kyle Thomas has been killin’ it this year. And his dedication to the race makes for some good photos. He always has a race stance, race face and does a bunch of practice runs. So I usually end up with some good shots of Kyle.
I don’t think I have been to a race in the last 3 years where Sam Burkhardt was not racing. Transition Bikes is blowing up. What I truly like about Transition Bikes is not only the bikes, its the people behind the company. Good people.
I think this is Casey.
The JuniorX races started before I could get into my scouted position. So instead of missing half the racers, I decided to do a little experimenting. Mixed results, but better than missing out all together.
Great weekend. I saw a bunch of people that I haven’t seen since last year. Tried out a iPad (hmmmm, I could do that)…. Had a good burger at Jashua’s (the restaurant, next door to the Super8)….. Good Times. Big thanks Loreto for saving the weekend.
Check out all my photos from the weekend here >>>>>>
(New lower prices for prints and downloads, don’t be shy)
Thanks —G
Live photo subjects are getting scarce around here. And I’m getting bored shooting the backyard. Now that the wife, the kids and the dog are tired of having thier photo taken, so I’ve had to find other models. Spider, Spider, Spider….. Awesome. Who needs vertibrates? Arthropods rock!! And they dont complain… much.
One bad thing about spiders, is that sometimes they just sit there and do nothing. But, on the flip-side, the good thing about spiders is that you can make them mad pretty easily and get a good, agressive pose, just by messing with it a bit. But they usually will make a brak for it everytime the sprobe hits it.
This spider was pretty cool looking up close. To me, it looked like an Alaskan King crab, like the ones on “Deadliest Catch”. If this spider was as big as those crab, I wouldnt leave the house.
I tried to create interesting shadows against the plainwhite background. Most of the time, I was just lucky to keep the spider in frame. Also something hard about shooting spiders is that they dont take direction well. He acted like he didnt even hear me , or maybe he did and just didnt care. Spiders can be like that.
More photos from the Arachni-PHOTO session HERE
The weather messed up some weekend plans. But I’m looking forward to getting back to shooting mountain bikes again next weekend at Port Angeles. See ya there.
—G
My son Kyle’s soccer team (Marysville Parks and Recreation League) just wrapped up their spring season. I usually shoot photos of his games and usually learn quite a bit about shooting in less-than-ideal conditions. At a mountain bike race I can find a sweet jump or corner, set up my strobes, lean against a tree and wait for the racers to come down 1 minute apart. boom, boom boom. These soccer games are also rain or shine, out in a big giant field with no cover. And the rain or shine…. and that’s what the weather is minute to minute. Rain, hail, wind, snow, hurricane, sunami…. you name it. Most of these games, I’m juggling camera, lenses pack, and trying to keep hold of my over-sized spectator umbrella.
Of course I’m there mainly as a proud parent supporting the boy, but also these games are great for me to work on action shot skills.
One thing I learned early on while shooting these games, is that guessing where the action will be is not easy. With mountain biking is pretty easy to make an educated guess where the racer will be. With youth soccer, is hard to tell where players are going to be, with or without the ball.
Using my prime lenses is not easy at all with youth soccer. They are great for mountain bike races because I know exactly where a racer will be, and their range works well with my strobe kit. For soccer, the action is 99% too far away for using the 50mm and 105mm. To use my 300mm, I have to stand at the opposite end of the field because it is just too long with the DX camera body. If I have a nice sunny day, my 70-300mm VR (I dont use the VR for most sports applicaions) is fine, even my 18-135mm is ok, but only if there is enough light. But for a typical cloudy day, my zoom lenses are just too slow. So, I have come to the conclusion that I need to invest in a 70-200mm f2.8. (Then a new FX body.)
The full gallery for 2010 Marysville Parks and Recreation Boys U-10 “Marysville Sounders” is HERE
The full gallery for 2010 Marysville Parks and Recreation Boys U-10 “Marysville Sounders” is HERE
NWCup#2 / ProGRT#1 Trip report
More photos ….. Finally got all my photos from 2010 NWCup #2 , Port Angeles, WA posted to the Grubworks Photos Gallery. (I need to be quicker on getting photos up….)
It’s funny how increased world geo-seismic activity can lead to me getting some sweet pictures. This race combined the second race of the NW Cup with the first leg of the PRO Gravity Tour national series, which promised to bring national pro racing teams to the area. Funny things happen. The Sea Otter Classic, in Monterey was a week prior which teams from all over the world attend, since it is the unofficial kick-off to the world’s mountain biking season. Then something unique happened. A volcano erupting in Iceland sent an ash plume across Europe and screwed up flights in and out of Europe for the next week following Sea Otter. With flights delayed, canceled, rescheduled, most of the European riders were unable to fly home. So many riders and teams opted to drive up to the little race in Port Angeles, WA and make the best of their time in the States and get more time on bikes before starting the World Cup circuit. Bonus
SATURDAY
Early morning, up at 4:00am to get to Edmonds to catch the 5:10 am ferry, another hour of driving and get parked at the race course west of Port Angeles. The parking lot is a tiny strip on the side of the hill. With all the big teams at the race, I thought parking was going to be terrible, but it was surprisingly smooth (RIP dual-slalom course).
Good day of shooting the practice runs, which is always nice to take the pressure off getting the do-or-die shots during the race. Also it’s great to scout out where to set up for the actual race runs the next day, Also with many racers taking multiple practice runs, I am able to get more than one shot of each racer.
#284 Kevin Littlefield
#60 Ryan Stayskal
#125 Chelsey Stevens
#122 Greg Minnaar
#97 Rachel Atherton
Day done. Off to the hotel. (I don’t miss sleeping in the van).
SUNDAY
I woke up from an awesome sleep at the luxurious Port Angeles Super8 motel. I didn’t get the “suite” upgrade I got last visit, but still nice to be indoors and not having to drive home and back for the night. The same weekend was the “Jazz in the Olympics” festival. This is not cool Jazz or even New Orleans Jazz. This is like DixieLand, straw hats, roll out the barrell, with matching jackets, Jazz. Which lead to an interesting mix of people at the Super8 continental breakfast line.
Ok ‘nough of that. Back to the hill.
Shot some good photos. The location were I was going to set up for the Pro race runs was already occupied by Ian Hylands (his shots are nice), so I moved back up the hill to a somewhat less optimum spot. Bigger events also pull bigger name photographers. But it was all good……my results are always improving, so I‘m happy……
#139 Kyle Thomas
#241 Derek Batchelder
#522 Jeremy Soltow
#3 Jill Kintner
#25 Eric Loney
#97 Rachel Atherton
—G
Check out the rest of my 2010 NWCup#2/ProGRT#1 Photos
Finally, Today, one of my photos was chosen to be Pinkbike.com’s “POD” (Photo of the Day).
My daily morning ritual…. check e-mail… check Facebook… check PinkBike.com to see what has ben chosen for “POD”. Today it was one of mine. Score!! I have been “quietly” been waiting for POD honors for years. Well maybe not quietly…. “Damn, why isnt my photo POD”
Anyway, I’m pretty stoked….
Just got back from the race #1 of the new NWCUP race series at Dry Hill, just west of Port Angeles. The NWCUP basically takes the Port Angeles stops of the previous year’s Fluidride Cup as their own race series.
The great thing about a mountain bike race series that starts in March…. that it starts in MARCH a full month before the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey CA, which most consider the annual kick off to the race season. The bad thing about having the first race of a mountain bike series in MARCH…. the weather. It could be good, it could be bad. This weekend was a bit of both.
SATURDAY
I missed the first ferry to Kingston, but really wasn’t in too big of a hurry. Once in Kingston it will be about an hour of driving to till the race venue at Dry Hill, just west of Port Angeles, WA. Practice starts at 9:00, so I will have plenty time. I saw Scott Stewart and Levi from Bikeworks of Lake Stevens and got caught up on whats new. I haven’t seen them in about a year. Scott gave me a bad time about the amount of dust he figures is covering my bike in the garage back home, nothing new there. (PS…… anybody want to by a barely-used “vintage” Santa Cruz VP Free ????)
Roll into the parking lot and hit the hill. Not raining, but not sunny. Like many of the guys racing this weekend will be a good opportunity to try out most of the new gear acquired since last season. A couple new lenses and some new lighting.
I met photographer, Ki Kopkau shooting on the trail. I’ve seen his work at many of the same races I shot last year and was always very impressed with the quality of his work. It is always nice to finally talk to people that you only know on-line or or only know by nome from visiting their website. I have come to think of other photographers in a similar way that I (when I raced) considered other racers. They are my peer group. My social peers, which you share experiences, exchange ideas and stories. But to some degree they are “competitive” peers and I want to see how my photo results stack up to theirs.
SUNDAY
Woke up from an awesome sleep at the luxurious Port Angeles Super8 motel (it was very nice, and as a bonus, its very cheap. We retired my mobile accommodations “casa de mazda”, so staying in an actual motel is a bit of something different) got a couple cups of lobby coffee headed back to the race course. RAIN. I talked to some of the guys getting in an early practice run reported from that the fresh-cut sections of the Pro/CAT1 course was soaking up the rain and it wasn’t much slipperier that the day prior. That report changed as the rain continued and “Dry Hill” became “Wet and Muddy Hill”.
Anyway this was my first field outing using my newly acquired set of PocketWizard PlusIIs, which I found to have somewhat of a learning curve, but I am getting the hang of them. STill waiting to get a new camera, but figured that could wait. I’m pretty happy with the results considering the weather. I definately have some things I want to do different for the upcoming ProGRT/NWCup#2 coming up in a couple weeks. It was good to get back out shooting bikes. Jake is sick of me taking his picture all winter.
Check out my full gallery of all the photos from 2010 NWCUP #1 HERE
— G
I finally got around to some, long over due, housecleaning and organizing. Grubworks Media Productions is now on Facebook, Check it here Grubworks on Facebook. Become a fan for updates and other info.
Other than that, I have finally got around to backing up 2009 photos and video and buying some new equipment. I’m really looking forward to this bike season which for me kicks off next weekend at the first race of the NW Cup in Port Angeles.
I got some new equipment to kick off the year also. Some much improved lighting, including some new Pocketwizards and some new flash units, which will definatly help in the dark dank forest of Port Angeles
See ya there…. —-G
2009 was my first year of focusing only on taking and selling photos, instead of shooting video, photos and selling DVDs. I am liking shooting photos more and more. The better the photo results are, the more motivation I have to learn to do better. I miss some of the video production stuff, mostly the interaction with the bands featured on the DVDs.
These are some of my favorite photos I took during 2009. More of my favorite photos can be found here >>> Greg Tubbs / Grubworks Photo Gallery / Best of 2009
Sea Otter Classic, Monterey, CA
The mountain bike race season for me started off with a trip down to Monterey, CA for the 2009 Sea Otter Classic. Last time I went was 2007, the weather was terrible, this year the weather was great. Also this time, I ended up flying and renting a car instead of driving to California.
Parking lot hummingbird, 2009 Sea Otter Classic, Monterey, CA
Gee and Dan Atherton, Sea Otter Classic Dual-Slalom, Monterey CA
Jill Kitner, 2009 Sea Otter Classic Dual-Slalom, Monterey, CA
Downhill, 2009 Sea Otter Classic, Monterey, CA
Crankworx, Whistler, BC
Shooting photos at Crankworx is always a mixed bag. I have shot video or photos at every Crankworx since the annual festival began. Large crowds of photographers, pro and not-pro, all cramming to get shots. In the last couple years its the simulcasting television cameras that are the ones that seem to hog the courses. 2009 had some of the most mediocre weather that the festival has ever had. General opinion…. when shooting photos I will never complain about the heat… Id rather sweat my ass off in the scorching sun than shoot photos on in dull, overcast, hum-drum weather…. It wasnt all bad. The Sun did peek out onve in a while. Thanks again to J and Clinton for the accommodations, much better than sleeping in the truck for 4 days….
Michael Prokop, 2009 Crankworx dual-slalom qualifying, Whistler, BC
Leanna Gerrard , 2009 Crankworx Dual-Slalom, Whistler, CA
Brandon Semenuk, 2009 Crankworx Slopestyle, Whistler, BC
Geoff Gullevich, 2009 Crankworx, Whistler, BC
Monster Khaos Cans
Jake, Backyard, WA
Frog close-up, Backyard, WA
Bottle Caps
The family gets tired of getting thier photo taken....
2009 Fluidride Cup
I love shooting photos at the Fluidride Cup Races. The events are well ran and the enviornment is fun and friendly. It doesnt hurt either that these races are held fairly close to home so it is pretty easy to get to and from in a weekend.
2009 Fluidride Cup, Ski Bowl Mt. Hood, OR
2009 Fluidride Cup, Port Angeles, WA
Lars Sternberg, Dry Hill, Port Angeles, WA
2009 Boating
2009 we bought a boat and dove head first into boating in the Puget Sound. I learned that most of the horror stories people tell you about boat ownership are more than likely true, judging from our experiences this last summer. Its all a learning experience. Next year will be great.
Lake Union, Seattle, WA
Fuel Dock at sunset, Blakely Island, WA
This is a Crab..... Kim and Corinne, James Island, WA
Next year will be great, I cant wait………
More of my favorite photos of 2009 can be found here >>> Greg Tubbs / Grubworks Photo Gallery / Best of 2009
Last weekend I went down to the SkateBarn in Renton for Dirt Corps 2009 end of the year, holiday party.
Good It was to shoot some bikes in the off season out of the rain and cold, but I find the Skatebarn hard to shoot photos at, mostly because of the highbay lighting, and the fact that you dont know what line people are going to hit for setting up flashes. I am still waiting for Pocketwizard to release the new MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 for Nikon. Those should really make lighting places like the Skatebarn and dark woods easier. Also it will finally let me use my, much better, long lenses where now I gotta stay within infrared range. Hopefully soon and without bugs…..
As always more photos can be found HERE >>> 2009 Dirt Corps Holiday Party Photos
I’m looking forward to next year…..
—G