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)

PRO / CAT I

CAT II / CAT III

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