Yeah, back-to-back. One of the highlights of Vegas was getting to wander around with Ben and James. Each has his own style and you can almost feel the creative energy sparking off them, that never gets old. The lowlight, of course, is coming back with the scourge of Exhibition Hall Illness. Not as bad this year as in the past, but definitely still sucky. On a different note, since I’ve been asked a bunch of times for it, and since Jeremy D and co. were all behind it, prints of the past two covers from Embrocation with will be available through their site and also at the races (in New England). These are professionally reproduced giclee prints and look amazing. Limited runs for both, so get after it before they’re gone.

Been sorta busy, but in a weird way. Still, no excuse for lack of updates. In the past little bit I made it out to Utah where I reacquainted myself with riding at 8,000+ ft. with a 30 lb camera bag. Hint: avoid riding at 8,000 ft. with a 30 lb camera bag. And then it was off to Vegas for Interbike, which I’d managed to avoid last year but had to succumb to this year. Toted out the location lighting because I had some folks who were interested in Grass Crit Cross Vegas shots. Worked out reasonably well even if one of the strobe heads almost exploded - literally- for no apparent reason. Stayed at the Artisan, welllll off the Strip, a pretty strange place but anything to avoid the nightmare of walking through casinos. Also the host spot of the RAPHA/Embro party, which was a really good diversion. The meetings were all successful and getting to hang out with friends I don’t see often enough made the entire enterprise worthwhile. Unfortunately I picked up a bit of a cold on the way home, no surprise there, which kept me from racing over the weekend. Speaking of racing, it’s fully CX season now and I may be making a BEL visit right in the thick of it. Stay tuned.

Now that I’m all caught up I can start pushing ahead, which is a really good feeling but also a bit scary. Squeezing the last bit of summer’s juice we spent a little time out in the Bay Area and I managed to sneak away to shoot some ball at an Oakland playground - Mosswood, to be specific. Scheduling didn’t allow me to stay as long as I wanted to, but it was still super interesting to just hang out and shoot over the course of a couple hours one afternoon. It was pretty quiet, with not too many characters around, but I’m still glad I made the time. Images are close but not quite there, came up short on the perspective/value end of things. Still.