Imagine my disappointment upon opening my packet of developed and scanned film from my 3-week jaunt only to find the scans were, uh, off. That is, the colors were totally whacked, the BW scans all blocked in the detail. Like opening your birthday present and finding a turd (unless you were actually hoping for a turd). There were a few salvageable shots in there, like this one from the Aptos Jump Jam, but for the most part they came in this morning and are heading straight back out tonight. Go FedEx. Still, worth it. As well, Brian over at TWMP did me a solid interview. I’m always a bit nervous when I talk about myself that much, but you can be the judge as to whether or not it worked. http://www.thewashingmachinepost.net/milliman

Three straight weeks of shooting creates a massive jam of files (and even a big bag of film to be developed). And while I anxiously await the return of the film, and scratch the small patches of poison oak I picked up in NorCal, I need to back up, file, and send out a heap of images. And then plan on further trips. But first a trip into the tube - a MRI to be specific - to see what that “pop” in my knee was. Nothing good, I don’t think.

In a bit under two weeks I’ve driven 2400 KM, mostly in Belgium, Holland, and France. And now SoCal. Monday began in Schipol and ended in Solvang, which takes about 20 hours the way I did it (not necessarily the fastest). Did all the normal Belgie stuff while over there - drank too much beer, ate too many friets, rode in the cold, shot some cool bikey stuff. And, as always, slurped up the local flavors. Like these guys - even though I shot this in France, these guys were totally Belgie. Couldn’t be from anywhere else I don’t think.

Small preview of a just-finished project. Really revelatory. You dip your toes into a pool in which you’ve never been, and maybe never even knew existed. And guess what? Even though this guy and joe bike racer seem to have nothing in common, they do. It’s the same thing, just a different venue. So keep an eye open for the full deal.

Oh man, while driving around the Tidewater Area of Virginia I came across Donk’s and all I could think about was how awesome it must look inside. And it was closed tight as a drum, so I had to enjoy the facade.

Shot for Embrocation, James M down in Somerville, trolling the alleys. Olympus XA2, Ilford 400, freezing cold.

Jersey City, not the worst place to shoot. Truly. Moments after shooting at Billy Kirk workshop, on the stroll back to the train, and then back to Lower Manhattan. The whole project is about to be finished, produced and released. And I can hardly wait.

Planning, planning, planning. And then, whoosh, in a couple days things can either come together, fall apart, or remain static. So as I was planning on how to make a couple vaguely overlapping shoots work I thought I had it all figured out. Yet, within a few days both shoots had fallen through - for different reasons - so instead of a nice little block of work I ended up with nothing. And don’t even get me started on the “unreturned email/voicemail” phenomenon. On the bright side, these kinds of disappointments often spur a bump in creative imperative.

Preparing for World Cup 2010 in my own small way.

Snow on the ground, that alone tells you this was shot some time ago. We got only 4″ of snow in January, which is pretty bizarre and put paid to doing any amount of local winter shooting. So I was out in LA last week shooting some non-winter, two-wheeled activities. The only upside to the relative winter drought is that it has allowed us to out the studded MTB tires for the first time in 3 or 4 years. And skidding through turns made entirely of ice floes remains an experience worth waiting for.