Desert Tango

While I have been off the radar this summer, I’ve been spending a good deal of time updating and upgrading my photo archive. Part of that process involved an upgrade to my Photoshelter account which now allows me to price and sell all of the images in my online archive.

So it is with that I’d like to announce the launch of my photo Archive. The Archive will serve has new my hub for displaying and selling my images. I now have 1,200 images priced for sale and available for download.

Last weekend a friend/reporter and I headed to Prescott, Arizona to cover the annual Whiskey Off-Road for Mountain Flyer Magazine. The feature article won’t come out until the next issue of the magazine comes out in June, but I did produce a race report for their website. As of late, I’ve doing a lot of work for this magazine and it has been quite enjoyable. I really appreciate the quality of the magazine they put out; big beautiful photos printed on high quality paper. I also like how their website supplements their printed product, there’s no duplication of content. Check out my work by following this link.

I’ve been photographing a ton of mountain bike racing lately, which is great because I spend a lot of my own personal time logging miles and miles of sweet singletrack here in western New Mexico and beyond. This past race, the Dawn Til Dusk 12 Hour Endurance Race, takes place right here in Gallup. I cranked out a race report for the Mountain Flyer Magazine website and shot some stuff for the event organizers. I was really happy with the images that I came away with on this assignment and a lot of that came from knowing the course like the back of my hand.

Now that winter is pretty much over (although I’m sure we’ll get at least one more snow storm here in New Mexico before summer), I recently spent some time reviewing photos from my winter outdoor activities. I came across several images from the dozens of excursions I’ve done this winter and early spring. In terms of pure fun and good times, I have to say that this winter has been one of the most memorable to date. Copious amounts of snowfall in the mountains meant that our winter backcountry  skiing activities extended well into March this year. Plus we were able to make a quick and easy transition from skiing to mountain biking; there was even an afternoon where I did both in the same day.  So with spring, singletrack and sunshine up on us,  I present a collection of images that celebrate this past winter’s glory.

The latest issue of Mountain Flyer Magazine recently came out, which means I can show my coverage of the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo mountain bike race in Tucson, Ariz. Actually a few of these images appeared in the race report I did for their website in February. For that I cranked out a quick story, something I don’t get to do often. Covering the Old Pueblo turned out to be a bit more of a challenge than I had anticipated, but it was extremely rewarding. Having not had to write a story for deadline in several years,  I was a bit rusty in my interviewing skills. Editing photos in the field was also tough, especially with the dusty conditions of the low desert.  I also ended up writing a short race report for the magazine edition to accompany my photos (a couple of which appear here). In the end it worked out well and the editors were happy and I made some beautiful photos at one of the country’s largest mountain bike races. To see a larger edit of my coverage of the race please visit my Photoshelter gallery.

While I don’t consider myself a landscape photographer, I will occasionally go out in search of a something beautiful. Living in the Southwest means that we are surrounded by beauty, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to make an extraordinary photograph. For me, the thing that sets a quality landscape apart is the light, and we have plenty of great light here in New Mexico. The challenge is finding it and then wait for the right moment, which is why I don’t often make these types of pictures. As a photojournalist by trade, I’m prefer to be where the action is. That being said, this photo has little to do with spectacular light. The overcast skies brought out the texture and color of the rock at Red Rock State Park. I was pleased with this photo and even saw that it made it onto the a few photo blogs put out by some of the country’s larger newspapers, including The Washington Post.