Desert Tango

Last weekend, a few friends and I went to Moab, Utah for some mountain biking fun. I’m always reluctant to bring my camera on the trail, especially in a place like Moab, but on Sunday I mustered up the courage to stuff it in my Camelbak for our ride on the Slickrock Trail. In addition to the big drops and technical climbs, the wind turned out to be a big challenge as well. Standing on top of one the slickrock domes the wind actually moved our bikes at one point. So, while the camera did say in the pack for post of the ride, I did find a sweet overview with the Colorado River in the background.

Since last fall I’ve been photographing assignments for the Catholic Diocese of Gallup, including several in the past couple of weeks. Most of what I photograph for them is coverage of important masses and celebrations. While the shooting doesn’t involve a lot of anticipation- everything at a mass tends to be planned-it does require being extremely low-key and shooting in a pretty dim environment. Add to the fact that you’re trying to capture moments among the planned stuff and it makes for a challenging job at times.

As spring starts slowly creeping in,  the last couple of weeks have found me hitting the trail on my mountain bike. Here’s a few images from the last season, all photographed here in the Gallup, New Mexico area. The first and third images are from Dawn Til Dusk, a 12 hour race that takes place on our Third Mesa Trail in April. The other two images are in the Zuni Mountains, one from the sweet Red Rock trail and the other during Bike n’ Jam last fall, also a local event. Also, the first image, along with another, was published in the Santa Fe-based mountain bike magazine, Mountain Flyer.