First Magazine Cover

I found out about this a few weeks ago and it came as quite a surprise. Today I got to see what the cover looks like and it was still a huge surprise even though I knew it was coming. So without further ado here's what it looks like. This photo is from the Pedal Magazine Facebook page.

On newsstands soon, the latest issue of PEDAL

The cover photo they used is one I took in September 2012 at the GPCQM Worldtour race in Quebec, one of the last professional races for Michael Barry. At the time the focus was on his upcoming retirement so I made a point of getting some good photos of him as well as doing an interview about his retirement. Then USADA shook the world of cycling apart and Michael was the prominent Canadian in their revelation (that was October). Much media attention, the "Lance story" got huge focus and all the major media outlets wanted people to talk. Pro cyclists including Michael were busy for a while, pundits expressed opinions and interviews were happening all over the place with lots of noise and static. It took a while for the real facts to emerge.

In November I followed up with an in-depth interview with Michael for the issue, talking with him by Skype over a couple of days and then working on the article with a tight deadline. This led to me submitting a number of photos for Pedal to use along with the piece but there was never any discussion about the cover. Until I got a phone call asking for me to check and revise my bio. They would be running it in the Contributors section as my article, a number of my photos and my shot on the cover would all be featured. Quite a rush!

It was no a small feat getting there though. The interview almost didn't happen in time; I have Michael to thank for both making the time and for being so candid and open in our extended conversation. Then there was the matter of getting it crafted into a meaningful piece under 3,000 words (much longer than any I'd done before). My first draft was meandering and not up to my standards. Andrea put her editorial hat on and used a lot of red ink on it, making some great (and challenging) suggestions on directions I could take with it to make it much better. I tossed out the first draft and started over with her good ideas alongside the story I was imagining in my mind.

The piece went in about a week after I started trying to get time with Michael, 2,750 words when I was done and featured on the cover as "Michael Barry Confesses" (not my title). If you read it I'd be interested in hearing what you think. I enjoy writing, it doesn't come as naturally as photography though so don't be too hard on me : - )

My contribution: I expect there will be about 4 pages for the piece I wrote, around 8 photos, the bio, and the cover. I guess I should keep a copy of this issue?

A very nice Christmas present to receive...

Deeply saddened

Anyone with access to any form of news, anywhere in the world, has heard about Newtown, Connecticut. And we will all continue to hear about it. Until something else really messed up happens.

From the New York Times talking out how people are reacting to the thought of "Holiday Joy" now, through the list of names as they were announced, to a mother talking about how damn hard it is to deal with a mentally ill child since all the supporting institutions across the U.S. have closed (published on gawker.com and other sites) the range of questions and discussion and opinions are all over the map.  Literally everywhere.

Here's mine:
Let the enormity of this tragedy sink in a little more. And then
DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

Pick any of the threads that you feel most passionate about and get engaged. Write to politicians, get organized with others interested in the same thread, and act on it. I have to believe that some good might be possible, that some action or actions might save the lives of other children. Can't just sit and do nothing though.

When I first began to form an opinion I thought I was with Liza Long. We need to help people who are trying to look after unstable and mentally ill people just as much as anything else (like gun controls). As the enormity of this tragedy really begins to take shape I'm not confident about even that (here I am blogging about another blogger writing about someone else's blog).

I am still of the opinion that addressing mental health is as important as any other aspect of this unfolding tale though and I struggle with how all the attention and focus might miss the real insights.

And I'm still prepared to let it all sink in a little more and then do something.

I'd rather write upbeat entries. And I will. Just not today.

A month between posts!

Even when I was on the road busy travelling, covering events and in the midst of this next chapter I didn't go a month between entries here on my blog. And now that the racing season has wound down here I would think I'd have more time.

I'm going to put it down to having written a lot lately, just not here. In particular I've been doing interviews. The most recent one was with Gerard Vroomen, one of the co-founders of Cervelo, about his new bike company OPEN. Here's the video interview I published earlier in the week.

And I'll add a few photos from the event as well. Some of these were published on PedalMag.com.


The other major interview is one that I worked on for a while and it took place via Skype over a couple of days. That will be published in the next issue of Pedal and should be about 4 pages including photos. It was actually a challenge to trim the piece down to fit, I had enough material to do about twice as long. And in fact I had to prune it from over 4000 words to 2750. That was the hardest part. That plus getting rid of my classic comma splice syndrome.

The ultralight OPEN 29er O-1.0

Gerard Vroomen being playful

Mud

What would a cyclocross race be if it didn't have mud? While the provincial championships was run on a mostly flat, mostly dry course there was one section that was anything but flat and dry. I've put up a small gallery on Facebook and a larger gallery on my website. Here are a few shots just focused on where the bike makes contact with the ground...

It's Movember 2012

I heard on the radio today that "Movember" has become one of the biggest fundraising events in Ontario over the past couple of years... amazing. And definitely good, not to take anything away from all of the other great fund raisers for other great causes. D@mn... there seem too be a lot of problems to solve in this modern world we live in.

Anyhow, it all just made me think of one guy. I'm getting ready to head up to the Baseball Cross in Springwater which is the venue for the Provincial CX Championships this year. I got some great photos of Kevin Watson there. And then we all learned about how devastating pancreatic cancer is.

Here's to a Kevin Movember! Be generous even if you're not from Ontario.
(and yes, I know Movember is for prostate cancer... I just treat it as bigger than that, and hope I never have to confront either).

When photos go viral

I covered a small local CX race this weekend after attending the Cycling Canada gala to celebrate the Canadian Olympic cycling accomplishments. I'm just now wrapping up my coverage of the celebration with a 5+ minute video made up of over 30 minutes of interviews. And getting that done has been stalled by the surprising response to a small gallery I put up on Facebook from the Hardwood CX held on Sunday.

It wasn't well attended, considering it was the weekend before Halloween there should have been more people with a costume to brighten up the cold and overcast day. Instead it was the attendance of two racers who made the gallery go viral.

Emily Batty and her fiance Adam Morka are well known in the MTB scene. They are active in CX too (Emily won the Canadian National title last year) but this was the first 'cross race they've been in this season. It also meant it was the first time people got to see Emily in her Trek-Subaru Canadian CX Champion kit. Clearly seems people have been looking forward to seeing it! Or else they just love seeing photos of Adam and Emily. Which I know is true...

Anyhow, enough words. Here are a few of the photos that have become so popular. Again, they are digitally enhanced using my "CX Harsh" setting with one exception which is there to show the "not-quite-red" colours of Emily's kit.

And if you want to see more of the event, my gallery is online at http://kraikerphoto.com/2012_Hardwood_CX_g321.html

Yet more photos

And of a bike race no less, imagine that.

I got some very positive feedback on the digital enhancements I did for a small gallery from the previous race so I went with the same adjustments for a larger set. I didn't use it for all of them as I wanted viewers to be able to compare the natural look with the modified one. You can take a tour through the gallery on my website, meanwhile here are a few photos for your viewing pleasure.

 

Cyclocross season is well under way

I missed a few of the early races, finally got to cover my first one last weekend and I thought I got a few very good photos. I have a full gallery up on my site and a select gallery went up on PedalMag.com.

I also put a few up on Facebook and that gallery is one of the few that I spent  significant time to tailor the images to reflect the mood of the event. Generally I have tried to keep the images closer to being visually accurate. Of all of the sets, I think that's the one that worked best so I may experiment with that level of manipulation a little more over the rest of the season (which wraps up with the CX World Championships in Kentucky in February). We'll see what mood tomorrow's race will inspire.

Anyhow... here are a few of the digitally enhanced images that went into my FB gallery. Let me know what you think of the effect.

Vermont Panoramics

The latest iOS update doesn't seem to work well with some aspects of Photosynth (classic Apple vs Microsoft struggle?) so I've had to upload these images in a round-about way. I hope you like them, and I hope it was worth the extra effort to get around the software incompatibilities!

Kingdom Trails 2012

For a second time Andrea and I have wrapped our cycling season up with a trip to the Kingdom Trails in Vermont. That, coupled with a trip to Pisgah to kickstart the season for a second time... I think it was a great way to open and close the season. Not that we didn't ride before or after, just that they make nice bookends for a seasonal plan.

We headed out on Thurs. with a plan to camp across the border. A mistake on my part had the camping right and our border crossing right, just not linked up. So rather than backtrack to get to place I'd picked for us to camp we pressed on to a motel we'd been to last year. Clean, reasonable and a waffle maker for a breakfast treat.

Babe had been making some new noises on the way, something I thought I'd begun hearing on the past couple of camping trips. It was noticeably worse and I tried to find out what was going on but didn't see what was causing it. When we had internet access at the motel I sent out some queries to fellow Vanagonauts to see what it might be and where I might find help checking it out. And I got some great suggestions and helpful offers. No surprise there, it's a great community. One of the many suggestions was for a couple of mechanics near Burlington VT who are good with old VWs and I arranged to drop in at one. Nick spent a minute listening and found the problem, had it fixed in minutes. We spent more time talking about what it is to travel in a VW camper, what owning an old VW is all about, and nice places to be in Vermont. It was also a PIF moment as Andrea wanted to be sure they knew how much we appreciated their willingness to make time for travellers on the road means. I'm sure they will be just as helpful to the next volks to come by in need. We were back on the road with no real delay, next stop was Montpellier.

Some shopping, a little time being tourists, and a trip through the food co-op. We were set for our trip, and more relaxed now that the camper problem was sorted out. From there it was another short drive to East Burke.

The colours were great, just past their prime with some bare trees and lots of leaves on the ground to ride through. We were told that it had rained for much of the week before and so we expected the trails to be muddy. They were. Not as bad as we expected for the most part.

We got 4 days of riding in, each around 20 KM and all of them different. A few trails repeated, mostly because we like them enough to include them twice even when we didn't need to. We also included trails we hadn't ridden before... coming down the mountain on the various "moose" trails was a highlight. We rode Dead Moose Alley until we found out it was closed. We then took a detour to get to Moose Alley (and got in early and had a bog-in to get there... wet feet for the rest of the day).

From there on it was a blast! Lots of down, mostly not soaked, and a little sunshine to make the day even sweeter. All good, too short.

We then headed toward Smugglers Notch, intending to camp there for a night and meet up with Evan (another Vanagon owner) to pick up an EGT sender and gauge. The weather at Mt Mansfield discouraged us from camping there for the night so we headed on to Burlington where we had lunch and did a little shopping before meeting up with Evan.

We all got there about the same time and enjoyed a great Mexican meal. The new gauge is in place already, I haven't gotten the sender installed yet though. One error on my part was forgetting my raincoat on the back of my chair at the restaurant... by the time I realized it we had an hour lost finding a place to turn around, collect my jacket and get back to where we were. As a result we just got across the NY border around 10pm and rather than pressing on we got a motel room for the second time on this trip. It was a good call, not a great motel but it made the drive the next day more reasonable.

Back in Toronto ahead of schedule, feeling the effort of the week, smiling. Life is good.

And then back to work... Andrea had us attending the 113th anniversary of ATU 113 on Saturday, then she had a MTB race on Sunday while I was covering the 2012 TOCX for PedalMag.

It was a great interlude while it lasted!
Unlike previous years I didn't use any of my SLR camera gear even though I had it all with me... all of the photos from this trip were taken on my iPhone. Here are a few, I will try to add a few of the panoramic shots in a separate post.

Autumn in Vermont

Babe made some friends there too

At Heaven's Bench

Six tasty treats

Campfires, a camper, and some sunshine... life is good

Inside, with a warm sleeping bag

Smugglers Notch

The EGT gauge is in, no room for oreos or espressos any more

Back to back Westy weekends

I enjoyed the experience last year and it was even better for 2012... the only time I have two VW camping events that I can be at right after each other.

All the events I get to are fun all on their own. And they're all unique. My schedule doesn't often let me have a couple of weekends in a row without a photo assignment until late September though so when the opportunity presents itself I jump at it.

First up was Westies at Watkins which Andrea and I were both at last year. This year Andrea couldn't make it so I was on my own. If you follow my blog you've read all about that campout so I won't re-tell the tale. And last year Andrea couldn't make the 2011 Buses at Bon Echo so I went up early and came home on the Saturday (missing the crock-pot dinner Saturday night). This year she got to see Bon Echo again for the first time since her childhood. We had a great weekend.

The weather was nice... lots of sun so the days were warm. Cool nights so an evening and breakfast campfire were the order of both ends of each day. A little wind and a few brief rain showers were a distraction (nothing like last year when it was around freezing at night and the wind forced the dinner to move to a more sheltered site!). And an added bonus was seeing a couple of cyclist friends who were up checking out some secret trails. It was great to see Catrina and John (and their dog Charlie of course), it was also great to learn a little about the trails they were riding... we'll definitely want to check them out so another trip to the area is in order.

Well... enough words, here a few photos from the weekend. Next up will be Vermont for a week of mountain biking at Kingdom Trails, yet more camping in Babe, and a little photography. I hear the colours are at their best!

Evening sets in on Mazinaw

Paddlin'

Yes, another window sticker : )

The most inspiring happening in an inspiring weekend...

Add your own caption!

Morning and mist

Evening and a near-full moon

A weekend at Watkins

What a blast!

It was great to have some time to get caught up with people I only get to see once or twice a year. And to talk about things I generally only mull over in my own mind. In this case it was all VW stuff, with a little photography thrown in. And I really enjoyed it.

Folks like Jim and Brian and William talking through diesel stuff (and helping me fix some things). Jim helping me get the wiring for my news gauges closer to being done. And of course Jerry with his awesome cheese surprises! This time he had some fried Mexican cheddar in addition to his assortment of smoked cheese. That's the short list... it was a great weekend and I really enjoyed making new friends as well as rekindling older friendships.

I've posted a couple of galleries on facebook so I won't repeat that (they're on my FB page) and a playful YouTube video from the track. Here's the link:

Here are a couple of photos from the weekend,one at my campsite, one at the track entrance, and the other on the track (taken by Joel Cort).

The other thing I've been working on is getting some additional gauges installed and working. I finally accomplished that today. It's been weeks in the making with lots of learning along the way. It feels great to have completed this project...

Senders installed, wires in place

Gauges wired up and ready

In place, finishing up the wiring

Installed and working!