HighMark Adventures

BTS Carol Cox "Goddess" photo shoot with Bryan Ward

2011-11-07T21:14:00.000-08:00

This past weekend an opportunity arose for me to shoot some bts (behind the scenes) images for recording artist Carol Cox. It was during her "Goddess" photo shoot with Vancouver based photographer Bryan Ward at his downtown studio. Primarily being a sports shooter I was excited to branch out and try something different. I must say I had a great time.

Carol Cox

This would be the first time I ever met Carol Cox or Bryan Ward. I arrived a little early and after buzzing a few times Bryan met me at the front doors to his studio. Wow is all I can say , his studio is just plain kickass. Don`t take my word for it check it out for yourself Studio 31. From his Manfrotto Rail system to his profoto gear it was all very slick and worked flawlessly and he is a fellow Canon shooter. After seeing that rail system in action it will be hard to set up a light stand in the future and not think about it.

Bryan Ward Studio 31 Carol Cox

Shortly there after the makeup artist Jennifer Ruth , hairstylist Ashley Young and Carol arrived. From what I gathered the theme of the shoot was a goddess with three alter egos. So it was going to be a busy day for hair and makeup. The "goddess`s" are going to be concept piece composites. Check out Bryan`s portfolio and you will see he is very good in photoshop and has no problem swapping a bg. I can`t wait to see the finished images.

Jennifer Ruth Carol Cox Ashley Young

Carol Cox Jennifer Ruth

Ashley Young Carol Cox Jennifer Ruth

Carol was awesome to meet and be around for the day. She has so much energy and a positive attitude that you can not be in a good mood around her. Jennifer and Ashley were upbeat and great to talk too as well. Bryan was a great host. He was not expecting a still photographer on set and he could have very easily sent me on my way but he did not and I thank him very much for that. For someone who would like to try his hand at glamor/boudoir photography one day it was a great learning experience watching him work and interact with everyone and especially Carol.

Bryan Ward Carol Cox

What else can I say, I had a great time. I got to sneak a peek on the ins and outs of a pro fashion/glamor photo shoot and I got to meet some great people. Who knows maybe this will be a door opener for me to do more of this stuff. Would I do more of this kind of photography? Absolutely!

Here are a few more images from the day.

Carol Cox Bryan Ward

Oh ya can you believe it, not once during the day did I bother to grab a photo of myself with Carol or Bryan. So my wall of fame is still empty! But here is a photo of yours truly just to prove I was indeed there.

Links

Carol Cox Music

Bryan Ward Photography

Jennifer Ruth (M.U.A)

Ashley Young ( Hair stylist)

Conner Galway (Junction Marketing)

Cool two place sled trailer.

2011-10-21T15:14:00.000-07:00

Well it is that time of year again. The temperature has dropped , leaves are falling and more importantly it is snowing in the higher elevations. What does this all mean? Why it means snowmobiling of course.Having said that I figured I would share some info on this cool little trailer I seen at Kitt Equipment this past week.

What caught my attention was the long tongue and front ramp on a single axle. Most I have seen with a front ramp are two axle. Turns out this is an all aluminum trailer and is light compared to it steel brothers. Two of us moved this trailer around the parking lot with little effort. I see potential for this little guy in early season and spring riding conditions when you have to venture up the logging roads to offload. A couple guys could easily unhook this guy and spin it around by hand in tight turn around conditions.

Here are the actual specs and price for this Sled Shed.

-aluminum snow mobile trailer.”SLED SHED” The trailer is 8-1/2 wide - interior 8'2" WIDE. Inside Height 6’. Front Exit Ramp Door 48-1/2"WIDE, 3500lb axle with electric brakes, ski tie down clamps,spring assisted ramps,led lights,dry weight of trailer approx 1500lbs, payload capacity of approx 2000lbs,inside of trailer lined with 3/8” plywood, smooth wall exterior aluminum..INSIDE BOX LENGTH OF 12’+2’ V-NOSE $7350.00

What I like the most is the long tongue. Like a lot of guys, I run a snowmobile deck on my truck in the winter and tow trailers. I know I`m not the only one to have pushed it turning around and put the corner of the deck through the trailer. Not an issue with this trailer.

So if your looking for a light weight all aluminum sled trailer be sure to check this one out. If you do, make sure you mention HighMark Adventures and receive a 5% discount.

You can contact them here
Kitt Equipment
1-877-823-7199

Reign Valley Vixens "Battle for Boobs"

2011-06-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I was able to get out and shoot the Reign Valley Vixens 2nd annual "Battle for Boobs"bout. It was a double header featuring the RVV vs the Oil City Tank-er Girls(Edmonton) and the RVV Rookies vs the Sunshine Coast Roller girls. The whole evening was about bringing awareness to cancer and to help raise funds to battle the cause or as the Vixens would say "Rolling over Cancer"

Through out the night there was all kinds of activities going on to help raise money. Proceeds from the silent auction, 50/50 draw and Disc-Go Inferno will go to the Canadian Cancer Society. What is Disc-Go Inferno you ask, well during the first bout you could buy a Frisbee for 5 bucks then at half time from your seat you could throw it out onto a huge Vixens logo and the three closest to the center all received prizes. I must say these girls know how to give back.

Also during the half time a very special little girl did something very very brave. 9 year old Jinaya Towson who is the daughter of Vikki Towson aka DeathTrap Diva the team captain of the RVV wanted to do something herself to help raise money for cancer. She told her mom that she wanted to raise money by shaving her head. Pretty big deal for a 9 year old girl. Her mom was shocked at first but Jinaya was quite serious about it so her mom agreed to let her to do it. So what better place then half time at Battle for Boobs.

It was a proud moment for her mom and a moving one also. Jinaya with her support group of friends gathered at center court where her hair cut would take place. All the skaters and crowd cheered her on and in the end she raised over 400 bucks alone just at the bout. She was also excepting donations online as well as canvassing her neighborhood. I was told that night she has raised just over a 1000$ to date. Way to go Jinaya.

So in the end it was a great evening. Lots of money raised and lets not forget there was some great derby action going on as well. This evening proved especially good for the Vixens as they won both their bouts.
Reign Valley Vixens (Vets) 134 over the Oil City Tank-er Girls 79 and the
Reign Valley Vivens(Rookies) 106 over the Sunshine Coast Roller Girls 32.

For more info check out RVV on Facebook or their webpage.
More photos here

Any comments or questions feel free to reply below. Thanks

Yamafest 2011

2011-04-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

Well it was that time of year again. Time to make the road trip to Revelstoke, BC to take part in a Yamaha tradition. For the last ten years Yamaha Canada has been putting on this event to to showcase their next seasons products for the snowmobile industry.

HillCrest Hotel Coast Resort was Yamaha`s headquarters this year.

But it is so much more than that.Usually on the Saturday up on Boulder Mtn near the "Sugar Bowl" they set up shop with all the next years models for you to test drive. The biggest attraction was getting to try Chris Brown`s Nytro with MCX 240 turbo installed.

Yamafest demo rides Sugar Bowl , Boulder Mtn

Here is the list of what they were demoing.
2012 Nytro MTX with all new Camo "Ascent" 2.25 track. New Drivers, Skis and Seat.
Chris Browns Nytro with MCX 240 kit
Apex EPS with MCX 290 kit
Apex XTX EPS 144
Nytro 153 SE
Venture GT
Grizzly with Tric Track kit(photo by PowderPuff)

Chris Brown`s 2012 Nytro with MCX 240 kit

This year was a little different in that Yamaha and their partners were teamed up and offered up a mini passport porker run kinda thing. When you signed up to take part in the test rides you were given a passport. So starting in the parking lot and on the trail up there were check points for you to stop and check out what the partners have to offer. At each stop you get your pass punched.

Passport Partners were:
509 ( First stop)
BCA (Second stop)
Canadian Avalanche Center (Second stop)
GYPA, Klim, FXR, (Third Stop)
Yamalube, (Final Stop)
SRS and Revelstoke Snowmobile club supported as well

Randy Swenson assisting a demo rider

Due to some circumstances
on my end I got on the hill late but was still surprised to see how many people were still hanging around. As you can see the weather was not ideal for such an event but then again we are snowmobiler`s so poor weather is just part of our sport.

One of the stops was at the snowmobile clubs new cabin. Wow it is nice but it had a little damage from the groomer hitting it(photo by DaveB). Yup had to throw that in there. This was a passport stop to check out some of the new clothing featuring Kilm and FXR .


New cabin on Boulder Mtn

Now usually once the demo ride starts to slow down in the afternoon that is when some of the chute pulling begins. This time around though due to poor weather and people just wanting to get at it the climbing started earlier than normal. Unfortunately because of this I did not get to see a lot of it, not that you could anyway because of weather. Stuff did get pounded though down in the airport, upper and lower bullpen and I did get to see the tail end of some action in the the monsterbowl. Snow was deep for this time of year in all area. Some were lucky , no scratch that, some were good enough to make it over. For more info and possible photos on that your best scouring forums like Snowest, Sledjunkie, Totallyamaha and Snow and Mud.

The day does not end there though. Later that evening this is where Yamaha gives back . Up at the Hillcrest Resort they put on a huge buffet free to all who participated during the day. But there is more, after the buffet we get to meet and hear what Yamaha has in store for the following year. We get to hear from some of the corporate types from back east who get to come out to see what this crazy western mtn riding thing is all about. One thing they all agree on is that what they see on video does no justice when your actually get to stand at the top of one the chutes. They pretty much think we are all crazy.

Crowd after Buffet

Crowd after buffet

There was a special guest in the house also. All the way from Japan was Mr. Ace Aoyoma. He is the assistant to Yamaha`s president. He looked like he was enjoying himself.

Lloyd Sonnenberg. DSM for Southern Alberta(left) Mr.Ace Aoyoma(right)

After the speeches are given by the Yamaha reps and local clubs and supporters the swag gets handed out. This is where the passports come in. Randy collected them all up and they were used to draw names for the prizes.


Randy Swenson Western Yamaha Canada Rep speaking after buffet

Some of the stuff that was handed out by Yamaha and their partners was insane. From hats, socks, Klim clothing, gear bags it was crazy. There must have been 10 pairs of 509 goggles and a 509 helmet. They also gave away two trackers. It was some serious high end swag.

So that is about it. If your a Yamaha guy or somebody thinking about getting into Yamaha then I encourage you to try and get out to one of these events. It is a great time.
You can find more photos over in the gallery section.

Anything to add? Have info or links to photos you took though out the day? Please feel free to post the link below.

Thanks.

Here is a video from Adrenalineaddiction on youtube showing some of the climbs made through out the day while Yamafest was happening. Foul language so younger viewers be warned.

BigDawg Shootout 2011 "Invite Only" did not pan out!

2011-03-22T00:24:00.000-07:00

Paul tried to organize a low key ``invite only`` competition with a select few of some of the best riders in the Pacific Northwest. Supposedly a lot of big names in the sport were coming. But in the end not a lot of riders showed up. The weather was not encouraging for Saturday so that must have kept people from making the long trip.

It was snowing in Whistler Village Saturday morning and visibility was poor with very low cloud cover. It did not look very promising at all. With a lot of the riders not showing up, the BDSO revival was pretty much dead. But for some of the riders that did show up the bad weather was not going to stop them from riding. This was a good thing for me.

I met up with Paul Gibbs, Cory Micku and some of his buddies from Vancouver Island who made the trip. We all went up Brandywine to play in the trees. Well lets just say it was my lucky day. Weather was crappy in the beginning but just like it always seems to happen in Whistler the clouds gave way in the afternoon and the sun came out and with everybody else playing tourist in the village I was the only one out there with camera gear to capture the action.

It was a blast hanging with these guys. All these guys can ride and they never stop. Just like the energizer bunny they just keep going and going. It was fun to watch and shoot.

The snow was great at the beginning of the day but got heavier as the day wore on and the sun came out and warmed things up. It was deep but heavy.

This was the first time I had actually got to ride with Cory and his crew (not sure if they like being called his crew but what can you do lol) Man can they all ride with extra cudos going out to Cory. The thing that amazed me was except for one guy on the new Polaris RMK the were all riding the new ski-doo e-tec 800. On this day Cory was not on his BikeMan powered machine. They were all stock except for one having a can on it. Cory said the trick is all in clutching and setup . Whatever he is doing it is working because all them sleds rocked. With the new injector update on the Polaris it was rocking also.
On a side note these new e-tecs must get great mileage. Not one of them packed fuel and like I already said they never really took long breaks and rode most of the day.

Lets not forget Paul was there also rocking the Actic Cat HCR 800 on loan from Valley MotoSport out of Kelowna ,BC.

All in all it turned out to be a great day of riding. Well I did not ride much as I was taking photos most of the day. I did ride though and was the only 4 stroke turbo( Alpine Motorsports) in our crew for the day. At the end of the day on our way out we kept playing in the cuts along the way. While we were taking a breather we could here a rumbling coming our way. It was Chad Rebec from CR Racing who pulled up with his crew. Must say his machines looked good and sounded pretty cool also. Guess while we were playing in the trees they were at the end of Meadow(Medal) Dome playing there. One of his guys had a big gash on his face so they were heading out. Scott Fulmer was tagging along and trying to film them. Greg (Doc Zoom) of Mountain Mod Mania was in town also but never did run into him.

Again I had a great time and got to meet some new people who I hopefully get to ride with again one day. The only sad part of my trip was that Sunday morning I had to leave and it was a bluebird day. Man it sucked having to pull out of Whistler as everybody else was headed up to Rutherford for a great day of riding.

Next up for me is covering Yammifest in Revelstoke, BC in two weeks. Here is hoping the weather is good. Should be a lot of fun.

Have anything to add or feel the need to correct me on something please take the time to comment. Thanks.

My first Roller Derby

2011-03-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

Well the other night I shot my first Roller Derby, it was my first bout. It was between the host team/league, Reign Valley Vixens and the visiting Armstrong/Okanagan Raggedy Rollers. It was the opening bout to kick off the season. It was held at the Abbotsford AG Rec Centre.

This being my first roller derby I was not sure what to expect when I showed up. When I walked in what I did see was all the sisters, friends and family setting up the event. From laying out the track, to lighting , to putting chairs out for the spectators. They also had concessions, a beer garden and merchandising booths. These girls did it all and this was before they got ready for their season opener. It was impressive to say the least.

Partial proceeds from the event went to support the local food bank and they raised 760 bucks Way to go girls!

If you have never been to a roller derby
bout I would encourage you to go out and watch one if your area has it. Well worth the price of admission and remember that these girls do it for the sport and to have fun and not about the money. Reign Valley Vixens are a non profit organization and they give back to the community. For more info on the match and about the Reign Valley Vixens head on over to their website for more information.

Ok here are a few images from the evening. To see more go to the Roller Derby section in the galleries.

At the end of the evening when all was said and done it was the Reign Valley Vixens who came out on top. All in all it was great fun and opened my eyes up to the world Roller Derby.

------------------------------------------------------

So now on to the photography side of things. Having shot Arenacross I knew lighting was going to be a challenge. Shooting in a rec centre always is. When I arrived the house lights were on and they were also setting up their own lighting. As you can see below house lights were on.

f2.8@160, iso 1600

But then the house lights went off and were off for the remainder of the evening.

f2.8@160,iso 3200

So now it went from being tough enough to oh oh. Well not really but it now meant for me anyway flash was going to have to be used for most of the night. Not how I wanted it to go down but that is the life of a photographer. Play the hand that is dealt to you the best way you know how.
As you can see with no house lights on it was really dark, and their lighting was constantly changing from blue,purple green you name it.

I used both the 580exII and 430exII mounted on either my 1D Mark III or 5D Mark II. I also quickly setup a Vivitar 285hv with pocket wizard remotely. I would just take off flash and put on pw when needed. . As the bout went on I tried a few different things and in the end things did not turn out to bad but looking forward to shooting another one to dial it in even more.

It was tough but I think I did manage to come away with some great images . Anybody have any insight on what you would have done or have anything to add please feel free to comment below.

Deep Fresh POW

2011-02-15T20:37:00.000-08:00

More helmet cam testing

It was dumping all last week and had the opportunity to go out Sunday. Hmmm what can I say, IT WAS FREAKING DEEP that`s what it was. We ended going up to Mt. Henning( Coquihalla Lakes Area) and good god it was insane. Everywhere you looked guys were stuck, on the trail, off the trail, it did not matter. Hell I got stuck going downhill it was so deep.

It could have been an epic day for me but unfortunately I had to ride a backup sled. What can I say it was and is a complete turd. It was so deep that the exhaust would clog up and it would drop a cylinder and well in that deep of snow leave me to the stuck gods. It was frustrating to say the least. So finally giving up on riding I pulled out the cameras and let Paul play as I took some images.We also did some more testing with the Contour HD 1080P Helmet Cam.

So it could have been epic but in the end it was a fail for me. Guess I am a turbo snob. It is true though once you go turbo you will never go back. I have no intention of riding that 2005 900 King Cat ever again.

You Arctic Cat guru`s have any insight on what can be done to make that sled run better feel free to comment below.

Thanks

Contour HD 1080p Helmet Camera

2011-02-02T10:02:00.000-08:00

Well as you all know a while back I received my GoBandit HD GPS helmet cam. I was all excited for that camera because of the gps and skinning options for the gps info. In the end though the lack of options and more inportantly the poor video quality made me return it. Hopefully some software/firmware upgrades will fix it because I think this camera has potential.

I had to move on so I exchanged it for the Contour HD 1080p helmet cam. Now it does not have the options of the GoPro Hero HD and I think the hero footage is marginally better but not by much. I just preferred the design and ease of use of the Countour.

Here is a very boring video showing samples of the camera in action. It shows how it handles the brightness,transitioning from shade to bright and at the end low light when the heli is dropping off the sled. The footage is straight from camera with no color grading etc. It was shot with the default out of the box settings in 1080p @30fps. I just wish the viewing angle would be a bit wider than 111degrees as compared to the 135 degrees when in 720p mode.

Youtube compression has degraded the footage a bit and some of the artifacts you see is not in the original footage.

Whistler +Bluebird Day+ Fresh Snow = Epic

2011-01-31T14:49:00.000-08:00

Rider: Paul Gibbs Sled: 2010 HCR800 Arctic Cat

Well it has been awhile since my last blog. I have been busy and that is a good thing. Had a chance to get up to Whistler this weekend, what can I say, it was a bluebird day with fresh snow. What more could you ask for............

I knew it was going to be a good day when I pulled out of Chilliwack at 05:30 and could see the stars in the sky. I hate the drive through Vancouver and up up the Sea to Sky Hwy but it is a small price to pay to be able to sled up there.
Met up with Gibbs and a few others in Squamish for breakfast then headed out. The parking lots were filling up fast but with the first really sunny day in a long time on the weekend that was to be expected.

Sled fueled and ready to go.

Ride up the trail was good and we went through "Avalanche Alley" on our way to Grizzly Lake. Did I say how beautiful it was? We stopped and played before Grizzly and on my first climb I blew a belt. Go figure.
Soon enough we got to Grizzly Lake .

Grizzly Lake

We did not stop here though as we wanted to get back to Ring Mtn and play. So we moved on playing in fresh snow basically where ever we wanted. That is the beauty of sledding up here you could literally ride all day and not see anyone once your far enough back.

I soon realized my belt problem was caused by a busted drive shaft bearing so my day of riding hard was over. I never made it back past the cat. So it was time to let the guys start carving it up on the glacier while I tried to capture a few images. It was cold and it was windy but it was fun.

Paul Gibbs

Rider: Roger Alain Sled: Yamaha RX1/MCX Turbo

Rider: Paul Tupper Sled: Arctic Cat M1000

All in all it was a good day. How could it not be, sunny, fresh snow it was all good. After getting a few shots in we decided to start heading back. On the way out we ran across Scott Fulmer of all people, buy himself up there. He is always out looking to find people to film. With my sled being broke no filming for me dam it but Gibbs and Tupper went with him for a bit to do some filming. They have a good story to tell about what happened when they were filming. I will see if Paul will tell his story in the comments.

Anyway that is about it. There are more photos in the Gallery section if you feel the need to check them out.
Thanks for dropping by.

Vancouver Motorcycle Show

2011-01-17T22:15:00.000-08:00

Hey guys just a quick reminder that the Bike show is on this weekend the 20th to the 23rd of Jan at the Abbotsford tradex. If you have not been then you are missing out on a great show. All kinds of stuff going on for the whole family.

Click logo for more info

Here are the show times

ArenaCross Dead at 20

2011-01-01T16:28:00.000-08:00

That is correct, at the ripe old age of 20 due to circumstances I really know nothing about the Nex Trax Arenacross series has suddenly died. Tits up as some would say.

Sounds like the expansion to Grande Prarie, AB, a week before Christmas might have been the final nail in the coffin so to speak of the series. But just to make things perfectly clear that is just pure speculation on my part as I have nothing to do with the organization. I know it is a sad time for a lot of people who enjoyed the series. My son who at 5 years old was racing for his second season will miss it as will I.

You can read what they have to say about it over at

Nex Trax Arenacross

Please feel free to comment on the subject.

Thanks

Sledding fun with injuries.

2010-12-27T11:05:00.000-08:00

. Paul Gibbs(ripntear) and myself were able to get out again. He is still turboless so he was on the 900 King Cat again. I think he is starting to like the sled. We just made a quick trip up the the Coq.We just decided to go up and play in the trees in the Mt. Henning area.

While playing in the trees Paul seen what looked like a good kicker and wanted to hit. So I pulled out my camera and this is what happened.

As you can see it did not go so well. It turned out the kicker was actually a vertical wall of rock disguised with some snow. LOL. The snow broke and traction was lost. The pictures look harmless enough but the sled piled into Paul`s upper thigh pretty hard. It put a goose egg the size of grapefruit and bruised up pretty good as well.

That pretty much put an end to the day. Besides his injury, earlier in the day over at the superbowl I sprained my wrist, more on that in another post. So with Paul not being able to really stand on the sled we limped back to the trailer.

It was a great day though, it was sunny earlier in the day and we got to play in the tress in unmarked snow it was deep and a lot of fun.

New helmet camera test.

2010-12-21T13:16:00.000-08:00

Well finally got a few hrs of sledding in this past weekend. Just went locally up to the Coquihalla. Lots of fresh snow you just had to get out of the general travel areas to play in it. Sled was working awesome. Me on the other hand was a different story. My sled was broke all last year so this was my first real ride in over a year and a half, and it showed. I nicknamed myself "pinball" for the day LOL.

Handed Paul my camera to take a few pics of me , thanks dude.

Here is Paul on the 900 KingCat, breaking in a new engine.

It was also my chance to try my brand new helmet camera which is also new to the market and just released in Canada this past week. It is called the Gobandit HD. It records in 720p at 30fps. Not as robust as the Contour HD or GoPRo HD but it had one feature that interested me. It is a gps unit so it tracks your speed and elevation but the really cool part is that you can skin your video with this info. Pretty cool, especially handy to see your start and stop elevation when climbing in the back country up around Whistler, BC.

First impressions are disappointing to say the least. It seems to have a huge banding issue ,out in the snow anyway. Will do some more testing before I really rip it apart.

You can also check out hd 720p version on vimeo

Grand Prairie Arenacross

2010-12-17T20:58:00.000-08:00

Well this weekend is the next chapter in the Nex Trax AreaCross Series. Unfortunately I will not able to make it this weekend. This is the inaugural event being held at the Crystal Centre in Grande Prairie, AB. If you can be sure to get out there and show your support.

All the pros should be there and it should be a good show.

Grande Prairie ArenaCross

Be sure to check out DMX for all the latest news and photos coming out of Grande Prairie. Also be sure to checkout James Lissimore Photography for photos. Not sure if Clayton Racicot will be there shooting as well but check him out just in case. Again I am upset I could not make it but looking forward to Abbotsford and Penticton.

***UPDATE*** DMX Friday night highlights
***UPDATE*** DMX Saturday night highlights

Be safe and Merry Christmas.

My First Photobooth

2010-12-13T10:47:00.000-08:00

Well the Christmas season is upon us, with that comes the parties. I was contacted by some friends to see if I offered this photo-booth thing being a sports photographer. Now I know I must live under a rock because I had no idea what they were talking about. I did some searching and it seems to be very popular at weddings and seeing it more and more at all kinds of parties. You can rent actual photo-booths but this way seems to be quicker,easier and can be a little more creative and fun.

So needless to say I took the gig, purchased some props and was good to go. I knew it was going to be a good evening when I got there and the hostess handed me what she had picked out for the BG. I tried the bare wall for a bit but put it back up as it looked better.

They also had a bunch of props themselves and a few guest brought some as well, but we won`t get into that LOL. I was setup in the cleaned out kids playroom which was about 8x10 feet. Once I was setup people started lining up. It was a blast and people seemed to be having fun as you can see.

My 5D Mark II with 24-70 was setup on a tripod. I clicked away as they were trying things on and when they were ready to pose. No formal posing except to roughly tell them where to stand, but as the evening went on standing became harder and harder for them lol.

But there were times when things were not that goofy and people kept the props to a minimum.

It was a great evening, good people and lots of fun . Lots of goofy funny photos and every now and then a more serious photo was captured as well. Is it something I would do again? Yup it is?

Remembering the BigDawg Shootout.

2010-12-02T08:54:00.000-08:00

Well still in the process of changing everything over. It is taking longer than I thought but I finally got around to some of the BDSO stuff. Man it started bringing back some memories.

In case you missed it, the BigDawg Shootout was an extreme back country free ride snowmobile hill climb competition held up in the Whistler/Rutherford area. Paul Gibbs and myself started it back in 2005. If you do a search on youtube you can find lots of videos and the infamous Tim Mcgregor crash.

Anyway here are some photos with more to come. As an organizer and co running the event, it became harder to photograph so in the later years my photo time was less and less. I will make sure to track down other sites with images and post the links to them as well.

Winter finally here.

2010-11-18T09:13:00.000-08:00

Finally I can start focusing on what I love the best, snowmobiling. With the first two arena-cross events behind me and the dropping temps outside I can start the switch up from motox to sledding. My 300+ hp sled is ready to go as the boys down at Alpine Motorsports fixed it up for me after I cracked the block last year.

Weather forecast is calling for snow so lets hope it dumps this year compared to last years suck ass winter. Keep the track side down boys and girls and be safe. Time to make sure all your avy gear is good to go.

Chugging along

2010-11-16T21:26:00.000-08:00

Ok a lot of things have been going on. Taking longer than I thought it would to get all the images from the 3rd and 4th rds up. It is going slowly but they are starting to be uploaded. Keep checking back.

Mom`s got to race.

2010-11-15T13:02:00.000-08:00

Well if you have been to the first 4 rounds of the Nex Trax Arenacross held in November in Chilliwack, you would know that again this year Kawasaki Canada has stepped up as a major sponsor for the series.

During the half time break this year Kawasaki had six "pit bikes"(KLX 110). On the two Friday nights six representatives from the local dealers got to race around for two laps. On the Saturday nights they changed it up , the first Saturday 6 dad`s and their son`s got to race. The child would get a lap then hand off to the dad till each did two laps.

As fun as it was to watch dealers and dad`s it was especially fun to watch the mom's. That`s right on the second Saturday it was moms turn to step it up and race just as the dad's did a week earlier.Two laps around the track trading off with their son`s after completing one lap.

All the mom`s looked like they were having fun. You could hear some screaming from time to time though.

All in all it was fun to watch everybody and props to Kawasaki for helping keep the fun in motocross and promote the sport.

NeX Trax Arenacross Rds 3/4

2010-11-15T12:24:00.000-08:00

Well another great weekend of racing. Two long days but well worth it. Took a lot of photos and going through them now. Will have some up today in the galleries but keep checking back this week because more will be added as I go through them a few times.

For all the news on what all happened this weekend be sure to check out DMX.

2010 Nex Trax ArenaCross

2010-11-10T07:38:00.000-08:00

Well it is that time of year again. The Nex Trax 2010 Arena Cross series has started. I will be out and about photographing both the action and behind the scenes. I`m not alone out there as James Lissimore and Clayton Racicot are shooting it as well. Between the three of us there should be no shortage of images.

Making things more interesting for me is my 5 yr old . He races in the 4-6 50cc class. You can`t miss him as he is #4 on the only PW50 out there.

So if you see me out there say hi and don`t be alarmed when I take your picture.

Be sure to check out Galleries section.