Hope you enjoy the new format. I dig it. Hope you do too.

A road closed is a road opened.

After several years, I think I am ready to close this site down. I think it is time for me to move on from the traditional blog platform with words and images. It has been an amazing time. A time in which I have learned so much, done so much and met so many good folks. It is hard to let it go. Really hard. But, I am in a time in my life that I feel that it is holding me back. I am in yet another new stage in my life and a time in which I want to have my own thoughts, experiment with art and at the same time have some creative freedom without a self imposed feeling that I need to do another blog post to keep it going.

It has been an amazing several years here. Thank you all. Hope to see you out there on the roads and trails.   I’ll be the old, slow guy with a camera on a bike from Salsa, Surly, All City, Civia, Foundry and who knows what else?  Hope to see you out there!

My friend Paul Errington rolls through the Iowa country side @ Trans Iowa V9

I don’t even need words for this one.  Riding bikes can sure be amazing huh?  Get out there and ride your bike!

This week has been weak for me here @ ImagineGnat.Com. Why? Well…..The space you see here is my office and work space for the last 5+years! Today the new windows go in and the construction begins. Kind if exciting really but as a result things are a but nuts and this construction has forced me to shut down much of my photo and bike work.

Don’t fret though. I’ll be back strong. I have some more strong images to share. Tomorrow’s Friday Ride Stoke might me my favorite image in a long, long time.

Anyway, better get to work. Have an exciting presentation today and I need to prepare.

Have a good one.

Bikes and the life that I have associated with them have sure been good to me.  My lifelong love of 2 wheels has given me meaningful work as well as given me opportunities I might not have had otherwise. In fact, I am fairly certain my life would be completely different with out them.

Case in point, one year ago today, I landed in Narita, Japan to kick off a 2 week bike tour and work trip in Japan. I loved every minute of it and took in every bit I could of the beautiful land, wonderful people and amazing food. This isn’t the blog or the place to share my work stories. It is however my blog and it is the place to encourage others to follow their dreams with a relentless and endless passion.  Who knows where that will lead?!

As I looked back over April, I can see that I shot A LOT. A lot more than I have in the prior months. That is pretty common and consistent with my past few years. I start getting out into the country in April. I also shot Trans Iowa V9 this past April so I have thousands of images just from that. Regardless, I can see something coming through this month, and that is passion. Passion for riding and passion for shooting. I am not getting out that much, but when I do I am pleased with what I am getting.

Anyway, here are a bunch of images from April. Some you have seen before. I just scanned the month and grabbed the ones I liked in whatever state of experimentation they are in. Consider these frame grabs as well as an example of how I learn and experiment with images.

I got some miles on my way to Trans Iowa

A snowy skeleton tree

Kitten in the window – Yes it snowed AGAIN in April

I call this one “Earning the miles!”

U-More miles with Mathy!

Mathy @ The Falls

Pinhole self portrait – I had to stand there for 45 seconds!

The neighborhood pack

We do bike repair

A country Church

Barns for GT – I think I get extra credit for including a self portrait in it!

Morning Gravel

I love the bakery

Jim Cummins rolls into Checkpoint 2 @ Trans Iowa V9 (this is my new favorite image from TI!)

That’s a wrap on April 2013. Time to put it behind me and make May the best month of 2013 yet!

This is probably my last Trans Iowa v9 image and it is one of my favorites. It has special meaning when I add the words from my young friend Bobby Wintle of District Bikes in Oklahoma. 

from photos of trans iowa V9, and the stillwater boys tackling their biggest gravel ride ever this weekend, i am truly inspired. life is about experiencing and sharing moments that we never dreamed possible, with people we never knew we’d meet, in places we never thought we’d see. pushing yourself deep, to a place you didn’t know existed inside. the bicycle can do this, is doing this to people in our community right now.

Bobby Wintle

District Bicycles

Have a great Friday folks and an even better weekend!

I had grand visions of shooting so many things when I went down. Honestly, I had planned on shooting film. Lots of it. I left with 10 rolls.  I shot just one.  Why? Well…Things happen in races like this. In my case, what happened was that even though this was a 25+ hour event for the fastest folks, my moments of shooting were action packed and quite quick. I just coudn’t imagine not shooting it in digital and taking every moment I had to get a shot or two.  We also got spread out so much from the front to the back and I ended up mostly out front shooting the lead folks and the chase group(s).

I also had grand visions of shooting  Trans Iowa differently. I didn’t really get what I wanted, but I got shots that do reflect the grandness and the greatness of the event. I hope you enjoy them.

Night train

Jim Cummins and MG roll across the Iowa countryside

Jay Barre at sunrise

two riders riding through the fog

Single Speeders!

1 of the thousand+ rollers on the course

The lead group heading out of Melbourne

The chase group coming through Melbourne

A lone rider coming into checkpoint 2

The B roads were pretty manageable this year

Riders came in and out of focus

The crew at Caseys

I’ve got many many more but that’s all I have for today.

My thoughts are finally coming together. My previous experience in riding in these events is also filling my head. It was amazing to watch this event with no stress. No pre race jitters. No worries about food or equipment. I just got to experience it. I certainly cannot fully imagine what these amazing riders went through out there on this day in this event, but I can do my best to share with the specialness and uniqueness of this event. I hope you enjoy today. I’ll be back later this week with actual riding photos.

Oh…By the way. When the photos loaded, they loaded backwards. Scroll down to the bottom to start the series and work your way up!

Sunset and back into the night

But did I mention the people?

Beautiful landscapes and country livin’

Heroic efforts – That’s S. Fuller with his dog bite at @ mile 120

The ducks were waiting for the riders

As does junk and old tractors

Old farm houses litter the landscape

Iowa scenery

The people that make it special

Damp morning miles

Sunrise

Darkness can surround you

The roll out @10 miles in

The race packets

The Grinnell Steakhouse

That’s what some of it looked and felt like. Next up the riding photos!

Wow, crazy weekend at Trans Iowa V9! Super hero efforts by all participants. I also had a marathon day of shooting, driving, shooting and driving. I shot about 2000 images. Many of them the same though as I shoot on continuous high speed so each shot I take 2-4 shots and find the sharpest of the short burst.

Anyway, I have loads of images to process and filter. Given I took my office area apart yesterday to start a basement building project, I don’t have my full photo set-up up and running again so today’s post is short. I hope to find time tomorrow to get a bunch more images filtered, selected and edited. The above picture just might be my favorite shot of the weekend. I generally don’t like butt shots of riders, but this one works for me as he is cresting a hill and the little birds flew across the frame. Love it. Makes me think I can fly. That is how I feel when I ride my bicycle in the country!

Honestly, trying to figure out what do do with these images. Should I just share them or should I try to tell a story? Lots of things going through my head. I can’t images what is going through the heads of those riders and participants. Wow. What inspiration.