Here are two final images captured on our last morning on the islands when we visited a nature conservancy on Isla Isabela. I captured the first one as a pelican buzzed across the beach not too far from my head. The final image is just a fun tunnel on a path through the mangroves. Adiós!

Here’s a shot of the overall scene at the park.

After the comp, I grabbed a couple riders for some shots at the last jump on the course.

Here is a front flip from the winner, AJ Anaya. This guy is a real pro, and threw down mad trick on every feature on the course. His double tail whips require video to really be appreciated!

I will finish this post after my return, but I really wanted to finish up this adventure before starting my new one!

For Slideshow: CLICK PLAY BUTTON

After a break, I’m back to finish up the final post from my Great American Road Trip! On the road from San Antonio to Colorado, my mission was to find some solid mountain biking in Texas and New Mexico. I use satellite images to look at the topography for potential interesting mountain biking zones. While doing this, it’s hard to miss the 275 square miles of pure white gypsum crystals located in south central New Mexico! I then decided that I had to check out White Sands National Monument. I was hoping to catch sunset on the dunes after my mountain bike ride in El Paso, but I arrived literally as the sun ducked behind the mountains. It was also to late to get a camping permit, so I heading into town to prepare for a sunrise assault.

Morning came, and I was immediately disappointed to find out that the clouds had rolled in overnight! It had been nothing but sun for days prior, and now I was going to have flat light! Before the shoot I envisioned bright blue skies contrasting with white sand and strong shadows. I was expecting light that was similar to my other trip taking photos at Great Sand Dunes National Monument. But, that wasn’t how things turned out. One of most important things to remember as a photographer (and life!), is that things don’t always turn out like you planned, and sometimes when that happens you will be presented with a new opportunity that you weren’t expecting.

The morning was mostly cloudy, with only periodic breaks in the clouds. There were times when the light would hit portions of the dunes in the distance. It was cold and windy, and I was bundled up in my ski gear; a definite contrast to the shorts I was wearing the day before in Texas. The clouds hung low and created a soft muted light that was subtle and sensual.

I met up with another photographer in the parking lot. He didn’t have much to say; it was clear that we were not going to get a fantastic sunrise. But in the end we were treated to a moody drama that is likely only found during winter hibernation.

Occasionally the clouds would part, and glimpses of bright blue sky poke out between the clouds. You would be able to see this if I didn’t turn all off the images black and white.

There really aren’t too many things to break up the uniformity of these dunes. Not much except for 40 foot tall giant skunkbush sumac. This thing is super cool. I wish I had a person to put next to it to give you and idea of the scale.  It is rooted above the desert floor and grows up tall so it can stay on top of the dunes. The dunes move across the desert like waves across the ocean at a rate of up to 30 feet per year.

The surface of the dunes ranges from deep sugar sand to a crust that supports your full body weight.  There are several different types of dunes that are classified by the shape and wind pattern that forms them.  There are a wide range of textures and ripples.  The most varied section of textures was near this sumac tower.

The sand can get packed hard enough that when it falls away from the sand tower that it dries and cracks like mud.  I am also pleased to show that I successfully photographed my longest shadow yet.

Well this brings us to the end of my White Sands photo adventure. I edited more photos than I wanted to show in one entry, so be sure to check out the slideshow at the top of the page.

I stopped in at Desert Sports for some trail info and to buy some Slime tubes. I was happy to find that they had 29er presta slime tubes for me! I didn’t have time for any flats from the innumerable thorns that I would find along the way. I was directed to the Lajitas Trail System, also called the Lajitas airport trails. It was only a couple miles from the shop, and right on the highway, so it sounded good to me.

The trails themselves were only moderately exciting. It was pretty cool to ride in new terrain, but I think I would get bored of these trails pretty quickly if I lived here. They are mostly flat, with some moderate technical bits. There are a few missing signs, which makes route finding difficult in a few places. I rode most of the singletrack of the trail system in under two hours with lots of photo breaks. It’s my understanding that you can link these trails into a nearly limitless ride … but you would likely need local knowledge for that.

I did find a couple cool discoveries along the way. The first was this cool old delivery truck. I must be the King Supreme Old Truck Manifester, because wherever I go I can always find old trucks to take pictures of. This day was no exception, apparently! I like the above shot … now you know why the truck was stranded here.

I climbed around on the inside of the truck. There were some pots and pans and some silverware, and it seems that the inside of the truck has provided shelter for some persons through the years.

I really like the thorns in this shot. I also like wide angles and f/22!

Eventually I made my way along the sandy, rocky singletrack.  I was just riding along, when I noticed the great texture of the cracked and broken mud.  As I was looking down, I caught a glimpse of my second found treasure of the afternoon.

This seashell is small, less than an inch long.  It was sitting perfectly in the middle of a cracked piece of mud.  It was perfectly clean, without any mud residue.  How did it get here? Did someone place it here? Did they hope for someone to find it to mess with their head? If they did; It worked!

Well that’s all for another mountain bike adventure in the far reaches of the country. Check back tomorrow when I check out the trails outside of El Paso.

Round Top is funky little touristy Old West kinda town. This fine example of a Round Top Taxi was parked out front of the antique store next to the cafe.

Gotta love the preferred fuel!

Round Top is known for festivals in the summer. It was a cold and overcast day and it was starting to drizzle, so there weren’t any scenic photos happening for me. There was this giant cool old tree out front that was fun to shoot tilt shift photos of!

This was my first trip to Texas. When in the cities, I had this sense of how the oil industry money shapes the culture. It was reminiscent, yet different, from the way that Los Angeles has been shaped by Hollywood money. My free Thursday trip to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston was funded by Shell. Big trucks burning down the fossil fuels in a sprawling highway culture is pretty much the opposite of Boulder. Experiencing the contrasts of the culture of this great country is a memorable experience of The Great American Road Trip.

I took the southern route from Louisiana into Texas, and enjoyed mile after mile of completely desolate highway. There were some amazingly long and flat sections.  Driving the speed limit was pretty much impossible!

On the stretch of highway south of Houma, there is a long canal lined with homes where the shimp boat captains live.  There are all sorts of boats, from plush and expensive looking ones which require large crews, to run down relics that seem barely seaworthy. Here’s an image of a boat that did not weather the storm.

There is a lot of space down there at the bottom of the country.  A random minimalist composition.

More trees and moss.  This one tree was still alive in a grove of death.

I planned my route by using Google Maps on my phone. I didn’t notice that my route required me to take a ferry across a channel in Cameron.  I showed up at the loading area exactly as the ferry was pulling away.  Bummer. But the bright side, is that I had a front row parking spot when I did load. It was a busy spot, and I saw two giant tankers pass through, on their shipping route up into the interior lake system.

This is the end of Louisiana week here at Steve Z Land … join me next week for Texas and New Mexico!

I was hanging around the house, when I decided to play with the stroboscopic mode on my Nikon SB-900 flash. It’s always a function that I’ve been meaning to play with . . . you know, procrastinating, procrastinating, someday I will get around to it . . . OK, today is the day! I did a couple quick tests in the house and I verified that it worked. Here is an amusing self portrait that resulted from the photo! LOL. I was planning on doing my New Years Eve wheelie shot using this mode . . . but I was unable to get it to work with off camera flash in the moment. So I need to do some more tinkering to figure out if it is possible. Stay tuned for that one.

There are many things in life that we wish that we could do, or that we could do better. I’ve always wanted to learn to ride a wheelie, ever since I was a little BMX punk in the 80s. Why didn’t I know how? Simple. I never took the time to learn! There are so many things that we could improve in our lives, if we took the time to dedicate, commit, and schedule the time to grow.  The best part about learning new things, is that once we learn them, it usually doesn’t take much time to maintain proficiency. Take the juggling photo that I posted yesterday for example. I learned when I was in high school, and I can still do it, even though I never practice.

Learning balance is also metaphoric in our lives. The scariest part of learning the wheelie is overcoming the fear that you are going to go over the back and wind up on your ass! So the key, is really to spend time in the uncomfortable zone, the place that is the scariest.  By spending time in areas that make us uncomfortable, we eventually adapt.  We learn that we can go over the edge, and recover, and that we can do so without injury. How do you know where the balance point is, if you never go past it?

In order to ride the wheelie, you really need to center your mind, and discard thoughts of negativity. Embracing a positive outlook, learning balance, and overcoming fear are all unexpected side effects that I’ve realized as a result of a simple attempt to learn a frivolous trick. The practice has become a meditation. Yes, there is the side bonus wheelies are a great way to get looks of confusion from your neighbors, and smiles from the neighborhood kids!

Happy 2011! I’m looking forward to a new year of learning and growth, love and gratitude, wheelies and whatever new adventures appear along the way. Thanks for reading and your support. I hope you continue to enjoy the images and the words.

**Addition to this post!**

I was riding down a paved bike path, and I was riding a particularly long wheelie. I could see a small group of riders coming around a small bend. So I’m riding along mid-wheelie, and lo and behold, THERE WAS ANOTHER RIDER RIDING MID-WHEELIE TOWARDS ME! I was absolutely shocked! We both rode by each other, and neither of us put the wheel down while we were in sight. All I had time to say was, “Well you don’t see that every day!”, as we passed.

I’ve been a bike fanatic almost my whole life, and I rarely (if ever) see a random person riding a long wheelie. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in 10 years of living in Boulder, which is a bike-crazy town. But on New Years Day, 1-1-11, I simultaneously encountered another guy riding a wheelie at the exact same time as me. Right after I published a blog story about riding wheelies! I call that a very auspicious start to a New Year.

I believe in some crazy ideas about the world around us. Things that science nor religion nor conventional thinking can explain. I believe, that we can make things happen merely by thinking them. It’s called the Law of Attraction. The naysayers can say it can’t be proven, it’s a cult, The Secret was a crappy book . . . whatever. You could say that the wheelie thing is just a minor coincidence that doesn’t mean anything. But that would just be pessimism. Embrace the big picture. If you open your mind to the world around us, then you will start to see, our thoughts shape our lives in ways that we can’t even imagine. Some call these things miracles, some call them God, or Allah, or the Universe, or Magic, or Karma . . . but no matter what you call it . . . it’s really there.

I haven’t always been a positive dude. I was actually voted “most pessimistic” in high school! But that kind of thinking . . . has taught me something. It’s made me see how I’ve been holding myself back by thoughts of “it won’t work for me”, “you have to work hard for money”, “you have to pay your dues”, etc. have been holding me back. I know this. I know you need to think positive. Everyone does. But it’s really freakin’ hard to remember to keep that chin up when you are confronted with a seemingly tragic event. But you have to. Everything happens exactly as it’s supposed to. And sometimes things get hard to teach you a lesson. If you pay close attention, and learn the lesson . . . then you open yourself to the great things that can come your way . . . if you clear your mind of the negative chatter . . . and allow the space for the great things to come to you.

There is an entire world of possibility out there! There are incredible things happening all the time if you open your eyes to them! The images on the TV screen are not designed to expand your mind, they are designed to entice your ego into wanting more and into buying all the crap they are selling! Read more inspiring books! Eat good food! Get out there and learn to ride wheelies like you are 10 years old!!!

Let’s have 3 cheers for 2011! Here’s to positive thoughts, positive thinking, dreaming big, and making 2011 the biggest goal-reaching, joy-feeling, soul-finding year ever!

My first day involved a long boring drive across Kansas.  I really wanted to get to Kansas City ASAP to hang out with Chuck Arlund.  So that means no photo stops.  But I did snap a quick shot of the Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse!

I was psyched to find out that there was a big exhibit of work from the photographer Richard Avedon. Super cool. After checking that out, I wandered around the museum checking out the other stuff. This chick was pretty rad.

But hands down, my favorite part was this piece by Josiah McElheny creatively titled Endlessly Repeating Twentieth Century Modernism. It really was quite mind blowing, when you dug into all of the little worlds in there. I would have loved a longer lens to really get into the center reflections. But alas, my 85 f/1.4G was sitting in a box in my studio on this day!

The funny part of this shot, was that I thought that the dude wrapped in plastic was part of the exhibit. As it turns out, it isn’t quite ready to be displayed yet, and was still wrapped in shipping material. It’s so hard to tell with art!

On the Subway, this dude had no idea that I was taking his picture. I’m sneaky that way.

This fast primes are really cool when combined with the latest sensor technology that lets so much light in. I handheld this image in the hood in Dorchester 1/30 f1.4 ISO6400.

Time to call it a day and wrap things up with a nip of scotch.  The other cool thing about this lens is that it will focus quite close!

While it was possible to go down just on bare skin, random bumps and rocks in the field led to many bumps and bruises, as you can see me finding out right here.

Thermarests offered a much smoother ride.

Justin doing his crazy action redneck impression.

I had a 4 strobe setup that I was able to ride out to the farm with in a small backpack.  I never was really sure how the photo was going to come out, based upon how far down the run the sliders were.  Love how Billy is blacked out with water spray illuminated in his face in this shot.

Unfortunately, no ladies lost their bikini tops in the making of this photo.

Awesomeness^3

The giant tube was brought out near the end, but it didn’t offer quite the speed that we were looking for.

FACEPLANT!

Not to be outdone, I made a few attempts at surfing the Thermarest. This is the look of me being psyched that I’m actually staying up for 5 seconds.

As you can see, this was a pretty rockin’ way to spend a summer evening.  I’m sure we’ll be setting this up bigger and better in the future.  I think that a first slip n slide descent of the First Flatiron should be next on the list.

River and I took a little drive out of town to the micro-town of Ophir. I was quite excited to find some trashed out buildings to play in. The first building with the wildflowers growing in it is SO COOL!

I didn’t really take any tourist pics in Telluride. This is it. I tilted it to make sure it wasn’t too boring. Well, maybe it’s boring to you. To me its awesomesauce the way you can see all the way down the end of the street. Maybe I’ll get bored of this effect someday. Today is not that day.

At La Cocina De Luz you can eat your Mexican food in the safety of an old bank vault. How about that door?!