Sand Moto

March came and went, within this wet month some friends and myself treated ourselves to another beach trip.  The adventure getting there was quite an interesting one, we decided to bring a fake tree with us.  None of us really knew what we would do with it, but I had my camera and assured the crew of hooligans I was riding with, this tree will be used!

It was a party, there were walks on the beach, some new friends were made, and then we attempted to ride our dirtbikes.  This is the story – through photos.  I also may have learned some new tricks re: editing… don’t hate haha!

Enjoy…

The Aroma Of Spring

Hello world, I’ve been off the map for some time now, and now I’m back!

Last night while driving through town the familiar sweet smell of spring was in the air, I love this smell.  Yesterday was one of the first sunny, warm days the NW has had this season.  Local motocross tracks opened up for practice, people remembered why they love Oregon, and I smelt the aroma of Spring.  This time of the year is easily my favorite, to me springtime means life outdoors is now going to be enjoyable and less soggy, plus breweries are releasing new seasonals and this is always exciting.  The snow will start melting in a month or so, people will hang up their boards and skis and bust out the 2 wheeled machines.  Soon enough summer will be here – Ah how I enjoy summers in the Northwest!  Much to look forward to.

I’ve shot a variety of things lately and I would like to show a compilation of these.  From portraits, dirtbikes, scenic, and wildlife I have certainly been entertained.  I am looking forward to what this nicer weather has to offer in the ways of action sports, I cant wait to shoot downhill mt-bikes and head back up to Whistler, Canada.

I aim to bring something fresh to my blog much sooner than the last interval, Happy Easter Everyone!

Sunny, Slushy, Muddy, & Rocky

A few weeks back my friends and I found ourselves planning a 4 wheeling trip.  It’s been a while since we had all gone as a group.  I love the wilderness, so much so that when I recently started watching the show Ax Men it gave me a sense of urgency to get the hell out of town, and into the mountains (funny what gives us inspiration to do things).  Once we had decided the where and when, it was on.  Tillamook State Forest was the destination, the hard part was getting all 20 of us there at the same time, this is quite the impossible task with this group of dudes.  It’s the night before and as usual the final plans are coming down to the wire.  The morning of my friend calls “Im here you ready to go!?”  Armed with a PB&J, oranges, beer, and my camera of course, we set out on our hour long trip to the coast range mountains of NW Oregon.

The day was off to a good start, surprisingly we managed to get 20 plus people in the same spot all within 15 minutes of each other.  A few trails later and we had people stuck, broken, and lost from the group, its hard to keep track of that many rigs in the woods.  This Particular winter Sunday was a nice one, the sun was shining, there was snow at higher elevations, and mud in the lower areas.  The TSF trail system is made up of terrain ranging from easy dirt roads to nasty technical hill climbs and rock gardens, it is unfortunately strewn out in a long line rather than a loop.  This is unfortunate because when you hit the last trail of the day you are generally furthest away from your truck.

The day ended up being a great one spent in the mountains with good friends and new faces as well.  It gave me the much needed encouragement to fix my very own wonder wagon (Jeep Cherokee).  I included the highlights of the day below.

 

A dude and his dog.

My friend Dillon is a cool guy, I mean he makes good music, he can code a website with the best of em, he’s charming, and most importantly he’s Harry…(don’t take me too seriously people).  Dillon has had a life long friendship with an amazing little toy poodle named Harry, Harold, Haroldo, whichever you choose he (Harry) responds to all of them well.  I became quite fond of the furry little pooch this past winter break and decided to make some pictures in celebration of such a great friendship.  It is the first installment of has come to be known as Activities: With Dillon & Harry.   I hope in the future I will catch them doing a variety of fun and entertaining things together, as you can see Harry helps with the Beat making and mixing.

Really though, this pooch has a personality that I cant resist, he’s hilarious.

 

 

Noth’n but Net/New Years Goals

It’s basketball season again and our team here in Oregon is the Portland Trail Blazers, so far in the season the Blazers have won 10/18 games.  They have shown moments of brilliance and moments of defeat, lately though the losses have been close games within 3-6 points deciding the game.  I made it out to the Orlando Magic home game on the 11th, one we unfortunately lost.  The game started with a poor offensive strike on the Blazers side and caused an early points lead by Orlando.  The gap was bridged a few times but never matched and the Magic hung on for 104-107 win.  I’ve Included a few photos from the game below.

 

Lately I have been thinking a lot about what it means to me to be a photographer and where I want to be in 3, 5, and even 10 years in my photo career.  One thing that has stayed consistent for me is the yearn to capture moments, I hate posing and staging things to the point that they look fake.   I dislike shooting things that can be easily duplicated, in the sports world nothing ever repeats itself.  I crave realism, emotion, the powerful moments.

Someone recently told me that the competing arena is like a stage, and its our job as photographers to decipher through the commotion and find the real split second moments…  Our job takes focus, know-how, and patience.  At this point in my photo journey I will start focusing my efforts on these split second moments more, and less on the conventional portrait market.  I am not a family portrait, newborn, puppy photographer.  There are many others much better at those things, I know what I am good at and it’s time to get better at it.

I have been working on my goals for 2012, I’m aiming very high (for myself at least) and I’m excited to see where life takes me in this next year.  I recently watched a film called The Adjustment Bureau and it really made me think on an emotional level.  People often forget how impacting they are day to day on the people around them.

Encounters we have with random people we don’t know, can often be life changing, it is very important to lift people up, not drag them down.  Makes me think about stories where a fictional character says “I wish I was never even born!”  or “I wish I’d never met him/her!”.  What usually happens at this point in the show or book is an overview of that persons life.  How all the people they know would be so different, if they never knew the character.  Our friends and family’s lives would be incredibly different had we never been born.  Friends, family, acquaintances, and random encounters are all effected by your actions and personality.  We live in a world full of ripple effects.  Modern media and advertising is proof of this.  Here’s an interesting, sort of off topic example.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA9_ihZeAns&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the winter…

Winter in the northwest is generally described as cold, wet, and dreary.  This makes the yearn to go ride our dirt bikes virtually disappear at times.  I personally like riding in just about any weather, except when it’s hailing, that just plain sucks.  The motocross world sort of dies off during the winter months as there are only a few tracks that can operate in the wet conditions, fortunately the sand becomes our friend in these months.  Tracks like Riverdale Raceway and Woodland Mx Park are suddenly the go to spots to get our fill of riding and racing.

Yesterday took my friend and I to the beach to do some sand riding, without the paddles of course.  The weather forecast called for a 50% chance of rain… turns out when you get to the spot at noon that 50% chance means  -you missed the dry this morning, have fun riding in the rain- so, ride in the rain is what we did.  The track was great, the sand had some traction and it wasn’t too much of lake, however you couldn’t see anything!   About the time we were going to pack up I decided to shoot a few photos of a corner we liked, the result was a Taco Bell bag wrapped around my flash setup to keep the goop off  and a camo rag to cover my camera from the roost when I got close.  We as photo geeks come up with some crafty ways to keep our equipment clean haha.  After getting sand in my eyes from not wearing goggles because we couldn’t see with them on, taking photos proved to be somewhat of a task.  There were a few spills taken in the process but I think sand photos are fun, at least it doesn’t hurt as bad when you eat it.

Enjoy…

Im still holding onto summer..

This past summer was full of fun trips all over the states for me and it’s definitely being missed right now.  The dirt bike racing world has slowed down and we’re all anxiously awaiting the start of 2012 Supercross.  It has been hard to let go of the summers activities, I’m having trouble with this slow winter transition.

Thankfully I have a ton of fun photo projects in the works as I’m turning an old room into a mini studio to work more on my commercial portfolio.  I can’t wait to learn some new techniques and play with light some more.  Back to the point, this post is simply to embrace what we DO have and our memories.  This past week I have seen and heard many positive stories from my best friends and even people I don’t know and the hot topic lately is dealing with life’s ups and downs.  If you think your in a bad spot, take a step back and try and look at your situation with a fresh set of eyes, or watch this video and see if you have it as rough as this kid did…  http://youtu.be/8wi8-nf-Cb0

It has become apparent to me lately how important surrounding yourself with positivity is, I heard this funny saying in Moto 3 the movie that went like this “if you hang around shit all the time, your gonna start to stink.”  Now there are a lot of different kinds of “shit” out there, and it’s up to you to identify them in your own life.  For me it’s simply ignoring the nay sayers trying to get you down because they themselves aren’t in a good place in life.  Any of you that actually read my blog, I thank you first, and secondly I’d like to reiterate how important chasing your goals and dreams are.  Don’t listen to the people that tell you can’t do it, or say your up against the world, use it as fuel to keep going.  Nothing is impossible when you set your mind to it, too many people throughout history have proven this.

The photos I’ve included this time are just a few of my closest friends and family, I unfortunately don’t have photos of everyone, yet.  I’m thankful for these people, they all support me (as far as I know at least) and having friends and family that support you is priceless.

Foooootball!

The Oreogn high school football teams have been wrapping there seasons up in the last few weeks and one of them (in 4A) just won the state championship.  La Salle High School has struggled in the past to secure the state football championship, coming close back in I think 2002?  Well guess who won their first ever State football championship last Saturday!?  No it wasn’t La Salle I just wanted to get your hopes up… NOT!  La Salle can finally hang that banner in the brick oven for all to marvel at.

These boys played a great game on a rather chilly day, I normally am not a huge fan of football but watching these guys play caught my eye and I wouldn’t be surprised to find myself indulging in a little football in the future.

Mud puddles, it’s cold, cant feel my fingers…

It’s that time of year here in the NW, the wet cold is here and that numb feeling in our toes and fingers has proven difficult to get rid of.  You know what is fun to do when it is this chilly and wet? Ride dirt bikes thats what!  I went to this track in Washington/warshington… anyway, I guess back in the day when Mt. St. Helens blew it left much of its ash in the area that Riverdale raceway lies, I say this because unlike most clay based tracks this place is actually fun when its wet and muddy.  I have always loved action shots with flying projectiles in them, and I love the dramatic effect mud has when mx riders have its stuck alllll over there face, I shot some photos of puddles splashing and loved it.  Whata ya think?  Look FUN to you??

Haha its a blast trust me, enjoy…

Downhill at Sandy Ridge

Yesterday (Thursday) myself and 2 of my friends went out for a ride on our downhill mountain bikes.  I have been talking about shooting this stuff for a long time now and I finally had enough, put up or shut up.  Riding with camera gear wasn’t all that bad but being air born was another story..

I rode the top section of the Sandy ridge trail first and checked out some spots, I think its safe to say there’s not much in the way of difficulty here. The second time down from the top I stopped at a few spots to see what i could come up with.  I took a few photos along the trail and tried out some new equipment, and pulled the biggest noob mistake ever… ready?  Here it is, I forgot to check my batteries!  Fortunately they were just flash batteries and there were enough AA’s in my pocket wizards to at least get light.  This is one of those perfect times to give a shout out to Nikon for putting optical slaves in there nicer speed lights.   Booyah! there was light off camera at last.

I definitely learned a thing or two for next time on this trip out.  All in all it was a fun day hanging out in the forest, riding bikes, and shooting photos with friends.  To see more of my work check out my site at  http://www.kit-engwall.com/   Here are a few photos from Sandy Ridge, enjoy…