Last weekend was the third race of the Pro GRT series at Northstar in Lake Tahoe. I took the train up to Salinas Thursday afternoon. I called my friends when I got there and heard something about a jump we were going to. A few minutes later, Brian, Kelly, and Travis showed up with the truck loaded with bikes. I put my huge bike box and my bags in and we were off. When we go to the spot, I threw my bike together quickly and then we pedaled up a road. It was a step up at the bottom of a trail. We pushed up non-stop and sessioned it for about an hour. After I figured out the speed I needed to clear it, I was seeing how low I could get scrubbing it. On our way back to the truck, we had to stop at the randomness we saw coming up to the jump. There was a whole archery setup... targets up on hay stacks, with cheap bows and arrows in a box under an ez-up tent. We weren't going to just pass by all this. We each got a bow and some arrows and did probably 5 rounds. I learned that my technique is way off, as is my aim...

The next day, Brian and I were to leave at 5pm. I stayed at their house for the day, while they were at work and tried my best not to "burn the house down." I did 50 pump track laps in the morning, worked on some things on my laptop, groomed the pump track and then got my stuff together to leave for Northstar! After a 'quick' stop at Panda and 'the store', we were off. We got to the cabin a bit before midnight and soon passed out.

Saturday, we woke up early so we'd have time to get breakfast before the 40min drive to Northstar. We got there at about 8, when my practice started. I registered and got my ticket, then went up the gondola. The trail they used for the race was Gypsy. That's a trail I rarely rode at Northstar because I hated the rock piles on it that had drops to flat. I could never remember which ones were rollers and which ones had rock lips to nowhere. I'd heard about all the work the trail crew had done to ready it for the race before coming up there. After taking a cruiser run down the course to check it out, I was surprised. They really improved it. The course had a lot to it. It was rough, dry, loose, had fun jumps, lots of corners and was long. I rode it non-stop until noon, when I went down for lunch. I went back up at about 2pm to shoot and it was still basically noon light... I found some shaded spots to setup flashes. I was lucky there were some clouds in the sky that would shade the sun a few minutes at a time, so the foreground and background wouldn't be blow out. By 4, I had made my way down the course to take the lift back up. ...Of course when I got to the trailhead, it had been closed off. I was told pro practice was cut short an hour for maintenance..... I was looking forward to using the sun with my flashes and getting some better shots of the course, instead only shooting in the few shaded areas. I ended up taking a 'media run' down Livewire (Northstar's downhill jump trail) with my big backpack of camera stuff.

I found Brian and we rode down the car. I was worn out and hot, as were Brian and Juan. We drove back to the cabin, then to the lake to cool off. We went to the beach and jumped off the small pier into freezing lake. Later that night I got to sorting photos. After spending two hours going through them, what I was trying to make work, would not work. I was pissed off at that point and gave up on shooting the next day. Instead, I'd actually ride my bike during practice and just worry about my race run.

We left the cabin early again and stopped for breakfast. Brian got a bagel sandwich and I got espresso and a rueben sandwich. By the time he finished his sandwich, we were still waiting for mine. Half an hour later, mine was ready. I think their panini machine was broken... When we finally got up to the Gondola, we found ourselves in a long line. Though, somehow, we got there before the rest of our group. When we got up to the main area, I did one practice run. I felt really stiff and slow, so I took a few runs on other trails and started to warm up. My race run didn't go quite as well as I would have liked. I didn't completely screw up any sections or crash, but I was on the brakes a lot and was tired my whole run from the day before. I rode most of the day, then caught up with Brian when the race was over and did one last trail, down to the car. As we drove out, we realized it had been in the high 90s to 100s that day... The lake was out of the way, but I convinced Brian to stop by the river that the highway followed. After a quick jump into it, we got back on the road to get burgers at Islands in Roseville with Travis and his friend. We got back to his house before midnight and I went back to Santa Barbara the next day. Thanks to everyone for making the weekend fun!

The first photo is from my 'good camera' out of the gallery and the rest, from my phone. You can check out the gallery here: Northstar Pro Grt photos by PBmedia

The top 5 men in downhill were Greg Minnaar, Bryn Atkinson, Steve Peat, Cedric Gracia and Mitch Ropelato. In the women's class, Jill Kintner took first, followed by Kathy Pruitt, Leigh Donovan, Jackie Harmony and Rachel Bauer. You can see the full results here, which include 4x.

'A Photo' is a new series on PBmedia's News page where I'll be posting a photo and writing about what it took to get the shot, what the picture is of or about, and anything else related.

I took this photo of my downhill bike last year when I lived in Los Olivos, before I had access to a studio. I took it in the street in front of my house, one night, with a stick holding it up (that I removed in Adobe Photoshop). I set up two flashes and then got the camera angle dialed. It looks pretty simple, but the road in front of and behind the bike was being lit up as well, so it was visible above the bottom side of the rims. To get a clean black background behind the whole bike, I had to get the camera as low as possible. I scraped enough dirt and gravel away to get the camera low enough. I took this with my 20D (before I got a 50D), so I couldn't just view the shot on the LCD as I took it. I had to lay down (in a probably pretty funny looking way) to get my head as low as the view finder, so I could see through it with an eye. After several attempts, I got the shot!

What you see in the picture is a Santa Barbara Bullit dh ...not to be confused with a Santa Cruz Bicycle. Though, this bike did start out as 2006 Santa Cruz Bullit that I bought on eBay in 2007. After riding and racing it for two years and trying some different things, I realized I wanted more downhill race bike and less freeride bike. In March of 2009, it became a Santa Barbara Bullit dh. I had the frame and fork lowers powder-coated red and then put on decals that I made in Adobe Illustrator (which were die cut by a friend). This was a crucial step toward making it 'more downhill' because as everyone knows, "a good looking bike is a fast bike!" When I put it together, I bolted the (stock size) shock directly to the mount on the downtube, without the shock shuttle. I had to add a spacer to the shock, under the bottom out bumper to limit the stroke by a third of an inch so the tire wouldn't rub the seat tube. This dropped the bottom bracket height to 13.75 inches and slackened the head angle to 64 degrees, making it easier to ride at faster speeds and more aggressively. The Bullit dh has been amazing, riding and racing it throughout 2009 and halfway through 2010.

A new (okay, used...) downhill frame is on it's way, so the Bullit dh is going into retirement. Just wait until you see the 'A Photo' on the new bike! Here's the gallery with the rest of the shots, I took that night of it: http://gallery.pbmedia.us/p598468162

Last week, I shot with Soren Young one afternoon and one morning. Check out the shots we got in the gallery: http://gallery.pbmedia.us/p908785898

Two posts back, I said was going to shoot some surfing after class with my new 70-200 f/2.8. I went to the beach and the conditions weren't so good. By the time I went to one spot, the only person was done surfing. I walked to the end of Ledbetter beach and the waves were pretty small (surprise), with just a few people surfing and the light fading... I didn't get anything worth mentioning. A few days later I was at the skatepark and had my camera with me. I shot some people riding the park. Here's some better shots with my new lens: http://gallery.pbmedia.us/p272837734

I recently saw this post by Laura Austin: http://radcollector.com/columns/lauraaustin/2010/05/07/how-to-origami-hat/ Somehow, I got the random idea to take self portraits with a common object in each for the viewer to find. After seeing that, I decided to go with it. When I eventually got a newspaper, I opened that page again to try making it. I ran into 'issues' halfway through the steps and got confused... But I eventually succeeded. Here's the gallery of self portraits: http://gallery.pbmedia.us/p1006284164 Can you find the origami hat in each photo?

A few weeks ago, Seven by Five, an online magazine / blog followed me on twitter. I followed back. David from Seven by Five asked if i'd write a Photo Profile about how I got into photography, what I shoot and my challenges as a photographer. It's done and up on the site.

Check it out here: http://www.sevenbyfive.net/photos/photo-profile-patrick-branch/

A few days ago, I got a new lens! ...a Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS. Yes, not the new II version... but it's a huge upgrade over my what I called a 'telephoto' (my Canon 50 f/1.8) since my only other lens is a Sigma 10-20. I almost went with the non IS (image stabilization) version, but after renting the IS so many times last year, i've found it really helpful in low light, so I can keep ISO's lower. I'm stoked to finally have this lens! Now, i'll only have to rent lenses I don't need all the time, like fisheyes or fast primes.

A few days after I finished shooting for Golden State (about two months ago), my monitor was starting to go... This was such a convenient time for it to stop working as it should, considering I wanted the whole slideshow done in the next few days. It was a 21" Sony Trinitron CRT (big, heavy, old, non flat screen monitor). It was a great monitor back in the day. Professional designers and photographers used them because the colors gamuts are really wide and they calibrate well. It was $30 on craigslist. The only problem I had with it was that it was really soft. I'd have to zoom in to be able to read text sometimes on the web. The info pallet in photoshop and indesign, with measurement numbers was a bit of a guessing game. I'd been considering getting a HP LP-2475w after reading a thread on ridemonkey.com. I was finally able to get it and I needed a new monitor so I ordered one. After calibrating it, it looks really good. It's so nice to actually see my shots sharp and be able to read text.

Months before I got a new monitor, I got a new backpack, a F-stop Satori. It's their biggest backpack. I had been borrowing a Tilopa (the next size down) from them until their newer Satori came out. I needed a bigger bag to carry all my stuff and ended up waiting for the new and improved Satori. The most important improvement for me was rounder top. It's less square, so it makes using the zipper that gives access to the laptop compartment, under the internal camera unit much easier while having umbrellas and tripods strapped to the sides. Without this backpack, I would have had a hard time carrying everything I needed to shoot Golden State on my trip up north. Even with an extra 20lb bag strapped to the back of it, it carried surprisingly well because of the internal frame. I really don't want to know the total weight of it with that extra bag... The Satoris come in cranberry / grey and black / grey. I went with the red because it matches my logo and I like red (I think that's more than a little obvious). I think it's the best looking backpack ever i've seen. I recommend their backpacks to photographers that have to ride boards or bikes to locations.

Now, i'm off to get lunch somewhere and (yes, it's 5...) shoot some surfing below SBCC with my new lens before my next class!

The Sea Otter Classic happened two weeks ago. It was probably the best yet. Instead of it being cold and wet (like 3 years ago) or cold and windy (like the last 2 years), it was warm and only a little windy. I took a train up to Salinas on Wednesday and Kelly Damschen (she had the wedding I shot last year) picked me up and gave me a ride to Laguna Seca where I would be camping for the next few days.

As usual, I didn't race it. It's the only race I just go to shoot. I'm usually running around shooting and practicing to race, so it's a nice change of pace. Over the end of the week and the weekend, I shot pro downhill and slalom practice, then finals. Friday night, we went to see the Follow Me premier. It blew my mind. A lot of the zip line shots were really long and had awesome camera movements when changing direction. One of my friend's found me in a video, Coastal Crew Ep. 5 walking up the slalom course to shoot.

Here's the full gallery: 10.04.18 - Sea Otter Classic

Last Thursday, I left Santa Barbara with some friends, off to Mammoth. We stopped in Bishop that night. They weren't going all the way, so I took a bus the rest of the way to Mammoth, Friday morning. To get myself and all my stuff from lower Main St. to upper Main St., I took a taxi for $5. After dropping my stuff off at a friend's house, I headed up to main lodge to get my pass.

At the media room, I randomly met a friend of a friend, photographer, Makena Hunt. After checking out the sponsor booths, I headed up to shoot halfpipe. I tried a different way of shooting and found it didn't work as well as I thought it would... but I got a few good shots. Both days, it was clear, warm and there wasn't much wind. Last year, the slopestyle on Sunday was canceled and postponed until monday because it was so windy. There was barely anyone on the mountain. Friday was quite warm. Of course, I forgot to bring sunscreen, but I had aloe vera gel in my bag back at my friend's house... I got some SPF 45 sunscreen from the mammoth store that I put on halfway through the day. I ended up with a sweet goggle burn by the afternoon though. Saturday, I shot all day; slopestyle finals in the morning and halfpipe finals in the afternoon. It was awesome watching the girls kill it. Jamie Anderson took first in slopestyle. Janna Weatherby got second and Jenny Jones, third. Kelly Clark won superpipe, with Rana Okada in second and Elena Height in third. After uploading my cards to my laptop, back at my friend's place, I was off to the village for the shows.

The next morning, I went to a coffee shop and got those few shots up. I rode the next few days before going back to Santa Barbara. It was a successful weekend in mammoth. I got good shots, made new friends and did lots of south park laps!

Here's the full gallery: 10.03.26-27 - Roxy Chicken Jam It will be locked for a few days for companies view photos for possible use. If you have any interest in commercial or editorial use of my photos from the event, please contact (email, because my phone is broken) me.

For the past 2 days, I've been shooting the Roxy Chicken Jam at mammoth. I put up a few shots up as a preview. I edited them on my laptop so the processing could be 'off'. When I get home later this week, I'll have a full post and get the full gallery up.

10.03.26-27 - Roxy Chicken Jam preview