The Nike party happened on the last night of SIA (the snow/ski tradeshow I came to Denver for). On all the tickets, it said, "free drinks". When I got there and asked a bar tender which drinks were free, the response was, "none." Someone must have been laughing at everyone buying eight dollar tall cans... Fortunately, Digitalism more than made up for the false advertising. The lighting design was amazing. I've never seen such a crazy light show. I probably should have had my 1D with me, but I got some decent shots on my phone, a Droid Incredible 2. These are all unedited, with only a border and my watermark added. To get a good photo with a phone, especially with this kind of lighting, it helps to have a good understanding of how the on-phone exposure, contrast and saturation settings work to minimize blowing out highlights or clipping blacks, while keeping a good contrast and strong colors.

Last weekend, I went to the San Francisco Bicycle Expo and shot photos of Andrew Taylor's Showdown and the Ladies Jump Jam. Check out the rest of the shots in the gallery: Andrew Taylor's Showdown at the SF Bicycle Expo

Last Saturday, I went to the Lib Tech Downtown Throwdown put on by Snowboy Productions. The comp was a 2 hour jam with a few breaks to fix the big divots that formed below the rails in the trucked in snow. The setup was a round rail, a pole jam or a down-flat-down ledge with a small box in the middle and a quarter pipe at the end. I got a few shots walking around during the setup, then went up to the library for some from above views. I tried to get into the other building across the way for better light, but my big white lens and my media wrist band weren’t enough to get me into closed offices, up top. During the rest of the event, I found a bunch of different angles and even climbed a few trees. Even at an urban event, I’d find trees to climb...

Dylan Alto took first, with Nick Visconti in second, Dyland Thompson in third, Ryan Paul in fourth and Brandon Hobush in fifth. Andrew Brewer won the destroyer award and Chris Brewster took the Dinner For Two award.

Check out the rest of the shots in the gallery: 2011 San Francisco Lib Tech Downtown Throwdown

During Crankworx in Whistler this year, I shot photos of the events for a series of slideshows for the Awesomeland.com podcast. I recently finished the first one and today I uploaded a full-size version. Watch it in full screen with HD here.

Here's a few shots from Pro Downhill Finals on Sunday. I have more shots of it on ridemonkey in an update by David Peacock - http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?t=241620 .

Saturday, I shot DH practice in the morning. In the afternoon, I shot Slalom finals and then Speed and Style finals right after. Here's some shots from the day.

Check out more of my shots on Ridemonkey in the articles David Peacock wrote:

• Sea Otter 2011: Dual Slalom
• Sea Otter 2011: Speed and Style

Here's a few shots of yesterday's pro DH practice.

1) Travis Lindsey has been working on the slalom course constantly and making sure slalom events go smoothly. 2) Katie Holden, Elliot Jackson 3) Sandy drop lip 4) The corner after the steep section is now a huge berm. 5) hip. 6) Bryan Young of Fifty Fifty racing on the hip 7) Downhill heckling began Thursday 8) Brian Damschen doing a whip over the fence after watching Cat 1 dh practice.

Here's some shots from Yesterday at Sea Otter. The last 7 shots are all of the Speed and Style course. Rider's will hit the kickers and then ride the pump track back to hit them again. They'll be judged on the pump track as a race and their style off the ramps. Today is the first official day of Sea Otter, but pro downhill, slalom and speed & style practice don't start until Friday.

The other day, while editing photos from the Go Pro event at the Roxy Chicken Jam, I realized I should make a slideshow out of all my best shots of the day. Finally, it's done and uploaded.

Watch it here: http://vimeo.com/patrickbranch/roxypowderjam. All the shots in the slideshow are in a gallery if you want to share or buy individual shots: http://gallery.pbmedia.us/p38979092 .