When I was in Utah after SIA in February, I went to Solitude mountain for a day of shooting, except it wasn't me behind the camera. John Shafer was working on a review for the new Sony Alpha SLT-A55 for photographyreview.com. He wanted to test the cameras action shooting capabilities and I was up to ride for him immediately since I rarely get to be in front of the lens.

Check out his sequence shot of me on a curved rail in the park on page 3 of the review: http://reviews.photographyreview.com/sony-alpha-a55-review

Here's a few shots from the afternoon that I flew from Mammoth / Yosemite airport to San Francisco. It's the smallest airport I've ever been to, but they spent more time going through my camera bag and x-raying it more than any other airport I've been to. Though, it definitely has the nicest view.

Last Monday, I went to Oakley's head quarters in Orange County to meet up with Steve Blick. Driving up the street, I didn't see any signs of Oakley, except a trailer in a parking lot next to the street. We went up a road and at the top of the hill, saw the very distinct building across the parking lot.

I got a closer look at the awesome work of metal and cement over the front door as I went into the lobby. In the lobby, I saw ejector seats out of fighter planes in the waiting area. The interior looks like something out of a movie, like the futuristic city in one of the Matrix movies. I met up with Steve for a bit, and then he showed me around. We were planning on riding the pump track and slalom course behind the building, but it had been raining on and off for days and it was pouring when I got there. After that, I caught up with Jerry Kasai, a friend that works there as well. He gave me a more extended tour through the different areas of the building. There's a store on each side of the lobby, with a cool museum of Oakley's creations over the years that connects them. They have a huge amphitheater with an HD projector where they watch premiers and meet. In addition to the slalom and pump tracks, they have what was supposed to be a dirt bike track. Riding dirt bikes there didn't work out after a track had been designed and built, so it now serves as a track for Oakley's tank. Yes, the company has it's own tank.

The building was design by CEO, Colin Badin in the late 90's while he was doing more architectural work, before he became president of the company. He wanted the building itself to really make a statement about the company to everyone that sees it. As the Oakley site says, "It’s a place of reinforced blast walls, product torture chambers and the padded cells of mad science." I also later learned that the stop icon on the visitor badge I wore while there has a special ink. After a day, it turns red so random people don't show up in the offices after a visit.

Last night

Today,