Two months ago, I got my bmx bike re-finished after it had been stolen for 2 weeks and ghetto'ed out in Santa Barbara. I guess I should have expected it, being made by Stolen Bike Co.

"Thirty-seven'ish hours later, I arrived in Santa Barbara. My friend Adrian picked me up and we went to get some Chinese food at a really good hole-in-the-wall place. He waited in the truck while I was waiting for the food. Then, he come over to me and said he found my bmx bike that had been stolen right before I left for Whistler. It was across the street, under the stairs at a small apartment/triplex. He said a sketchy gangster kid rode up on it. I didn't want to get my ass kicked by some 15 year old gangsters, so I ended up calling the cops. One car came, then another (3 or 4 cops)."
Full Post - The Trip Home

Check out the gallery for bigger pictures: Stolen Heater

A few weeks ago I shot my friend, Christian Lopez's motorcycle. The bike started life as a Harley Davidson Sportster before Jake from Ultra Violence turned it into something more unique, The Good Son. Check out more of Jake's work on his site, Jakeultraviolence.

The Good Son gallery

I just finished updating the portfolio pages with new photos. Instead of a random portfolio called, "other", there's now a new "other" portfolio, of photos of sports other than biking. The pages also have a new flash gallery that's much cleaner than what I had before. Let me know what you think!

Last Tuesday, I took a bus from Grand Central station in Los Angeles to Las Vegas for Interbike. From the bus station, I took a Taxi to my hotel that was across the Wynn golf course from the Sands Expo Center where Interbike would be the rest of the week.

Of course, I would need to go camera store to get something for my flash right when I get there... After taking a taxi to one and getting what I needed, I decided to walk back about 4 miles ...probably because I had nothing else to do. By the time I got back, it was almost 9pm. At the hotel, I was checking twitter on my phone and realized the Life Cycles premier was starting. I didn't have the slightest idea about any premier at Interbike.

I hopped in a taxi to the Palms, got there, bought a ticket and made it in probably half a minute before it started. Long story short... the movie blew my mind. I hadn't seen anything like it. When I got home the next weekend, I saw it was available to buy on blu-ray, so of course, I had to order it.

Wednesday through Friday, I spent each day walking around the Interbike showroom checking out new things and trying to find people. I ride kind of a lot, but I don't walk much. Walking all day on that cement floor with some carpet over it is so exhausting. One of my friends that was there, shooting said that he brings a new pair of shoes for each day and it helps a bit. I went to the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame event after the show one day. Some friends were being inducted into it: John Ker, a long time mountain bike photographer and Brett Tippie, one of the early freeriders (along with Wade Simmons and Richie Schley. During those three days, I got really tired, saw lots of friends, made new friends, saw some cool stuff and some crazy stuff. It was a successful first Interbike.

The first picture (which came out horrible) shows the two PBmedia photo cards I gave out. The sunset one is Preston Moore in Santa Barbara and the forest one is Mark Bunyan in Whistler. Each one is a limited edition series of 250 cards. If you see any up in a shop or somewhere, show me a photo! I'll have some different ones next year!

The second to last photo is Lisa Myklak with a shot I took of her (at National Championships last year) in my portfolio. The last photo is Micayla G and I with a shot I got of her in the Canadian Open last year, in my portfolio as well. Thanks to Kristen Smart for taking it and send it to me!

Check out the full photo gallery here: PBmedia's 2010 Interbike Photo Gallery

'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