'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