Photos and Cross

The UTCX series will take a week off this Saturday, November 20th. But that doesn’t mean you have to take a week off from ‘cross. Come race the Clammy Cross at Art Dye Park in American Fork. I ride a lot at Art Dye Park, and it should make for a very fun cyclocross course. Details can be found at the Clammy Cross blog.

The Utah State cyclocross championships were held Saturday. I had my best race of the season. The course was the most fun I’ve ridden. It was like a roller coaster—a long climb early in the lap, followed by swoopy, fast turns through trees, over off-camber berms, and even a little singletrack. Fantastic. I felt like I was actually a relevant part of the race, trading blows with several riders that are normally far up the road. And while I still look back and find things I can do better, I’m not sure there was anything on Saturday I could have done differently. Given my skill and experience level in ‘cross, Saturday was as good as I can expect.

Which, of course, is not to say that I won’t continue trying to be better and faster. In fact, cyclocross has injected a welcome enthusiasm about early winter training and top-end fitness mustering. I am hoping I can carry that energy into the ski season, but also into the spring. I’ve got the ingredients to be able to have a respectable top-end kick. I just need to mix everything together and bake them.

And speaking of energy…

I’ve recently found that my ability to use words to create sentences in large quantities has been waning. Instead, I’ve had a renewed energy for photography. I’ve always loved taking pictures. But the modern technologies of digital cameras and Photoshop have made me a rather lazy hobbyist. The iPhone alone has done more—in a sort of cool way—to set back my skills than anything else. It’s just so easy to create eye-popping and interesting photos on that phone. The novelty of it all has displaced the craft. But again, in a kind of geeky “I can’t believe this is all done on a phone” kind of way.

I’ve been hauling my DSLR around with me lately. Including to the recent ‘cross races. I find my action photography skills to be severely lacking. Framing, focus, exposure… it’s all more difficult when the subject is going 20 miles an hour. But I’ve had a lot of fun working on those skills, and I hope, have made some progress. I’ll let you be the judge.

I’ve always wanted to have my own online photographic presence, and so, I’ve finally took the time to set that in motion. I dug up a lot of my older files, retouched a few of them, and have added them to a collection of some of my favorites. You can view them at my new photography website. It’s still a work in progress, but I’ll hope you’ll bookmark it and visit often. Take a look. Let me know what you think.

Cycling, skiing, and hiking have all been hobbies I’ve long been serious (or at least overtly enthusiastic) about. And they’ve taken me many places. I’m hoping that with a little more practice and study, that photography can do the same.

UTCX8 – Images by Adam Lisonbee