Changing faces, my new bike and photographic evolution.

 Triumph tigris, var. XC

     I've got a few miles on my new motorcycle now.  I'm well past the  first service and the break in period.  It's everything I wanted in the KLR.  Smooth, vibration free, enough power to haul my stuff.  I actually want to ride it, not just commute on it.  I'll be getting some luggage for it soon.  Something large with adventure bike styling,  you know, for getting groceries and other tasks I would normally roll a cage to complete.  After three years on a KLR, you either love motorcycles or you don't.  I guess I do.  Enough about the bike, let's go for a ride!

     I haven't had much time for a real trip lately.  Family concerns will keep me near home for the foreseeable future.  Nothing bad, quite the opposite, my family is growing!  Day trips only for a while, and lucky me, there's plenty to see here in the low country.  I live in a small town and commute to a big town.  There's plenty to see in between.  Near my home, there are plenty of dirt roads.  Lucky me, I ride an adventure bike!

...too wet, nah, go for it!

   I spent a couple hours riding the morning after I brought home the Tiger.  Exploring some favorite areas close to home.   Maybe a half mile from my house, there is a sweet little dirt road.  All the trouble you could want in 2.3 miles.  Clay, sand, hard pack, and even a little hill, not a big hill, just a little hill. It was only wet here, dang, this was the clay section!  I made it, the Tiger need a little dirt on it to look good anyway.

Warm early morning sun self portrait.

Lovely, pine forest and hard pack road, great combo.

      I left town after this and found a few more dirt roads.  It's fall here and the light is getting right for landscape photography.  That harsh summer sun, has been supplanted by lovely, warm and angular light.  I love this time of the year.   

The early Tiger get's the chicken!

    The landscape here in the low country is always in a state of change.  I find it completely beautiful and deeply inspiring. If you are into the nature thing, you will too.  The diversity of habitat  means many interesting flora and fauna call this place home.  There is no shortage of subjects to photograph. 

     I've always been a 'Grand Landscape' kind of photographer.  I studied Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and the like.  I worked hard on my photographic craft, and was successful.  But lately, I find myself leaning more towards the earlier Pictorialist styles.  Wanting to convey more the feelings of the place I'm inspired, than the reality.  I played with Pinhole cameras for a while.  It's fun to build your own camera.  I liked alternative printing methods too.  But,  ultimately, I hated the darkroom.  It's stinky, dark, and I can't help but wonder what I'm doing to myself and the environment with all of those chemicals.  Now I've found digital!  I love it as much as my new Tiger.  I've made a pinhole 'lens' and found a funky plastic lens that matches my old Holga pretty well.  I'm as excited as ever about photography again!  We'll see where this goes, now that I have a motorcycle I feel comfortable taking the expensive camera's out on.

Digital Pinhole image, "Spring Marsh"